Pre-flight night at Courtyard Newark International Airport

Preflight night

Before my flight, I stayed over at the Courtyard Newark Airport on Routes 1 & 9 since I wanted to be close to the airport in case anything weird were to happen.  Also, the hotel made me a deal on parking and I was able to leave my car there during my trip.  This saved me having to arrange for a car service, a ride or having to haul my stuff on New Jersey Transit.  Not to mention that parking, even in the long term, economy lot, is ridiculously expensive at EWR.   Plus, having seen many of the off site, cheaper parking facilities near the airport, there’s no way I was going to leave my car in any of them

This Courtyard is located in a different area that the properties in which I usually stay and to the uninitiated, it can be daunting trying to find the property.  It’s located North of the airport, adjacent to three other hotels: Fairfield Inn and SpringHill Suites by Marriott and a Home2Suites by Hilton.  There are no restaurants, other than the Bistro in the Courtyard, near these hotels, and there’s nothing else around either. However, there are several delivery options and you could always go out or take the shuttle to the airport and grab something in one of the pre-security food courts in terminals A or B.

My king room was ready when I arrived, so I was able to rearrange a few things in my luggage, ride over to the airport to check out the CLEAR and TSA Precheck situation and go out for lunch. While this Courtyard is an earlier generation, and has an actual courtyard, it was remodeled within the last year or so and I found the room fresh, clean and comfortable.

         

After a short rest I set out for lunch.  I’d planned to sample what is supposed to be the best hamburger in the state, at Krug’s Tavern in Newark, but I could not find a parking spot anyplace within a reasonable walking distance.  So, I decided to head over to a nice spot that I’d dined in before called Catas which serves tapas, full meals, excellent drinks and is located in Newark’s “Ironbound” district.  The other great thing is that Catas has its own small parking lot. 

I opted to sit at the bar for my lunch and I enjoyed beef empanadas, patatas bravas, sangria and churros for dessert.  Another delicious lunch with friendly service and prices that are not outrageously expensive.  Here are some photos of my yummy meal.  You can get here by cab or Uber as well.  It’s only about 10-15 minutes from the hotel depending on traffic. 

Sangria

Beef empanadas

Patatas Bravas

Churros

  

Following lunch, I returned to the hotel, took a ride on the shuttle over to Terminal C at EWR and had a look at the new CLEAR kiosks.  I verified that my information was still on file and saw that the CLEAR line was right next to the Precheck line.  I was hoping that the usual mess known as security at EWR would be less painful with the addition of CLEAR.

Later in the evening I wound up ordering a turkey sandwich from a local pizza shop called Original Primos.  The delivery time was a ridiculous 90 minutes even though when the order was placed, the suggested time was only about 30 minutes.  The food was pretty good but wound up being over $20 for a turkey wrap, a bag of chips and a soda.  The $13 minimum for delivery, along with the added delivery fee PLUS a tip made this a pretty pricey turkey wrap.  Yikes.

I finally turned in though I was too excited to get very much sleep.  I knew I’d have a LONG day ahead so figured any sleep was better than no sleep.  I woke up in the morning and wound up getting an Americano and a muffin from the Bistro in the lobby.  The Courtyard “proudly serves” Starbucks coffee so I was happy. I think I took a little nap before showering, packing up and getting ready to head over to the airport for my flight across the pond!  I felt like a little kid again!!

Here are a few more photos of the public areas and exterior of the Courtyard Newark Airport.

  Stay tuned for another installment!

 

Bistro Counter

Bistro Seating

Lobby

Exterior

Welcome Back.....and I'm going to Europe!

I know, I know, I've been mentioning that I'll be back to post for ages.  And I always seem to not have time or motivation to write. But, here I am, back again....and I'm going to Europe.  Dublin and London to be specific.  And sailing back to the USA on Queen Mary 2!  There will be posts...and photos....and fun.  So, grab a Guinness, or a Jameson, wine, mojito, coffee, whatever, get comfy and follow along! 

It’s been a dream of mine to go to Europe for as long as I can remember.  I’ve been lucky to travel to all 50 states, Canada, Mexico and many islands in the Caribbean.  Getting to Ireland, Hungary, England and other places across the pond really seemed like an unreachable goal.  Since becoming a travel advisor some seven years ago, I’ve helped many clients plan their trips to Europe and the more I researched THEIR vacations, the more I realized that I should bite the bullet and plan my own trip.

After a couple years of stops and starts, 2019 came into focus as the year that I was going to start ticking items off the bucket list.  My current job has given me the chance to tour dozens of ships, the most intriguing of all being Cunard’s Queen Mary 2.  This past February, during their Chinese New Year sale, I saw a very reasonable rate for a single passenger on a westbound transatlantic sailing, in an inside cabin, for mid-November.  I usually always cruise during November, right before the holidays and since I hadn’t made any plans, I went ahead and booked!  I figured that if I lost the non-refundable $100 deposit, it wouldn’t be so bad.  I found a nice inside cabin, made the reservation, paid the deposit and then said, “WHAT are you doing?”

Once the fact that I was committing to crossing the Atlantic Ocean sunk in (no pun intended), I began researching visiting different places in Europe for several days prior to the cruise back to Brooklyn.  My head was spinning, and I decided that I needed a travel agent.  Suddenly I realized that was me and I’d get to do the work for myself.  It’s not easy folks!  Booking trips for others comes naturally but figuring out what I wanted to do was kind of difficult.  The older I get, the more indecisive I become and if you stick around long enough and follow my posts, you’ll understand! 

Hungary, Spain and France all made it onto the list of possible destinations, but the logistics were not working out.  Yes, getting around Europe once you’re there is fairly easy, but I couldn’t make it work out within the time frame I had.  Thus, a few days in Dublin and a few in London were the lucky winners. 

When I booked the cruise, I priced out airfares into London and Dublin through several different carriers.  I also looked into Cunard’s CompleteAir program and discovered that I could fly into Dublin, in Premium Economy (or even Business Class, which was over my budget) for less than 1/6^th of the cost of booking directly with one of the carriers.

Using Cunard’s CompleteAir became a no-brainer.  What WAS an issue was the fact that I hated flying out of Newark airport AND I also hated American Airlines, which had a great flight from Philadelphia.  With Cunard, you can book “flexible air” which, in some cases, is more expensive than the ‘restricted air”, but you’re allowed to make as many changes as you want up until 45 days ahead of your trip.  In my case, flexible air was significantly cheaper than the restricted air so that’s the route I took.

American Airlines has a great product but my last flight with them was hugely delayed, the communication was non-existent, and their customer service is deplorable.  Long story short, I understand delays due to weather and that weather is out of the control of any carrier.  What I cannot forgive is the flight crews’ refusal to keep us informed of what was happening.  Many other little things also contributed to my current disdain for them, but in the end, United seemed to be the best choice even though the flight I’m taking to Dublin has a connection at London Heathrow (LHR).

With the plans for getting to and from finally set, the fun part commenced:  finding hotels in Dublin and London and figuring out what I wanted to see!

Stay tuned!!