LGA for 8 HRS, what to see/do and how to do it? - daytrip to NYC
 

Will be doing a quick trip to New York, arriving LGA 9am and leaving 7pm. Any suggestions on what to do, where to go. Will not rent car, using public transportation. I thought of Times Square, ground zero, Statue of Liberty. Is there an one day public transportation card that can cover those places, will this be possible during the short time, any other suggestions.

I figure NY fters will know more about this.

You can take a bus from LGA to Grand Central station. From there, it is less then a 10 minunte walk to Times Square. I would take one of the tour buses which you can catch there which goes all over the key sites. I would not bother with the metro bus and subway due to lack of time.

The subway will be significantly faster for getting from mid-town to lower Manhattan than any of the hop-on/hop-off buses, with the added bonus of costing a fraction of the price.

I'd say that wholly on mass transit one could expect to leave LGA at 9:15 and be in lower Manhattan by 10:30. If you really want to do Statue of Liberty (I'm not a huge fan though I can understand why some folks enjoy it) you'd be back to Manhattan probably around 2:30 or 3 at the earliest. At that point you'd probably need to start back towards midtown and then the airport. If you just do the Staten Island Ferry version of the Statue you save 2-3 hours and can actually see more of NYC.

Then you can actually see some other stuff before heading back out to the airport.

Get a 1day Metrocard ($8.25) at a newsstand on arrival at LGA.

Take the M60 bus to the city. A few stops away at Astoria Blvd (last stop before Manhattan), transfer to the N/Q subway which takes you straight to Times Square (~45mins).

Look around, dodge the other tourists, then get on either the R to Whitehall or 1 to South Ferry (~30mins). Take the free ferry to Staten Island and back, get your snaps of Lady Liberty coming and going. (~1.5hrs).

Take the R up to Cortlandt Street (or walk there via Wall Street) and see the hole in the ground that is Ground Zero (check out the old Burlington Coat Factory store on Park Place that may or may not become an Islamic cultural center) (~1hr).

It is now around 1:30pm. From Fulton Street take the 4/5 to Midtown East or 2/3 to Midtown West and get a late lunch for $24.07pp at one of the Restaurant Week participants still open. After 3pm head north from Grand Central on the 4/5 to 125/Lex where you will take the M60 bus back to LGA. If you've dawdled and time is tight then hail a cab and pay the $35 needed to arrive at LGA in time for your flight.

http://nycgo.com

YMMV

The MTA still calls these one day passes "fun passes", as opposed to buying a metrocard with $8.25 loaded into it.

If you like museums you can go to The Met, Museum of Natural History or MOMA. The first two are right next to Central Park.

Also if you decide to go to Times Square you can also go a little more south to Empire State Building and go up to the observation deck.

You also hop on one of those double decker buses and take a tour .

Go to Yankee Stadium. You can see the hole where the old one once stood.

A Fun Pass gives one passenger a day of virtually unlimited bus and subway rides. A Metrocard with $8.25 loaded into it gives you roughly 3 1/2 single fares. Big difference if you plan to spend a day running around town.

Do the newsstands even sell the Fun Pass? It's been a while since I tried to buy a metrocard at La Guardia and at the time they didn't have the denomination I wanted.

Or just a block east at the top of Times Square to Top of the Rock which isn't nearly the soul-sucking miserable experience that ESB is.

So VERY not worth it IMO.

The Hudson newstands are supposed to carry them. Whether the nearest one has it in stock is a different issue.

The Central Terminal has a credit/debit card Metrocard vending machine, so worst case scenario the OP can take the free inter-terminal shuttle to CTB and get one-day passes there.

Thanks, will look for the fun pass
 

looks like going to the statue might be too much, seems that I will concentrate more on Times Square and ground zero. This will give plenty of time to see, eat and enjoy a museum.

I've had no trouble getting the Fun Pass at the Hudson News by the UA baggage claims the last two times I've wanted one.

Also, The Frick is a very nice museum which I prefer to the Met, but YMMV:
http://www.frick.org/

+1

I had learned a lot while doing MR ORD-LGA-ORD during these 2 months. Often times arrive in late morning and leaving later in the afternoon, provide me 6 to 7 hours there. Every single time I use public transportation and I don't see any problem, have enough time to do a lot.

Taking those big shuttles from LGA to grand central is a waste of money (like the washington flyer bus from IAD to west falls church metro). The M60 get to astoria blvd then change to N or Q is fast and easy, I always prefer Q on weekdays as it goes express in manhattan, it only cost $2.25. And I heard from a local saying if I would have done Q33 to roosevelt and get on F maybe even faster.

I am always a public transportation guy, I take public transportation whichever cities that has them. I am not sure it maybe a little hard for those always driving a car to get use to public.

This is how I get to/from LGA. :-:

Our upgrades come through.
 

We are ready, I printed the schedules. We are meeting a friend by 42nd and 6th. Have lunch around the area then head to Ground Zero, take pictures and then start heading towards the airport. Looks like my outbound flight is full, as there are no more seats available, who knows, maybe we'll volunteer. Lets see.