Can anyone help me w/transportation info from LGA?

[babylonsister]

I'm flying in next week and need to get to LI (Freeport area). Are there buses from LaGuardia to Penn, or a subway? Thanks!

[Agnomen]

1. Here's is a transportation info site

http://www.panynj.gov/aviation/lgtsmain.HTM#manhattan

[babylonsister]

3. Thanks for that, Agnomen! nt

[emcguffie]

2. I don't live there anymore, but LGA

-- is basically on Long Island. It's in Queens, that's on Long Island. There are buses, but I don't know if they go that way or not. good luck.

[babylonsister]

4. I never considered a bus directly to Freeport-thank you! nt

[HamdenRice]

5. How F**KING DARE you ... say Queens is Long Island!

Do you know what an insult that is to people from Queens? I grew up in Queens, lived away for many years and recently moved back.

And Queens is definitely not (and not considered) to be Long Island (or Lon-Gisland, as they say on Long Island).

While it is true that "Long Island" in a geographic sense is a long island that includes Queens, that geographic body also includes Brooklyn. The famous Revolutionary War battle, the "Battle of Long Island" was fought in Brooklyn in what is now Prospect Park and along a ridge that is now Eastern Parkway, both in Brooklyn.

But ever since towns in Brooklyn and Queens began to incorporate, and since those became boroughs that are parts of New York City, the political/cultural term Long Island refers to Nassau County and Suffolk County.

If you think I am nitpicking, consider this: I live in what is probably the bluest Congressional District in the nation -- the Sixth, which borders on Nassau County, which surprisingly is not a college town, but a working/middle class African American and Caribbean neighborhood. The Socialist Workers Party and Green Party get more votes than the Republican party in my district. The Dems typically receive about 98% of the vote.

But if you walk about ten blocks and cross the Cross Island Expressway, you are in Bush country.

Also Queens is considered to be the most ethnically diverse county in the United States. This is definitely not true of Nassau or Suffolk counties.

DO NOT CALL QUEENS "LONG ISLAND." EVER AGAIN. EVER. AGAIN. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Now what was that about LaGuardia airport ....

[HockeyMom]

6. Manhattan Native here

Born and raised and would LOVE to move back (too expensive). Lived for 10 years in Queens (Middle Village) and have lived on Long Island (Suffolk County) for almost 20.

You are correct, of course. Queens is not Long Island. Also, as they are so fond of saying, "The City". NYC is NOT JUST MANHATTAN. I cannot begin to count the number of times I have heard people here say, "I am going into the City." I always used to say where? Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, or Staten Island? They used to look at me like I had 3 heads. ROFL

Either they never learned their geography (NYC is FIVE Boroughs) or they are just plain to lazy to say Manhattan.

Yes, I know, Brooklyn used to be a separate city. Did not become part of NYC until the late 1800s. Sorry, I don't remember the exact year.

[HamdenRice]

7. Queens is undergoing a renaissance, to boot

Hi HockeyMom,

It's something many New Yorkers understand. Also let me congratulate you, a native Manhattanite, for understanding the "outta boros".

BTW, this probably went over non-New Yorkers' heads: but when I said that the political landscape changes if you pass the Cross Island Expressway, what I meant is, that highway is roughly the border between Queens and Nassau county.

If you haven't been in Queens in a while, it is really undergoing an amazing period. When I lived in Brooklyn, I lived and worked and went out exclusively in Brooklyn and Manhattan. I didn't realize how much Queens is booming.

Now if I want to go out to eat, I wouldn't think of going to any borough other than Queens, because as someone who has lived and eaten all across this country, Asia and Africa, I can safely say Queens has the best food in the world. Shit, Northern Blvd has better food and more variety than most of Manhattan!

[phylny]

8. Heh...

all those years I lived growing up on Long Island (Nassau County, two towns away from Queens), we were insulted if *anyone* thought we lived in Queens :)

[HamdenRice]

10. One people separated by the Cross Island Expressway?

As they say of the Brits and Americans, one people, separated by a single language.

Do you say "lon-Gisland" or "Long-Gisland" or "Long Island"?

[phylny]

12. Long Island. I never knew anyone who said "Lon Gisland"

except very old ladies :)

[Simeon Salus]

9. I can vouch for all the info on the Port Authority site. Use MTA.info too.

My daughter always takes a "car service" (not a yellow cab) when she flies from LaGuardia (about $30 to Brooklyn, you'd pay about twice that to Freeport.) Call a Freeport area car service and check pickup price from LGA (may surprise you). It's so nice to have a car waiting when you arrive instead of waiting in line for a cab, especially if you have a lot of stuff or folks. Convenient, very secure, about 35 to 45 minutes door-to-door, but it's expensive. DON'T TAKE A CAB FROM LGA TO FREEPORT! Very steep prices!

If you'd rather take the train (Long Island Railroad), then you need to plan a route to the station. Trains run about every 30 minutes on weekends, more often weekdays. Use MTA.info for maps and fares.

If I were doing it, I'd take a cab to the Woodside LIRR terminal (10 minutes) and buy a ticket for Freeport (less than an hour ride with no transfer). You'd pay about $15 for the cab, and $6.75 each for the one way off peak fare to Freeport ($3 more during rush hour home). You pay $2 more if you buy the ticket from the conductor on the train, so make sure to use the machine or ticket booth at the Woodside station.

If you're willing to take local transit, it's much cheaper, but a tiny schlep. Buy (at least) a $2 MetroCard. Buses run 24 hours, but run slower at night. Take the Q33 bus to Jackson Heights -- the Roosevelt Ave. subway station (15-20 minutes). Keep your $2 MetroCard (one transfer is free within a few hours of each use) and swipe yourself upstairs onto the Manhattan bound 7 elevated train two stops to 61st St. station, take the stairs down to the Woodside LIRR stop (10 minutes). Same deal on the LIRR train details.

Avoid taking the E train out to Jamaica and buying your Freeport LIRR ticket a buck cheaper there. Long walk to transfer and not the nicest neighborhood at night.

Wonderful Irish breakfast at diners around Woodside station, on the other hand. Decent Chinese and Dominican too. One for my favorite Irish pubs in the neighborhood bills itself "Drinking Consultant."

There are other more convoluted ways to get to Freeport, but this is what I'd share with a sis or bro.

[babylonsister]

11. I'm so glad I checked back here for this info, BusterD.

Even though Hamden tried mightily to hijack my thread, this sounds like the most direct route yet! Thanks!

[HamdenRice]

13. Hijacking? You wanna see hijacking? Tell a NY cabbie you want to go

to the airport "on Long Island" when you mean LGA. You will end up at some regional airport in Suffolk county and $200 later when you explain you want to go to LGA in Queens you might get to where you want to go.

If you look at most threads, and what is generally considered allowed as side discussions, I don't think our side discussion was out of line or constituted an attempt to hijack your thread.

Just correcting mistakes as I see em, one mistatement at a time.

[babylonsister]

14. HamdenRice, I kid! I wasn't disparaging you in any

way. Did you misplace your sense of humor?
And BTW, if I could magically transport myself to the a/p in Islip w/o the $200 price tag, I'd be one happy camper as my final destination is near Babylon.

[HamdenRice]

15. I feel like such a tramp!

Using all that irony and not seeing it when it is given back! Sorry