<p>We are planning on visiting Purdue sometime in the next month. Is flying into Indianapolis the best bet? Coming from two different directions so I would like to try to arrive around the same time. Has anyone had experience with AirTran? other option would probably be Delta. How easy is the in and out of Indianapolis and the airport?
I am figuring that we would get into Indianapolis around 11 pm Thurs and drive to Purdue that night. Is it an easy drive? By the end of April should we be able to expect reasonable weather? Tour in the morning and department visits in the afternoon for my D. Spend Sat exploring the surrounding area. Fly out Sunday am.
Any recommendations on where to stay.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine where you would fly into other than Indy to visit Purdue but I really don’t have any idea about that.</p>
<p>As far as a place to stay, they have a hotel on campus which is right at the student union. It was really nice and made things so easy. </p>
<p>Oh and the weather should be fine at the end of April. Just expect that the temperature could really vary. We went to Purdue in April. The first day was beautiful, high 60’s, the next day was 40 and a steady driving rain.</p>
<p>deb922- did you see anywhere else nearby to stay. The Union is full both weekends that we would be able to visit.</p>
<p>Indianapolis airport is practically brand new. Very easy to get in and out of. Weather in Indiana should be beautiful in late April but always a chance of spring showers. Grass will be green, trees budding, perennials opening up. Spring in the Midwest is wonderful.</p>
<p>We are also going to visit but probably only one day. Fly into Indy, spend the night there. Go to Purdue early in the morning and back to Indy that night. My husband and son will go back home the next day while I stay in Indy for business.</p>
<p>Here’s a list of hotels near Purdue: <a href=“http://www.homeofpurdue.com/hotelsandmotels_atog.html[/url]”>http://www.homeofpurdue.com/hotelsandmotels_atog.html</a></p>
<p>Thanks. That is a great list. I have to pin her down on a date and have her make her appointments. The friday tours in April are filling up.</p>
<p>From Indianapolis Airport to Purdue is probably about an hour and a half drive; possibly less, since there shouldn’t be that much traffic. You can get onto the interstate right outside the airport, so you’ll have a more or less straight shot up to Purdue. </p>
<p>How far is your flight? Depending on how tired you’ll be, you may want to get a hotel in Indianapolis for the night.</p>
<p>I grew up just outside of Indianapolis, so if you have questions about where to stay or driving direction, feel free to PM me :)</p>
<p>Spriteling- I am considering staying in Indianapolis the first night. I haven’t booked the flight yet but it looks like the best option for me would arrive in Indianapolis at 11 pm and my D’s flight a few hours earlier. I am coming from Ca so I think I could handle the drive to Purdue that night. If she has the 8 45 am tour I don’t think we would make it doing the drive in the am.
I need her to make some decisions quickly as many of the motels are also already full. Everyone wants to visit on a Friday.</p>
<p>mom60- it is never smart to be the last flight into a destination, your flight could be canceled leaving you high and dry. Book an earlier flight, arriving in the early evening. Also in some airports the car rental places close down at 11pm, check with your rental company how late they stay open.
Southwest flies to Indianapolis from many cities in CA.</p>
<p>Batlio- Southwest doesn’t fly from my airport. And from D’s airport it is more expensive than Delta or Air Trans. I would prefer to fly out of my smaller airport. It saves me a minimum of 4 hours when you factor in drive time and time to check in at LAX. If I can avoid driving down to Los Angeles I would like to. From my local airport I can fly to Salt lake direct and continue on to Indianapolis. Unfortunately it is just one flight a day. If I can find something that arrives earlier I would take it.</p>
<p>1 1/2 hour drive through corn fields</p>
<p>^^^ you won’t be seeing much corn in April!</p>
<p>Have you considered flying into Chicago? It would end up being about a 3 hour drive, but flights to Chicago could be cheaper than ones to Indianapolis.</p>
<p>^^at least 1.5 hours of that would be getting back out of that Chicago mess and onto Interstate 65 in Indiana. Everyone has a price on their time, but a few more dollars to fly into Indy, whiz immediately onto 465, then 65 would be well worth the ticket cost difference to me.</p>
<p>There are a bunch of hotels near the airport. Getting in that late, you’ll want to collapse in a room and pick up your rental car in the morning.</p>
<p>It is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. Me coming from one coast, D from the other. D having class till 3 pm. I am down to two choices of flights. One getting me in at 10:25 pm on Delta, the other getting me to Indy at 3:30 pm on US Air (my least favorite airline). Problem with that flight is I either have to wait hours for my D to arrive or she has to miss the day of classes.
But good news is she has an afternoon appointment with the person she would like to meet with. Tour will be at 8 45 am so we will not be able to sleep in Indy that night. But I did get reservations in West Lafayette for 2 nights. Final night will be spent at an airport hotel to catch an early morning flight home.</p>