I was at a meeting in Newark (at the EWR Marriott) two weeks ago and had Thursday afternoon/evening open so I went into Lower Manhattan.
(A FYI: To/From NYC Penn Station-EWR: Airtrain/NJ Transit
As noted in previous posts, you can take the AirTrain from any of the EWR terminals to the Newark Liberty Airport Station/Rail Link Station. From there you can purchase a one way or round trip ticket from this station to New York City's Penn Station. This may work easiest for travelers who want the fewest connections while hauling luggage around and needing to get to Midtown Manhattan.)
To/From Lower Manhattan-Newark Penn Station-EWR: Airtrain/NJ Transit/PATH
This was the routing I took using Airtrain to the Newark Airport Station where I purchased a $16 round trip ticket to go one stop on NJ Transit's commuter rail to Newark Penn Station. Getting off that train, I purchased a PATH 2-trip MetroCard ($3.50) and took PATH from Newark Penn Station to the PATH World Trade Center Station in Lower Manhattan.
The PATH WTC Station is immediately north of the WTC site and highlighted below in the middle red square at the intersection of Vesey and W. Broadway:
I wandered around to look at three hotel properties (I guess FlyerTalk is becoming my middle name
) that I was thinking about staying at when my family visits NYC next summer: the Millennium Hilton, Marriott Downtown (in rounded boxes) and Embassy Suites (the red oval).
The longer vertical rounded rectangle below the ES oval highlights a few restaurants with patios that look out over the Hudson that are part of the World Financial Center complex - and which were really packed on that Thursday. I also wandered around the area looking at options for dinner as well as pubs/bars for a drink - many of them were quite busy at that time (7 - 8 PM). It was a fairly decent late summer evening so weather didn't impact any of the outdoor places I wandered into and around.
To get from the PATH WTC Station to the ES currently requires walking up and down stairs and along temporary walkways that cross the West Side Highway due to WTC construction. If you don't want to do the stairs (and since not all of the elevators that are part of this construction detour are working) you may need to go north to Barclay before you head west toward the ES.
I didn't try to get into a room but the atrium of the ES is awesome: The first shot is toward the entrance windows to the West; the second is looking back toward the inside of the hotel and atrium to the East; the third is looking down from the 12th (?) floor walkway visible at the top of the first shot. Photos were taken around 7:30 PM EDT.
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One other comment: I forgot how many people use PATH and comprise the the overall Manhattan experience - be ready to walk
or be rapidly walked around by many, many people who know where they want to get to.
Should be interesting to see what the Conrad does with this property.
David