<p>I’m hoping someone on this site is either from Albany NY or has traveled there and can give me some info.</p>
<p>I need to be in Albany at the end of the month for an exam. I’m flying in and my hotel is about 3-5 miles from the airport and about 2-3 miles from the proposed testing site [testing should be in/around Empire State Plaza/EGG though it has been held in hotel banquet rooms in recent years]. My major question at this point: given the layout/functionality of the city should I rent a car? My instinct is YES. The exam days themselves will be stressful and I don’t want to have to worry about anything else. However, everyone tells me, ‘don’t bother with a car, just walk or take cabs to/from the exam.’ I have no intention of walking if my testing site is 3 miles away. As for cabs, is Albany like Philly, NY, or DC, where you can just walk to the sidewalk and hail a cab? My feeling is that Albany isn’t like that, particularly since the people at the hotel told me that ‘they can call me a cab if needed.’ Is this a city with a few cab companies–such that calling cabs will be a problem with 5000 extra people in town all needing to be at an exam at different locations at 9 AM?</p>
<p>If a rent a car, how’s parking? Are there parking lots and garages or is it entirely street parking; because if i’m goin to be parking 5 miles from my testing site, at that point driving won’t be much of an advantage.</p>
<p>Sorry for the length of this…but I’d greatly appreciate it if you post/PM anything about Albany–logistics are the last thing I want to stress about.</p>