Can I see New York City on a flight layover?

Be very careful about squeezing sightseeing into a flight layover. There are a number of factors involved when considering the answer to this question.

1. Time from landing to terminal exit. (30 minutes)
2. Time to get from airport to see the sights.(1 hour)
3. Time to get from the sights back to the airport. (1 hour)
4. Time to go back through security at airport. (1 hour)

You can see that you will probably want to plan for at least Three and a half hours for transit and other necessities. You also want to factor in the fact that you need to be at the airport about two hours before your flight.

In reality an eight hour layover probably means about two and a half hours to see the sights. We'd recommend that you have at least this much time between arrival and departure of your next flight if you want to get in some decent sightseeing.