Here's a message I tried to email to a member of our board who lives in NYC, but so far have not received a response.

I have a friend from Spain who is going to spend a week in NYC and I intend to meet him there. He is interested in attending a concert in Troy, N.Y. on 18 Oct. and asked if I could help him get tickets. On further investigation, I found that Troy was up by Albany and didn't know if he realized it was a three hour trip. When I pointed this out he wanted me to try to arrange public transportation.

Well, we all know the state of public transportation here in the U.S. One of the things we're not particularly good at. I realized he couldn't be in a better spot in the U.S. to exploit what little we have of a public transportation system, but when I looked up the usual suspects, that is, Amtrak and Greyhound, it appears that they could get him there with no problem, but returning is a problem.

I'm not for sure, but I assume that the concert would not let out earlier than 10:00, so I looked for a departure time from Troy of around 11:00 p.m. And so far I've found nothing that runs that late.

I suggested that he go back to one of the airports and rent a car, but I doubt he has a driver's license. If absolutely necessary, I suggested that I could drive him there and back.

Could anyone, particularly members that live in NYC, come up with any suggestions? Thanks.

gazpacho

I PM you on this.

Bill

Bill from NYC, please "share" here in this thread so that other, future travelers might benefit. Thanks!

Saludos, MadridMan

MM you asked but I was no help

My friend went on vacation and I not going directly home tonight and I cannot access my email at work.

This is why I am PM you.

On the website TripAdvisor, there is a Troy forum. Not very active, but post your question and you might get some help. You will have to join Trip Advisor, I belong to it and I think even MM too.

The internet address is for the forum is:

TripAdvisor Troy Forum

Sorry this is the best I can do.

Bill

I'm sure he's probably thought of this, but maybe he could just stay the night in Troy -- get a hotel room. Even in smaller towns like Troy, he could probably arrange a taxi to take him from the concert to the hotel if need be, and then come back by Greyhound (or other bus) the next morning. I doubt hotel rooms are that expensive in Troy :)The only other thing that comes to mind is an airport shuttle. I used to take those at all kinds of hours from CT (when I lived there) to JFK or LaGuardia, and they're usually not THAT expensive. You just have to call, say where you want to be picked up, and when (at least in my experience). Maybe these are bad ideas, but I'm just trying to brainstorm.

Liz

Thanks Bill from NYC and Liz. I'm resigned now to renting a car at Newark Liberty and driving to the concert. I've already told him as much and he's agreed to buy all the tickets if I provide the transportation. Who knows, I might even like Pat Metheny?!?! And it will give us more time together since he has a tight schedule during his one week stay in NYC. He's an artist and plans on visiting as many art museums as possible during his stay. Staying in a hotel overnight would take away even more of his time. But nice suggestion anyway, Liz.

The only other question I have is how is the traffic and construction between Newark Liberty and Troy? Traffic and construction around Michigan this year are horrible. I see mapquest recommends going west on I-78 from Newark which is probably very good advice as this helps avoid getting too close to NYC traffic.

You mentioned that it is a Pat Metheny concert. Are you aware that there is a Pat Metheny concert in Ridgefield, CT on October 22 and another in Englewood, NJ on October 23? These two concerts are much closer to New York City.