I am flying into JFK this Friday the 7th and have a 9 hour wait for a transfer flight to Guyana.

Does anyone know JFK? I am wondering if there is anywhere to go and maybe get my head down for a couple or hours or to relax away from the crowds?

9 hours? Leave the airport, go hang somewhere. If your into bird watching, the Jamacia Bay Widlife Refuge is right there

Would we be able to leave the airport during an international transfer? In the UK you cant leave air-side.

Jamacia Bay sounds ideal though. I do enjoy bird watching and one of the guys I am travelling with is a respected authority on birds.

As far as I know, you can leave the airport but you may wish to get some info on how long it would take to clear customs and then get back into the terminal. It could take an hour to clear and an hour to get back in, depending on your travel day and time.

Nine hours is a long time but not an impossible timeframe to enjoy a few hours outside.

Cheers for the suggestions guys, I have family in NY but they are busy, which is a shame. A couple of hours stretching the legs and birdwatching would be a great ideal.

Yes, you can. I had a buddy fly from Europe, stopped in LA for 10 hours, went home and did his laundry, then repacked and took off to Australia later that night.

Edit: his 2 vacations were to europe and australia. he resided in La. That probably wasn't clear.

Interesting, I take it he was a US citizen though.

I am just googling whether we can enter the US for a couple of hours.

Any ideas the journey time on the tube to Manhattan from the airport?

About 40 minutes, but you can't get directly from teh Air train to manhattan - have to switch onto the subway. Check here -

I'm a NY'er and to be honest, unless you want a quick run into Manhattan for 3 - 4 hours, i don't see where there's much else to do. Bird watching sounds pretty impractical to me.

mind you, three to 4 hours in manhattan might be pretty cool to do, depending on the time of day.

http://gonyc.about.com/cs/airlinesairports/a/getto_jfk.htm

Like Izzy said, once your through customs/INS you can do what you want. Just avoid the line going to the connecting flights (which you usually have to go through security again depending on airport) and follow the line going to the taxi's.

Enjoy NYC!