LaGuardia is in north-western Queens on Flushing Bay, about eight miles from Midtown — the closest of the three airports and the only one with no rail connection at all.
It handles mostly domestic and short-haul flights. Runway length constrains it, which is why long-haul services go to JFK and Newark.
The Q70 — free, and the fastest way in
The Q70 LaGuardia Link is a limited-stop bus running from all terminals to Jackson Heights–Roosevelt Avenue, where you pick up the E, F, M, R or 7 subway lines.
The bus is free. There is no fare at all. You pay only for the subway leg, which is a single standard fare.
Total journey to Midtown is about 40 to 50 minutes, which makes it the quickest airport run in New York, and it costs less than three dollars. Very few visitors know this exists, and a great many pay sixty dollars for a cab that takes about the same time in traffic.
The Q70 also stops at Woodside–61st Street, where you can pick up the LIRR to Penn Station.
The M60
The M60 Select Bus Service runs from the airport across to 125th Street in Harlem and along it to the Upper West Side, ending at Broadway and 106th. Standard bus fare, tapped at a machine on the pavement before boarding.
Useful if you are staying on the Upper West Side or in Harlem, and slow otherwise.
Taxi
Yellow cabs from LaGuardia run on the meter, not a flat fare, plus tolls and surcharges. Typically 25 to 45 minutes to Midtown depending on traffic, and usually the cheapest cab fare of the three airports.
The official rank is outside arrivals with a dispatcher.
Rideshare
Designated pickup zones at each terminal. Dynamic pricing, and at peak times it will exceed the metered cab.
The airport itself
LaGuardia was, for decades, the worst major airport in the United States by common consent — Joe Biden compared it to a third-world country in 2014, which turned out to be the remark that unlocked the money.
The complete rebuild between 2016 and 2022 replaced every terminal. Terminal B won an international design prize, which is not a sentence anyone expected to write about LaGuardia, and both terminals now have proper food, natural light and functioning air conditioning. It is genuinely pleasant.
There is no AirTrain. A proposed one along the Grand Central Parkway was cancelled in 2021 after years of criticism that it would have run in the wrong direction — passengers would have travelled away from Manhattan to reach it.
Practical
Terminals B and C are the main ones. They are connected airside and by a short walk landside, but check which terminal your airline uses before you set off, because the drop-off points are separate.
Delta is at Terminal C, American, United, Southwest and JetBlue are mostly at Terminal B.
Allow extra time for the drive at rush hour; the Grand Central Parkway and the BQE are among the most congested roads in the country.