NJ Ferry to Ellis Isle to Chinatown - Ferry or Drive?
 

A group of Families will be spending the day on Ellis Isle starting from the Jersey side. We want to end the day with dinner in Chinatown. Should we take the Ellis Isle ferry over to Battery Park and cab it to Chinatown and then water taxi back to Liberty State Park after dinner OR take the Ellis Isle ferry back to Jersey side and drive into Chinatown directly??? We may also want to add the Trade Center site in there too?

Does "group of families" include children? My concern is how will this group feel about a cab/walk back to the ferry and then the ferry after they have eaten. If you have cranky people, having a car nearby might be better.

I personnally would not drive into Manhattan if I could avoid it. Besides having to find and pay for parking, you just don't know how long traffic at the tunnels will be. Simply going back to NJ, picking up your car and driving in will add an hour to your trip, IMO, and that is without traffic. As you would be going into the city at dinnertime which is also pre/theatre time, you could run into a jam. Also, getting out at night you could get caught in tunnel traffic again. I would use cabs, they would be cheaper than parking in Manhattan and tunnel charges.

You can walk to the Trade Center site from Battery Park. (I would do this before dinner while it is presumably still light, at night there isn't much visible at the Trade Center site.) You can then take cabs up to Chinatown, or take a subway if you really want the whole New York experience.

Thanks for the tips. I was concerned about late afternoon traffic. But, how hard is it to take a water taxi back to Liberty State Park on the NJ side after dinner and where to pick one up? We will not be able to take the Ellis Isle ferry back because they stop running before dinner. Other water taxi's appear to run til about 8:30PM.

I don't know what ferry service you have been looking at, but New York Waterway runs ferries between Liberty Harbor in Jersey City and Pier 11 in lower Manhattan/Wall Street area. According to their website, they have ferries from Pier 11 back to Liberty Harbor up until 10 pm weekdays. What I don't know is how close Liberty Harbor is to any ferry service to Ellis Island. It could be just a short walk from their pier and parking lot. You may want to call them to ask

1-800-53-FERRY
www.nywaterway.com

Another useful website I found when doing this search is the New York City website on ferry service. There are numerous ferry services between Jersey City and Hoboken which might be options for you. Take a look at http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/dot/htm.../ferintro.html

Two big pluses about the ferries that I forget to mention yesterday is seeing the city at night on the way back, and the kids will love it - much more fun than the tunnel.

Thanks for the website! The Ellis Ferry folks tell me that Liberty Harbor is close to the parking at Liberty State Park and that I will have no problem getting from the water taxi landing, back to where I parked my car in the morning. I will check out the website and find the water taxi that gives us the most flexibility with time. I don't want to get stuck on Manhattan because I missed the last boat! Thanks for all the tips!!!!