LivingBristol.co.uk

I fly several times a year to the States for business. Since last November it has been possible to catch a direct flight between Bristol airport and New York, or Newark a town just outside New York to be precise. It has been a useful alternative to flying from London.

What I tend to do now on business trips is if I’m going to the West coast I’ll take a hotel in London overnight and then catch a direct flight from Heathrow. On the way back, no matter where in the States that I am, I’ll always connect at Newark and fly back in direct to Bristol.  Once I get to Bristol and have collected my bags I can be back home, jet lagged within 20 minutes. If I was to fly back in to Heathrow it would be a minimum of a couple of hours. With jet lag that is never a nice couple of hours. Especially if you are catching the train.

 Don’t expect too much from the planes that fly between Bristol and Newark. They aren’t the pride of the fleet. They seem to be stuck in some kind of seventies time warp. The seats are three abreast, the leg room isn’t particularly spacious and there is no individual seatback television. There is only a television in the centre of the aisle. They typically play a couple of movies and then some comedy or documentary.

 The flights leave everyday at 10:30am. There is special strict security so I’d recommend getting there a full two hours before.  Once you get to Newark things are easy enough. There is a train which takes you to Penn Station. It takes about half an hour and doesn’t cost much. I think it was about 6 dollars. You can buy tickets from a machine at the station.

 If you are connecting somewhere else Newark isn’t the most amazing of airports. I’ve spent quite a few hours knocking about there. There is a decent steak house. The waiters and waitresses there have a bit of New York attitude which I quite like. Opposite the steakhouse there is the New York Metropolitan Museum shop which I do recommend. They guarantee that the prices are no higher than you would pay at the museum shop itself, so no rip off prices, and there are some really nice little presents in there - prints, statues, jewelry boxes. With dollars being cheap against the pound at the moment it is a good place to pick up presents.