Getting There
I-87 cuts right through the forest, making it easily accessible. Cut over Route 73 and you'll be headed toward Lake Placid. Amtrak stops in Westport and Plattsburgh, both 50 miles from Saranac Lake. Westport is the closest stop to Lake Placid; book your transfer with Amtrak when you buy your ticket and Majestic Limousine & Transportation, 2 Main St., Lake Placid (tel. 866/226-1152 or 518/523-0294), will shuttle you back and forth for $15 each way. For bus and plane information, see section 1, "Southern Adirondacks," earlier in this chapter.
Getting Around
You'll need a car. Rent-A-Wreck (tel. 800/698-1777 or 518/523-4804; www.rentawreck.com) in Lake Placid offers free pickup/drop-off service to customers in the local vicinity. Enterprise has an office in Saranac Lake (tel. 800/325-8007 or 518/891-9216; www.enterprise.com). From late December through March, a free shuttle links Whiteface with Lake Placid. The shuttle runs every 2 hours during the week and hourly on the weekend and picks up at a few hotels in town -- Howard Johnson, Mirror Lake Inn, Best Western, and Art Devlin's -- but if you flag them down on Main Street, they'll stop. From town, the shuttle runs direct to Whiteface.
Visitor Information
The Adirondack Regional Tourism Council (tel. 518/846-8016; www.adirondacks.org) operates an information center on I-87 southbound between exits 41 and 40. It's open daily year-round, from 8am to 5pm; from Memorial Day to Labor Day, it's open until 8pm. The Lake Placid/Essex County Visitors Bureau, Olympic Center, 2610 Main St., Lake Placid (tel. 800/447-5224 or 518/523-2445; www.lakeplacid.com), is open year-round Monday to Friday from 8am to 5pm and Saturday and Sunday from 9am to 4pm. The office is closed on Sunday in April and November.
