We are flying into LaGuardia from Grand Rapids MI on Tuesday, Nov. 22,
2005 and need to get to Ronkonkama, LI, NY. What is the easiest,
cheapest and quickest way to get there from LaGuardia, both coming and
going? We are returning on Tuesday, Nov. 29. We have not been in this
area before. If possible, would the Long Island Railroad work, and if
so how do we get to it from LaGuardia? Thank you. Dave MacDonald

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 29 Sep 2005 21:54 PDT

In light of atk's support of my view, I believe now that I can propose
it as an answer.  If you feel that it is sufficient, I can post it as
an answer, along with links to relevant pages for the LIRR and car
transportation at LaGuardia.

The best solution I can think of is a taxi or other car transportation
to the LIRR station at Woodside or Jamaica.  The LIRR doesn't have any
direct public transportation connection to Laguardia, as far as I can
tell.  I hope that someone will prove me wrong!

A wild suggestion: If you want to save time (if not money), perhaps
you can change your tickets to Long Island Macarthur Airport, which is
in Ronkonkoma.  (Of course, I don't know if the airline you've booked
flies into Macarthur.)

I tend to agree with justaskscott-ga. There's no subway line that
connects easily into Laguardia Airport. There are a few bus routes
that go to Laguardia, but none of them take you anywhere that'll
connect you with anyplace convenient to getting the Long Island Rail
Road to Ronkonkoma (I mean, I think you could catch the Q48 bus from
Laguardia which could take you to Flushing, Queens where there is a
LIRR station, but the Flushing LIRR station is on an entirely
different leg than Ronkonkoma, so you'd still wind up having to take
the LIRR west to Woodside to catch the right LIRR train that'll take
you east to Ronkonkoma...)

Are you staying at a hotel in Ronkonkoma? If so, it's theoretically
possible that that hotel might offer some shuttle service to and from
the airport you can use.

Other than that, I think the best plans are the one that was
suggested: switch your flight to arrive into the Islip airport, or
take a car to either the Woodside or Jamaica LIRR station and then
take the train out to Ronkonkoma. I don't know how much time and money
the trip would cost you, but for reference, I'd guess that just taking
a taxi or car service straight from LGA to Ronkonkoma would cost
$90-$100 and take about 45-60 minutes, depending on traffic...

So I gotta agree that your best bet

I would look for an airport shuttle service.  Here are a couple of lists:

http://ronkonkomany.cu.myareaguide.com/spyellow.html?PGE=search&SRC=are1&C=airport+shuttle&R=N&MC=1&STYPE=S&F=1&T=Ronkonkoma&S=NY&Z=&CP=Travel+%26+Transportation%5ETransportation+Services%5EAirport+Transportation+%26+Parking%5E&PP=L&local=on

http://ronkonkomany.cu.myareaguide.com/spyellow.html?PGE=search&SRC=are1&C=airport+shuttle&R=N&STYPE=S&T=Ronkonkoma&S=NY&Z=&MC=1&F=1&CP=Travel+%26+Transportation%5ETaxicabs%2C+Limousines%2C+%26+Shuttles%5EShuttles

They come from the yellow pages link on this site:

http://ronkonkomany.citiesunlimited.com/search/results.html

The sponsored links weren't helpful.  The first one found nothing, the
second, insisted on address.