<p>Can someone tell me just how easy (or hard) it is to get on/off campus? Really, I know that the weekends at Middlebury are fun and that I won't want to leave at all, but I still want to know the logistics of it. Is it that hard to get from Middlebury to Burlington? Is it easier to get someplace else that Amtrak/Greyhound/whatever come into? Is public transit as limited as it seems (see: Public</a> Transportation in Middlebury/Addison County Vermont - Addison County Transit Resources)? Do enough people use Middlebury Transit (see: Middlebury</a> Vermont Transit and Vermont Chauffeured Transportation Services - use us for your taxi, bus, cab, shuttle, or limousine transportation) to and from campus that it's not going to cost about $90 every time I'd like to use it, taking cost-splitting into consideration? Would it be most prudent to simply bring a car? What about ZipCar?</p>
<p>Thanks for any responses!</p>
<p>Hi,
Midd '06 here. Don't know if you've been to the college, but most people generally walk down to town from the campus - it's pretty close to go to any of the stuff in town that you'd want to go to. If you want to go elsewhere, you need a car or somebody with a car. If you have access to a car, I'd highly recommend it. During my first semester or so, I almost never left campus (it seemed like there were so many things going on). After that, and especially as I was a junior and senior, I used the car all the time. Vermont has tons of hiking, biking, skiing, and just cool places to go (like the bread loaf campus) that it's great to be able to go places those transit services don't go. </p>
<p>Generally, people only use those services to get to and from the airport, and only if there's no other choice (because they're so expensive - and Zipcar isn't really available). But don't worry about it if you don't have a car - tons of people bring them, and you can just about always get a ride from your friends (or borrow their car - I can't tell you how many different people drove my car during my four years there, or how many times I woke up early to take people to Burlington's airport). And you can usually find people going up to Burlington on a given weekend for movies or dinner or just hanging out.</p>
<p>If you're from the northeast / mid atlantic region and are worried about getting to/from campus over breaks, you can usually look on the ride boards and find somebody who'll be willing to give you a seat in their car (sometimes it's nice to pay some of their gas or buy snacks). </p>
<p>I had plenty of friends who didn't have cars for some or all of their years on campus, and we made it work. I wouldn't worry too much about it - and you'll definitely want to get off campus some, because it's small and because the rest of Vermont is so cool.</p>
<p>for some more up to date information on transportation;
-to burlington: a shuttle on saturday mornings at 10 leaves from the college. on weekdays, it leaves around 7am from town, so that's not really popular. otherwise, that's your only mean of transportation there. it takes around an hour with the bus.
-greyhound: there's a station in burlington that you can use for going to boston/montreal.
-amtrak: there's a station in rutland, but i'm not really sure where the trains from there depart to.
-zipcars: never used one, don't know.
-midd transit: the best example of a monopoly. the cheapest you can pay with them to go to the airport is $25, and that's your only choice if you have a big luggage or if you're going at a time not related with the bus. they can charge up to $80 if you're alone.
-buses by the school: the student government has buses during every long break (fall, thanksgiving, christmas, winter, spring) to boston and nyc, and they're not that expensive-really convenient.
that said, if you have a car, definitely bring it. you might ride others and let them chip in for gas money, as well as more convenient transportation to boston, burlington and other places nearby. the lack of a car greatly constrains your freedom, and believe me, there're times you NEED to get out of the midd bubble!</p>
<p>The 10 AM Saturday bus to Burlington, and back at 5 PM, is fine option if you just wanto spend part of the day in Burlington, get some shopping done, or whatever. And it is only $4. But there is unfortunately no late evening bus back.</p>