Quick question about NYC
 

Coming home on leave in July (the 7th) and I've got a 7 hour layover in NY at JFK... never been to NY before so looking for recommendations on killing time.

Terminal 5 is pretty nice. Couple of nice bars there, and the sweet potato fries at the cheesesteak place in the food court are awesome.

JFK is located at the southeast edge of Queens, and is therefore quite some distance away from Manhattan. (I'm assuming that's what you mean by NYC - the rest of it isn't all that impressive.) Getting from the airport to Manhattan (or back) takes a little over an hour each way if you take the airtrain to Jamaica and then the E train into Manhattan. By cab, it can take 45 minutes or 2 hours.

When is your layover?

Check the Mets schedule, maybe you can catch a game.
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I was hoping to be able to get out of the airport, but definitely don't want to risk missing my flight. Never really had much desire to go to NY but now that I've got almost 7 hours to kill there I figured I might as well see what all the fuss is about. My layover is from 1420 - 2050 on July 7 which is a Wednesday.

Not a big baseball fan but hell why not if I got the chance... Guess I wouldn't mind checking out Ellis Island and the Statue, but that looks to be a good little ways away from the airport, think it would be safe to go that far with my time constraints?

7 hours from flight to flight doesn't leave much time. Add in time to get through airport mess, that gives you what, maybe 5.5 hours? Take worst case scenario of 1.5 hours each way cab ride and you are left with maybe ~2 hours safely, enough time to have a quick bite to eat, maybe see Time Square and then head back. I went to NYC about 3 years ago and would have enjoyed it much more if it hadn't been for the company I was with, and the fact that we had about 5 people sharing a hotel, and I was stuck on a shitty fold up bed. If I go again I will for sure go alone or with people I can stand for more than 30 minutes at a time. I tried to eat at the famous places (Famous Original Ray's Pizza, Smith & Wollensky Steak, one more famous Italian place, forget the name, Bubba Gump Shrimp on Time Square, nice atmosphere and good food). The food made the trip for me, the sights were overrated, and everything was expensive.

That said, I don't know about JFK, but LGA was pretty nice and had enough places inside to probably keep you occupied. On my return flight I had to waste a few hours and found a pretty nice sports bar and watched some football and drank some beer and ate hot wings. So if JFK is the same, and I'm sure probably better, you should be able to find something to do to waste some time. Shame to not see Manhattan though, being there.

I wouldn't try it. Even if you do make it out and back, you're not going to have time to do anything worthwhile.

NA6C, JFK is kind of a weird airport. It's a lot like DFW, in that it's more like six separate small airports which share a common runway system and are interconnected by a peoplemover. Unfortunately, the train runs outside of the secure area, so you can't easily hop from one terminal to the next like at IAH or PHX.

Like I said, it is quite easy to get from the airport into Manhattan: Airtrain from the terminal to Jamaica (Sutphin Blvd / Archer Ave) via Federal Circle, and then E train to 42nd street. This will put you right on the edge of Times Square, which IMO is a shitty place to find good food, but definitely the most tourist-friendly part of the island.

But you'll be rushed.

If you're daring, and can live with the possibility of a missed connection, why not give it a shot? OTOH, if missing this flight will mean the end or your marriage, you might just enjoy the airport.

Which carrier are you flying? If it's Delta, you have my sympathy. Terminal 3 is a gulag.

It's Delta, FML. I think I'm just going to stick tot eh Airport and be content with the fact that I've never had any real desire to see NYC anyway. Thanks for the input. PLUS, it's going to be my first time in the states over the legal drinking age, lol, I left the States in September at 20 and I was 21 when the plane touched down here in Germany. I'm pretty excited about the opportunity to drink LEGALLY at a US bar.

Well, since you're coming in from Germany, I don't know if you'll be arriving at Terminal 4 or Terminal 2/3 (they're conjoined), but there are several bars in both. The Brookyln Brewery in T4 is good, there's a Sam Adams Brewhouse in T3, and a couple of bars in T2.

Damn shame you're not flying JetBlue. Terminal 5 is awesome.

Would it be that complicated to get to Terminal 5 then?

+1, especially with ~7 hours to kill... regardless I think I'll be quite content. I'm a huge fan of GOOD beer (as you can tell from the Beer of the Day thread) but I'll be happy as a hog in shit just to be stateside and not have to worry about a freakin language barrier everywhere I go, oh wait, I'm going to be in NYC aren't I? FML. :bowrofl:

EDIT: Looks like I am arriving in and departing from Terminal 3 (according to the Delta website under my itinerary)

Sooo, long shot, but noone here is going to be going through JFK in NYC tomorrow and trying to kill some time are they?