Visiting New York with your baby or toddler and need a taxi cab with a car seat? You’re not alone. While you may not need a car seat except for your ride to and from the airport, or for a particular outing one day of your stay in Manhattan, you don’t have to choose between lugging the car seat from home or using no car seat at all when you ride in a taxi or airport shuttle.
All three of these private car hire services provide airport transportation from JFK, Newark, and La Guardia to Manhattan with car seats or safety boosters by request.
NYC Limousine – http://nyclimousine.com/
Kid Car New York – https://www.kidcarny.com/
Crestwood Car & Limousine Service – http://www.crestwoodlimo.com/
At time of writing, the least expensive JFK Airport option of these—if you can all fit with your baggage—is the Lincoln Town Car ($55) from Crestwood Car & Limousine Service with the requested car seat ($15) for a total of $70 + tolls & tip.
All three of these services offer a minivan or van option at a higher rate ranging from $120 up to $160, with each car seat or booster costing an extra $15 to $20. Worth it? Safety aside, how much would you pay to skip that taxi line with your toddler after surviving a red-eye from the West Coast?
These companies can also be used for point-to-point trips in town or hired by the hour for sightseeing as well.
Related posts and pages:
- Tips for taking the New York City subway with a stroller
- Hire private car service for your family in NYC
- Car seat laws and taxis in New York and beyond
- How to get around New York City with a baby
- Car seat travel alternatives
More tips about travel with car seats in Part 4 of Travels with Baby
Safe journeys,
Shelly Rivoli
Author of the award-winning Travels with Baby and Take-Along Travels with Baby www.travelswithbaby.com facebook twitter about the author
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I have a 14 month old that we are taking to France in the fall (he was there when we was 4 months old, too!)
I have a copy of the Travels with Baby book and was reading about the car-seat alternatives (Eddie Bauer plus others). We are renting a car with a car seat but I would still need something for the baby when we ride on the shuttle bus and thought the portable /collapsible seat would be ideal due to its size and weight, etc. I was looking at the website but I do not see mention (except for one brief reference to the Eddie Bauer version under the CARES description) of these seats.
Did these portable seats get banned or recalled or are they just not available/popular?
Thanks very much,
Deborah
The Eddie Bauer portable car seat, which was classified as a travel vest for use in motor vehicles only, was unfortunately discontinued. For now the RideSafer vest is the closest alternative, though it’s not suitable until around 3 years of age (see more in Car Seat Alternatives and my RideSafer review).
If you are flying into Paris (CDG, Orly, or Beauvais), you might consider using Mondial Shuttle Service, which will arrange to have an appropriate child safety seat for you upon request (one provided per van). You can book them for a shared, lower-cost ride for your family, or pay more and have private door-to-door service. They also provide shuttle service to Disneyland Paris (Eurodisney) for those interested.
Otherwise, for your son at 14 months (who I suspect may have more travel ahead of him in the next few years?), you might consider the Sit N Stroll child safety seat, which can be belted in with the shuttle bus seat belt, assuming there is one (see my detailed review here) . At times when I’ve found no safety belts in airport shuttle vans and taxis abroad, I have appreciated being able to set my Sit N Stroll rear-facing with my child strapped into it at least (wedged against the seat back if possible), still giving some level of protection over riding on my lap alone.
It would mean traveling with a car seat the entire way, though one that will roll through the airport (gate check it, or use it in a spare seat on the aircraft if they have one for you) and then right to the door of the shuttle bus or taxi. You would also have the advantage of knowing what car seat you’ll be using on the other end. As well, a handful of baby gear rental agencies rent the Sit N Stroll. If you’re interested, you can check the agencies near you (see worldwidedirectory of baby gear rentals).
For more help, see these related posts and pages:
Shelly Rivoli
All content of this blog (c) Shelly Rivoli 2007 – 2011
All content of this blog (c) Shelly Rivoli 2007 – 2011
One of the many times we’ve used the Baby B’Air flight safety vest to help protect against turbulence during a flight.
Hi Shelly,
First, thank you so much for your informative blog. It’s been a godsend so far in preparing to travel long haul with our 11 month old!
Thanks to your blog I’ve discovered the BabyB’Air and have ordered one. We plan to use this during our long haul flight from Australia to New Zealand and then on to Los Angeles (and back again!) as well as the US internal flights with Southwest.
On the Southwest website it reads that no belts such as this are allowed to be used on the flight – can you tell me if this is the current ruling from the FAA, or am I within my rights to use it during the cruising portion of the flight? I am hoping to print off advice from somewhere to show any flight staff who might question our use of it.
In Australia all flights require a baby lap belt, which seems common sense to me. It’s scary US airlines don’t have the same rules!
Hoping for any advice you can give.
Kind regards,
Liz
Horsham, Australia
Any CRS manufactured between January 1, 1961 and February 25, 1985, must have the following label: “This child restraint device conforms to all applicable federal motor vehicle safety standards.”Read more about the Baby B’Air and find out where to purchase it in Car Seat Alternatives.
If your family will be flying in to our out of Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO), there are a few good reasons to plan on spending two or three nights in the small city of Alajuela, where the airport is located (nope, it’s not actually in San Jose). If you’ll be visiting Costa Rica with young kids, Zoo Ave should definitely be on that list. 
At Zoo Ave, your family will get to glimpse Costa Rica’s best-loved animals, including macaws, marmosets, iguanas, a margay, an ocelot, marmosets, a cayman, white-faced capuchin monkeys and many others. If you’re lucky and he makes his appearance, you may also get to see a resplendent quetzal. Some “rescues” from other parts of the world have found homes here as well. 
- Two-seater wagons are available for rent (see photo)All content of this blog (c) Shelly Rivoli 2007 – 2011
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| Whale-watching at the Klamath River, California. |
All content of this blog (c) Shelly Rivoli 2007 – 2011
Most beautiful post:
(Nasrid Palaces? Jumping frogs of Birch Lake? Sunset Playa Hermosa?)
Post I am most proud of:
All content of this blog (c) Shelly Rivoli 2007 – 2011
As I mentioned in my earlier blog post, my family has seen quite a lot of the I-5 corridor (actually all of it over the past 2 years). Finding new and exciting places to break up the drive without breaking the bank has always been of interest, so I was thrilled to discover the Anderson River Park, between Redding and Red Bluff, on our recent road trip.
The expansive park is just a few minutes’ drive from the Interstate 5 Exit 668 for Central Anderson / Lassen National Park, and although it has a playground and tot play area, we never made it back to explore them. Instead, we hit the Anderson River Park trail to stretch our legs and enjoyed blackberry picking along the beautiful Anderson River itself.
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of being singled out as tourists in a foreign land and offered a wealth of tips and insights from locals who want to be sure you enjoy your visit, you’ll appreciate how residents continued to appear before me and my husband in our Bay Area jeans and corduroy (it was 57 degrees when we left home that morning) and guided us to the kid-friendliest berry vines and most excellent shallow bays along the river where even our toddler could refresh himself as the temperature reached 100 degrees (that’s 37 Celsius).
When we were on our second jaunt of washing blackberry juice-stained hands and faces in the icy river, a dad-and-daughter team suggested we might also like… what? The gravel beach and WARM pond we could access just around the next bend.
When I say warm, I mean tropical, waveless pond water with such clarity that we could watch the small fish swim around our legs—and identify one variety as what had to have been, no kidding, someone’s tropical fresh water aquarium gone free range.
Our one hour stop turned into two and gave way to ice cream sold by a peddler and eaten by the river. The kids were exercised, refreshed, and ready for a few more hours in the car—but only after we promised to stop at Anderson the next time we passed through the area on I-5.
If you’re driving by and need a good pit stop with the kids, be sure to check out Anderson River Park for yourselves. Here’s how to find it:
View Anderson River Park – Fantastic pit stop with kids in a larger map
All content of this blog (c) Shelly Rivoli 2007 – 2011
Bronze Award Winner in Travel Blogs from the North American Travel Journalists Association
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