Hmm, that thread title still doesn’t sound right no matter how I rephrase it. What I’m looking for are towns that I can visit by flying in to the airport and just seeing all that I can without humongous taxi fees to get to the city, to the hotel, etc. A pedestrian friendly metropolis if you will.
Chicago and NYC seem to be relatively good examples of this.
Where else can one go to in the US or Canada without needing to rent a car while visiting?
Boston!
And probably Toronto and San Francisco too.
Toronto, definitely. And get Sunspace to show you around.
Then Washington DC. The other 2 local airports have access to the city but it is large PITA and not as cheap as metro from National.
I’ll recommend San Francisco as well. Bart offers service from San Francisco airport as well as Oakland airport. MUNI offers service within the city of San Francisco.
Portland, Oregon also has a great public transit system. However, if you want to see more of Oregon, you’ll need a car.
Montreal. I’m sure matt_mcl can give all you need to know about the Metro system
Thanks, Brynda! It’d be a pleasure.
It’s easy, though not necessarily obvious, to get to downtown Toronto from Pearson International Airport without driving.
The most obvious way is the airport taxis, which are horrendously expensive (it’s about fifteen bucks to get off the airport property).
There’s the privately-run luxury airport express bus, which goes to selected points across the city and costs about $15 one-way. It can be useful if you’re going to the far side of town–the airport is on the west side–but it does tend to get stuck in the traffic jams on the freeways.
They’re supposed to be building a train to downtown, but Og knows when that project’ll get moving…
Regional and city buses also serve the terminals, with a bit of a bus station now under Terminal One. The cheapest way to get downtown from the Toronto airport is to pay $2.25 and take the #192 “Airport Rocket” bus to Kipling subway station, and then take the subway. Or you can pay $7.50 and get a day pass and have the run of the Toronto transit system for a whole day.
For people from outlying areas (and this can be from smaller cities three hundred kilometres away, like North Bay), there are many privately-run ‘airbuses’–minivan-taxis, essentially–which can be chartered to go directly to and from the airport. I have no idea about the cost of these.
So… when are you passing by? 
I have had wonderful visits to New York, Toronto and Montreal where I have got around solely by public transport. The airport connections in all three cities were easy to use (especially the train to JFK in New York). I rarely drive a car here, so there’s no way I’d even contemplate renting one in a country where people drive on the other side of the road.
My wife and I have been to San Francisco twice. The first time we were going to rely on public transportation to get around. The first 2 days there we spent an ungodly amount of time either waiting for or on Muni and/or Bart. We stayed at a hotel near the airport, I don’t know if that was part of the problem or not. After that and the next time we just sucked it up and paid for parking. It was much nicer seeing things on our schedule, not the bus schedule.
Philly, definitely.
There’s a train (couple of bucks) from the airport to Center City, and once you’re in Center City, there’s a lot of extremely cool stuff within walking distance – the historic district, museums, etc. (Note: I consider a mile to be “within walking distance” no prob, and can enjoy walking a couple of miles to a museum or something if there’s cool stuff to look at along the way, which there usually is in Philly.)
Public transportation is okay, not great – kind of depends on where you want to go. West Philly (Penn, etc.) and the Italian Market are both accessible by the subway, which consists basically of two lines, one east-west and one north-south.
Plus there’s all kinds of friendly Dopers here – at a bare minimum, we could organize one of our semi-regular Doper Dinners for while you’re here.
At the Orlando airport, city buses stop there all day and night and will take you downtown, or anywhere else in the city, and it may still only be $1 fare. Disney has its own bus line for its tourists, and a monorail that runs between resort parks. There are all manner of shuttle buses to and from hotels and attractions, so that’s a good bet if you’re coming down South.
Chicago! I’ve lived here for a year and a half, and I don’t have a car. The CTA has some funding problems, but for the moment, I can get anywhere I need to on the bus or el.
Honolulu has an excellant bus system. $10 for 4 days all you can ride or $40 for a month. They don’t have a two week pass for $20 which sucks. Single rides are $2 with 1 and only 1 tranfer. That sucks because it used to be $2 bought you about 6 hours of riding. So it’s not as cheap as it used to be but it’s still a great way to get around the island.
All busses have bike racks and are wheelchair accessible. The only difficulty you might have is if you have lots of luggage they don’t like that. But once you get to your hotel or hostel you can visit damn near the entire island. The only place I can think of that doesn’t have a stop (although there may be one near enough for you to walk there) is the Pali lookout.
They have the cable car system too. Not only is it an interesting historical piece, but they’re really fun to ride on
Yep, staying near the airport was the root of your trouble. Airports are almost never located near anything that you want to see; the only exception to this rule I can think of is San Diego, where the airport is almost downtown, and across the bay from Coronado Island. if you wanted to spend time in the city, you’d have done fine in SF without a car, if you stayed in the city proper. OTOH, if you wanted to go to outlying areas like Napa Valley, you would need a car for all practical purposes.
To the OP, the following rule of thumb is useful: if the city rose to prominence before the (%&6##) Automobile Age, it will tend to be compact and pedestrian friendly and have good public transit. But even in those cities you’ll usually have to spend some money to get from the airport to the city.
Portland, OR, rocks the public transit. The MAX line goes straight out from the airport, and the bus lines go to all the suburbs – I’d say you can get anywhere within a 20 mile radius of the city itself.
To expound on this answer: You can get from Logan airport to downtown by the subway…fare is currently $1.25 and it is only a short ride. If a person were staying at one of the hotels in the tourist frequented areas of Boston they could easily see all the popular sights using just public transit.
Renting a car when you come to Boston unless you are planning a trip out of the city proper is definitely a waste of time, money and your sanity.
Darn tootin’. Most places you’ll probably go, the car will even be a hindrance, as parking is a bitch, I’m told. The metro is safe and easy to navigate, even if you don’t speak French.
Toronto’s public transit from the airport kinda sucks though. Airport cabs range from $40-$60 dollars one way to get you downtown. :eek: Don’t bother. There’s a shuttle service that will take you downtown for $15.50.
If you go out the door towards ground transportation, look for a booth that says something like “Downtown Center”. The operate a bus shuttle service that will drop you off at the Royal York Hotel, which is across the street from Union station. Union station will then be you link to our public transit system. Subways, streetcars, and buses make most of Toronto pretty accessible. You can get all the way out to the zoo!
Additionally, the city is physically rather small, compared to most. I lived there for 3 years and got around using the subway and walking exclusively.
Many of the historic sites in Boston are arranged on a walking tour, called the Freedom Trail.