On my way from London to San Francisco I decided not to venture in to Manhattan and instead book a night at the Holiday Inn Express, JFK. I have stayed at the property before and have always been pleased with the service so booked again.

At JFK the hotel shuttles go from the Federal Circle stop on the inter-terminal train. It took me about 8 minutes from the airplane to the train, about 10 minutes to Federal Circle and a couple of minutes to the waiting kerb for the buses.

There were several other hotel buses there, and I only had a five minute wait until the shared shuttle for the Holiday Inn Express (and Best Western/Comfort Inn) arrived. The pleasant driver checked that I was going to the correct hotel and then I hopped on board. The shuttle is one of those that has the internal bag rack.

We were at the hotel in about 10 minutes and at check-in I was the only person in line. The agent was helpful and friendly and gave me a goody bag (4 Oreos, a packet of cheesy biscuits and a bottle of water), as a Priority Club Platinum member. She explained the shuttle times (once per hour, on the hour), and breakfast times (from 6am). In addition she handed me some menus from local restaurants who deliver to the hotel as there is no on-site restaurant.

They allocated me a room at the end of the corridor which was nice. It had a bath (uncommon in Holiday Inn Express’ in Europe). The WiFi code was written on the key packet and worked fine when connecting.

 

The air conditioning is a through the wall type which is noisy, so I turned it off and was fine, although cold in the morning.

I had to leave before breakfast but the agent at check-out was giving out little bags with yoghurt, milk and cereal in them for free. There was coffee, which whilst old was warm and wet.

Summary – a good stay at a good hotel if you are stopping over at JFK – AAA rate of $142 + taxes.