Originally Posted by
atxtraveler
Stay at the Newark Airport, and ride the train into the city. Its 12 minutes out of your day, and saves you a couple hundred a night. If 12 minutes is not worth 200+ to you... then hire me as your cabana boy next summer.
Um - the ride itself from Newark Airport to NYC ranges from 20 to 30 minutes depending on time of day and whether the train stops at Secaucus Junction. You also need to factor in taking the shuttle from your hotel to P4 and then the Airtran Monorail from P4 to the NJ Transit station. I'd say if everything runs like clockwork you'd be lucky to be at NY Penn Station 45 minutes after you leave your hotel.
Please explain how you got to 12 minutes - I assume it was a typo.
Your general vibe is correct though. If you're mainly a daytime tourist (i.e. won't be traveling back to your hotel after say 11 pm when trains/ferries are more of a pain and/or not running), then you can save a lot of money by staying at a hotel in New Jersey near a PATH, ferry, or NJ Transit station.
There's a Sheraton in Weehawken that is right next to a ferry terminal. There's also a new Westin in Jersey city that's on top of a PATH station. If you're not addicted to *wood, there's a very nice Hilton connected to Newark Penn Station.