so i'm at jfk airport i'm walking along documenting this trip for you fine folks
and then i see these turnstiles to exit the airtrain one side is labeled $10.50 and the other
$7.75. could you imagine the mass confusion this is causing settlement because we have a lot to
unload i thought i was gonna make a simple video of how to transport yourself from jfk to manhattan
but nothing is really that simple when it comes to transportation in new york city but fear not
i will hook you up so you will have a game plan when you are traveling from jfk into manhattan
and back my name is thea and you are watching urban caffeine where we talk about urban history
culture transit and specifically traveling from jfk to manhattan if you love traveling
hit that like button and if you love new yorking also hit that like button new york
city is serviced by three commercial airports newark laguardia and jfk laguardia is mostly for
domestic flights there are some international flights that do come into laguardia those that
don't need border and custom clearances if you have access to laguardia airport i would recommend
it i have a video on laguardia airport and link to that is in the description below if you are
flying international though say europe asia or the land down under then you will most likely arrive
at either new work or jfk new work is actually in new jersey so you will have to cross state borders
into new york i will eventually make a video on newark airport so subscribe and hit that
notification bell as for jfk it's already in new york city the problem is it's in the fringes of
new york city so you will need to check a little to get into the city and here are some options
public transit door-to-door will take you one to two hours depending on the time of day and
commuter traffic i'll go over the three options in detail and these will range from the low low price
of $2.75 to about 20 dollars semi-private vehicles will be about 45 minutes to an hour and a half
again depending on traffic a cab has a fixed rate and after adding in other surcharges and
the toll it will total 63 dollars plus tip and there's the possibility of a rush hour surcharge
a lift or uber does not have a flat rate and is anywhere from $60 to $125 before any tips
this price is dependent on demand and the time of day the easiest and simplest of all these options
is the yellow taxi you can pay with cash or credit and all you need is the address to your hotel
public transit is great if you're on a budget and the easiest of these is the subway option
but using public transit does have a little bit of a learning curve since it's a bit complex but
that's what this video is for which brings me to a word of caution if it's late at night i do not
recommend public transportation specifically the bus and the subway i myself do not take the subway
after 10 pm from jfk to manhattan the trains are going to be arriving less frequently and they're
going to be super slow also if you're not used to dealing with certain characters on the subway late
at night it might not be the most enjoyable ride that you'll have so that's something to
consider now let's get into the details starting with public transportation the airtrain is the
train that loops around the airport taking you to different parts of the airport or out of the
airport proper to fully understand how to commute i got this airtrain map from the jfk airport
just for you fine viewers so don't forget to hit that like button the airtrain has a line
that loops around the airport and two lines that loop around it and take you out of the airport
starting with the most popular option for public transportation and that's taking the airtrain to
the subway from anywhere you are in the airport you can get on the airtrain to either get to
jamaica station to catch the e train or to howard beach station to catch the a train
both the a and e subway trains will take you to manhattan i would check which line works
best for your hotel so you know which option to take when you are either at
jamaica station or howard beach station you have to pay $7.75 upon entering or exiting
all the other stations don't have this fee that's why taking the bus at these stations is cheaper
at the jamaica station once you get there there'll be plenty of signs leading you to
the subway or the long island railroad also known as lirr you will run into this area where you are
expected to pay that $7.75 you will need to get a metro card which you can get from these machines
and here are your options for paying first off there's no way around it you will need
a metrocard to pay for the airtrain if you don't have one it's one dollar for a brand new metrocard
option one you load the metrocard with $7.75 and pay for the subway using the tap and pay with
your credit card or cell phone right now only the buses have this tap and pay feature not the
airtrain so don't think you can use your phone for this option two you can load your metrocard with
$10.50. $7.75 of that will be for the airtrain and $2.75 will be for the subway option three you load
your metrocard with $7.75 then add an unlimited pass to that same card $7.75 will go to the air
train and the unlimited will go to the subway and yes the machines can determine whether to charge
the $7.75 or dip into your unlimited pass if you plan to use the subway a lot and you're visiting
for more than two days go ahead and buy the seven day unlimited pass even though you're not going to
stay a full seven days check out my video on the metro card so you know how to use public transit
from here you just swipe your metro card to get out of the air train station and follow the signs
to the subway but if you end up at the howard beach station the station will look like this
the left turnstiles actually charge ten dollars and fifty cents and the right turnstiles charge
$7.75 i was dumbfounded when i first saw this too so to explain this phenomenon i created for
you this diagram so here you are here are the turnstiles to exit the a train on the subway is
this way it turns out that there are turnstiles here as an entry point to the a train so if you
exit here you need to pay for both the airtrain and a single ride on the subway but if you exit
here you only pay $7.75 then you can use either your credit card to tap and pay or your unlimited
pass to the subway from here also simply follow signs to the a train headed to manhattan how to
use the subway is its own video so make sure you watch this video so you will be a subway superhero
i want to add a quick note if you are on your way back to jfk airport for your return flight the e
train is at sutphin boulevard station so when you are on the subway you will notice two instances
of jfk on the marquee this stop has the connection to the bus and this stop connects to the air train
make sure you get off at this stop which is the sutphin boulevard station from there you
can catch the air train and retrace your steps back to the airport the cheapest option of public
transportation involves taking the bus personally i don't recommend taking the bus unless you're
pretty confident in your commuter skills and you don't mind taking two hours to get into the city
and even then i only recommend one transfer point from bus to subway although there are three
available options so if you're completely new to new york and very intimidated in using public
transportation just skip ahead and ignore this bus option but if you don't want to skip ahead
maybe you're curious maybe you're adventurous then let's proceed to get to the bus you take
the air train either to lefferts boulevard using the howard beach train or the terminal 5 using any
of the lines unless you are already in terminal 5 then hooray from either of these stations you can
take the q10 bus it doesn't really matter which station because the q10 starts at terminal 5 and
stops by left boulevard station before it heads out of the airport the bus will cost you $2.75
cents or if you go ahead and buy a 7-day or 30-day unlimited metro card it works here too so now you
are riding the q10 bus even though you can get off at this station to catch the a train i would
personally avoid this station instead i recommend going all the way to kew gardens 80 road station
to catch the e train to manhattan this is actually the last stop on the q10 bus so it's hard to miss
once you get there your bus stop will be here and you will walk a little bit to get to the subway
to recognize what a bus stop and subway stop looks like check out these two videos to get to
the subway you get one free transfer from the bus if you paid that single ride of $2.75 or you can
keep using your unlimited pass and the last form of public transportation is using the long island
railroad or lirr the long island railroad could potentially be much faster than the subway but
also more expensive and the long island railroad has only one station in manhattan and that's penn
station if your final destination is not close to penn station you might have to either walk take a
cab or ride the subway so something to think about when you want to take that long island railroad to
take the lirr you head towards jamaica station pay the $7.75 via metrocard like we talked about then
you have to get a paper ticket for the lirr or you can pay via the mta app i plan to make a future
video on how to ride the long island railroad to include buying tickets and using the app
but if you're just outright tired from a long flight and don't want to deal with
this complication of public transportation you can always take a different form of transportation so
let's talk about the yellow cab these iconic yellow vehicles have a dedicated dispatch at
the airports you can find them by following airport signs depending on which terminal you
are at the taxi dispatcher could be inside the building or just outside just follow the signs
simply line up at a designated area and a taxi will be assigned to you as for the price the
dispatcher at jfk told me that the flat rate is 63 dollars but after asking around and looking it
up the flat rate is 52 dollars but if you add the surcharges and coal it does add up to 63 dollars
and of course there's a tip there's also the possibility of a rush hour surcharge
a note on the tip new york along with the rest of the united states
has a huge tipping culture and tipping in new york is something that i will cover in a future
video and i want to emphasize this flat rate a trip from jfk to manhattan is indeed a flat rate
so the taxi shouldn't be running the meter if the taxi is running the meter don't be afraid
to speak up and ask for the flat rate because if they went by the meter i wouldn't be surprised if
you were charged over a hundred dollars i have an entire video on the new york yellow taxi
this covers everything from how to hail one how to pay for one how to give directions and other tips
for those of you that live and breathe by your phones you have the option of using a share ride
in the united states the two most popular share rides are lift and uber the only way to use a
lift or uber is to use the app if you don't have a phone or don't want to use your phone a yellow
taxi might be a better option because you don't need a phone to ride a taxi at the airport there
are designated areas for share ride pickup you can also see these areas on the lyft and uber apps
some terminals will have signs to direct you to where the pickup area is and other
terminals will not but share rides are available you just have to refer to the app on where to go
for a trip from jfk to manhattan it's possible that a yellow taxi might actually be cheaper than
a lyft or uber that's because a yellow taxi has a flat rate whereas lyft and uber do not so it's
worth checking prices especially during rush hour when prices are surging i have an entire video
that answers the question on when is it better to take a taxi and when is it better to take a lyft
or uber when i'm flying internationally i actually prefer jfk partly because i'm more familiar with
it and partly because it's cheaper than going to newark with regards to transportation and getting
around new york city i made an entire playlist of all the different modes of transportation
almost all of them so check that out on my channel if you found this video useful please share with
someone you know and hit that like button because engagement is what tells youtube to
share this to a wider audience with that thank you so much for watching and happy new yorking