Thanks for planning and leading a photo stroll! Here are some best practices to follow when creating a route.
Planning the Walk
Meeting Location
Every walk begins with a meeting location. This is the spot we’ll list on our walk poster, our website homepage, and of course where we’ll actually meet.
When choosing a meeting location, it’s important to remember that many people who have never attended our walks will be joining, and might not know our faces. So it’s best to pick a prominent landmark to bring everyone together in a more or less precise location.
Good past examples:
- Kimlau Square – a small public square where it was easy to find everyone
- Grand Army Plaza (under the arch) – a particular landmark (the arch) in an otherwise large public space
Less ideal examples:
- Nathan’s on the boardwalk – while this is precise, there are two Nathan’s in Coney Island, and this confused many people
- McGolrick Park – we didn’t specify an exact location in the park, which led to some people getting lost
Length
Our walks usually last 1.5 hours (90 minutes). It’s a good enough amount of time to see some diverse sights, connect with people, and not be too tired at the end.
We naturally tend to stop and take pictures along the way – it’s a photo walk, after all! So it’s best not to make the route too long. In our experience, a 1.5-mile route works perfectly for this amount of time.
It’s always tough when you want to see as much as possible! But we recommend focusing on the best sights and staying within the 1.5-mile limit, to make it a great walk for everyone.
Leading the Walk
On the day of the walk, we’d ask you to show up on time or early, so you can greet and help gather everyone together.
If our meeting time isn’t for a particular event, like catching a particular train or ferry, we generally start walking at 20-30 minutes past the official meeting time (e.g. if meeting at 3pm, we might start walking at 3:20pm).
As we start walking, please share your location in the group chat using the “share location” feature in WhatsApp. This will help any latecomers find the group.
Going along, be sure to stop at any spots that are particularly interesting to the group, and keep an eye on the very back, to be sure no one gets lost along the way. Over our walks thus far, we’ve rarely lost people when the route leader looks out for everyone. Otherwise, be sure to keep everyone moving after spending a little time at each location, crossing the road, etc. Sometimes we all like to gab, and forget that we should be walking 
After the Walk
We like to end our walks at a restaurant / bar, so everyone can grab some food, drinks, and more conversation if they like. We highly suggest guiding your route toward a place (or in the vicinity of one) that can accommodate 10 or more people.
Questions?
Anything I missed? Let me know here so we can improve the docs!