Originally Posted by themicah

Your best bet is probably the Q33 bus to the E train. You pick up the Q33 right outside the terminal. Just follow signs for public buses. Take the bus to the last stop, then look for signs to the subway. Take the E to Manhattan and get off at Lexington Ave, which will put you at 53rd and Lex. Note that on weekdays the V also runs this route. The V makes more stops in Queens (the E is express), but if the V comes first you should probably just take it.

If the M60 bus comes before the Q33, however, you can take it to Lexington Ave and 125th St and get the 6 train there. Take the 6 to 51st St, where you'll exit at 51st and Lexington Ave.

Either way you go, you'll need to get a Metrocard from a Hudson News stand before you get on the bus, as the bus doesn't sell Metrocards. Pay-per-ride is $2 per ride for bus or subway. The bus-subway transfer is free as long as you use the same metrocard on both the bus and the subway. Buy a $10 metrocard and you'll get $12 in credit, bringing the cost to $1.67 per ride. Two people can share a pay-per-ride card and still get free transfers.

Unlimited ride cards are $7 for one day or $24 for 7 days, so you need to ride 5 times per day (excluding transfers) to justify a one-day card or 15 times during the course of your stay (again, excluding transfers) to justify the weekly.

All Metrocards are good on all NYC subways and most buses.

To get to EWR from the east side, either take the $12 NY Airport Express bus from Grand Central (42nd and Lex), or take the E train from 53rd and Lex to Penn Station, from which you can get the NJTransit train that links up with the monorail to EWR. If I were you, I'd take the bus. But if you want to take the train, search this forum for "Elizabeth" to find out how to save a couple bucks on the train ticket.