Airports
How Long From New Jersey to JFK and LaGuardia? Drive Times by Town
Typical drive times and distances from New Jersey towns to JFK and LaGuardia, the three ways across the Hudson, and why JFK takes longer than the miles suggest.
By the Black Car Service Limo dispatch team · Updated · 7 min read
Key takeaways
- From Fort Lee and the GWB corridor, LaGuardia is typically 20–35 min — often closer in time than Newark.
- From Hudson County, both airports mean a tunnel and a crossing of Manhattan: from Hoboken, LaGuardia is typically 20–40 min and JFK 40 min – 1 hr 10 min.
- From Union, Middlesex, Monmouth, and Ocean counties, JFK is usually reached across Staten Island and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.
- JFK is the least predictable of the three airports from New Jersey — the Van Wyck and the Belt Parkway decide most trips.
Three ways across
Every New Jersey trip to JFK or LaGuardia crosses the Hudson, and where you start decides how:
- North: the George Washington Bridge and the Cross Bronx Expressway to the Whitestone, Throgs Neck, or RFK Bridge — the usual route from Bergen and Passaic counties.
- Middle: the Lincoln or Holland Tunnel, across Manhattan, then the Queens-Midtown Tunnel or the RFK Bridge — typical from Hudson and Essex counties.
- South: the Goethals Bridge or Outerbridge Crossing, the Staten Island Expressway, and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge to the Belt Parkway — the usual JFK route from Union County southward.
Drive times by town
Typical door-to-terminal ranges by car. The low end is an early-morning run, the high end a weekday rush hour.
| From | LaGuardia | JFK |
|---|---|---|
| Mahwah, NJ | 55 min – 1 hr 30 min (32 mi) | 1 hr 15 min – 2 hr 5 min (43 mi) |
| Ridgewood, NJ | 40 min – 1 hr 10 min (24 mi) | 1 hr 5 min – 1 hr 45 min (35 mi) |
| Paramus, NJ | 35 min – 1 hr (23 mi) | 1 hr – 1 hr 35 min (34 mi) |
| Hackensack, NJ | 25–50 min (16 mi) | 50 min – 1 hr 25 min (27 mi) |
| Englewood, NJ | 25–40 min (15 mi) | 50 min – 1 hr 20 min (26 mi) |
| Fort Lee, NJ | 20–35 min (12 mi) | 45 min – 1 hr 15 min (23 mi) |
| Edgewater, NJ | 20–35 min (14 mi) | 45 min – 1 hr 10 min (24 mi) |
| Wayne, NJ | 45 min – 1 hr 20 min (30 mi) | 1 hr 10 min – 1 hr 50 min (41 mi) |
| Clifton, NJ | 35 min – 1 hr (26 mi) | 1 hr – 1 hr 35 min (31 mi) |
| Montclair, NJ | 40 min – 1 hr 5 min (26 mi) | 1 hr – 1 hr 35 min (34 mi) |
| Livingston, NJ | 50 min – 1 hr 20 min (30 mi) | 1 hr 5 min – 1 hr 45 min (39 mi) |
| Morristown, NJ | 50 min – 1 hr 20 min (45 mi) | 1 hr 10 min – 1 hr 55 min (48 mi) |
| Summit, NJ | 45 min – 1 hr 20 min (31 mi) | 1 hr 10 min – 1 hr 50 min (39 mi) |
| Hoboken, NJ | 20–40 min (13 mi) | 40 min – 1 hr 10 min (21 mi) |
| Jersey City, NJ | 25–45 min (14 mi) | 40 min – 1 hr 10 min (22 mi) |
| Bayonne, NJ | 35 min – 1 hr (20 mi) | 55 min – 1 hr 30 min (32 mi) |
| Westfield, NJ | 50 min – 1 hr 25 min (32 mi) | 1 hr 5 min – 1 hr 50 min (40 mi) |
| Edison, NJ | 50 min – 1 hr 25 min (44 mi) | 1 hr 10 min – 1 hr 50 min (47 mi) |
| New Brunswick, NJ | 55 min – 1 hr 30 min (47 mi) | 1 hr 10 min – 1 hr 55 min (50 mi) |
| Princeton, NJ | 1 hr 5 min – 1 hr 50 min (63 mi) | 1 hr 25 min – 2 hr 15 min (66 mi) |
| Red Bank, NJ | 1 hr – 1 hr 40 min (58 mi) | 1 hr 15 min – 2 hr 5 min (61 mi) |
| Freehold, NJ | 1 hr 5 min – 1 hr 45 min (58 mi) | 1 hr 20 min – 2 hr 5 min (60 mi) |
| Toms River, NJ | 1 hr 20 min – 2 hr 10 min (84 mi) | 1 hr 35 min – 2 hr 35 min (87 mi) |
Why JFK takes longer than the miles suggest
JFK sits at the far end of Queens, and the last stretch — the Van Wyck Expressway or the Belt Parkway — is where most of the variability lives. A trip that takes an hour at 5 a.m. can take twice that on a Friday afternoon. LaGuardia is closer and its approaches are shorter, which is why it is often the better choice for domestic flights from northern New Jersey.
Timing tips
A few patterns worth planning around:
- Weekday afternoons from about 3 to 7 p.m. are the slowest window for both airports.
- Early-morning departures (before about 6 a.m.) are usually the fastest trips of the day.
- Friday afternoons and the days before holidays are the worst for JFK.
- Dispatch watches the crossings live and chooses the route on the day — the quote does not change with the route.