For those of you on east coast or in Virginia itself, what is your recommendation for the easiest way to travel to W&M? I did the trip once by flying into DC, renting a car, and driving down. That was rough, though it was a holiday week and I think we got caught up in travel leaving DC early.
A plus for W&M’s location is that there’s an Amtrak station combined with a bus station within walking distance of the old campus.
Richmond and Norfolk are both closer than DC, for flying, but probably more expensive. Students seem to share rides a lot.
Richmond and Norfolk airports are both about an hour away. Richmond has an advantage in that you don’t have to go through the Hampton Roads Tunnel, which can be a bottleneck, and if I-64 West to Richmond is backed up, Route 60 works as an alternate route. I’m sure the school offers transportation at holidays. Richmond, in particular, is a nice, clean, efficient little airport, with connections to several hubs.
Amtrak is great too. The Williamsburg train station is just a few blocks from campus, though there might be suitcases, etc., and it is pretty far from Dupont, Yates, and other dorms over that way.
And lots of students will always be heading up to Northern Virginia, so that might be an option too, especially after freshman year.
Our freshman takes the train down and back from DC every break. Easy and relatively cheap.