<p>Oh, we New Yorkers can't help chiming in. Did OP say they were visiting Barnard? Maybe I missed it. But I'm sure everyone knows that from JFK to Sarah Lawrence and Vassar you don't have to go through Manhattan at all, but you do have to spend some time in the Bronx.</p>
<p>Monydad: I understand your wife not driving in NYC. I have on many occasions, but only between my two husbands. When I'm married I no longer can. Psyche is very silly.</p>
<p>The question is, do you want to be in NYC or not. Any of plans people have suggested are workable. Yeah the JFK, LaGuardia thing is annoying, but if company allows picking up and dropping at different airports it's a non-issue.
If you don't want to go to NY I triple posters who suggested Westchester airport. I go to Islip when I can to avoid JFK and LaGuardia. Apart from the city, they're beasts themselves.</p>
<p>I second everything 2boysima said.</p>
<p>If you do have a car the Beekman Arms is a great place to stay near Vassar. It's the oldest continually operating inn in the US. Those are some of the things you get in the Hudson River Valley, which I'm sure you know was originally settled by the Dutch and has a different flavor than New England. Albany was settled before Boston. Okay. End of boring history lesson.</p>
<p>Just as another piece of extraneous information -- Bard and Skidmore are two schools further north in the Hudson River Valley.</p>
<p>Lots of good advice here, but I have to ask. JFK to Poughkeepsie is a long drive? It's got to be less than 100 miles, hardly a long drive. </p>
<p>Oh, and an airport limo generally isn't anything like what you might be thinking of as a typical limo. Lots of people use them, and they're usually a nice sedan, with a safer driver than a typical NYC cab. There are many car services in the city and, in many cases, the cost isn't much more than what you'd pay for a cab.</p>
<p>
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I have very fond memories of my Dad telling my mother and me to stay at the best hotel in NYC for a visit to Barnard way back when.
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LOL - I sent my daughter on her own and she spent one night in a hostel, another on an air mattress in an NYU dorm. Those NY hotel rooms are $$$$$.</p>
<p>I didn't get the sense that the OP plans to visit any schools in NYC -- it sounds more like a kid who is looking for a suburban LAC (?). I know it seems odd, but unless the OP & kid have their heart set on seeing the city, I think the car rental would allow them to avoid the city entirely. If they do want to spend some time in the city, a stay in New Rochelle or White Plains combined with taking the train into the city may save money -- there is a very significant price break between a very nice hotel in Westchester county as compared to the cheapest available in NYC.</p>
<p>
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Did OP say they were visiting Barnard?
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I'm sure her son would love it there... I know mine would have. ;) But I don't think that's on the agenda.</p>
<p>I'd add that I've driven in NYC several times --actually renting a car & taking it into the city. Actually, compared to SF, NYC isn't particularly difficult -- a lot of traffic, but there are some streets that are a lot worse than others and parking is no worse than SF. I don't recommend it to anyone, but it certainly wasn't the most horrible experience either. (Now, driving in Boston... that was bad! )</p>
<p>I think that all of this car discussion probably reflects a little bit of east coast/west coast culture clash. We Californians tend to feel more comfy in our cars, even sitting in traffic ... and far less comfortable about public transportation, because our public transit tends to be far less reliable.</p>
<p>If you've done big city driving, Manhattan driving isn't bad. It's a gridded street system. If you confine your drive-in/drive-out to 11 am to 3 pm or after 8 pm you will be sweet. There are heaps of garages--not cheap but not difficult to find. If you stay in a larger hotel, they will valet park your car for you. </p>
<p>We used to own a car in Manhattan and the biggest problem was that someone repeatedly stole the battery (they knew we replaced it). That was pre-Guiliani though. We drove all around the city--esp if we had to go from Riverside Drive down to Soho. You should be fine in your rental. You won't need to wrap a big heavy chain around the grille. ;)</p>
<p>Well calmom, we drive into NYC every time we go in, even though I actually was born on Park Ave. (I love saying that, but that was the last really elite thing I ever did, though at one time my aunt and uncle had a gorgeous apt. on Park.)</p>
<p>The train takes 2 hours to Penn Sta. and without traffic we can make it to second and 62nd St. in 1 and 1/2 hours. With traffic we can make it in 1 and 1/2 days.</p>
<p>Last year I let my son drive home from Columbia after doing the tour. He had his license for about 3 weeks. He insisted he could and I let him. Oh, how I laughed as he tried to get around shoppers, ambulances, double-parked trucks and the cops in the van ahead of us who just stopped in the middle of 125th st and evacuated the van with their guns drawn.
PS I miss him so much !!</p>
<p>It's not usuually bad driving from JFK to Westchester,except during rush hours. Or from Westchester to La Guardia. Most of the trip is a straight shot on 678 which turns into the Hutchinson River Parkway. The route skirts Manhattan entirely.</p>
<p>Yes mythmom, the highway goes through the Bronx, land of my HS. You got a problem with that?</p>
<p>Seriously though, when you're on the highway, and not getting off, it makes no difference what communities are there if you got off the highway. Even if one of them is Queens, physically associated with LAung Eyeland.</p>
<p>When D1 visited Vassar we were living in the midwest, and we flew into Stewart.</p>
<p>Oops monydad! Did not mean that the way it came out! I think I should re-read every post because it seems my inadvertent wording has offended just about everyone. I think I was more thinking about bridge traffic. Sigh. Explaining just makes things worse. (Yeah, I know you were kidding, but still.....)</p>
<p>Having driven that route a few times myself, I think it would be more accurate to say the road goes past the Bronx. I don't recall ever having to actually stop the vehicle.</p>
<p>calmom, you read me like a book! I am basically more comfortable driving in unfamiliar areas than I am taking public transportation. And as much as I loathe and detest to drive in SF, I don't have any tearing desire to do so in Manhattan. We'll take a train in for that, most likely. No schools he's looking at there, but if I could talk him into looking at Columbia, I would. (I did try). Obviously, a huge reach for everyone! And yeah, Barnard might be a bit of a stretch for him ;) I might try to sneak him over to Bard, time permitting, though.</p>
<p>After doing more research, I see what you guys are talking about with regards to "limo" and how I interpret it. At this point, I'm pretty much tempted to take the limo to LaGuardia and just get a car from there since that's where we're leaving from. We're also visiting Rochester but I'm not going to attempt do drive that!</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone for the hints. I really am quite the Californian (think Frank Zappa's "Valley Girl" and you're not far off!) and do feel best behind the wheel. Since we're not even attempting to stay in NYC (no amount of FF miles are going to help that one out!), we'll just train in, maybe one evening.</p>
<p>I checked several other major car rental agencies in addition to National (see other posts) -- they all give the option to choose "return to a different location" on their online forms, and rates for a pickup at JFK, return to LGA are exactly the same as for pickup/return to the same airport, at least for Hertz & Avis. Budget did not show its lowest cost option -- but I don't know if that would hold true for all dates or vehicle classes.</p>
<p>So I think you should do some price checking before assuming you need that limo to LGA. Again, keep in mind you are dealing with 2 airports located 12 miles apart from one another on a single stretch of highway. I'm sure that it is routine for the rental agencies to transfer vehicles from one airport lot to another.</p>
<p>I would be very tempted ... if I was already going to be at Vassar with a car and it was not yet winter ... to just keep driving! You could hit Ithaca, Cornell, Syracuse and be within a stone's throw of Rochester. And a pretty drive through the Catskills at that ... (Assuming that a one way car rental between Rochester and LGA-JFK would be free of drop off fees!)</p>
<p>The traffic would affect the time to travel from one airport to another by taxi or limo. It would probably not impact the rental agencies practices for transferring vehicles from one lot to another, as that is probably the sort of thing they take care of after hours when traffic is light. (I'll bet it's a pretty fast drive at 1:00 am).</p>
<p>If you've done big city driving, Manhattan driving isn't bad. It's a gridded street system. If you confine your drive-in/drive-out to 11 am to 3 pm or after 8 pm you will be sweet. There are heaps of garages--not cheap but not difficult to find. If you stay in a larger hotel, they will valet park your car for you.
<<</p>
<p>Oh, I agree! I find driving in Manhattan to be easy, actually. As my husband says, it's just a "dance" of cars, and as long as you have a modicum of awareness of what's around you, it's pretty easy. To get down the Eastside, my "secret" is Park Avenue--it's nearly always pretty fast and open. On the Westside, West End Avenue (which turns into, I think, 11th?) is, again, pretty fast and open most of the time. Don't look nervous or scared--none of the other drivers like that, and then they will cut your off.</p>