Travel notes on United States
=============================

[Go back](../)

## General

* All the internet boxes from xfinity, one of the main ISP, have an open Wi-Fi
  hotspot. You can pay, or have a 30 minutes complimentary session upon
  signing up. Changing MAC address will let you have another complimentary
  session.
* Banks in the US will charge you a fee if you want to withdraw money with
  your european card. This fee is about 3$ (whatever the amount you withdraw)
  and is charged by the US bank, so your bank cannot waive it with specific
  options you might take. Some banks however do not charge this fee. See below
  for more infos.


## Withdrawal fee

The fee to withdraw money is about 3$, no matter the amount you withdraw.
There are some exceptions I could find, listed below.

With an LCL account, the following banks did not charge me the 3$ fee:

* Santander

With an LCL account, the following banks did charge me with the 3$ fee:

* TD Bank
* Chase
* Bank of America
* Most ATMs in shops and groceries.

## New York Area

### General

* MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) provides rails transportation
  service to Connecticut (MetroNorth), Long Island (LIRR, Long Island
  RailRoad) and Staten Island. You can buy tickets either at the booth or the
  vending machines, as well as 10 tickets (with about 10% discount). Note that
  if you have a foreign credit card, you will not be able to pay more than 50$
  with it (then preventing you from buying most of the 10 tickets sets).

### New York JFK airport

* Customs at JFK have **very** long queues, especially if this is your first
  visit with an ESTA. Expect to wait at least one hour (my personal max was
  three hours) between the moment you leave the plane and the moment you can
  actually leave the airpor.
* As a consequence, your luggage will likely arrive way ahead of you. Having a
  lock on your checked luggage seems to really be a necessity if it is going
  to wait for you for about one hour on the carousel.
* There is free Wi-Fi access for 30 minutes. You have to pay if you want a
  longer access. Changing MAC address will give you another complimentary
  session.


## New Haven

* Some parts of the city can be really sketchy. Best places to stay are close
  to Yale University campus, Downtown, Wooster Square and East Rock (where
  basically all grad students live). Close to the Yale hospital is not that
  good. Neither are Dwight and Dixwell.
* [Yale shuttle
  lines](https://your.yale.edu/community/getting-around-yale/shuttle) are free
  of charge for everyone, no need to actually be part of Yale community to
  take it.