Like the website for LaGuardia Airport, the website for Newark merely states that pet relief areas are available. It’s up to you to “[f]ollow the signs in the baggage claim areas or ask a Customer Care Representative for information.”

When I arrived at the baggage claim level of Terminal A, I couldn’t find a single sign. Later, when I had returned from the pet relief area and was looking instead for the bus into Manhattan, I did see this one lone sign over Door 1:

On the right side of the sign, you can see EWR's icon for a pet relief area -- a person holding a poop bag at arm's length, his terrier, beside him, already thinking of something else

Follow it outside — or, as I did, exit the baggage claim level by any door and peer left and right — and you’ll see a narrow, dark stairway leading down to a lower level, with this sign above it:

When you reach the bottom of the stairs, you’ll see this sign, urging you to go left:

And as you emerge into the open air again, you’ll find this fenced area on the left:

Poop bags are provided, and there are trashcans in the parking garage you just walked through. I cannot explain the rectangle of small boulders in the middle of the pet relief area, but I’m willing to overlook them (with a bewildered shake of the head), given that the area is fully fenced, clean, large and grassy. It would be nice to see a bench, a trash can and a water source, but after the dreadful pet relief area at LaGuardia’s Terminal D, this one seemed heavenly.

If you’d prefer not to negotiate the steep staircase with your luggage as well as your pet, there is a workable alternative on the main arrivals level. Instead of descending to the lower level, simply turn left as you exit the baggage claim area and walk to the end of the sidewalk. Ahead of you is “Courtyard A,” a big parking lot with lanes for buses to pull into and out of (the Newark Airport Express bus leaves from lanes 1-4).

You've exited Terminal A at the baggage claim level and turned left; across a secondary roadway, you'll find this ahead of you -- slots for parking buses to the left, a useful patch of grass to the right

Cross the little roadway and walk towards the buses — across from the extended shelter under which you can wait for them is a long patch of grass. Be sure to bring poop bags, and clean up after your pup.

This post is part of an ongoing series of reviews of airport pet relief areas we’ve visited. To see others, visit Dog Jaunt’s handy guide to airport pet relief areas.