Providence, RI airport to Point Judith
 

Hi, we need to get from accommodation at Providence, RI, Airport to Point Judith to catch a 9.30am ferry to Block Island. Are there options other than a taxi. There's a shuttle from Quonset Point to the airport, but I can't find any info on going the other way? If you can help, that would be wonderful, Thanks, Lissa

Your best bet is a cab. Busses go North towards Providence and Boston.
Only other alternative would be a rental car..

Well, there is a bus -- http://www.ripta.com/schedules/view....66&direction=2

That would require either getting to Providence or finding a stop near the airport. Try searching under Galilee, from which the ferry leaves.

Alternatively, you could take a taxi at a cost of about $60.

There is also a company called A Airline Express which runs a limo -- you might give them a call.

Another option might be to continue to Pt Judith the night before, by one of the above methods, and spend the night in the motel across from the ferry, the Lighthouse Inn. This place was a dump last time I looked, though it has apparently been renovated.

You might have better options if you say, travel to Narragansett or much better if you go to Newport, which has its own ferry service to BI.

If I may ask, where are you coming from and why are you staying near Providence Airport?

Look for flights from Providence to Block Island that would be much faster and not much more expensive than renting a car and taking the ferry. We've used taxis on Block Island successfully. Ask a driver to take you to the lighthouse and come back in three hours and someone shows up three hours later.

New England Airlines operates out of Westerly, RI, and offers the only scheduled flights to BI. It might be possible to charter from Providence, but I would think that would be very expensive.

Another route would be amtrak to New London, CT then ferry to Block Island. The ferry station is very close to the amtrak station.

To take the ferry from New London would require taking a bus/cab to the train station ($30-40), paying an additional $31 for the Amtrak ticket and you would lose a good deal of time.

A cab or rental car or limo from PVD airport to Point Judith is the best solution.

There are no flights from PVD airport to Block Island. While Newport does have a ferry to Block Island, that ferry is quite slow (if they use the same one this year) and not the best choice.

Hi and thanks, we are picking up a hire car from PVD and going to Newport to the music festival, then returning it later that night to the airport in order to get out to Point Judith. There was nowhere to drop a rental back on a Sunday morning in Point Judith. And accommodation in Providence was $90 cheaper than at the refurbished lighthouse inn. I'm trying to find out about the limo service mentioned above. Any other advice on getting there for under the $60 the taxi would cost would be great. Thanks, Lissa

How long will you be on Block Island? With parking only about $10 a day in Point Judith, you should just keep the car unless you'll be there a long time.

I just got a reply about the taxi from Providence Airport to Point Judith and it's 100. We can't keep the car, as we are heading from Block Island to Montauk. Any help would be great as this is really expensive. Thanks, Lissa

As a resident of a [different] island, I can tell you that one of the negatives of living on an island is that it is either slow or expensive (pick one) to get there and back. Cheap and fast are not part of the same equation.

A charter flight may not be nearly as expensive as you might think. Google or call around. My family chartered a plane on several occasions to go to Cuttyhunk Island, and it was quite reasonable for four people.

I am amazed that you can get from Block Island to Montauk, and I wish you a great time in doing it!

Thanks Ackislander, I'll send off a few emails to the charter flight people. I'm looking forward to the trip out to these island that you call home, it should be wonderful. Lissa

How about keeping the car, driving to New London to take the car ferry to Orient Point and from there you could visit Montauk and take the ferry to BI for a day trip?? Would that fit your schedule?
The drive to New London from Newport would be about 50 minutes to 1 hour. You would then have the benefit of seeing more of Long Island since you would be in the rental car...

Or another variation -- how about returning the rental car in Newport, spending the night there, then taking the two-hour ferry from Newport to Block. Seems to involve the least backtracking, and believe me, Newport is a lot nicer than Providence airport.

Or this http://www.cozytrans.com/ could save you renting a car at all. Its a shuttle between the airport and Newport costing $25 per person each way.

Thank you all so much for your help here, we will be spending the day before in Newport, at the music festival and mansions, however the accommodation price was so steep that is why we are going to the airport in providence to stay as we can also drop off the hire car. Thanks, Lissa

Rhode Island's TF Green airport is actually in Warwick, RI, about half an hour south of Providence and closer to Point Judith, but it's still 30+ minutes away. It's very annoying that they call it the Providence airport- it's like calling Newark the downtown Manhattan Airport or something.

Huh? Nobody is calling it the Providence Downtown airport. Plenty of airports around the world reside in other cities, and some like Cincinnati or Washington Dulles, another state. And PVD is only 8 miles from downtown Providence, which is closer than some airports around the country that actually resides within city limit.

I completely disagree. For many travelers it's confusing because they think they're landing close to Providence, that they can jump on a subway or a bus or something to get there. Yes, the new highway on/off ramps make it quicker but it still complicates things when you're planning connections- like the original poster here is. The Block Island Ferry? Doesn't that leave from Galilee? Not really Pt. Judith in my book, and I think this same person posted elsewhere about going from the Kingston train to the ferry- and while these two places seem close together on a map, it's actually a difficult connection in the summer when there are few taxis at that small station. Ah, maybe I know the geography of Southern RI too well and sure the distances from airports like Dulles and DC are another story but still, it's annoying to call the airport Providence. This is Rhode Island after all, a small state. They could call it the Woonsocket airport by your logic.

Do I need to list all the airports in the US that are not located in the city that it's name after, and/or over 8 miles from downtown, and/or with no subway/train service? Guess not.

BTW, there is public bus from T.F. Green to Providence. Bus #20. It runs every 20 or 40 minutes, and takes only 35 minutes to get to Kennedy Plaza. Occasionally, there's also #14 that's even faster. $1.75.

I don't think I need to list all the airports in the US with worse public bus service.

Anyways, I have no idea why according to my logic, the airport will be called Woonsocket. This airport serves mainly the Providence metropolitan. To call it anything else is ludicrous.