Hi!

We will travel on the east coast for 3 weeks, visiting Washington DC, Philadellphia, New York and Boston. We would also like to go to Mansfield, MO to visit Rocky Ridge farm. As far as I can see, it would be easier to use Springfield as base for a day trip.

My question is what choices we have to travel. I have looked at flights but find them somewhat expensive, the examples I looked up were from Boston to Springfield, average 480 USD per person roundtrip. I looked at Greyhound but they seem to take a long time depending on where we start of course, in this case I looked from Boston. And as far as I could see no trains as well that would get us to Springfield.

Renting a car is not an option even though that would be easiest I guess.

Kind regards,

Anders

Last time we had to go to Springfield (we were heading to Branson which is 45 minutes South), the air fares were high, so we flew into St. Louis (about $200 less) and rented a car, it's about a 3 hour drive, not sure what direction Mansfield is from Springfield.

Other closer airports would be Little Rock, AR and Fayetteville, I always price all three as we don't mind a little road trip and need a car in Branson anyway.

Use kayak.com for searches and click on look at nearby airports. Air Tran has flights to Branson from both LGA in NYC and Philadelphia.

Also, Southwest is now flying from LGA. You could fly SW to St. Louis and then a smaller regional jet to Springfield. Southwest does NOT show up on Kayak, you need to search their website http://www.southwest.com/ Then flights from STL to Springfield.

It seems very unlikely that this would really work as a day trip. It will take most of one day to travel in each direction, it's a 2 day trip minimum, more likely 3 days.

You could visit Mansfield from Springfield very easily as a day trip. You are correct...taking the train is not an option to get to either Mansfield or Springfield. And just to clarify, you WILL need a car to visit Rocky Ridge Farm as it located in a rural area east of Springfield. I have been there twice, but it's been a few years. It's very charming and as a lifelong Laura Ingalls Wilder fan, it was a real treat to visit it. Good luck.

Thank you for your insights, I will take this under consideration!

paoxiao,

I was thinking that if you flew to Springfield you could get a car service to take you on your day trip.

For instance, I took a look at the website for Springfield and under ground transportation they mention a shuttle/tour company:
http://www.springfieldmo.org/transpo...ines%2C+Inc%2E

I'm sure there are others as well.

Good luck with your plans.

Hi, just back from our trip to the States. We did visit LIW museum by taking a cab. It cost us roughly 250 USD to do that daytrip. We booked a flight from Boston to Springfield and stayed at La Quinta Inn Springfield south, worked out pretty well.

Thanks again for all responses!

Anders