OK, I have a 6-hour layover in Newark on June 6. Assuming my incoming plane is an hour late, and that I’ll have to be back at the Newark airport two hours before my flight out, that leaves three hours to explore… Newark.
Should I try to cab it to NYC? What could I do/see in only three hours? Walk through Central Park? Climb the Statue of Liberty?
Thanks, fellow dopers. I 'preciate it.
The bad news first: with only three hours, you won’t have enough time to go to Manhattan. No matter how you slice it, without a miracle it’ll take at least 45 minutes each way to get there and that just Ain’t Worth It.
I worked in Newark for three years, until I left that job this past November. Newark actually has quite a bit to recommend it. Parts are still in terrible shape (decades of corruption punctuated by rioting has will do that to a city), but there are genuine jewels. Depending on the time of day, here’s what I’d do:
In either case, you will have to be rolled to your plane, but there are worse things to happen!
Go to the Newark Museum. This is a beautiful and often-overlooked institution, with a marvelous collection of European and American art. It suffers from living in the shadow of the Metropolitan, which is unfortunate since it’s really a great place.
Go to the Newark Public Library. This gem of a building is near the Museum. Terrific collection, great building, interesting exhibits. The only disadvantage is that parts of it aren’t air conditioned - that’s reserved for the stacks.
All of the above are about 20 minutes’ cab ride from the airport. I don’t recommend taking buses, because they’re slow and the system is pretty complicated. If you were arriving about three or four months from now, there’d be a rail connection you could take, but that’s not finished yet. In the interim there’s a lot of construction around the airport, which means it’s better to let a cab do the driving than try to figure out where the bus stop is this week.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, there isn’t much good shopping in Newark. The two major department stores, Hahne’s and Bamberger’s-turned-Macy’s, closed in the early 90s with nothing to replace them.
In April 1991, my family took a trip to Europe for a week. We, too, had a long layover in Newark before our overnight flight to Paris. I, being the idiot I was, took advantage of the six or so hours we spent in the airport taking a nap. Yes, I did this before an international, overnight flight. I felt fine when I woke up (well, I also sweated through my clothes because the a/c died in the terminal and it was 75+F in there the whole time), but the next seven hours on the plane were some of the most miserable of my life. I was wide awake and wearing stinky, sweaty clothes.
I’ve been to EWR four times this year, to pick up/drop off Anniz twice. The B-terminal, which is in the international terminal, is under serious reconstruction and there’s nothing to do there. I can’t speak for A and C, and there’s really nothing in the neighbourhood. Another family trip had us spend eight hours at LAX, and we used that time to cab to the mall to catch a movie and do some shopping, but I don’t think there’s anything remotely that entertaining near the airport.
Read a good book.
Thank you, xtnjohnson and Montfort!
All very good advice. I think I’ll definitely bring some playing cards (I do have a traveling companion). Otherwise, do you think we’d get in trouble for playing catch in the terminal? 
The Spanish/Portuguese restaurants actually sound wonderful, especially since we just happen to be heading to Spain and Portugal! What a cool way to kick off our trip and get into the Iberian mindframe (or perhaps “stomachframe” is more apropos). And there’s nothin’ like a big meal to put me right to sleep on a plane.
Muchas gracias.