Originally Posted by
ATOBTTR
I have to agree. Last year I went to NYC twice, stayed in Manhattan once and stayed right by JFK once. When I stayed in Manhattan, we arrived at JFK at 10 pm on a Friday evening and got in the cab around 1030 PM. It still took well over an hour to get to our hotel in Central Manhattan. Traffic coming out of JFK was awful and Manhattan was bumper to bumper traffic. Getting back to JFK on Sunday morning was slightly better but still heavy traffic in Manhattan and heavy traffic around JFK.
Later that year we stayed overnight at JFK after coming back from Europe. Had an ~11 PM arrival into JFK. Our flight left for Texas at 2 PM the next day. We stayed at the Hampton Inn by JFK which was more than adequate. To get to the hotel, we did have to take the AirTrain to Federal Circle; thankfully the shuttle was there right as we came down, so we got lucky in that regard. On the way back to JFK the following day, the hotel shuttle took all of us straight to the terminals - we didn't have to deal with the AirTrain going back to JFK. Maybe just lucky on our part there too but was certainly convenient enough.
But I would certainly agree that if you don't want to mess with the AirTrain and shuttle, just get a cab and take it to an airport hotel (Hilton, Hampton Inn, etc.) which will be more than adequate for an overnight place to sleep.
Who doesn't use Google Maps to check a hotel location prior to booking it these days? 
Of course, there are plenty of decent hotels that are literally walking distance to Penn Station unless you're carrying a lot of luggage or the weather is just awful. I've stayed at the Tryp and the HIXs in Chelsea and Times Square South. And although you and I and many others in this thread would use Google Maps, believe me, there are many who still don't. Use Google Maps to check where some of the hotels are located that advertise themselves as "airport" hotels or that run shuttles to Federal Station. I did that once when I was passing time waiting at Federal Circle for the Crowne Plaza shuttle bus to arrive. Fascinating stuff.
BTW, who doesn't know that the AirTrain/LIRR combination saves the hassle of having to worry about the surface traffic into Manhattan that any shuttle, bus, taxi, or Uber would have to battle?
