My daughter will be flying in to La Guardia in August, to move into her student housing the following day. Her plan for the first night (tentatively) is to check into a “pod” hotel room and walk the few blocks to the housing facility in the morning.
Given that her destination on the day of arrival is in midtown Eastside Manhattan, how much should she be prepared to spend for a cab? Also I shouldn’t make assumptions about customs being the same in NYC as in SoCal, so will there likely be a charge per piece of luggage she brings? And what’s a customary tip?
A taxi from La Guardia to the LES will be $30-$40 depending on time of day and traffic. There’s no fee for luggage. Tipping can be anything from 10-20% depending on what you feel like.
If she pays by credit card, the terminal will helpfully compute the tip for her.
If she doesn’t want to spend that much money, the M60 bus goes to Manhattan where it connects to various subway lines.
The standard city rate is $2.50 + 50 cents per fifth of a mile, when the cab is moving, or minute when it’s not. If she wants to share a cab with another person from LaGuardia to midtown, there’s a flat rate of $22 per person. Otherwise, if she wants her own cab, with tip, maybe $30-35. Standard cab tip is 15%. They shouldn’t charge per luggage.
Make sure she knows that you get a legitimate cab at LaGuardia by going to the taxi stand and waiting in line if necessary. Taxi drivers do not roam the terminal looking for fares and they do not drive anything that isn’t a marked, yellow vehicle with a sign on the roof.
Also, Grand Central is 42nd on the east side, and cabs are everywhere.
Tip is 15%. Which is true no matter what, even though when you use a credit card the automatic suggested additions to the bill begin with 20%. Takes extra time to punch it in by hand.
All numbered streets–meaning, all North-South streets, meaning, all uptown-downtown streets above Houston, pronounced “Howston”–are 20 blocks (numbers) to the mile.
At a normal NY clip, it takes 20 minutes to walk a mile.
Avenues–meaning East-West streets, meaning crosstown–are generally about 2 blocks between each. NB: where Central Park is–meaning, going crosstown between 59th and 110th between 5th and Central Park West–bets are off.
I’m trying to remember the last time we went from LaGuardia to the WTC site (Millennium Hilton) it was IIRC about $30 to $35.
I too would recommend the bus. If she’s an energetic type with one suitcase, learn to use the subway from there. It think it was pretty cheap for a 7-day unlimited pass, which I assume she will put to good use.
$31 to be precise (I just got back from NY and we used the heck out of our passes). It may be slightly more with bus privileges. Luggage can be a pain on the subway, including the fact that one must lift their bag over or slide it under the turnstile prior to walking through. Also, to be clear, there is no subway line directly to LeGuardia. She would have to catch a bus to a train station, so there would be extra luggage juggling. Then there is still the walk (or another bus) from the station to her hotel. I paid $45 for an SUV sized cab to get 6 people and luggage from Long Island City to LeGuardia, just to give you an idea.
My advice would be to catch a cab from the airport directly to her initial destination. The reduced hassle and quicker trip time will be well worth the ~$50 fare & tip. This siteseems to be pretty accurate.
Can’t stress this enough. Unless you have arranged a black car pickup, ONLY take the yellow cab at the stand. Anybody that reads this, file it for future reference if you ever fly into NYC. Don’t get ripped off and don’t encourage the vermin.
BTW, the yellow cab fare to Manhattan from JFK is a flat rate plus tolls. Again, only take the yellow cab even if some troll offers you a flat rate.
Every so often the wife and I like to go to NYC and hang out for a few days (it’s only a 2 hour direct flight from Milwaukee).
One thing not to do is sign up for a super shuttle. The savings (if any) over a cab is miniscule, and if you’re the last one in the van to get dropped off at your hotel the extra time trumps any money saved (which, like I said, is paltry).
If she was coming to London via Heathrow, I would strongly advise her to book a private hire car in advance. She would pay less, and be greeted by a helpful driver with her name on a sign. Could she not do this in NY?
If she were arriving at one of the outlying London airports like Gatwick, the train would be the best option.
You can book a car to pick you up but it’s not cheaper than a taxi. Hire cars are regulated but not are required to have a gps, customer mapscreen, and credit pay point like yellow cabs are. So not only is it more expensive, it’s also less safe and less convenient.
