Alternative airport to University/State College, PA (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh: rental car, rental)

[HPEmom]

My child will be attending a summer camp near State College, PA. I will need to escort her there from Atlanta, fly home 24 hours later, then return and bring her back 2 weeks later.

Flights into State College are pricey considering I will need 3 tickets (2 round trip for me and one round trip for her). I am considering an alternative airport and rental car if it would be financially advantageous. I am fine with driving a couple of hours as well.

If anyone has any suggestions as to how best to do this, please let me know.

Thanks!

[mdb06]

You could fly into Harrisburg and drive 1.5 hours on rt 322 west (actually more like northwest) right into State College. Pretty drive. Not sure how much cheaper, if any, that would be than whatever you're looking at.

[toobusytoday]

Looks like Delta has five non-stops a day from Atlanta to Harrisburg. Airlines - Harrisburg International Airport - Seven Major Airlines providing Domestic and International Travel

[BevoInPA]

If you are feeling adventorous you can fly to Philly, take Septa (subway) to the 30th St Station, then Amtrack to Harrisburg, then arrange for Enterprise to pick you up with a car rental to drive to PSU (and reverse to get home). I live near Harrisburg and take Amtrack to Philly frequently for work because the layover is longer than the train ride. I also love Amtrack. If you are patient and like scenery you might enjoy it.

[CHIP72]

Harrisburg is the only airport within 2 hours of State College that has direct service to/from Atlanta. Flights might still be expensive though.

If the flights are still too expensive for you, you are probably going to have to go to an airport that is 3+ hours away from State College. Airports to check out in this scenario include BWI (Baltimore), Washington Dulles, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. Smaller airports like ABE (Lehigh Valley, aka Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton) and AVP (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton) also have direct service to/from Atlanta but probably will be no cheaper than Harrisburg (and will be more expensive than the bigger airports mentioned).

[CHIP72]

Originally Posted by BevoInPA

If you are feeling adventorous you can fly to Philly, take Septa (subway) to the 30th St Station, then Amtrack to Harrisburg, then arrange for Enterprise to pick you up with a car rental to drive to PSU (and reverse to get home). I live near Harrisburg and take Amtrack to Philly frequently for work because the layover is longer than the train ride. I also love Amtrack. If you are patient and like scenery you might enjoy it.

When I lived in the Harrisburg area, I did that a couple times too (use the Amtrak Keystone Service and SEPTA R1 to fly out of Philadelphia, rather than fly out of Harrisburg) and I agree it's an excellent way to travel, especially for cross-country flights. However, that's a lot of different legs to the journey for someone not familiar with the area.

[cheesehead1]

We used to live in State College, and we flew frequently. Quite often, we would drive to Baltimore to fly, as it was easier to get direct flights outside of the NE corridor. It's just under 3 hours from State College to BWI, and it can be dramatically cheaper. You may want to look into that. Good luck! I've heard great things about the PSU camps, BTW.

[deanbrew]

I'm guessing you might be talking about Camp Woodward. Your closest airports are State College and Harrisburg, and BWI is the closest big airport. It's a fairly long drive and a lot more hassle to use BWI, though, so make sure to factor that into your analysis.

[BevoInPA]

I HATE BWI. It is located south of Baltimore City so it means getting on Baltimore's equivalent of the Beltway. Even if you fly into Philly and rent a car you can completely bypass the city. Pittsburgh is sort of an option too if you rent a car. I can't remember but I think it is about 3 hours to State College from the airport.

[vetegnc]

I live in State College, and my husband or I occasionally fly out. We keep looking for cheaper alternatives, and the price difference has never been enough to account for gas, travel time, inconvenience, etc. He did fly out of Williamsport once because he found a cheap ticket there (last minute funeral).

Two tickets at once might make the drive a bit more worth it (the drive is beautiful b/w Harrisburg and SC), but one....definately not!!