16 hours in Newark, NJ...What to Do...

[rotten42]

Originally Posted by Weitz

I'm still curious what sort of savings one sees to take such a horrendous lay over.

So normally when I travel south to Charlotte my flights average about $525. In the last 1.5 months they have gone up to $850-950. So I booked with Frontier Airlines for under $500. The catch is that I leave Calgary at 6:30pm and have a layover in Denver till 12:30am...then get into Charlotte at 5:30am. Not a great flight but worth the savings in this case.

[Amethyst]

I think it depends how many middle of the night hours you are spending there. When I went to New York last month, I originally was scheduled for a 6am flight home out of Newark. I didn't want to pay an extra night at my Manhattan hotel and was contemplating spending the night at the airport, since I would need to be there for a 4 am check-in anyway. In the end, the 6am flight was cancelled, so I flew home the night before instead. After seeing the tiny, out of date, no amenities section of the airport that Air Canada flew out of, I was very thankful for that flight change.

However, I over-nighted at the Hong Kong airport once and had a lovely little private sleeping room in the lounge area and free wifi and meals. It was not bad at all.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by Nufy

land at 2 PM.

Leave at 6 AM next morning

Their first time in NY, or been there before?

- Book hotel near the airport
- Take a shuttle or cab to the hotel, check-in and drop off any luggage
- Either take the train to Penn Station (cheap) or a cab (expensive) to Lower Manhattan
- Use the subway to explore wherever you want, have dinner in Manhattan
- A quick stop in Times Square at night maybe as the last stop would be close to Penn Station or easy to get a cab and get west to Newark
- Hotel for a short sleep
- Early shuttle or cab to hotel

[GGG]

Go see a broadway show since you are there for the evening.

[FireGilbert]

Yeah a 16 hour layover is harsh. It's too long to hang around the airport but too short to really do anything substantial outside the airport. Hearing the timing I would be going straight to an airport hotel. I had a similar layover at LAX and the hotel pool and sleeping was a perfect way to spent the time.

Speaking of Newark airport, other than flying United, I enjoyed my time there. The terminal was new and spacious with some good shops and food options. Definitely not even close the worst airport I have been to.

I am curious, what are everyone's best and worst layover experiences? My best was probably 10 hours in Singapore since it has seemingly unlimited options for entertainment, shopping, and food. The worst were probably the 4-6 hour ones in Winnipeg, Fiji, and Adelaide which seemed like an eternity due to the lack of anything going on.

[Wormius]

I like YVR and NRT and AMS for layovers. NRT has some cool kids crafts they could do to keep kids occupied for a while.

Worst layovers are probably anything in PEK. Just a boring place to wait for a connection. Especially if you have to wait in the domestic terminal. It reminded me of those elevated CTrain stations. Also YEG. A few years ago it felt like a Greyhound bus station in the domestic terminal.

[Fuzz]

My worst was Pearson. Landed sometime after midnight, and the flight was at 7. Nothing open. Insult to injury, it was the time change day, so that 7 hours turned into 8. The ONE day of the year you get an extra hour to sleep in, and all it did was extend the misery.

[Lubicon]

Worst layovers?

Montreal - connecting to Quebec City in the evening. Nothing open in the satellite terminal and 3 hours to kill.

Dallas / Ft Worth - thunderstorms wreaking havoc on flight schedules. Originally scheduled to have a 2 hour layover with my flight to YYC leaving at 6:30. Didn't even arrive until after 7 (again due to storms) and then the flight home was continually delayed due to weather, crew scheduling, aircraft availability, gate availability etc. They weren't going to cancel and we had to hang around the gate area in case they called the flight. Everything closed around midnight and we finally left at 4am.

[Johnny199r]

Originally Posted by FireGilbert

Yeah a 16 hour layover is harsh. It's too long to hang around the airport but too short to really do anything substantial outside the airport. Hearing the timing I would be going straight to an airport hotel. I had a similar layover at LAX and the hotel pool and sleeping was a perfect way to spent the time.

Speaking of Newark airport, other than flying United, I enjoyed my time there. The terminal was new and spacious with some good shops and food options. Definitely not even close the worst airport I have been to.

I am curious, what are everyone's best and worst layover experiences? My best was probably 10 hours in Singapore since it has seemingly unlimited options for entertainment, shopping, and food. The worst were probably the 4-6 hour ones in Winnipeg, Fiji, and Adelaide which seemed like an eternity due to the lack of anything going on.

I second Fiji.

[Amethyst]

Originally Posted by FireGilbert

Speaking of Newark airport, other than flying United, I enjoyed my time there. The terminal was new and spacious with some good shops and food options. Definitely not even close the worst airport I have been to.

Definitely a different terminal! The one I was stuck at was old, small and cramped, with extremely limited options.

My best lay-over was probably the Hong Kong one I mentioned before. It was overnight and came with a comfortable mini bedroom and a free lounge with amenities. That was the result of the airline having a mechanical issue which caused me to miss my connection though.

Last summer I flew to South America and had a long layover in Dallas. It was fine - went to the airport spa for a massage, had lunch, and then found a free lounge with comfortable chairs and wifi. My experience on my way back was much different though. Quick connection, but TSA there was nasty - screaming at people for no reason, stole my empty water bottle. (No they didn't scream at me, but just yelling at people waiting in line before they even got up to the counter.)

I didn't have a layover there, but my least favourite airport is LAX - such a dump and none of the baggage carousels worked. They sent us back and forth among four different ones multiple times until they could get one that worked.

[RoadGame]

I'll second LAX as a bad layover.

I recently had a 9 hour layover in LAX Terminal 2, was supposed to be 7 hours but WJA was delayed due to that huge thunderstorm in Calgary. Pretty negative experience. The terminal was absolutely jammed with people the entire time, almost none of the electrical plug ins worked for recharging devices, burnt food at the cafeteria, and a near-constant din of boarding announcements over the PA, some of which suffered from microphone feedback. If it wasn't operating at or above max capacity (judging from some flight delays due to gate congestion) it might not have been terrible (Terminal 2 isn't that old) but it felt like being cattle in a stockyard during an auction.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

My worst was Pearson. Landed sometime after midnight, and the flight was at 7. Nothing open. Insult to injury, it was the time change day, so that 7 hours turned into 8. The ONE day of the year you get an extra hour to sleep in, and all it did was extend the misery.

Pearson sucks at virtually everything. It's everything that's wrong with LAX, stepped up by an order of magnitude.

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

Their first time in NY, or been there before?

- Book hotel near the airport
- Take a shuttle or cab to the hotel, check-in and drop off any luggage
- Either take the train to Penn Station (cheap) or a cab (expensive) to Lower Manhattan
- Use the subway to explore wherever you want, have dinner in Manhattan
- A quick stop in Times Square at night maybe as the last stop would be close to Penn Station or easy to get a cab and get west to Newark
- Hotel for a short sleep
- Early shuttle or cab to hotel

Instead of taking a train, I believe there are also shuttle buses that will take you from EWR to Manhattan. It will cost more than the train but will likely be cheaper than a cab and would be a direct trip (versus having to transfer with a kiddo in tow).

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by tvp2003

Instead of taking a train, I believe there are also shuttle buses that will take you from EWR to Manhattan. It will cost more than the train but will likely be cheaper than a cab and would be a direct trip (versus having to transfer with a kiddo in tow).

Kiddo in tow? His kid is 18. It’s a pretty easy transfer.

[N-E-B]

+1 vote for get out of Newark and go into Manhattan. There’s so much to do there. Filling 16 hours will be unbelievably easy.

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

Kiddo in tow? His kid is 18. It’s a pretty easy transfer.

Haha. Sorry, must have missed that

[monkeyman]

Originally Posted by tvp2003

Haha. Sorry, must have missed that

Unless he decides to become an Oiler's fan, he will always be little kiddo to Nufy.

[Nufy]

Originally Posted by monkeyman

Unless he decides to become an Oiler's fan, he will always be little kiddo to Nufy.

Well he is moving to Edmonton for school this fall...

I might let him back in at Christmas...We'll see.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Nufy

Well he is moving to Edmonton for school this fall...

I might let him back in at Christmas...We'll see.

Maybe he should spend all 16 hours in Newark then. Edmonton would feel like heaven after that.

[monkeyman]

Originally Posted by Nufy

Well he is moving to Edmonton for school this fall...

I might let him back in at Christmas...We'll see.

You could look around Newark for a new pair of dress shoes and sweatpants for his first day of school.
The UofA I assume. I like their campus, and 3 hours isn't so bad for visits.