Traveling to Bemidji

Traveling to Bemidji, MN

Below, we’ve listed details for the three main airports that you can fly into for the event.

Unless you have decided to make the drive to Bemidji, you will need to determine which airport to fly into based on the availability of flights from your location. Upon landing at your destination, you will also need to rent a car to drive to the event location from whichever airport you fly into.

The dollar amounts we’ve listed under each option are estimates based on prices from November, 2021:

Most expensive booking, shortest drive time:

Bemidji Regional Airport (BJI)

This is the smallest airport of the three. It is the only commercial airport in the city of Bemidji, and there is only one airline servicing passengers to this airport–Delta Air Lines. This means that If you would like to fly directly to Bemidji, you will have to book with Delta. You can also expect that your trip will include a stop at Minneapolis St. Paul Airport (MSP) where you will catch a connection to BJI.

The cost of booking a flight to BJI comes down to an added $200 on top of a normal flight to MSP alone. In other words, by booking a flight to BJI, you accept an added $200 cost for the connected flight from MSP to BJI. You can avoid this extra cost by flying into either MSP or the airport in Fargo, ND (FAR) and making the longer drive to Bemidji upon landing.

Ultimately, booking your trip in this way will offer the easiest travel itinerary to manage, the only caveats being the requirement to book with Delta and the added cost of the booking.

Drive time from BJI to Ruttgers & other hotels: 12 minutes
Cost to rent a full-size car (per day): $108
Cost to rent an economy-size car (per day): $31

If you choose this option, we recommend that you reserve a rental car at the Bemidji airport in advance due to the small size of this airport.

Least expensive booking, longest drive time:

Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport (MSP)

This airport is located in the city of Minneapolis St. Paul. Of the three options listed, this is the largest airport, which allows for a much larger range of possibilities to book with an airline of your choice, but it is the farthest distance to drive to the event.

Compared to booking a flight directly to BJI with Delta, flying into MSP and driving the longer distance to the event location will save you about $200. Compared to FAR, you may be able to find a cheaper booking by flying into MSP, but it is possible that your car rental will be more expensive than a car rental from FAR. This difference in flight cost vs. car rental cost may be balanced between MSP and FAR.

Drive time from MSP to Bemidji: 4 hours
Cost to rent a full-size car (per day): $105 – $142 (depending on your choice of rental car service)
Cost to rent an economy-size car (per day): $54

Average expense, average drive time:

Hector International Airport (FAR)

Located in Fargo, North Dakota, This airport is farther from the event than BJI, but it is closer than MSP. It is also a larger airport than BJI, but smaller than MSP. Because of this, you may find a smaller selection of airlines servicing flights to FAR.

Like booking a flight to MSP, a flight to FAR will likely be cheaper than flying into BJI, but because of the smaller selection of airlines available to fly into FAR, your flight may be more expensive than a similar flight into MSP. Prices vary here due to differences in taxes between Minnesota and North Dakota so it also may be cheaper to rent a car from FAR than from MSP. As mentioned above, this difference in flight cost vs. car rental cost may be balanced between MSP and FAR.

Drive time from FAR to Bemidji: 2 hours, 35 minutes
Cost to rent a full-size car (per day): $126
Cost to rent an economy-size car (per day): $113

Please note again that the dollar amounts listed are only estimations and may or may not represent the actual cost for August of 2022.