New York City Travel Forum

Hi,

I need to make a trip to Sixth Avenue,(between 3rd and 4th Streets) next wednesday (24th). I am travelling from South PA, so I am thinking the best way is to drive, and I guess park and ride somewhere outside Manhattan, to 6th. I need to be at the place by 9am. I am also leaning towards leaving home the night before and stopping at a motel outside NYC, just because of the earliness involved, but this is not essential. Google Maps is saying a travel time of 3hrs15, so I can safely add at least an hour to that for traffic.

If anyone can point me the right way as to the best solution, I would be eternally grateful. I will need to be at sixth until at least 2pm, but I would like flexibility to be able to meet up with some friends for the afternoon/ early evening (which will possibly mean going at least towards uptown Manhattan) before making the trip back home.

Help please, I am getting myself confused over routes/transport options!

Thanks
Matt

I don't drive, so I'm not the best source of info. But I do suggest you look into parking in New Jersey and taking the PATH train (like a subway) to Christopher St. in Manhattan. It's a short walk from there to your destination. You might want to post your query also on the NYC forum on tripadvisor.com, which is more active and has lots of local experts who can guide you to the best place to drop your car near a PATH station.

Hi. Welcome to VT! I would strongly advise AGainst driving into Manhattan on a weekday morning. Find out the schedule of the New Jersey Transit lines near you, then drive to a motel, near a station, the night before your appointment. There is also a bus/coach line called Mertz which services southern PA, as well as CoachUSA. I suggest you research these alternatives. We do not know where you are coming from, so we cannot be specific. Consult AAA or mapquest for directions by car to the bus or train station. I hope you get the job!

Martztrailways.com (bus); coachusa.com (bus); njt.gov (train).

Take NJ Turnpike to Turnpike extension 14 A, B and C..take to Jersey City, park in Newport Mall and take Newport PATH to 9th Street PATH (5 minute ride). There are more lots near to Grove Street PATH in Jersey City also. Good luck.

Actually I would do as little driving as possible, and take Amtrak. It is faster than driving, and vastly less tiring, and you won't have to fight traffic. You don't say where you are coming from in PA, but if it is anywhere between Philly and Harrisburg (or even west of Harrisburg), you can take Amtrak's Keystone service: this train runs from Harrisburg to Philly and then turns northeast to go to NY.

The Keystone is one of the cheapest Amtrak trains, as it is subsidized by the state of Pennsylvania: $45 each way all the way from Harrisburg to Penn Station (unless you take the earliest northbound train, which is $64 and would get you into Penn at 8:30 AM, in time to get to your destination by 9). This would be cheaper than your total for gas/tolls/parking/hotel. The last returning Keystone leaves Penn at 6:30 PM. Or you can leave at 9:30 PM and connect at Philadelphia from a Northeast Regional to a PA Keystone.

www.amtrak.com

Whoops, that last sentence should have said that the very last connection leaves Penn Station at 9:05 PM, not 9:30 PM. It reaches Harrisburg at 12:29 AM. A long day for sure, but you can sleep on the train!

I second Newport Mall. There is a Marriot Courtyard there, right next to the PATH Station, if you want to stay the night before your appt. Also, very easy to get to you turn right on Washington Blvd. just before the Holland Tunnel. Another possiblity is the Metropark Amtrak/NJ Transit Station in Iselin, NJ, which has a large parking facility. You don't want to drive into Philly or Trenton to get AMTRAK or NJT.

Best advice: DON'T DRIVE IN NYC if you can help it. From South PA, take Amtrak to Grand Central Station. Once you get there, there are lots of options available: taxi, subway, walking, etc.

I agree with the train. It took me one hour in a car on a weekday morning to get from the Newark airport to Park Avenue in Manhattan. Crazy!!

> From South PA, take Amtrak to Grand Central Station.

No, Amtrak goes to Penn Station. They are not the same place.

Go to mta.gov for information re NYC subways and buses. As you will be taking mass transit to uptown Manhattan after 9am appointment, you will not return to your car (parked outside of the city) until late in the evening. After seeing your uptown friends, make sure that you have mapped out your return trip to your car. In other words, check the applicable Amtrak or NJT timetables to make sure that you can make connections to return to your car, which may be around midnight.
As I'm not a "Jersey guy," I'm not if that PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson tubes) runs after midnight, or, if so, how frequently they do so. The NYC subway trains and buses ALWAYS run, because the City never sleeps!, but they will further apart during the wee hours.

PATH runs 24/7 but has reduced service 11 PM to 6AM.

http://www.panynj.gov/CommutingTravel/path/html/time.html

Thanks everyone for the great help, I dont know what I would have done without all the advice!
I think I am going to leave home early and drive to Newport Mall, then get the PATH to Christopher Street. This seems the best advice given that I dont live super close to Amtrak or the buses (I live in York PA - Amtrak is doable from Lancaster, but the PATH seems ideal for me)

I will keep calling the mall to check (they havent been answering so far!) but does anyone happen to know if the mall parking is open earlier than the actual mall hours? The mall is 10am to 9.30pm, which are no good for me. And if this does end up being the parking hours, does anyone know any other nearby secure parking where I can safely leave the car from around 8am to late.

Thanks so much again everyone I really appreciate it!

The mall's parking lot is open 24/7..you just park the car, walk to the machine that you collect your ticket and go. When you return, you go to the machine, pay for the parking, and then exit the lot (3 decks by the way).

Thankyou so much everyone for your help, it made the trip so much easier having all the advice from you all.
I thought it would be remiss of me not to give details of my experience, in case anyone looking to do a similar trip reads this thread.
I ended up driving to Newport Mall as suggested - it was easy to find, and just before the tunnel over to Manhatten. I parked, walked just over the road to the PATH station and got the train to Christopher Street, which was a 5 minuite walk from my destination. The trains run very regularly, there and back, so there was no worries there. The parking cost $22 for the 10 hours I left it (this is the maximum price for up to 24hours). Traffic in and out was very good, especially seeing as we got to the mall just shy of 9am (I was able to postpone my appointment till 10:30am.
If and when I need to take this trip again I would not hesitate to take this option again.
One thing that really helped me was google maps on my phone, for walking directions once in Greenwich village. Took the guesswork out of navigating around by foot.

Thanks again everyone!
Matt