Southwest location without the rental car

Old Jun 2, 2021, 8:20 am
  #31  
 
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Originally Posted by darthbimmer
If you're considering West Coast destinations:
  • San Francisco is eminently walkable and has good transit options. BART gets you there from SFO and OAK.
  • Portland is also very navigable with transit. Light rail connects from PDX to downtown, then downtown is very walkable.
  • San Diego's light rail doesn't connect the airport, but if you're willing to take a short Lyft/Uber/taxi ride from the airport to downtown (it's just a few miles) you can then walk or use transit to many sites.
  • Seattle's downtown is also a great place to see on foot/by transit, though it gets a minus for having a painfully slow transit connection from/to SEA airport.
I would add Santa Monica to the list. Beach, good restaurants and shopping, the pier's amusement park and aquarium for the kids. Also has a good city bus system, including to the LAX transit center....or a short taxi/Uber/Lyft ride.

If this planning were for a SUMMER vacation, I would delete a lot of the cities mentioned in other posts. Heat and/or humidity would make daytime walking unpleasant.
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Old Jun 2, 2021, 9:21 am
  #32  
 
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Do remember that SFO in August is downright chilly. Saw people in parkas. Got caught with only shorts and other summer wear a few years back.
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Last edited by joshua362; Jun 3, 2021 at 3:24 pm
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Old Jun 3, 2021, 2:42 pm
  #33  
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We never rent a car in Vegas - or NYC, or DC. Great places to visit for sure.

Would add San Diego in the mix too.
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Old Jun 3, 2021, 3:34 pm
  #34  
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Originally Posted by djp98374
on rental cars...the smaller airports with summer tourists have the high rental car costs. If you look at larger citues the rates aren’t as high. They also fluctuate.
dallas has a limited light rail system but serves love
.
No Light Rail to Love. It's a Bus ride to light rail station.

Which is sad because there used be the super cool jetrail system back when Braniff ruled the world.
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Old Jun 3, 2021, 4:34 pm
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Originally Posted by rthib
No Light Rail to Love. It's a Bus ride to light rail station. Which is sad because there used be the super cool jetrail system back when Braniff ruled the world.
The future has come and gone.
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Old Jun 3, 2021, 5:29 pm
  #36  
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Originally Posted by Tanic
I still feel cheated that I don't have a flying car by now.
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Old Jun 5, 2021, 1:42 am
  #37  
 
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Originally Posted by danielonn
Fort Lauderdale has a High Speed Rail. In First class you pay $60 to Miami with Alcoholic Drinks and snacks as well as a lounge. Spend a few days in South Beach and you can take the train to Orlando and fly home from there.
Fort Lauderdale has never had high speed rail. Nor is that even being planned.

What you are describing here is Brightline. That's the newer rail system that stops in Downtown Miami, Downtown Fort Lauderdale, and Downtown West Palm Beach. Brightline closed when COVID happened and it has not reopened.

Although Brightline is expanding to Orlando, that's still years away. Currently, the only way to get from Miami to Orlando via rail is with Amtrak. The Amtrak stations in both Miami and Orlando are nowhere near any tourist areas.
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Old Jun 5, 2021, 4:42 am
  #38  
 
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Originally Posted by danielonn
Fort Lauderdale has a High Speed Rail. In First class you pay $60 to Miami with Alcoholic Drinks and snacks as well as a lounge. Spend a few days in South Beach and you can take the train to Orlando and fly home from there.
As writerguy stated, we most certainly do not have high speed rail here. Even when brightline reopens, to get to Orlando you have to take Amtrak - five hours one train a day, seven hours on the other. Only those two trips in each direction per day. Often freight requires priority on the rail and I've had it take over twelve hours - and it is in no way first class, though you can rent a roomette ($$$ lately, and I believe they killed off dining service on the longer route even before the plague) for additional privacy and comfort.

For travel within Miami and the rest of SE Florida, the metromover and tri-rail are surprisingly convenient (for Florida, anyway) and I don't think I'd ever pay for Brightline down here with that inexpensive option available. I think I paid $3.75 for Fort Lauderdale to Miami last time I took it. It pales in comparison to well developed public transportation service in less sprawling areas, but it is functional and can get you within a reasonably priced Uber/Lyft of most anything down here. I would put the area on the 'technically doable, but not particularly convenient' list for travel without a rental car.
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Old Jun 5, 2021, 8:07 am
  #39  
 
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Did anybody mention New Orleans?
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Old Jun 5, 2021, 8:32 am
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Originally Posted by dlaue
Did anybody mention New Orleans?
Miserably hot there in July. I was going to recommend San Antonio but didn't for the same reason.
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Old Jun 5, 2021, 8:37 am
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Originally Posted by Eujeanie
Miserably hot there in July. I was going to recommend San Antonio but didn't for the same reason.
And August is worse. I used to drive my rental car to the Super Dome (where the Saint's of Football play...) and run laps around it for the shade the overhang provided. And watched the time/temp clock climb 98, 99, 100...
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Old Jun 5, 2021, 8:43 am
  #42  
 
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Originally Posted by lleung1980
Might I ask, where did you stay? Do you have more info about bike rental? I might have to change my plan to visit PWM only for the weekend, instead of driving from BOS/PVD to PWM
We were there for a long weekend - Thursday - Sunday. We stayed at The Francis, which is about a mile from the center of action. I dont recommend it due to the thin doors/noise and variable thermostats/ac units. We were 50/50 on walking back and forth vs taking Uber. The distance wasnt a problem, but if I did it again Id probably stay closer to the action. Marriott has an autograph hotel a few blocks removed that looked nice.

We rented bikes from the Portland Encyclepedia. We only did this one day when we wanted to tool around Peaks Island and ride down to the Portland Headlight.
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Old Jun 17, 2021, 2:58 am
  #43  
 
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Can't believe no one suggested SLC. The light rail to downtown is only $2.50 one-way. Overall SLC public transport is better than many US cities. SEA is also pretty good.
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Old Jun 17, 2021, 7:21 am
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Originally Posted by synergistic
I would put the area on the 'technically doable, but not particularly convenient' list for travel without a rental car.
I plan to try it for a long weekend in October. Fly into FLL, Lyft to and from hotel at the beach. Seems doable if we are spending our time at the pool/beach, correct?
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Old Jun 17, 2021, 3:24 pm
  #45  
 
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FLL also has public transit service to the airport which you may find helpful depending on where you are going: https://www.broward.org/Airport/pass...portation.aspx
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