My husband Robert and I have recently been flying to and from JFK for a few trips including Iceland last November and Ireland a month ago. We’re headed again to that airport later in the summer when we travel to Florence, Italy. This airport has a couple of advantages including the greater potential for nonstop flights and travel deals. But getting to JFK from New York’s Capital Region can get a bit problematic.
How do you get back and forth from JFK?
Here are some considerations:
1. Airport services are an option, but your departure choices may be limited as they can often only travel to and from JFK at one specific time per day. You also may be at the mercy of bad traffic.
2. Initial connecting flights from such airports as Albany International are also a possibility, but the overall cost of your trip may dramatically increase, and you’ll have the additional worry as to whether that flight will make it in time or, sorry for the pessimism, even get off the ground. You’ll also have to tack on added time for parking, check in, and TSA.
3. You could also rent a car and use JFK as the final drop off location, You would then rent another car from this airport after the trip to get home. This may one of the least costly choices, but you have the traffic to again consider. The big drawback for me is the ride home. I’m a Type A vacationer, and after a busy trip, the long flight, luggage pick up, and customs, it may be pretty tiring to then get into a car to drive another three hours home.
4. We like to take the Amtrak train to Penn Station. This usually takes about 2 and one half hours to three hours depending on delays.
Once in Penn, we take the LIRR to the Jamaica Station stop and from there the AirTrain to the JFK terminal that we need to fly out of. These last two steps have taken about 20-30 minutes. Yes, a cab from Penn may be less complicated, but we hit bad traffic the last time we did this and it took us a nail biting two hours to arrive at our destination.
Let us know how you like to travel there.
Travel Gal Kim Swidler 
One response to “So how do you get to JFK?”
I’ve done it all of the ways you described. The rental car provided the most flexibility and wasn’t really that expensive, even when I factored in the tolls and gas, because we were traveling as a family of five. The train was pretty smooth and definitely most relaxing on the way home. The flights from Albany to NYC are generally too expensive and I don’t like those small planes. Two of my three last trips to Europe, though, have originated in Boston rather than JFK. The fares are competitive with those from NYC and it is such a better drive to Logan than to JFK. As someone who grew up downstate, it took a lot for me to cut my ties from NYC airports, but Logan is a real option from Albany and should be considered.
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