<p>How easy is it to get from Smith to other schools and locations in Northhampton? How much time does it take, and how often do shuttles or buses run? What does it cost to get from the airport? Which airport and what airlines from the west coast?</p>
<p>Downtown NoHo is 2-10 minutes walk, depending on where you are on campus, etc.</p>
<p>The Five College shuttles run until 3am but I don't know how frequently. I think Mount Holyoke is adverstised as being about 20-25 minutes away, Amherst about 15-20 minutes. As an L.A. driver I would find it pretty easy going except that the road coming back from Amherst would clog up before the bridge at the most inexplicable times. If driving yourself, bear in mind that many of the locals appear to regard the white lines on the road as purely decorative and there appears to be some sort of team sport where the pedestrians time their entrances upon the crosswalk to make it continuously occupied for as long as possible...for all their foibles as drivers in other respects, pedestrians in crosswalks are treated by both law and custom with almost religious deference.</p>
<p>Many students fly into/out of Bradley (Hartford, Connecticut), which is about 45 minutes away. Note that for much of the country this will involve changing planes at least once. For SoCal the choices seemed to be Chicago, where there's more risk of weather delay, or Dulles, where you spend more time without any lateral movement across the country.</p>
<p>Shuttles to Bradley run something like $45 each way, taxis are something like $60, making it a bargain if you share.</p>
<p>When D is coming back home, she doesn't fly through Bradely because they use smaller aircraft without the garment bag closet where she stashes her French horn, which can't be checked. She has flown into/out of Boston, which has its own weather adventures. She's taken the bus, which makes it something like a four-hour trip, about twice as long as my driving time, with a change of buses in...Newton? Someplace near to Boston.</p>
<p>Boston seems to have higher airfares (fewer flights) than to/from some other big cities and I may have D investigate flying through either LaGuardia or Newark...bus to NYC shouldn't be much more and the airfares stand to be a bit cheaper.</p>
<p>Hartford is served by USAIR (Unfortunately, Still Allegheny in Reality), American, Air West, Continental, Delta, United. [My connection comments are via American...I know Delta goes through Cinncinnati and I avoid USAir and Air West when reasonably possible.]</p>
<p>Thanks, I was on the campus but didn't pay enough attention to the neighborhood. I would have thought Albany, New York a closer airport than Boston, but I have no idea what the ground transportation would be.</p>
<p>Albany may be about the same time/distance as Boston but Boston (obviously) has a lot more flights. I think I have heard D talking about people flying through Albany but compared to Hartford/Boston/NYC, I think there are fewer options for ground transport.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.pvta.com/schedulesmaps/route38394043_fivecollege.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.pvta.com/schedulesmaps/route38394043_fivecollege.pdf</a>
shows the schedule of buses between campuses. I'm taking a class at Mt. Holyoke and a class at Amherst this semester (and took one at Hampshire over Jterm), which means I spend a LOT of time on the bus and had to plan my courses carefully, but so far it's working out great. If you have a car, none of the Five Colleges are more than a 30 minute drive away, even with some traffic. </p>
<p>Smith is right in Northampton--everything's walking distance (well, I like to walk...some people wouldn't want to walk to Stop & Shop or other more distant things--but there's a decent bike path and lots of people have cars). </p>
<p>The best way to get to the airport is to find someone else who's going and get a ride with them...luckily this is easy to do. The Student Government association does run shuttles to Bradley (hartford) Airport during many holiday periods, but not always. One of these options will run you $10-30 each way. Taking Valley Transporter would be closer to $60 each way...it's not easy to do by public transportation at all and would involve taking buses to hartford, then hartford regional transportation.</p>
<p>I don't fly home (I'm from Long Island, and I go by bus and ferry), but I'm flying from Bradley for spring break to visit my sister in Houston. Southwest flies to lots of places on the West Coast and serves Bradley too. I have a friend who's from San Diego and she normally flies American from Logan.</p>
<p>My daughter has used the Valley Transporter. It's actually closer to $40 each way. Call ahead to make reservations.</p>