6-7 hours at Newark (home, taxi, restaurants)

[Davachka]

Flying back from Italy, will have almost 7 hour layover in Newark before flight home to FL. Anything near by we could do? Is it pushing it or could we make it into NYC? Our flight lands at 2pm and leaves at 8:50 so we have about 5 hours to kill.

[El Dakar]

You might be cutting it a little close with travel time factored in, so I think you would be pushing it trying to head into NYC. Why not have dinner in the Ironbound section of Newark? The Ironbound is safe and is famous for its Portuguese, Spanish, and Brazilian eateries. You could take a cab from the airport right to one of these places and be there within 10 minutes: Forno's, Tio Pepe's, The Spain Inn, Iberian Peninsula; they are some of the more popular restaraunts in the Ironbound.

[I live in New Jersey]

If you immediately jumped on a train to the city, you'd be there in about a half-hour and have a few hours in Mahattan. I'd confine my visiting to places in midtown so you could get back to Penn Station quickly for the reutrn trip to the airport.

[Lusitan]

With a 7 hour layover, you have to aim to be back in the airport within 6 hours (1 hour before your flight) at the very least, probably more like 1.5 hours to give yourself some slack time. That leaves you with roughly 5 hours to kick around.

You can catch a train from Newark Airport into New York City and kick play around within walking distance of NY Penn Station (midtown) for a few hours. The train ride itself is probably about 30 minutes, but with all the overhead you'll have to assume it will eat up 1.5 hours of your layover just getting into Manhattan. That should leave you with about 3 hours to play around with before you start your return trip to Newark Airport.

Lots of stuff (including tourists) near Penn Station in NYC (it's 34th Street, so it's midtown).

[RobRiguez]

If you are truly adamant about NYC it "could" be done but you will only have maybe 2-3 hours of actual sight seeing. So you could walk around Times square maybe grab a hot dog or ice cream take some pictures and head back.

Or as was already suggested, take a cab to Newark and have an OUTSTANDING meal at one of the awesome restaurants there. I personally recommend the porterhouse at Don Pepe's. 3 blocks from Newark Penn Train Station. Corner of McCarter Highway and Raymond Blvd.

[ansky]

I would not bother trying to get into NYC in that short amount of time. NJ Transit trains are notorious for delays and you could end up not getting back in time and missing your flight.

[colleeng47]

Originally Posted by ansky

I would not bother trying to get into NYC in that short amount of time. NJ Transit trains are notorious for delays and you could end up not getting back in time and missing your flight.

That's exactly what I was going to say. I wouldn't take the chance. I think the idea of dinner at one of the great restaurants in the Ironbound section of Newark is a winner.

[KathyA11]

Originally Posted by Lusitan

With a 7 hour layover, you have to aim to be back in the airport within 6 hours (1 hour before your flight) at the very least, probably more like 1.5 hours to give yourself some slack time. .

I think the guidelines call for 2 hours for international flights now.

[KathyA11]

Originally Posted by ansky

I would not bother trying to get into NYC in that short amount of time. NJ Transit trains are notorious for delays and you could end up not getting back in time and missing your flight.

The OP needs to take into consideration that the layover partially emcompasses rush hour, too.

[tjtv]

You could also get a taxi. With a taxi, you walk out of the terminal, and you're in Manhattan in ~20 minutes. No waiting for the monorail/NJ transit.