From Newark airport to Brooklyn
 

Is there any bus company doing the ride from EWR to Brooklyn Wickoff Av. area (our hotel) without having to change in Manhattan ? Costs ?
We will be landing at 4pm and would not consider the cab !

No - there is no such shuttle. You can take a shuttle bus or the Air Train into Manhattan and then take the subway from there. This is reasonable if you don't have a lot of luggage.

If you do have a lot I don;t recommend trying to take the subway - due to many stairs, long passageways and - depending on the time - cars that are so crowded there's barely room for a person to stand never mind luggage.

How many people are you and how much luggage do you have?

(It is possible to take a shuttle bus to JFK and get a cab there - but you would be going completely out of your way - and I doubt it would be any cheaper than taking a cab from Newark.)

You might want to try contacting some of the local car services (Carmel or Tel Aviv or Dial 7) to see if they have a coupon or you can get a deal.

You can get all the details on the various shuttle and trains into Manhattan just by looking at the Newark airport web site under ground transportation. (They do have 1 or 2 car services listed for Brooklyn.)

Fabio, if you're traveling alone and have a fair amount of luggage, you might want to consider the shared ETS shuttle service mentioned here (scroll down to Brooklyn)
http://www.panynj.gov/aviation/egtsfram.htm
for $35/person. Otherwise, you'll have to go through Manhattan.

we are 3 adults with onlyone handluggage (trolley)per person, so we are just considering the first option, shuttle bus or air train to Manhattan. Then we have to take the L subway from Union Square to Brooklyn, so which stop should we get off the shuttle bus once in Manhattan in order to transfer to Union Square ?

If you take the airtrain to New York Penn Station, you can take the A/C/E subway line downtown. You can catch the A/C/E line inside Penn Station. Take any one of these trains (A is express, C/E are local) downtown to 14th St. From this stop, you can take a free transfer to the L train. Take the L train towards Brooklyn.

I should also add that the L train terminates at this stop (14th St. & 8th Ave.), so there's no chance you'll get on it the wrong way. There are also elevators at this stop as well as Penn Station in case you have a lot of luggage. I'm not sure if there are elevators at the Brooklyn stop.

Thanks lizzie.

does free transfer at 14th street mean than I can use the same ticket from Penn station to Brooklyn ? $ 2 one way on both express A or C/E ?

I had written the same response (more or less). But if you don't want to deal with changing trains, you could take the shuttle bus to Manhattan. I'd go to Port Authority bus terminal and you can take the same A,C or E subway from there downtown to 14 st. where you can transfer to the L train. For 3 people this is going to cost $39 for the bus plus $6 for the subway or $45. How much more would a car service charge? This sounds like a lot of money for a fairly long trek.

Yes, the free transfer from A,C,E to L will only cost $2/person.

McLaurie makes a good point about the cost, but to answer your question, yes it's only two dollars to go from Penn Station to Brooklyn.

The airtrain will cost you $42 for all three plus $6 for the subway.

A car or cab will not be that much more and will be less time AND you don't have to dick around with schlepping your luggage all over the place.

You aren't saving much money if any taking the airtrain and subway.

you made a good point for the cost !
What about the travel time by car or cab during rush hours like 5pm from the airport ?

.. from the airport to Brooklyn ?

I've never made it to Penn Station by airtrain from Newark Airport in less than an hour.

First you have to wait for the Airtrain. Then you take the Airtrain to Newark Penn Station.

Then you get off the Airtrain and wait for NJ Transit.

Then you take NJ Transit from Newark Penn Station to NY Penn Station and there are a couple of stops first.

When you arrive at Penn Station, you still have to drag your luggage up those tiny escalators and walk forever to find your correct subway line.

During rush hour, bringing luggage on a subway is about as welcome as an anvil on a life raft. There is no room.

I've done it several times and no thanks.

If you haven't already, I would contact the car services
dial7.com and
limores.net
and get a quote for the whole trip. You will have to pay for a tip (15-20% of the price) and tolls (which could be as much as $10), but the idea of doing this trip in rush hour makes it a really bad idea. It appears the all train option will cost $48 and you'll change at least 4 TIMES, the bus to subway will cost $45 with 2 changes. I'd guess the private car service will cost ~$60 but will be a lot less trouble.