If you're flying to Washington DC, this video will help you figure out which of our three airports is best for you.
HELLO! Welcome to Trip Hacks DC. My name is Rob.
I'm a tour guide here in the nation's capital. If you're coming to Washington DC
and you're looking for the best tips, tricks, and hacks for exploring the city, make sure to subscribe to this channel and hit the bell
notification icon so that you don't miss any new videos.
And if you'd like to have me personally show you around when you come head on over to TripHacksDC.com
afterwards to see the tours that I offer. If you've flown to DC before
leave a comment on this video and let me know which airport you used and how it went,
otherwise, let's get started... There are three airports in the Washington DC area: Ronald Reagan Washington National,
Washington Dulles International, and Baltimore-Washington International. There are pros and cons to each of these airports,
but before we get into any of that,
let's take a look at a map and see exactly where they're located in relation to the city.
Here's a map of Washington DC and the surrounding area. First I'll draw a line around the boundary of the District of Columbia. Now
I'll mark off the beltway, which is a freeway that runs in a loop or on the city and the inner suburbs. And
lastly for reference, here's the Capitol and the
Lincoln Memorial. As
you can see, Reagan National is by far the closest option, just across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial.
Dulles is considerably farther away, about 25 miles from the National Mall. And
BWI is the farthest, about 35 miles away up here in Maryland.
OK so now that we know where they are I'm gonna run through each airport one by one and
evaluate it based on its location, ground transportation options, and the price of getting yourself into the city.
I'll also leave a link to a blog post in the description of this video
where I'll capture all of this information in written form, in case you prefer to print it or download it. And
because things can change between when I film this video and when you watch it,
I'll also make sure to update that blog post with any changes. First up let's talk about Reagan National Airport. Most
Washingtonians are of the opinion that this is by far the superior airport in the area for its sheer convenience. In fact
this is probably one of the most convenient airports in the entire country. The airport is so close to the city that you can actually see
Washington DC landmarks like the Capitol dome and the Washington Monument
when you're sitting in your plane on the runway. If you arrive outside of rush hour
you could potentially get from your gate to your hotel in less than 20 minutes. Since the distance is so short cabs are also really
cheap. A ride downtown should cost you less than $20, even with tip. You can use Uber and Lyft here,
but I will warn the airport is not particularly well set up for them. Sometimes
you can spend more time just waiting for your driver to pull around than the actual ride into the city. And because cabs are already
so cheap Uber and Lyft don't really offer a big discount.
This is also the only
airport with a metro station right at the terminal. If you're more concerned with cost than time
you can get downtown from the airport for less than $3 per person, even during rush hour.
Historically you paid for all of this
convenience in the form of higher fares on flights. A lot of locals used to actually brag that they would happily pay higher fares to
fly out of DCA rather than make a long haul out to one of the other two airports.
However a few years ago something really interesting happened. For most of the 2000s US Airways was the dominant carrier. Then in 2013
they merged with American Airlines and the Justice Department ruled that as part of the merger
they had to give up some of their slots to avoid becoming a virtual monopoly. 3 airlines: Southwest, JetBlue and Virgin America
picked up those slots,
and the routes that they chose to operate on them often competed directly with American Airlines. And in the airline industry
there is nothing better for fares than a little healthy competition.
So today if you're lucky enough to live in a city that has two or more
airlines competing for your business to Reagan National, it might actually be the least expensive of all of the options!
Bottom line is that if the price and the times work out, prefer flying here over the other airports. Next up
let's talk about Dulles. While many people love Reagan National for its convenience, those same people often detest Dulles for its
Inconvenience. Dulles isn't just far away from the city,
it's also hard to get to. The trip here from the National Mall is about five times as far as from Reagan National.
A taxi will cost you about $60 - $70 plus tip. You can use Uber and Lyft at Dulles
but I'm not going to estimate what the prices might be because they seem to constantly be changing,
and you can't really know for sure until you arrive.
You can also consider SuperShuttle which right now costs $30 for the first person in your group and then
$10 for each additional person.
But make sure to do the math because if you're a group of four you might not actually get any savings over a taxi. Eventually
Metro's Silver Line will have a direct connection to Dulles and that will be great,
but unfortunately that's still many years away. For now you can take the Silver Line
Express bus, which connects between the airport terminal and the Wiehle station,
which is the current end of the Silver Line. That trip will take you about an hour and a half depending on how long you
have to wait for your bus and for your train.
And it will cost between about $9 and $11 for the two fares
depending on whether you ride during rush hour or not. Another option is to take the 5A
Metrobus which is a one-seat ride from the Dulles terminal to L'Enfant Plaza in downtown
DC, and from there you can take the Metro to your final destination. For now the 5A runs at 40 minute intervals during weekdays and
one-hour intervals on the weekend. The bus costs $7.50 to ride, plus the Metro fare to get to your final destination.
And be careful because every year it seems like Metro proposes cutting this route,
so make sure to double-check before your trip to make sure that it's still running. United is the biggest domestic carrier at Dulles
but there are also a handful of other domestic airlines and a good number of
international airlines. The biggest benefit to Dulles in my opinion is the number of
international non-stop destination. So if you are traveling internationally from Washington DC
you don't have to make an extra stop in New York City or Atlanta before
continuing on. If you do find a cheap flight to Dulles
just double check and do the math to make sure that with the ground transportation
it actually is a good deal. And lastly let's talk about Baltimore
Washington International or BWI. This is technically the airport for Baltimore
but in
1973 they decided to rename it to Baltimore-Washington
in order to attract people who live in or traveling to Washington DC.
It is the biggest of the three airports by passenger count, which makes sense since it is an airport
that's serving two major cities. A cab ride from BWI will cost you about
$90 plus tip. Uber and Lyft is available here as well with the same caveats that I mentioned before. If you hire a ride it
will take you about 40 minutes to an hour to get downtown in good conditions,
but during rush hour it could take much much longer because
traffic on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway can be absolutely brutal. SuperShuttle is available here
but to get to DC it costs $41 per person,
so it's really only economical if you're a solo traveler. One big benefit of BWI over Dulles is that even though they're both far away,
there's a train station at BWI and a free shuttle to take you there. From the BWI train station you can take the MARC commuter
train into DC for about $8 or an Amtrak train for about $16.
There's also a metro bus
The B30 that will take you to the Greenbelt station at the end of the Green Line,
and then you can ride Metro to get into the city. The B30 costs $7.50
plus your Metro fare, so the total cost will be somewhere between $11 and $13.
I personally tend to not use the B30 anymore because it winds up costing more than the MARC train,
it's slower and it's less convenient, but if your final destination is somewhere on the Green Line
then it could actually make more sense. Like the 5A Metro frequently proposes cutting this bus route,
so please double check before your trip to make sure that it's still running. BWI has historically had a reputation for being the
cheapest airport in the area,
and that is because its primary carrier is
Southwest. So there's a lot of advice floating around on the internet that says to fly to BWI because you can get these cheap
Southwest flights, but these days that advice might not necessarily be true. Southwest has something like
75% of the total domestic market share at BWI.
That means that most of their routes are operating with zero competition. Now,
there are some routes like Boston,
Atlanta, or Las Vegas where you can get some amazingly cheap fares. In other cases it might actually be cheaper to fly on Southwest
into Reagan National where they're competing directly with American Airlines. So always just check all three airports when you're planning your trip and
confirm for yourself that you're getting the best deal. BWI might still be your best option,
just don't blindly assume that it is. And that's it!
Thank you for watching this video. If you're looking for information on any of the things I mentioned in this video
it's all down in the video description
including the blog post where I'm going to write up all of this. And if you're coming to DC
and you want to take a tour with me you can click on the Capitol dome on the left side of my head,
that'll take you over to TripHacksDC.com where you can see the tours that I offer. Enjoy your trip!