We will be going to a wedding in September in Spring Lake, N.J. We will be travelling by train - South Station in Boston to Penn Station in New York - and would like some help on how to proceed by train from Penn Station to some place in New Jersey - where we will rent a car to get to Spring Lake.
Any suggestions would be helpful and very much appreciated. Thanks.

I'm not that familiar with car rental places in New Jersey, but I think Newark Airport would give you the most options. You can easily catch a train from Penn Station that will take you to the Newark Airport. You can use the Air Train to transfer to the terminals and ground transportation. Without traffic, it should be a pretty easy shot to Spring Lake. You can use the following link to look at train scehdules:

www.njtransit.com

New Jersey transit can actually take you pretty far down the shore to Bayhead. If you can pick up the car there, that might save you some money and help avoid traffic.

I just saw this post. You have some options:

1. You can take a train from Penn Station in New York right to Spring Lake, and then rent a car as you need. (You may not need a car if you will be with friends who have cars, also the town is very walkable and is in fact one of the nicest towns on the shore. Where are you staying, and where is the wedding and the reception? Many B&Bs in Spring Lake will pick you up at the station.) There is an Avis car rental in Wall township, which would be about a 5 minute drive from Spring Lake and would theoretically be walkable from the Spring Lake train station albeit could be a longish walk. From Penn Station, you would take New Jersey Transit trains; all these trains will require a change, some change in Newark (the station is also called Penn Station, not to be confused with Penn Station in New York), some change in Long Branch. The train trip takes about 2 hours. For schedules on New Jersey Transit, go to njtransit.com. To get to Spring Lake, you will take the North Jersey Coast line.

(FYI, you could also take Amtrak directly from Boston to Penn Station in Newark, and then take a New Jersey Transit train to Spring Lake, however there may be more frequent service going from Penn Station in NewYork, or it may work better with your Amtrak train to go from Penn Station, look at the schedule. As you have to change trains once anyway it does not much matter whether you go from NYC or Newark, although Penn Station Newark is much smaller and easier to get around in than Penn Station NY which may be a consideration.)

2. You can take an Amtrak train from Boston to Newark (stop is Penn Station Newark, you should not have to change trains coming from Boston) and then take the Airtrain out to Newark Airport to rent the car. For information on the Airtrain, go to http://www.panynj.gov/airtrainnewark. From there, it is about an hour by car down to Spring Lake. However, if you rent a car at Newark Airport, you will pay all the extra airport charges/taxes, which can be hefty. Plus IMO the airtrain is really not that convenient, especially with luggage, plus once you get out to the airport, you have to then get out to the actual car rental lots; all in all not that convenient or fun IMO. Door to door, this may take you as long as simply taking the train to Spring Lake, esp if there is a line of people also waiting to rent a car.

Website for Spring Lake is springlake.org , and there is a map. The train station is around Warren Street and above 5th.


Lissiea06, the town of Bayhead is south of Spring Lake, and as Spring Lake has its own train station, there is no need to go further south to Bay Head.

Check Enterprise car rental site - they really will bring the car to you - although I am not sure how far they will bring it. (In case you have not done this before, car and a guy arrive to pick you up, you go with car and guy back to their rental office to fill out paperwork.) You still have a drop-off issue.

I wondered if Enterprise still does this, I was under the impression that they no longer did. If they do, then if they won't come to Spring Lake, try Bay Head or Point Pleasant (both close to Spring Lake). Also perhaps they will come to Newark New Jersey train station. You could then take Amtrak direct from Boston to Newark and drive from there, about an hour. You could also drop the car off in Newark.

If Enterprise wcan get a car to you at any of the suburban train stations in New Jersey along New Jersey Transit railroad's Raritan Line like Westfield or Cranford, or along the Morristown Line like in Summit, I could give you directions to drive to Spring Lake from there, it would be about an hour from any of those points. I am sure others could give you directions for other towns. Driving from Cranford or Westfield would be a bit eaiser as the Parkway passes by both both towns.

I would take the train to Newark Airport and rent from there. It's about a 45 minute ride from there.

We used our local Enterprise for car repair issue within the last year - but do not know if there is more current info than that.

Instead of Penn Station, NYC, take the train to the Metropark station in New Jersey. Enterprise car rentals will pick you up there. It's less than an hour drive down the Garden State Parkway to Spring Lake and will let you avoid all the hassels of city driving.

vcl is right. You should take the train to Metropark in NJ, especially if Enterprise will pick you up there. That would be the most convenient.