station to station
 

Hello,
My fam of 4 will be visiting NY (for the 1st time) the mid. of Nov. We have rezies in 2 dif. areas and would like to know if anyone knows which is the better location for getting to & fro NYC. 1st is the Marriott Springhill Suites EWR, NJ (we are leaning towards this one) and the 2nd is LGA Marriott elmhurst.
My next Q is... from EWR, what is the fastest & cheapest way to NYC? Also, if anyone has a clear cut route it would be GREATLY appreciated. We are arriving by car, but plan to leave it where we stay (as we were advised to do) unless it is of practical use??? We are only there for 3 days. I'm getting some conflicting info at the hotel and I'd really like us to spend time taking in NYC instead of wasting time figuring out how to get from the hotel to NYC.

"I'd really like us to spend time taking in NYC instead of wasting time figuring out how to get from the hotel to NYC."

The best way to do that is to stay in Manhattan. The time, $ and aggravation, let alone the overall inconvenience of daily commute and inability to take a mid day break make, in my opinion, staying anywhere but Manhattan a mistake.

But, to answer your questions about the 2 choices you mention a lot will depend on where you are coming from. If you are driving from CT, or MA, then staying in Queens by LGA is far preferable than by EWR. If you are coming from PA or DE directions then EWR would be better.

By NYC, I assume you mean Manhattan. (If you stay by LGA you are already in NYC) You can use NYC public transportation - from LGA that means bus.

see the NYC bus sched. here www.mta.nyc.ny.us/nyct/service/bus/qnsche.htm

If you don't want to use bus, then you can taxi, but the $30 cost each way to Manhattan would be far better spent on a Manhattan hotel.

Parking in Manhattan will cost you $30-$40 or more per day, so leave your car in NJ. From Newark area, you can get NJ transit trains to Penn Station. Maybe your hotel there has a shuttle to the Newark NJ Transit (also called Penn Station).

Only you can decide if the savings of staying outside Manhattan are worth the loss of enjoyment and flexibility - nearly unanimous consensus here on Fodors is definitely no, it is not.

Neither one is a good choice. To see the city you really need to stay in the City - otherwise you will spend a good part of your vacation trekking back and forth.

And if you plan on doing anything in the city at night - show and dinner for example - you may find it VERY time-consuming to get back to the suburbs.

From the LGA Marriott (which gets mixed reviews)you either need to take the shuttle to the airport and then a cab ($30 or so) or public transit (bus to suway) to Manhattan (Shuttle bus would be more than a cab for 4 people). Or take a bus from near the hotel to a subway to get into the City. Eithrer way - you're talking 45 minutes minimum - more at night when transit runs less frequently.

The Springhill Suites has a complimentary (on-request) shuttle to the airport - so don;t know how realiable that may be, or what hours they run or how far in advance ou need to call them. From the airport you would have to take the AirTrain into the city. (Or, if the shuttle isn't available it's about an $18 cab ride to the airport). So- again you would need to figure the better part of an hour to get into the city. Have you called this hotel to get info on the shuttle to the airport? Will they provide it for you twice a day? Is there only one shuttle you will need to co-ord with others going to/fro the airport?

If you really must stay outside the city (and I would do a heavy duty search to stay in the city of you can) at least get one of the hotels in Jersey that has direct access to the train or bus (perhaps one in Secaucus - but check the bus schedule) so you're not wasting all that time going back and forth to one of the airports.

And no - a car is of no use at all. Parking in Manhattan is either next to impossible (on the street) or expensive (at least $25 just to get into a garage and more for the day) and driving is painfully slow (and can be scary if you're not used to being assertive).

Here's a page done by another poster on another travel board about hotels in NJ and their transportation to NYC
http://www.broadwayfocus.com/nj_nyc/

I agree that neither option you've picked is ideal. One of the Jersey City hotels near a PATH train is best. Since you'll have your car, another option that's been mentioned here (but will require your driving) is the Holiday Inn in Ft. Lee, NJ. It's right near the George Washington Bridge. I don't think there's any public transport though. But you can easily find parking once in nyc either close to your destination or on the upper west side. The savings on the hotel will more than makeup for the cost of parking.

I should add, there are other hotels near LGA and in Queens that are probably better options either for reviews or location, but I'm not mentioning them assuming you've picked this one for reason.

Hello everyone, sorry took a while to respond back. Thanks for all your wonderfule tips and advice. I finally was able to get some information from one source at the Springhill suites Marriott EWR regarding transportation & wanted to share. We will have a rental car because we are driving in from BWI (NY was an added on side trip). I was told it's very easy to get to Manhattan. The hotel provides a free shuttle to the airport and yes, both ways. You then take an air train to Penn, I believe and then the cpourse the same or the hotel has a car and will drive you to Penn for either $15 or $18. Since we'll have a car, we'll drive our car to Penn station for the Path train. Park ( hilton gateway indoors and policed)it's $10 for 24hrs. Not sure how far from parking to the train itself it is... then get the path for $1.50pp for an 18 min. ride into Manhattan pretty much anywhere. Runs 24hrs. but less frequently after 10p.m.
If there is a conflict in my info. let me know, but this person sounded very polite and matter-of-fact about it.

I am with the others, why would you stay in a hotel near an airport when you are driving from BWI? You will spend time and money getting back and forth. I think that staying in MAnhattan would be easier and allow you more time to see the sites.

Should you still want to stay "outside" the city, there are better options than staying right near an airport that offer convenient ways into the city.

Are you driving back to BWI to fly home or are you flying home from a New Yrok area airport? If you are flying from NY area airport, why not just turn the car in and use public transportation around NYC and then a taxi or other means to airport? If you have to drive back to BWI, then I see logic of keeping car. Sorry, I guess I am not quite sure what you are doing.

Debi