Flying from Boston to Washington, D.C.?
Add a departure date and see which side gets the sun.
Flying from Boston to Washington, D.C.?
Add a departure date and see which side gets the sun.
Flying from Boston to Washington, D.C.?
Add a departure date and see which side gets the sun.
Boston → Washington, D.C.
A short flight within United States. Same local time zone at both ends.
The Cradle of Liberty
Boston is a compact, old city built on a tangle of colonial-era streets that famously refuse to run in a grid, wrapped by the Charles River and the harbor. The T, the country's oldest subway system, covers the core well, and much of the city is genuinely walkable. Winters are cold and snowy, summers humid, and a car in the center is more liability than asset given the narrow streets and scarce parking. The city's many universities give it a younger, more transient population than its old buildings suggest.
Surrounding hubs
| 322 km / 200 mi | |
| 409 km / 254 mi | |
| 450 km / 280 mi |
The Capital and the Harbor
Washington, D.C. and Baltimore are two distinct cities about 65 km (40 mi) apart along the same rail corridor, grouped here because BWI and DCA both serve parts of the Baltimore-Washington corridor, even though the two cities are distinct destinations. D.C. is a low, planned federal city built around its monuments and the National Mall, with the Metro covering the core well and a car rarely needed downtown. Baltimore is older and harder-edged, shaped by its working harbor and rowhouse streets, with patchier transit. Which city you are actually visiting matters here more than in most paired-airport metros.
City access
Reagan National is the closer airport to downtown Washington, just across the Potomac from the National Mall, with its own Metro station inside the terminal on the Blue and Yellow lines. It is not a practical Baltimore airport for most trips, so it mainly makes sense when Washington is the destination. Its close-in runways also mean one of the more dramatic monument views of any major US airport approach.
Nearby airports
| 48 km / 30 mi | |
| 192 km / 119 mi |
Surrounding hubs
| 345 km / 214 mi | |
| 533 km / 331 mi | |
| 578 km / 359 mi |
Find out which side of the plane to sit on.
Pick your airports, set your departure time, and you're done.
We calculate the sun's position based on your flight path and departure time, then tell you which side of the plane gets direct sun and which stays shaded. No guessing, just math.
Enter your flight
Pick your departure and arrival airports and set your departure time at the departure airport. FlightSide estimates the duration and you can adjust it if you know the exact schedule.
We track the sun along your route
Your flight path is broken into hundreds of points. At each one we check where the sun is and which side of the plane it faces.
You get a recommendation
Which side of the plane to sit on, left or right, depending on whether you'd rather avoid the sun or enjoy it. The percentages and the map are there if you want to see why.
Want to go deeper? Accuracy, edge cases, polar routes — see the FAQ →
Notes from the product.
Small updates, route observations, and clearer explanations for how the app keeps evolving.
Type less, wait less, wonder more
Airport search now understands metro codes and old city names, FlightSide loads noticeably faster, and a new Feeling lucky button chooses a flight for anyone without one in mind.
A closer look at the route, not just the seat
FlightSide now shows the two cities and key details about the flight alongside the seat recommendation: confirm you picked the right airports, read the time change off two clocks, and check the return leg.
It's all about the sun (after all)
Not all sunlight reaches the side windows. FlightSide now weighs the sun’s angle to the cabin and shows twilight along the route.