Getting into Town from the Airport

Major airports in foreign cities usually have train transport directly from the air terminals into the center of the city. This is appropriate if you aren't overloaded with luggage, and is definitely faster in most cases. Taxis are a good bet everywhere. In well-organized airports, there is always an information booth, though its staff may range from marvelously helpful (think Seattle, for instance) to inattentive (as in Madrid). Most often in the USA, they are nonexistent (New York's LaGuardia, for example). If you're lucky (as in Tokyo's Narita airport), you'll find a line of booths for train, bus and taxi or hired car services, with prices prominently displayed in English as well as the local language. (In Tokyo, there are two competing train companies to carry you into the city center and two competing bus ("limousine") services to the city center or to major hotels, just for starters. At New York's Kennedy airport, there are well-marked taxi points, bus service either to a terminal in New York or to the major hotels, and soon, a monorail to Jamaica, where you will have the pleasure of carrying your luggage down a couple of flights of stairs or escalators to the subway if you want to get into Manhattan.)