I just thought I'd post here how amazingly easy the subway system was to use for visitors. We just got back from a week in NYC, staying with friends in Bed-Stuy. The Myrtle-Willoughby station on the G was our home base. Sure G trains could run a little more often, but we were never late getting anywhere.
As we were mostly seeing Broadway shows, we started off taking the G - L - (N,Q,R,W) to Times Sq. But then they started doing work on the L train so we took the G - E to 50th and 8th, and that was actually a faster ride with less transfers.
The subway system is amazing. I made up a map of all the stations I used in one week. It's incredible how from one station in Brooklyn I could get anywhere in the city I wanted with at most 2 transfers. Or how we went to Chinatown by the G-F, and came home by the 6-L-G so we didn't have to walk all the way back the way we'd came.
I bought 1 week passes on Monday and after that we were using the subway 4-6 times a day to go to Times Sq., Herald Sq. visit friends on 159th, go to Battery Park, Chinatown, The Village, Park Slope, Williamsburg. Super easy, I loved it.
My one nitpick complaint (other than the L being worked on on New Year's Eve) was that I planned ahead and had a $50 to buy two $25 one week passes. The machine wouldn't let me buy 2 passes at once and couldn't make change, so I had to buy the passes from the ticket agent who was on the other side of the street. Other than that, no problems.
