Is Danbury CT too far a location to commute to NY airports?

I would think that if you don’t fly all that often that 90 mins. would be acceptable.

It might be a little crappy from a public transportation perspective (the Danbury Branch of MNRR sucks), but it should be okay for driving.

But why live all the way in Connecticut if you need to be near those airports? Long Island is closer if you need that suburban lifestyle, and you can probably save money (and the environment) over the suburbs by picking a nice transit-friendly area of Queens or Brooklyn and not bothering with a car.

@bolwerk – Thanks, i have heard similar opinion about the metro rail.

We have family in Connecticut and would like to live close by if we can. I guess my question is really whether It takes even longer than 90 min on average?google map says 75 min in traffic but I keep hearing different numbers from people I talk to.

My commute would be at least once a week.

I used to commute into Manhattan and to the airports from Port Chester. It doesn’t make sense to drive into the city unless you are going off hours. Metro North is your only realistic way. It took me about an hour to get to Grand Central on Metro North, then another 20 minutes to take the subway to Soho. Including walk/drive to train station, it was about 1:30 each way. From Danbury, I would guess you are looking at 2:30 each way door-to-door.

To get to the airports, it really depends on the time of day. I had to plan on an hour to drive from Port Chester to LGA and 1:30 to get to JFK. If really rush hour, add an hour to the JFK time to be safe. You can also take various shuttle services (Connecticut Limo Service, etc.) but these take longer because of the multiple stops. If you are going to EWR, you can save yourself some time and traffic by going via Tappan Zee Bridge instead of through the city and George Washington Bridge.

I lived in Brooklyn for two years and Port Chester for two years. Living in the city was much less time on the train, etc. Left much more time to spend with family. But we moved to Port Chester to be near family and that had its advantages. Made it easier on my family when I traveled out of town. I would say that if your commute is once a week, you will just have to plan on very long days and best use of the commute time and it’s doable. If it were a four-five day a week commute, I think you and your family would be miserable.

You would be quite close to the Westchester Airport. Does that have flights that go anywhere you need to go to?

I used to have a consulting client in Danbury and I flew in regularly via La Guardia. I’d take an airport shuttle to/from Danbury, and my recollection is it was right around an hour—maybe an hour and a half with snow. But I was usually coming in on red-eyes and leaving mid-day, so I don’t know what prime commute traffic would be like.

If you’re flying regionally, there’s a small airport about half way between Danbury and LGA (Westchester County / HPN) that all of the regional airlines fly out of. That would save you a good 30 minutes drive time versus LGA – and probably another hour’s savings with the shorter security and check-in lines.

you can access airport in hartford CT easier. Danbury is at least 90 min if not more in traffic. @JeffeVerde is correct – there is the Westchester County Airport that now has JetBlue flights out of it, i think.

@Aravindr: well, there are ferries between LI and CT, so you might be able to expand your options to the LI side at least.

I do think it could be beastly getting from Danbury to one of the NY airports in rush hour. Westchester or Hartford would be much more do-able.

I am open to all airport options :), I didnt know about the county airport before, that was good piece of info.

And thanks everyone for your inputs, I now have different perspectives to think from which is great.