New England - MHT vs BOS

An upcoming meeting will be in Lawrence, MA. Looking at the map, MHT and BOS are roughly equidistant. If I fly in/out of BOS, I can fly up and back the same day.

However, my meeting is scheduled to wrap at 3:30 (and this client tends to run behind schedule). Flight home from either airport would be around 6:35 p.m. I'm thinking that it would be safer to book in and out of MHT due to traffic in the late afternoon to get to BOS, even though that would mean coming in the night before.

Any input?

You would be going against traffic into Boston in the afternoon so it shouldn't be that bad IMO.

Bear in mind that the Central Artery (or whatever they call it now) through downtown Boston can seize up in both directions at rush hour, and it can take you a good hour to get from Charlestown south to the Callahan Tunnel, over to the rental-car drop, and on to your terminal.

At MHT there is no traffic or crowding, fewer pax, virtually instant rental car drop with no shuttle buses, and shorter security lines.

MHT is known for unpleasant TSA experiences though. See my recent thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-safety-security/1218880-bag-secondary-mht-seeming-motive-harassment.html).

Bear in mind that the Central Artery (or whatever they call it now) through downtown Boston can seize up in both directions at rush hour, and it can take you a good hour to get from Charlestown south to the Callahan Tunnel, over to the rental-car drop, and on to your terminal.

At MHT there is no traffic or crowding, fewer pax, virtually instant rental car drop with no shuttle buses, and shorter security lines.
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Thanks! That is what I suspected re: traffic congestion around that time ( plus longer times to drop the car and traverse security). I recall reading about some unpleasant TSA experiences at MHT, but I've been groped on my last 2 departures from BOS...

Fly into Boston to get in when you need to, and fly out of Manchester?

Pick up the car in Boston, hit your meeting, and drop it off in Manchester.

Fly into Boston to get in when you need to, and fly out of Manchester?

Pick up the car in Boston, hit your meeting, and drop it off in Manchester.

That would be ideal, but the drop charges are among the highest I've seen (it will run about $200 for the 1 day rental to pick up in BOS and drop in MHT)!

Shouldn't be any real issues getting into Boston at that hour - even with traffic on I-93, it should take no more than 45 minutes.

Even going on the back roads via North Andover and Boxford to I-95 would take only 45 minutes from Lawrence (not that I'd recommend it for someone that doesn't know the area).

Is a one-way rental from BOS to Lawrence possible, and then take the train back into the city?

That would be ideal, but the drop charges are among the highest I've seen (it will run about $200 for the 1 day rental to pick up in BOS and drop in MHT)! Yeah, the one-way charges in that area are brutal. They pretty much wipe out any savings you might realize from flying MHT.

Sorry late to post, but I would go 93 to 128/95, cutting across to Rte 1 and then to airport. This way you take out the variable of the central artery/93 downtown.

Cheers.

You should also know that rush-hour traffic on 93 North can be brutal at the MA/NH line. For that reason alone I'd actually choose to fly home from Logan, not Manchester.

(I believe the reason is a really weird setup at Exit 1 in NH, where there's only one, maybe two, lanes continuing north on 93, then another one is added right after the exit.A look at Google Maps shows they've restriped it -- and not before time! There's still a lane drop there though.)

And yes, I've done the Boxford shuffle to get from Lawrence/North Andover to Logan. Take 114 to Route 1 to Route 60 to 1A to approach Logan from the northeast. Reasonably fast roads but mostly not highways, traffic unlikely to be an issue.