So instead of paying for a posh Manhattan hotel my company booked me a hotel by the Newark NJ airport.  At first I was kind of cranky, sure its not convienant but you really do save money.  Well they do at least and if I was paying I’d likely do the same thing.

How does one get to NY to see the sights?  First you take the free shuttle from the hotel to the Newark airport, take their air tran to the Newark Airport station on the NJ Rail System, take the NJ Train ($15 one way) to Penn Station NY. (not to be confused with Penn Station NJ which is the station before.)

From there you can walk or take the subway. Its not too far a walk, 20-30 I think, but I can see it being super frustrating and annoying if it was a weekday with all the office people in the city too.  Rush hour pedestrian traffic must be insane.

Seeing the sites:

Statue of Liberty

I had purchased a reserved ticket at the Statue of Liberty for 10am , so I took the #1 subway line from Penn Station to South Ferry (note: you have to be in the front 5 cars in order to get off at South Ferry) which is right beside Battery Park where you catch the Ferry.  If I had purchased it online earlier I could have got one that had the monument pass (its free but its first come first serve and theres only so many) .  That gets you into the statue base.    When I got there at just after 9 there were few people, tiny lines and was great.  As 10 approached there were a lot more people and by the time I left I could see why you’d want the reserve ticket.  Means you skip the buying ticket line and the poor regular shmoe line and get into the security line ahead.

Once through airport like security you board the ferry and off you go to the Statue.  They have guided tours every hour or you just explore the island.  I have to say its one of the colour monuments I’ve visited.   The spot right in front of the front of the statue is of course busy with picture takers but at the time I was there it wasn’t to bad.

When done catch a Ferry that takes you to Ellis Island.  It was okay, it might have been neater if it had personal meaning to me though.

Then catch the ferry again and back to battery park.

This is where I had the worst sausage I have ever had.   WORST EVAR It was terrible, not even a sausage , a poorly flavoured hotdog.  And not even a good hotdog.  The guys out front of union make these clowns look well clowny.

Back to South Ferry and on the #1 train to Times Square.