All the locations are only a hop and stop away

HopStop is a complete city transit guide which provides door-to-door subway and bus directions and maps for large cities. You can search for places to eat, drink, and sleep and send directions by e-mail or text message to a cell phone.

October 20, 2007, by itsnearme

To get started on Hopstop's is similar to other online map service (Yahoo! And Google Maps) – You pick your city from the site's list, and enter your start address, intersection, or popular restaurant or place in one field and destination in another. You can also use a map option to click on your location. If you have used the site before, you get a drop down menu with stored locations (this is great for those of us who always forget how to get to our favorite restaurant.) After that you choose several categories to narrow results - transportation mode (subway, bus, walking), walking and transfer preference (less street walking/more transfers and the inverse), and departure day and time.

The site then returns detailed combination stop-by-stop and/or turn-by-turn directions, which include distance and a time estimate. The results also offer a series of directional maps, links to nearby attractions, and also a 360-degree photo that gives you a view of the street as it looks when you emerge from the subway, including a big green arrow pointing in the direction of your destination.

Hopstop has other great and cool feature such as informing you about public transportation diversion and delays. Anyone who live in New York City knows the feeling of getting to the subway station and discovering that they station is closed for the weekend due to repair work. Hop Stop will text your mobile phone with subway-line-specific delay and diversion info. Hop Stop Mobile also let’s you receive, on your previously registered phone at their website, point-to-point directions. All you have to do is set up a previous trip on hopstop.com and it will automatically be texted to your phone. There is also a telephone service where you can call hopstop directly on a toll free number.

Hopstop also offers a standalone City Guide, with categories such as hotels, restaurants, bars which is nice and focused for people looking to save time, but not as detailed as other better known sites like City Search.

  How to use this service

You can use Hopstop.com without registering, but registering has benefits - you customize your preferences and enter your information such as home address, mobile phone, or if you prefer to walk rather than take public transportation and then you receive targeted information specific to your commuting and travel needs like subway closures or directions to the restaurant you are going to.