Norfolk vs. BWI

[kt_mom]

I've never flown in or out of Norfolk airport. Can anyone tell me anything about it or the surrounding area? I hate driving in cities I'm not familiar with by myself.

DD and I will be taking a trip just the two of us. I have to drop DS off at DSil in Northern Va. on Monday. Its 3 hours up to her house. Both BWI and Norfolk have flights out for $89. BWI is 1 hour and Norfolk is 3 hours from DSIL.

I think we will be flying back into Norfolk because they have the cheapest by far return flights. DH can have one of their DX drivers move my car from BWI to Norfolk if I need so that's not an issue. But I'm wondering if it wouldn't just be easier to suck it up and drive over to Norfolk after we take DS.

We won't get to DSil until at least 4:00 and then will have to get DS settled before we leave. I'm worried about getting into Norfolk after dark and having to find my way in an unknown city just me and DD. Both airports have a good non stop flight that gets into MCO at 10:15am. BWI leaves at 7:50 and Norfolk leaves at 8:15. I wonder which airport is easier to navigate?

I am limited to Southwest because I have $250 in LUV Vouchers to use up for this trip. Dulles is really pricey right now.

 

[Anal Annie]

I'm not clear on which area you LIVE in so I don't know where DSIL is in relationship to you. It sounds like you live in Norfolk? I live in the DC suburbs in MD (Montgomery Co.). We much prefer to use BWI but will use Dulles if we need to. Have you checked flights out of National or Dulles if you're going to be in N. VA?! (And by N. VA I don't know if you mean Tysons Corner area or Arlington or what area.) Personally I wouldn't drive to Norfolk for a flight just to save a few bucks. 3 hours would be in a perfect world with no traffic & it looks like you're talking about rush hour. There is no such thing as no traffic in N. VA and you could easily tack on another hour for traffic. By the time you add on 90 min. or 2 hours time to be at the airport to check in & clear security you could be looking at needing to allow 5-6 extra hours. Likewise it is likely to take more than 1 hour to drive to BWI depending where you're coming from. I would seriously check flights from Dulles or National.

 

[Jestocost]

ORF (Norfolk) is a much smaller airport than BWI and very easy to navigate. It is a short drive from the nearest freeway (I-64), however, and you need to go through a residential/business area for 10 minutes or so to get from the freeway to the airport. Still, it's a straight shot and just two stoplights.

Coming from the DC area you'd pick up I-64 in Richmond and go to exit 279 (Norview Ave.) and follow Norview East. You'll pass an intersection with a stoplight by a K-Mart and then immediately after the next light you drive straight into the airport grounds.

 

[vicki_c]

I saw your post last night (and decided not to answer) but my #1 concern was how many hours you were going to have to add due to being in rush hour traffic . As the PP said, even going to BWI at that time, you will have heavy traffic and it does depend on whether you are near Sterling, Alexandria, Springfield, etc. - all are considered NoVA. But I don't think I would tackle a 3 hour drive at that time of day - I'd probably tack on 2 for traffic, again depending on your starting location (coming from someone who just spent 2.5 hours to drive 45 miles on Monday, leaving NoVA at 3:30 in the afternoon heading for MD).

 

[Anal Annie]

I saw your post last night (and decided not to answer) but my #1 concern was how many hours you were going to have to add due to being in rush hour traffic . As the PP said, even going to BWI at that time, you will have heavy traffic and it does depend on whether you are near Sterling, Alexandria, Springfield, etc. - all are considered NoVA. But I don't think I would tackle a 3 hour drive at that time of day - I'd probably tack on 2 for traffic, again depending on your starting location (coming from someone who just spent 2.5 hours to drive 45 miles on Monday, leaving NoVA at 3:30 in the afternoon heading for MD).

People who don't live in this area really don't get how bad the traffic can be. Traffic is a big reason why we prefer BWI to Dulles - the time it takes to cross that river can really vary depending on the traffic. We are booked on Jet Blue out of Dulles for spring break. Jet Blue has very few direct flights to MCO and I booked us for Thurs. evening 3/29 at like 8:00 as it is our DS's last day of school for the semester & the flights were cheaper to go that evening vs on Friday. WELL, after I booked of course, Jet Blue moved our flight up to 5:15 and I'm ready to hyperventilate because DS gets home from school around 2:25 so we'll have to head straight out the minute he gets home. (I am not planning to pick him up early right now as his last period of the day is Algebra 2.) It is only 38 miles so it SHOULD only take about an hour for us but at that time of day we could get stuck on the Beltway (and I was planning to probably park at one of the area hotels to save a bunch on parking so we don't have time to mess around). I may have to suck it up and pay the $15 or $18 / day or whatever it is to park AT the airport so I don't stress over catching some stoopid hotel shuttle. You never know how the security line will be either...

 

[kt_mom]

I am in central va and it takes about 3 hours to get to DSil in Burke.

Norfolk has the cheapest return flights by far so we'll be flying back into there. Dulles is just too much either way. So its BWI or Norfolk to fly out of. My car can be moved so that's not an issue.

We have no rush hour here to speak of. You might get behind by about 5 or 10 mintues but nothing that would make much difference.

What time would I want to head out of Burke on Monday afternoon/evening to make it easier going south? I had changed DD Dr. appt to 11:20 so we could leave here by 12:00 or 12:15 which would put us at DSil by 3:00-3:30 but I imagine we will be there an hour or so to get DS settled. I don't want to just drop him off and run. Maybe I should plan to head up there earlier or leave her house later? I just don't know much about the traffic up there as we come up 29 and only ever get on 66 and the parkway to get to their house.

 

[Anal Annie]

I am in central va and it takes about 3 hours to get to DSil in Burke.

Norfolk has the cheapest return flights by far so we'll be flying back into there. Dulles is just too much either way. So its BWI or Norfolk to fly out of. My car can be moved so that's not an issue.

We have no rush hour here to speak of. You might get behind by about 5 or 10 mintues but nothing that would make much difference.

What time would I want to head out of Burke on Monday afternoon/evening to make it easier going south? I had changed DD Dr. appt to 11:20 so we could leave here by 12:00 or 12:15 which would put us at DSil by 3:00-3:30 but I imagine we will be there an hour or so to get DS settled. I don't want to just drop him off and run. Maybe I should plan to head up there earlier or leave her house later? I just don't know much about the traffic up there as we come up 29 and only ever get on 66 and the parkway to get to their house.

Now I am really confused. I went back to your first post where you said:

I'm worried about getting into Norfolk after dark and having to find my way in an unknown city just me and DD. Both airports have a good non stop flight that gets into MCO at 10:15am. BWI leaves at 7:50 and Norfolk leaves at 8:15. I wonder which airport is easier to navigate?

I can't tell now if you're trying to make an evening flight out of BWI or Norfolk OR if you're planning to spend the night at the airport & fly out the next morning since you say the flights both land at 10:15 am?

Personally, if I was in Burke I would keep it simple & use either National or Dulles as time is money to me. BUT you seem determined to choose one of the 2 furthest airports...and Rt. 66 is notorious for its bad traffic. Although BWI is an extremely easy in / out airport let's just say if I was in Burke I would not go to Baltimore if those were my only choices. If you went to Baltimore you would have to deal with crossing the Potomac, the Beltway AND I-95 north or the BW Parkway - you could be asking for all sorts of problems with that plan. Also not sure how it is that you figure moving your car from BWI the 150 or so miles to Norfolk is not a problem. That's not exactly next door. But whatever - sounds like that would be your DH's problem. Going to Norfolk would be 1 less thing for you to have to make arrangements for as your car would already be there. So another reason to use Norfolk. If you are unsure of where you're going in Norfolk why don't you just borrow a GPS unit for these few days?

The Fed. Govt. starts getting out at 3:00 so you are planning to drive in the middle of DC rush hour if that's your target time. I would expect traffic will be bad almost all the way to Richmond (to around where you would need to pick up your next route toward Norfolk). I can tell you that the last time I drove down I-95 south after work it took us about 4 1/2 hours to get to the Richmond area. That was leaving Maryland around 7:00 or 7:30 PM (so a little further than from where you'll be). We stopped for the night around midnight and weren't quite to the NC line yet so I would allow at least that long. Rush hour seemed to still be in full force at 9:30. I would guess that it would (could) take you 3 to 3 1/2 hours at that time of day. Spendng 6 hours on the road to catch a flight seems extreme to me.

 

[vicki_c]

Checking traffic.com right now (6:40 PM), it shows 3.5 hours with no delays between Burke and Norfolk. I think Mondays and Fridays have worse traffic, plus it's pretty late in the evening already - rush hour would be winding down.

Maybe check that for yourself for a few days during rush hour times (3 PM - 7 PM) and see what you think.

The Springfield area has horrendous traffic problems - always did - but now it's worse, but you are still avoiding quite a bit of what I (personally) consider NoVA - which is Sterling, Tysons, Falls Church, etc. So you're cutting off some of your problem based on where you are starting from.

The problem with driving around here though is the unpredictability. If you have nowhere to be, that's not an issue so much. But you could watch the traffic reports for 2 weeks and have a consistent estimate of 3-4 hours, but on the day you go there could be an accident / snow / rain / whatever - and then all bets are off. There is just never a way to predict.

 

[Captain Blue Sky]

Why drive 3 hours to go to an airport? I fly out of the closest airport to me and really don't consider other airports as it defeats the purpose of flying (to save time). I'd recommend you fly out of the closest airport to your home. The added time and expense of driving 3 hours away for a flight that might be slightly cheaper just doesn't make economic or time management sense to me. And what if you get lost and miss the flight??

I would think about it ~

 

[kt_mom]

Sorry for the confusion. To clear things up, I have to drive to northern va to take DS to stay with my SIL for the week.

I have to fly southwest because I have $250 credits to use and the deal with DH was that this trip would be cheap. Yes DSil is closer to Dulles but Dulles is pretty expensive to fly to MCO so its out. The only other two choices are BWI and Norfolk.

My car is not an issue because DH will have a driver from his work go and move it for me. The drivers get paid to transport cars so its not a big deal. We did that on our last trip to get the cheapest flights.

My town has a small airport with one airline and is very rarely ever cheap if even affordable.

Both flights I am looking at are morning flights.

Thanks for the tip on the traffic.com I've never heard of that before.

I've emailed my father in law to pose this same question but I haven't heard back from him yet. He has flown out of each quite often as well as made the drive down towards Norfolk many times.

I have GPS in my car so I should be able to find the hotel/airport without too much trouble. I'm not overly fond of the idea of possibly getting lost late at night in a town I'm unfamiliar with.

I would love to just be able to fly out of Dulles and back into my airport at home, but I can't. Money is an issue on this trip and the airfare out of dulles is twice as much.

I don't mind the driving, I just want to know which option is better and what I'm getting myself into. My DSil said she would just drive to BWI in the morning before, but I'm not sure I want to risk that since I'm not familiar with the area.

 

[vicki_c]

I would do what your SIL says. Get up early, drive to BWI in the morning. That would be a much better approach than going to Norfolk. But I would probably leave Burke 3 hours before I wanted to be at BWI. Worst case - you can sit around the airport reading or something. BWI is very easy to get to, very easy to get around.

If you leave early enough, you will miss at least some of rush hour, but you will still hit some (VA to MD in the morning is better than MD to VA).

 

[kt_mom]

I would do what your SIL says. Get up early, drive to BWI in the morning. That would be a much better approach than going to Norfolk. But I would probably leave Burke 3 hours before I wanted to be at BWI. Worst case - you can sit around the airport reading or something. BWI is very easy to get to, very easy to get around.

If you leave early enough, you will miss at least some of rush hour, but you will still hit some (VA to MD in the morning is better than MD to VA).

My FIL emailed me back and said I would need to leave my SIL house by about 4:30 to get to BWI by 6:00 for the 7:50 flight. He said there should be little to no traffic at that time. That would mean getting up at 3:30 or 3:45 and possibly waking DS and/or my niece and that would really suck for DSIL and she's being so nice keeping DS for me. So I don't think that's a good option for us. We're going to have to head out Monday evening.

I'm almost wondering if I wouldn't be less exhausted our first day in Disney if we drive on down to Norfolk and just leave later like around 6:30 or 7:00. We wouldn't get into Norfolk until at least 10:00 but if we check in and get straight to bed we could get up a little later like at 5:00 or 5:30 and grab the shuttle over to the airport and be there at 6:15 for the 8:15 flight.

Norfolk will be a little more driving that night but might be an easier morning. We may still hit some rush hour traffic on the way down but maybe/hopefully it will be better than at 4:00 or 4:30 and I can help get DS ready for bed and settled at my DSIL. We would have time to have dinner and relax some before getting back on the road. Plus DH doesn't have to send anyone to get the car then either.

Thanks for all the great advice. I wish I could just fly out of our local airport or even Dulles which is so close to DSil, but its just too expensive. More than double. My only other option is try to get DD's dr. appt earlier and get to DSil earlier and head out of there earlier. I'll have to check on that though.