Overnight Connection Between EWR and LGA
 

I'm arriving late at night at EWR, then have an early morning flight out of LGA, and don't want to pay New York hotel prices for about four hours of rest. I know I can get the express bus from EWR to Grand Central Terminal. Any good, safe 24-hour place to hang out for a few hours, a short walk from Grand Central, before going to LGA when it opens in the morning?

Here's my recommendation (about a ten-minute walk from Grand Central):

https://sargesdeli.com/blog/sarges-d...-24-hours-list

How long the restaurant will let you hang out there is something I don't know.

If you will be arriving EWR early enough to take an NJTransit train from EWR Rail Station to Penn Station New York, you could then purchase a Long Island Rail Road "City Ticket" from New York Penn to Woodside. That LIRR ticket would give you access to the LIRR's Ticketed Waiting Room, where you could hang out before catching a train to Woodside, where the Q70 bus will get you to LGA in about 15 minutes.

You can just hang out in Grand Central terminal. There are lots of places to sit on the lower level. There used to be a deli right on the corner of 41st and lex that used to be 24 hours but looks like that closes at 12 now. Ashleys on 48th Street, which is a few blocks away, is 24 hours. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaura..._New_York.html. There are McDonalds nearby that are 24 hours as well. If you have the energy there are two other suggestions: Apple Store near Central Park is 24 hours, or go to Koreantown and go to Karaoke, dinner, drinking. That's about 10 blocks south. Also plenty of bars/restaurants that are 24 hours around Grand Central.

Doesn't GCT close at 2:00 am?

You could hang around EWR for a few hours. Alternatively, you could ride the Staten Island Ferry for a few hours. Another possibility is to hang around LGA but I'm not sure where to sit there.

One other possibility is to call around (not toll-free reservations, but actual front desks) of LGA hotels and determine what they might charge for a specific short time such as you have. While four hours is not much, getting three hours of comfortable sleep, a hot shower, and maybe some breakfast, can be a very nice thing along the way.

Yes, or at least the signs outside say it does. I've never been there during those hours to verify.

I live in Manhattan. Grand Central is closed from 2 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. and it is enforced. Bars in Manhattan close at 4 a.m. It is cold and dark this time of year. I would go with the airport hotel option suggested by a previous poster. Also, LGA airside is closed after the last flight of the night leaves. You can stay before security but be prepared to join multiple homeless people.

Absolutely GCT is closed and cleared nightly. MetroNorth police clear the terminal each night and you can hang with the homeless and drunks that missed the last train until the first train of the morning departs on the street leaning against the wall. I see this all the time as I frequent the 5:30am train to New Haven Saturday morning. A lot of people miss that 1:53am train, it was worse when the last train was earlier.