I am going to be traveling to east Rutherford NJ soon, and I thought while i was close maybe a visit to new York new York would be nice. Does anyone know of a shuttle that would run into new York? Also is there any good one day tours that cover most of the big sites like the statue of liberty, the central park, the empire state building and the 9/11 memorial?

Onboardtours.com
Does a good job for an all day overview. There is a company that picks up from some hotels in NJ, but I dont know the name and cant tell you how good the tour will be. i'd ask your hotel and then check reviews of the company on yelp.com

Here's a company that picks up in NJ. http://www.newyorktoursnyc.com/

You can take a NJtransit bus, just go to their website and put in east rutherford, nj to port authority bus terminal, ny... it's about $4, and brings you right near time square.
http://www.njtransit.com/hp/hp_servl...ion=HomePageTo

Last year we took a bus from Pennsylvania into New York to the transportation center and walked a couple of blocks to meet the onboard tour. I highly recommend the tour.

JimandMel , NYC doesn't have one single "transportation center" because there are so many many ways to get here--at least 4 different train systems, many bus companies, major and minor, ferries, etc. Do you remember any details that could help Grinttook ? And anything about the "onboard tour"? There are lots of tour companies here too (bus, boat , combinations), so it's hard to know which one you mean.

Perhaps theymean the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

But - buses cannot take you to the Statue of Libery - which is closed anyway due to damage from Superstorm Sandy - and seeing the ESB will take a couple of hours.

In NYC you need to understand that traffic is always heavey (compared to most places) so bus tours are liable to be frustrating - since you spend a lot of time just sitting waiting to get through the next traffic light.

Ok, you could take the NJtransit bus to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, walk a few blocks to West Side of 7th Avenue, between 50th & 51st Streets where the www.onboardtours.com picks up. It seemed like a long walk while I was looking at the map, but in reality it didn't take us long at all.

We took the onboard tour (NY See it All tour),Which is a land and boat tour. You can check the website to see which tour interests you. But this one does go by boat to Statue of Liberty. It was over all a great tour. The bus driver(tour guide) stays with the your entire tour. You didn't have to find your way back to the bus or find another bus like some tours.

Sorry -

At the moment you can go near the SoL - you can;t go TO ir - and certainly not on a tour. The ferry landing pier was damaged in superstorm Sandy and until it's repaired no one can go TO SoL.

Certainly the best way to get to all the places you want in New York city is by buying one of this cards that allow you to enter everywhere (Museums, famous building, etc.) in the city. This card is called CityPass and you can find different prices with different options. There are companies that also offer tours and some include entrances. Some others don’t, so at the end you pay twice the real price. If you are someone more prompt to tours and big groups of people do that and book a tour. But I suggest you discover NYC by your self because this is definitely a city for independent travelers.