February 2012

Earlier in this blog we talked about where we are going on our summer vacation, Washington D.C. and New York City. Living in San Diego, California provides a variety of options for flying to the East Coast. The number of airlines offering fares is limitless and the possibility of traveling from San Diego, Ontario, Orange County, or even Los Angeles keeps the rates fairly competitive. With all the options to choose from, a traveler needs to decide who they want to make the trip with and what flight is best for them to maximize their time.

Back in the 80's and 90's, the "Red Eye" was a popular choice enabling the traveler to sleep as they traveled across country to their destination. This flight options has become less frequent an option for domestic flights and is now usually reserved for the international flights exclusively. I am fine without the "Red Eye" as I never can fall asleep while traveling, I think this comes from my time abroad and needing to stay awake to keep an eye on my possessions.

Unfortunately going West to East results in that three hour loss and makes it a complete day of travel to get to your destination. Having lived in D.C. and traveled their often on business, I usually have two favorites to fly into for price and convenience. Two of the three main airports are outside of town, while the third is right in D.C. but a little limited. If you want a good deal and don't mind a 40 minute drive I highly suggest BWI (Thurgood Marshall Baltimore/Washington International Airport). The airport is much smaller than IAD (Washington Dulles), making security and check-in easier and rental car rates more affordable.

Due to the above facts and the fact that the airline we chose doesn't fly into or out of DCA (Regan National), we went with BWI. Another factor in the decision it that we will be heading north upon arrival towards New York City. The Interstate 95 close location of BWI allows for easy acces both north and south.

As for the airline, American, Delta, and United are the cheapest for the flight, but cheap isn't always the cheapest. When just making an overnight trip these are good choices, but for a family trip or if their will be any length of stay, I have become a fan of Southwest Airlines. I used to hate them, but with the ability to change flights even for a better rate and no bag fees it is definitely cheaper for three people to fly on Southwest than one of the other airlines who will charge at minimum $25.00 per bag. So Southwest was the chosen carrier with one-stop going and non-stop coming home.

The above factors are what led us to make the choices we did for where and who to fly with. In our next post we will share our itinerary a bit more and what we doing for accommodations. We look forward to your comments, suggestions, and anything else you wish to share with us.

Planning for our vacation to Washington D.C. and New York is fully underway now. Following a trip back to Denver last year for a class reunion and a visit later in the year to Bryce and Zion National Parks, my wife and I decided we would go to NY and DC for are annual family vacation in 2012. Our country has so many National Parks and Monuments that are great to visit. Because of this we have been trying to visit one of these places each year as part of our vacation.

Having lived in Washington D.C. I am looking forward to showing Terri and Tesslyn the sights and history of our nation's Capitol. The trip will begin and end at Baltimore Washington International Airport. For this vacation we will be flying into BWI, a significant savings compared to IAD (Dulles) and DCA (Regan National) that are also in the area. From there we will be picking up our rental car and traveling about two hours to stay the night in the Philadelphia area, a quick side visit to Constitution Hall, the Liberty Bell, and Museum of Art for the infamous front steps and we will proceed to NYC where we will be for 6 days including the 4th of July. After that we will travel the 4-5 hour trip back to DC for another 6 days in the Washington DC area. All in all, we will be visiting for 13 days and as always trying to fill it up with everything we can.

We have some of the plans made and will be making more in the days and weeks to come. Keep reading to follow what we have chosen for the trip and are reasoning. We usually like to make the most of our travels and have never been disappointed by one of our trips yet. If you have suggestions or ideas for the trip or topics in this travel blog, feel free to let me know in the comments after each post. We look forward to interacting with everyone.