Both airports are run by the Paris airport authority. An excellent image outlining all your options is available here (french only). What follows gives you a general overview of how to get from/to the airports by public transit.

Charles de Gaulle
… by bus
There is a special shuttle (city bus) called RoissyBus which will take you from the CDG airport to the Opéra métro stop for € 9.40. There are also two regular bus routes during the day (#350 from Gare de l’est, and #351 from the Nation métro station), and two night routes (#N140, and N143). Both buses will cost you three (3) zone-1 tickets.

… by train
The quickest and most relaxing way (in my opinion) to get from/to the airport: the RER B line (€ 8,70). Keep in mind this is a commuter-train, so if you are travelling during the work-week the train will be quite full with commuters and there is not much room for luggage.

A quick note on taking the train from CDG:

* There are many automatic ticket dispensers at the CDG train terminal, however North-American credit cards are notoriously difficult to use with these dispensers if they do not have the chip technology (if you have American Express, forget about it)
* If you have to buy your ticket from an employee, the lines are impossibly long. If you’re lucky enough to know someone who lives in Paris, the best thing to do is have them send you a Paris-CDG ticket in the mail before your trip. It will save you a lot of time.

Orly
… by bus
Similar to CDG, there is a bus service (OrlyBus) to take you from the Denfert Rochereau station to the Orly airport (€ 6.60). You can also opt for regular city-bus service from/to the airport with bus routes 183, 285, and 292. Night bus: N31, and N131

… by train
Both the RER ‘B’ and ‘C’ lines pass close to the Orly airport, but you will need to take a shuttle to complete your journey. Use the OrlyVal driverless light rail trainsit line to get you from the airport to the Antony train stop (RER ‘B’) for €10.25, or the “Paris by train shuttle” to get you from the airport to the Pont de Rungix Aéroport d’Orly train station (RER ‘C’).

Summary:
In my opinion, getting to Paris from an airport by train is the best way to go, but there is one disadvantage: all the stairs in the Paris métro! Once you get to Paris by train, you might want to complete your journey by taxi if you have a lot of luggage with you.

Tags: airport, France, Francois, How To Guide, Paris, Subway, transit

The bus and tram/rail service in Austin is managed by Capital Metro. There are a good number of buses that can help you get around the city although I typically recommend renting a car if you plan to do any sightseeing. If you are coming to Austin for a conference downtown at the Austin Convention Center, the bus is a perfect option.

The airport is served by the Capital Metro route 100 Airport Flyer bus. You can visit the Airport Flyer schedule page to find schedule info for daily along with Saturday and Sunday schedules. The schedule recently changed and the Airport Flyer bus now runs at a 45-minute headway.

The Airport Flyer takes about 20-minutes to get downtown and frankly takes the same amount of time as taking a taxi. The Airport Flyer costs $1 and the buses take dollar bills and coins.

The Airport Flyer bus can be found at the far right side of the passenger pickup area. If you exit any door after you pass through baggage claim, make a right and walk to the end and you will see signs for the Airport Flyer. Make sure you check the schedule page to view the map so you can make sure the bus stops near your hotel – most downtown hotels are very close to the bus stops.

If you are into public transport, you might also want to take a trip on the brand new MetroRail. While it only runs during weekdays, the trains are new, clean and speedy. Here are some photos of the downtown MetroRail station.

My hope is that they expand the MetroRail to the airport – this would increase ridership immediately and allow for a better case for expansion of the system around the city.

Tags: airport, Austin, How To Guide

“We believe that the racks will be a great amenity, making things more comfortable for our customers and even helping our bus operators speed their trips. We are going to have our managers out monitoring these buses, asking our customers and bus operators if they are seeing an improvement,” said Joseph Smith, Senior Vice President in the Department of Buses. “If the results are positive, we will expand the installation of the racks to other buses on these routes.”

The issues I see with the luggage rack location are:

• security – placing the racks right next to the rear door allows a criminal to easily exit with your bag
• you must drag the bag from the front of the bus to the rear – my guess is many passengers will just continue standing towards the front with their bag

In any case, good for the MTA for testing out a feature that many other cities already offer on their airport-bound buses. I’d rather see larger and wider buses running on the airport routes rather than the low-floor tiny buses.

Tags: airport, New York, New York City Blog, NYC, transit, Transit News

If you are traveling to/from the NYC airports and want to try using transit (you should!), check out our NYC airport guide. I find that using the subway and the LIRR is much faster and way cheaper than taking a taxi from JFK airport.

Here’s a video with 2 commercials from the Train to the Plane – both look like they were created by the people who made the Brady Bunch tv show.

Tags: airplane, airport, New York, New York City Blog, NYC, Subway, Transit Videos

Pricing

A single rail trip is $2.00. You can purchase the single-fare Breeze card at the station. The machines take change (no pennies) and dollar bills.  

Travel to your hotel

There are 4 major hotel areas in Atlanta: Downtown, Midtown, Buckhead and Perimeter. Below are the MARTA rail options to these areas.

Downtown

Travelling to downtown district is easy from the Airport. Take any train from the Airport station to the Peachtree Center station. This is station N1. Interesting note, this is the deepest cut in the southeast and the escalator at the south end of the station is the longest escalator in the south east! 

Buckhead 

To travel to the Buckhead district, you will want to take a Red Train to the Buckhead station. This is station N7 on the map. It will take approximately 30 minutes to get from the Airport station. As stated above the trip will cost $2.00. From the Buckhead station, many of the hotels in the area are within walking distance or call the hotel for a pickup.

An alternate option and one I recommend if you are going to catch a cab to your destination in Buckhead, I suggest you take any train to the N6, Lindbergh station. This is one of the core stations for the system and catching a cab from here will be much easier and quicker than going to the Buckhead station. If you take this route, sit at the back of the train, and exit to the right, there is a brand new elevator which will take you to street level. Exit to the right of the station and the taxi stand is right in front of the exit. 

Midtown

If your hotel or destination is located in the Midtown area, you will want to take any train from the Airport to the Midtown station. The station is N4 on the map and the trip should take about 20-22 minutes. Exit is to the right of the train and there are escalators and elevators to take you to street level.  

Perimeter

If your destination is located in the Perimeter area, you will want to take a Red Line train to the Dunwoody station.  This is station N9 and will take approximately 45 minutes. This station is next to the Perimeter mall and you will want a shuttle to your hotel as the walk might be a bit much with cases.

Tags: airport, Atlanta

LaGuardia (LGA)

Traveling from LaGuardia airport into Manhattan via public transportation is fairly easy. There are 2 basic options — both cost $2.25.

• Take the Q33 bus right outside your arrival terminal to the last stop (Roosevelt Avenue/Jackson Heights subway station). From there you can board several subway lines (E,F express or R, V local). I suggest taking either the E or F as they will cut the trip by about 10 minutes. I prefer this option to the one below.
• Take the M60 bus right outside your arrival terminal to the Astoria Blvd. stop. You will see the elevated trains at this stop. Board a Manhattan bound N or W train and you will be in midtown in about 15 minutes. There are a lot of steps at this station and from what I can tell, there are no elevators.

John F. Kennedy (JFK)

Thanks to the new AirTrain, it is easier than ever to travel to/from JFK using public transportation. From JFK, take the AirTrain which is outside each terminal (you may have to cross the street) to either:

• Station D – Jamaica Station — from here you can take the E train (8th avenue) or the J/Z (lower manhattan)
• Station A - Howard Beach Station – from here you can take the A train (8th avenue)

I suggest that if you are going anywhere in midtown or the World Trade Center area that you take the E train option (station D). The E is the best option in about 90% of the time as it is the fastest, safest, easiest of the options. If you are going to the Wall Street Area, take the J/Z option. Lastly for upper manhattan, take the A train option. 

Another option is to take the AirTrain and then take the LIRR to Penn Station. If you destination is near Penn Station, this is the preferred option as it’s easier and there is more room for baggage. The trip will cost $10.75 but it’s worth the extra $3.

Newark International (EWR)

From EWR, you will want to take the AirTrain Newark, it is easy and inexpensive. The AirTrain takes you to the EWR Train station. From there you can take the New Jersey Transit train to New York Penn station. The fare is about $13/person. Penn Station hooks you into bus, subway, taxi and walking to almost anywhere in NYC.

Tags: airport, New York City Blog, NYC