<p>What’s the best way to travel from Boston to the Cornell campus using public transportation? Would be open to train, airplane, bus, taxi and in any combination. </p>
<p>I posted this on the Cornell board and surprisingly received scant advice. I thought Williamstown was the ultimate you-can’t-get-there-from-here. Can Ithaca be worse? Money is always important, but in this case time and reliability are also factors. Suggestions welcome.</p>
<p>momrath, this site might help.</p>
<p>[Home</a> in Fly Ithaca : Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport, New York](<a href=“http://www.flyithaca.com/]Home”>http://www.flyithaca.com/)</p>
<p>Ithaca is pretty tough. The Ithaca airport does not have a lot of flights. I think you can fly direct <em>from</em> LGA and PHL, perhaps one more. And those flights are fairly expensive.</p>
<p>I go through this exercise every time I need to be in two places at once – Cornell for lacrosse and Baltimore? Orlando? Providence? Chicago? etc for business. It’s next to impossible. </p>
<p>Regional airports would include Syracuse, Rochester, and Binghamton. And then you need an airport limo service or a cab. I did look at Rochester recently and it was (I think?) over $200 for the airport transportation to Cornell. Time – about 2 hours.</p>
<p>Amtrak goes to Syracuse. Bus or cab to Cornell – about an hour. Amtrak also goes to NYC and I think there are buses – about 4 hours. There’s also the Campus-to-Campus bus from NYC available to Cornell students and staff – something to check on.</p>
<p>Thanks for the tips, cnp. I think the latest plan is to fly to Syracuse and get a taxi to the Cornell campus. It seems counterintuitive that New York City would be more convenient than Boston but as I’m reminded everytime a look at a map, New York is a big, oddly shaped state.</p>
<p>The van service will save some money over a taxi, although it’s not cheap. The numbers are here
[Cornell</a> University - The Ithaca Campus - Air Travel to Cornell University](<a href=“Visit | Cornell University”>Visit | Cornell University)</p>
<p>At school breaks, the university now runs several buses a day to Syracuse for a flat $20, so if your child decides to attend, at least he or she won’t have the same problem. However, as the parent of a Cornell senior, I can tell you that getting out of Ithaca for breaks is always a challenge.</p>
<p>momrath, sorry that the Ithaca airport info didn’t work for you. Syracuse is a LONG way away (and Rochester is even farther) and likely to be a very expensive taxi ride. Speaking of which, you might want to investigate that further. Taxis in a lot of places will not take you that far outside their normal territory.</p>
<p>If your child decides to attend Cornell, there is an option for getting home for breaks that is much easier and less expensive than what midwesterner suggested. There are charter buses directly from Cornell to Boston that operate during the breaks. Here is one company I know about; there may be others.</p>
<p>[Student</a> Agencies, Inc. - Short Line Bus Tickets](<a href=“http://www.studentagencies.com/info.php?page=short_line]Student”>http://www.studentagencies.com/info.php?page=short_line)</p>
<p>My daughter is a student at Cornell. One of her closest friends there lives in the Boston area. He always uses a bus to travel home for breaks (just as she uses one to travel to the Washington, DC area). Neither of these buses operates at other times, though. There are a lot of buses between Cornell and various locations that operate only at break times.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone, but this is a one-off situation. My son is a young adult living in Boston. He’s been accepted to Cornell for graduate school in architecture (Yay!) and needs to get there for preview weekend. We live in Asia so if he attends Cornell getting home will be another challenge altogether, but for now he’s just concentrating on this one visit.</p>
<p>If your son is old enough, either renting a car in Boston and driving all the way to Ithaca or flying to Syracuse and renting a car there might be the best option.</p>
<p>No objection to Ithaca airport but it seems that you have to connect through New York. That’s why I thought that taxi’ing from Syracuse would be about the same aggravation as flying through New York.</p>
<p>He doesn’t drive: one of the downsides of growing up in Asia.</p>
<p>Fly into LGA or EWR shouldn’t be that hard. Ithaca airport is a better choice. In the future there are a lot of flights connecting through NYC to go to Asia. There are a lot of people living around NYC area, your son would also be able to get a ride with someone into NYC to get a flight home. He also won’t need a car in Ithaca to get around. It won’t be as easy as Boston, but many people have cars and there is also a bus service and taxi service. My D used taxi a lot when she was a freshman.</p>
<p>US Air has cheap nonstop flights from Boston to Rochester (~120 each way). After that, you’d have a drive of about 1.5 hrs (?) to Cornell.</p>
<p>Is Syracuse any closer?</p>
<p>MAdad, Syracuse is about 55 miles and Rochester is about 90. It will take longer than an hour and a half from Rochester as much of it is on two lane country roads. IN any case, momrath’s son doesn’t drive. 
I’d still take the Ithaca airport option, even if it means flying through LaGuardia.</p>
<p>As I recall, the limo (van) service from Syracuse to Ithaca runs a little over $100 for a round trip. In mid-April, he can fly Boston- LaGuardia-Ithaca or Boston-Philadelphia-Ithaca for $220 on US Air. Not only is it cheaper to fly to Ithaca when everything is factored in, but convenience is a big factor. The Ithaca airport is 15 minutes from campus. I think Marian missed the point of my first post - I was warning against using a taxi. The three taxi companies in Ithaca are really all one company, and they have poorly policed drivers who frequently overcharge the passengers.</p>
<p>I also would not take a standard taxi from Syracuse to Ithaca, but if you can find a car service with a set price from Syracuse to Ithaca, that just leaves finding a ride back to Syracuse with a car service or bus. I personally would not want to fly boston to lga to ithaca, but that maybe a personal bias. I hate connecting. Rochester is further away, but there is a bus to Ithaca. I took it years ago to see my relatives that lived in Rochester. It probably would not save time or money to do this. In fact the flight to Syracuse would save time, but probably not money. It’s a great architecture school… Ithaca is sometimes referred to as centrally isolated.</p>