How to get from Newark Airport to Brooklyn

[jtu]

Hi AFF,

My wife and I are off on our adventures next week.. 5 weeks.. 1 week in NYC, 4 weeks in Europe.

We kick off the trip is when we come into EWR about 5pm local time on a Wednesday evening and have to make our way to Crown Heights in Brooklyn. (pretty much the most inconvenient airport and accomodation, but such is life).

I have glanced over uber, lyft, a couple local car services and the metro/train schedules and cant decide.

Does anyone have any experience or suggestions? Specifically has anyone caught uber/lyft from EWR before?

We are expecting to be jet lagged, hungry, tired and probably not in the best mood for deciphering our way through the trains and metros across to Brooklyn. The average car service appears to be about $95 USD + tip + tolls.

Uber/lyft appear to be around $60-$80 + tolls - $20 or -$50 first time coupon code.. so maybe around $50-$60USD all up?

I will have international roaming so I can make calls as needed.

Thanks for any thoughts / suggestions..

 

[JohnPhelan]

Well, let me deal with the train option. I'd rule that out. It's messy, as you have to get one train (a monorail) from the terminal to the station, then get on a train to Penn Station, and then change again for Brooklyn. Way too much hassle.

 

[Warks]

We found the two trains great last year. Mind you we were staying right near Penn Station and not Brooklyn. Train is great for that part of Manhattan!

 

[Ausbt]

We kick off the trip is when we come into EWR about 5pm local time on a Wednesday evening

How did you end up coming into EWR? There are more services arriving at JFK from LAX (presuming that's your transit, or are you coming from DFW?). Anyway, I've done the train from JFK to EWR, long trip but I enjoyed the challenge of it solo. Wouldn't force my wife to do it that's for sure. As it happens I'm arriving into EWR on Wed night, late, but only going to Newport NJ. Uber. As an aside, last week I took a cab from LAX to Hollywood, cost AUD$80 inc tip. Yesterday I caught an Uber back. It was AUD$8, admittedly with 'pooling' on but really...

 

[jtu]

We're going CNS - BNE - YVR - EWR. Air Canada Y from BNE. Two factors.. we're catching Coldplay the day before we fly out from BNE... and AC was cheapest by hundreds. We're expecting AC Y to be horrible or Jetstar quality at best but we'll be too pumped to care. And we avoid LAX, which makes me happy. On the return trip (leaving BUD of all places) we snagged Qatar which should hopefully be more pleasant.

Thanks for the feedback so far. Snagged the AMEX $65 coupon on Uber.. feeling more likely to just try Uber. Even if it was $120 including everything, that's still only $55 usd out of pocket..

 

[oh_lol]

Make sure you have a number on your file so they can contact you, as about a billionty other people will be waiting for their uber.
Out of probably 200ish Uber rides from all NYC airports, they have all called to find out where I am exactly.

 

[jtu]

Thanks everyone.. went for Uber. Cost $58. Completely free with Amex coupon. Uber let you specify the exact door you were standing at. Got picked up in 3 minutes!

 

[Ausbt]

Make sure you have a number on your file so they can contact you, as about a billionty other people will be waiting for their uber.
Out of probably 200ish Uber rides from all NYC airports, they have all called to find out where I am exactly.

I had this same continual problem recently. My AU number was locked in there in my uber account, but each and every time I clicked 'Contact Driver' I had to cut-and-paste my temporary US number. I took a fairly pro-active approach of messaging most drivers "this is my number, I'm waiting at such-and-such". Had more than a few drivers cancel on me, charge me USD$5 anyway and leave me going for another one. On my last trip I also transited from Jersey City to Brooklyn the harder way, PATH + subway but really it's all easily do-able if you want to be frugal.

 

[jtu]

I agree.. not hard especially if you have been there before. Jet lagged and first time though it would have been a hard slog as you suggested. Caught an uber once and a Lyft once.. neither contacted me. Cost me a total of $0 with the free coupons. Nice introduction. As I live up in far north Queensland the only times I'll ever use it is when I'm traveling.