Travel Tip! Commuting Outside of NYC.

I’m lucky enough to live in NYC, where public transportation is easily accessible and takes you well outside of the city.

The MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) is the largest North American public transportation system. This includes the subway, which runs through all 5 boroughs, the bus which travels within a borough (or you can take it between boroughs, but it costs more), Long Island Railroad (LIRR) and Metro-North (MNR). The latter two of the four being for longer commutes outside of the city.

What is this crazy picture that is too small to be legible? That's the NYC subway system that primarily runs underground. It’s definitely overwhelming when you see it that way, but after living here for 14yrs, I’ve become as much of a pro as I can. I’m more familiar with some routes and connections than others, but I do pretty well. Once you’ve swiped yourself in with a metrocard (or tapping with your credit card, which is new!), you’ll be able to transfer to most routes in some way or other. The 2/3 to the Q, to the F? No problem! Google maps gets you around really well and the stations are well marked to help you transfer between lines.

I could spend all day talking about the subway (I'll do a different entry on that), but let's jump to Metro-North; How you can get all the way from Manhattan out to Connecticut or upstate along the Hudson River. This weekend I went to Greenwich, Ct. which is about an hour by train. Here is a basic step-by-step of how I got there:

There is a great, free app called MTA TrainTime. You can put in your route, which gives you train times, buy and activate your tickets.

What the route and tickets look like: when you buy a ticket, make sure you’re checking if it’s peak or off-peak timing, there is a price difference. You can buy a round trip or a one way, and the nice thing is that you’re buying a ticket, but not a time. If you miss the train you planned on taking, grab the next with no issue. You do have to stick with your route, though. Activate your ticket just before you get on the train and once on the train, someone will come through and scan and then you just enjoy the ride until your stop!

*Note that you can also buy your ticket at the station, there are plenty of kiosks. The app is easier in my opinion and is my go to. Here are a couple of station pics in Grand Central terminal:

Hopefully you found this helpful and feel somewhat prepared should be visiting the city and feel the need to venture out for a day trip!

FYI- I love Cold Spring, NY off the Hudson line. It’s a great little town with good food, great views, and some good hiking.

Anyone else have great public transportation systems they're familiar with?