Suggestions for overseas NJ Devils visitors

[Devils Dominion]

I'd "like" this more than once if I could

Me too

 

[None Shall Pass]

Does it piss me off occasionally that it can take 3+ hours to get from Brooklyn to Asbury? Sure. But at least it's an option. Try that anywhere else outside of this region.

And yes, delays happen more often than everyone would like, but not being able to access Manhattan from Newark is pretty much an impossibility. It's 24 hours to boot.

And you have at least four different ways to do it! (PATH train, NJ Transit train, NJ Transit bus, Amtrak; maybe there's other bus companies too)

I remember, back in like 2006, I had to go from my dorm in Manhattan to a funeral in West Virginia. The plan was Amtrak to DC then the commuter train to a town near the funeral and then a cab to the funeral itself. I got to DC and tried to connect to the commuter train only to be told that they decided to just not run the train that day. No advanced notice. Nothing on their website.

I ended up missing the funeral and just hanging out in DC's Union Station before just hopping back on Amtrak. After that, despite their faults, I really grew to appreciate NJ Transit.

 

[135ace]

Not really sure what you mean by this? There are tons of trains that run from NY Penn to Newark Penn, and it's extremely rare the entire system goes down (I actually dont recall that even happening once in the decade I lived in Manhattan, but maybe it did, nevertheless, it's silly to worry about).

NJ Transit trains are horrible, especially in winter. I used to commute to NY Penn from Millburn and if it was too cold, if it snowed, if it rained, whatever stupid reason they could think of the trans would literally stop right outside the tunnel going into NYC for an hour, and this would literally happen at least once a month. Now I live in downtown JC and take the path which is much, much better (although it also has delays Grove Street, so it can suck as well to get to Newark of Harrison).

Go get some Portuguese and Spanish food on the other side of Route 21

The Ironbound section of Newark

Fornos is close to the train station, very good food.
Fornos Spanish Cuisine- Spanish Tapas Bar, Newark - Spanish Food - Spanish Restaurant - Wines from Spain

While Fornos is probably the best in the area it's also quite expensive and doesn't offer rodizio. I would recommend Fernandes (will require a cab ride) for rodizio or Sabor Unido (which you can walk to from Penn) for a quick bite in a more mom and pop restaurant. Also, Tops Diner is absolutely legendary. It's really the best restaurant in Newark as even the Spanish/Portuguese restaurants don't compare to what you'll find in Rio, Buenos Aires, Madrid or Barcelona, but Tops Diner is Jersey's own and is truly amazing.

NY/NJ folks are spoiled so rotten with mass transit. This area, despite it's faults, has the best mass transit in the country. You can get nearly anywhere in New Jersey (or close by) by train, and those trains run very often. Try that elsewhere in the country.

Try elsewhere in the civilized world. Our mass transit is closer to riding on the backs of zebras in subsaharan Africa than it is to mass transit in Japan or Hong Kong. Our mass transit, and NYC subways in particular are a disgrace.

 

[Devils Dominion]

NJ Transit trains are horrible, especially in winter. I used to commute to NY Penn from Millburn and if it was too cold, if it snowed, if it rained, whatever stupid reason they could think of the trans would literally stop right outside the tunnel going into NYC for an hour, and this would literally happen at least once a month. Now I live in downtown JC and take the path which is much, much better (although it also has delays Grove Street, so it can suck as well to get to Newark of Harrison).


While Fornos is probably the best in the area it's also quite expensive and doesn't offer rodizio. I would recommend Fernandes (will require a cab ride) for rodizio or Sabor Unido (which you can walk to from Penn) for a quick bite in a more mom and pop restaurant. Also, Tops Diner is absolutely legendary. It's really the best restaurant in Newark as even the Spanish/Portuguese restaurants don't compare to what you'll find in Rio, Buenos Aires, Madrid or Barcelona, but Tops Diner is Jersey's own and is truly amazing.


Try elsewhere in the civilized world. Our mass transit is closer to riding on the backs of zebras in subsaharan Africa than it is to mass transit in Japan or Hong Kong. Our mass transit, and NYC subways in particular are a disgrace.

Rodizio is a different style than Fornos.

Tops is in Hudson County, East Newark, not in Newark. Good food but bad service the last time I went

 

[Jack Be Quick]

Try elsewhere in the civilized world. Our mass transit is closer to riding on the backs of zebras in subsaharan Africa than it is to mass transit in Japan or Hong Kong. Our mass transit, and NYC subways in particular are a disgrace.

Cool stories man. Try getting anywhere in Tokyo, Paris, Sydney, London, Buenos Aires, Barcelona, or Berlin after midnight. Good luck.

You're also severely exaggerating the njt delay issues all the while boasting about the path's efficiency. C'mon now.

 

[BenedictGomez]

this would literally happen at least once a month.

Once a month.

 

[135ace]

Once a month.

Yes, over an hour delays 5% of the time, and at least a half an hour delay once a week (20% of the time). Compare that to Japan where they literally give you a note if the trains are more than a couple minutes late since your employer would laugh in your face if you tried to tell them the trains were late.

 

[BenedictGomez]

Yes, over an hour delays 5% of the time, and at least a half an hour delay once a week (20% of the time).

You're taking the train round-trip, so it's 2.5% of the time; and given there's more than 20 work days in a month, it's really more like <=2%, but I digress. Point is, I dont think 2% is that big of a deal, it's a complicated system and there arent enough tunnels for all the trains. And given a new tunnel(s) are un-godly expensive, that probably aint changing anytime soon.

 

[BPCDEV]

Stay in lower Manhattan, especially anywhere near the WTC.
- Access to the PATH, so that you can get to the Prudential Center within 30 minutes
- Access to the WTC Oculus transit hub, so you can make your way around Manhattan for tourist activities

My 2cents, since I live down in BPC

 

[OmNomNom]

Will have to +1 the take on Japan (except after 12am). Our transportation is unbeaten, at least for access and reach, but not for reliability (globally). That being said, if time isn't a factor (or at least within reason), a visitor to the area can stay a lot of places and travel from point A to B using mass transit

 

[135ace]

Will have to +1 the take on Japan (except after 12am). Our transportation is unbeaten, at least for access and reach, but not for reliability (globally). That being said, if time isn't a factor (or at least within reason), a visitor to the area can stay a lot of places and travel from point A to B using mass transit

Reliability is a big deal. If I have a 8pm international flight out of JFK I literally have to leave my place in downtown JC 3-4 hours beforehand to travel a whopping 20 miles because you can't anticipate traffic and our mass transit it garbage. If I have an 8pm flight out of Tokyo Haneda I can take a 4pm Shinkansen out of Osaka, travel 300+ miles via train, then switch to a local train to the airport and not risk missing my flight (I'm not even kidding here, I've done this before). Like I said, traveling via a caravan of camels is literally more reliable than the garbage mass transit we have. Trains in countries like Japan are literally 1000% more efficient and probably 1,000,000% more reliable.

 

[Jack Be Quick]

Reliability is a big deal. If I have a 8pm international flight out of JFK I literally have to leave my place in downtown JC 3-4 hours beforehand to travel a whopping 20 miles because you can't anticipate traffic and our mass transit it garbage. If I have an 8pm flight out of Tokyo Haneda I can take a 4pm Shinkansen out of Osaka, travel 300+ miles via train, then switch to a local train to the airport and not risk missing my flight (I'm not even kidding here, I've done this before). Like I said, traveling via a caravan of camels is literally more reliable than the garbage mass transit we have. Trains in countries like Japan are literally 1000% more efficient and probably 1,000,000% more reliable.

Man you're making this difficult within the parameters of this board but I'll give it a go.

Japan specifically is not an apt analogy. Rebuilding an entire nation and the civic planning that followed is one of the great things that came out of that war. I also don't want to pay people to wear white gloves and shove passengers on to overflowing cars or to hand out tickets with train times. I have plenty of apps for the latter.

You use jersey city to jfk as an exaggerated example without mentioning that you can be to the area's 2nd largest international airport in about 45 minutes via train and/or bus. 15-20 for ~$17 if were talking about Lyft or uber.

I imagine you have an idea of how long it takes to get from the east end of London to Heathrow. But that doesn't seem to suit your narrative.

We can talk about cdg, schiphol, or barajas (by far and away the worst imo), but at the end of the day getting to airports is and always will be trash if your infrastructure is more than a century old.

But just so we're clear it would take ~1.5 hours to get from grove st to jfk right now. That's not entirely unreasonable for an international metropolis with 20 something million people in it.

Edit: Osaka to Haneda right now is near 4 hours. DC to Newark? Closer to 3.

 

[135ace]

Man you're making this difficult within the parameters of this board but I'll give it a go.

Japan specifically is not an apt analogy. Rebuilding an entire nation and the civic planning that followed is one of the great things that came out of that war. I also don't want to pay people to wear white gloves and shove passengers on to overflowing cars or to hand out tickets with train times. I have plenty of apps for the latter.

You use jersey city to jfk as an exaggerated example without mentioning that you can be to the area's 2nd largest international airport in about 45 minutes via train and/or bus. 15-20 for ~$17 if were talking about Lyft or uber.

I imagine you have an idea of how long it takes to get from the east end of London to Heathrow. But that doesn't seem to suit your narrative.

We can talk about cdg, schiphol, or barajas (by far and away the worst imo), but at the end of the day getting to airports is and always will be trash if your infrastructure is more than a century old.

But just so we're clear it would take ~1.5 hours to get from grove st to jfk right now. That's not entirely unreasonable for an international metropolis with 20 something million people in it.

Edit: Osaka to Haneda right now is near 4 hours. DC to Newark? Closer to 3.

I don't know why you mention Barajas, but a taxi from there to central Madrid is only around 30 minutes. Spain is actually a great example of a country that used EU money to rebuild their infrastructure (which was in the toilet). They have some of the best highways in Europe, many new airports, and some pretty good bullet trains (albeit them not running often). Schipol and CDG also have pretty good mass transit connecting them to the city, far better than JFK, LGA or EWR. Heathrow is a bit worse, and MXP is also bad considering Milan is more of a provincial city, but infrastructure in Europe is far better than anything in the US, even here in the NE where we have the population density for it.

Also, I've been to Japan over a dozen times and have never witnessed the crowded subways you're mentioning from those videos. It might happen on occasion, but it was nowhere near as crowded as NYC subways are when I was there. The 4/5/6 line in NYC is a hot mess everyday. Hong Kong on the other hand was far more crowded, and just an overall dirty city that is much closes to Bangkok or other SE Asian cities than to the futuristic cities you see in Japan.

 

[BenedictGomez]

I should be more thankful that I live in a country where the preferred method of transportation is the blessed personal vehicle.

 

[OmNomNom]

Reliability is a big deal. If I have a 8pm international flight out of JFK I literally have to leave my place in downtown JC 3-4 hours beforehand to travel a whopping 20 miles because you can't anticipate traffic and our mass transit it garbage. If I have an 8pm flight out of Tokyo Haneda I can take a 4pm Shinkansen out of Osaka, travel 300+ miles via train, then switch to a local train to the airport and not risk missing my flight (I'm not even kidding here, I've done this before). Like I said, traveling via a caravan of camels is literally more reliable than the garbage mass transit we have. Trains in countries like Japan are literally 1000% more efficient and probably 1,000,000% more reliable.

I agree it's a big deal, and I experienced Japan's metro for the first time 3 weeks ago - I love Japan for so many reasons, including that. But staying on topic, if someone is vacationing in this area, at least you'll have access at all times and multiple ways to get from point a to b, hence me saying he/she shouldn't focus TOO much on where they're staying

 

[135ace]

I agree it's a big deal, and I experienced Japan's metro for the first time 3 weeks ago - I love Japan for so many reasons, including that. But staying on topic, if someone is vacationing in this area, at least you'll have access at all times and multiple ways to get from point a to b, hence me saying he/she shouldn't focus TOO much on where they're staying

If we're staying on topic and transportation is the issue I'd suggest staying in Hoboken or Jersey City. You can get a hotel for half the price of what you'd pay in Manhattan and get into the city via path or ferry quite easily. The Hyatt in JC is right by the path and offers stunning views of the city, and to get to the arena you can either take a path or a lyft/uber. Lyft/Uber are pretty amazing in NJ and it's literally under $20 (usually around $15 to get to Prudential Center). Although you might have to take the path back as getting a Lyft/Uber after a game is tough as there's usually too much demand.

Continuing with interesting things to do on a visit to NYC I'd recommend trying to snag a dinner reservation at Manhatta. It's tough to get in, but the prices are low for NYC and they make a mean cocktail as well. Compared to other hotspots that offer a view (like the top of the standard which costs at least twice as much for a worse experience and terrible drinks by NYC standards) it's an absolute bargain and totally worth it. The one thing NYC definitely has going for it compared to other world cities is the food/entertainment scene. The clubs might be a bit overrated, but when it comes to shows, food, bars, etc NYC is about as good as it gets.