New York City is so near and yet can seem so far for those of us who are less than familiar with travelling to and throughout the Big Apple. A day trip to the city last summer with my family had seemed an easy enough idea: we would take the train, catch a few subways, walk a few blocks, and see the sites. What ensued, though, was anything but! I should have known traveling from Princeton to NYC with a dozen people who don’t frequent east coast public transportation was destined to be an adventure:
Math time. How much money should we put on the MetroCards?
We need customer service assistance!
Stuck in the turnstile…
Is this the right subway?
Then the skies turned black and it poured. But that’s for another blog post!
Several months later…
Unwilling to grant a victory to my intimidation of navigating major cities, I took advantage of Princeton Public Library’s Museum Pass Program so that my daughter and I could visit The Frick Collection to view the recent Vermeer, Rembrandt and Hals exhibit. At the time, driving seemed like it would be the easiest option simply because there would be less interaction with public transportation. But the day before our trip to the museum, a colleague suggested that we try HopStop, an app that has real-time public transit and walking directions for 300 cities worldwide. It also offers schedules, transit maps, info on detours and so much more. I downloaded it and planned the day. It was accurate, easy to use, free and liberating!
Now, HopStop is my new personal navigator, and I’ll be using it for my next visit to the city, to tour MOMA.