Scoring last-minute tickets to Broadway shows, hitting a gallery opening in Chelsea, catching a runway seat at New York Fashion Week, getting a reservation for dinner at the Soho or hailing a cab Midtown: contact sports you can not compare to the adrenaline of just being alive in New York.
Getting Around New York City
The best way to get around New York is by walking and using the subway. The subway and bus system usually runs 24 hours, with some exceptions. Taxis are readily available, but traffic can make it a costly and slow choice.
Nearby Airports
John F. Kennedy International Airport-JFK
LaGuardia Airport-LGA
Newark International Airport-EWR
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Green hills define the Chelsea galleries – but do not expect to detect from the street. The High Line is a strip of grass hanging over 30ft 10th Ave, with wildflowers blooming in the used to be railroad tracks. Entrances every two blocks offer access to the High Line’s bucolic paths and picnics in an outdoor ampitheatre. West of 10th Avenue, more than 200 galleries are located between auto repair shops between 14th and 25th streets. Occasionally, garage doors are cut to reveal the giant polka-dotted mushrooms of Yayoi Kusama and other modernist wonders. Breakthrough artistic talents waiting to be discovered inside industrial buildings, especially on Friday night receptions and openings on the first Thursday of each month. To heat the gallery walks and Eight Ave boutique trawls, hit the gym, pool, batting cage, climbing wall and ice rink at Chelsea Piers.
Wall Street – NYC
The business end of Manhattan can get unexpectedly emotional. In addition to the unnaturally altered skyline marked by September 11 Memorial & Museum, there are stirring riverside views of the Statue of Liberty. Romantics can sail into the sunset from Battery Park, where ferries depart to the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and Staten Island. Bronze Wall Street bull in Bowling Green Park has survived the mockery and the art of guerrilla warfare, including yarn bombing that left the ferocious beast wearing a cozy pink crocheted. Economic outrage led to Occupy Wall Street in the financial district’s Zuccotti Park, but raw deals are not new here. In 1626, Dutch traders bought Manhattan from the Native American Lenape people for about $ 1,000 in commercial products. Some restitution has been made to the unfair competition: the old Customs House now serves as the National Museum of the American Indian. Business is forgotten in trendy bars at Port South, as long as you are going to buy.
Upper East Side – NYC
The shops here may seem expensive, but the Upper East Side is priceless. Master thieves must dream jewels and works of art scattered along Fifth Avenue’s Museum Mile, from the Frick Collection’s salons to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s snail-shaped gallery. The Metropolitan Museum of 2 million pieces of art showcases the best moments of civilization, from the ancient Egyptian temple of Dendur facing Central Park to aliens gowns by Alexander McQueen at the Met Costume Institute. For aspiring artists, the most valuable space in America is a point on the wall at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The races are held overnight for 50 artists selected peak for the Whitney Biennial, held in even-numbered years. The Jewish Museum puts 26,000 precious cultural perspective objects, including works by Man Ray and Marc Chagall. The latest addition to the Museum Mile Neue Gallerie is with Expressionist artists from Germany and Austria. Stock up on masterpieces at Sotheby’s, followed by drinks so stiff enough to impact the price curing the auction house. To escape from these museums, take a carriage ride through Central Park or hit the courts at Asphalt Green, a factory of 1,941 creatively reused as a sports facility. The best bargain of the Upper East Side is 92nd Street Y, with its large pool, more than 2,000 community art classes, and lectures in the auditorium.
Williamsburg – NYC
Williamsburg and Greenpoint can get a little conceited, but nobody is denying its historic charms. Reliquary city collects quality Statue of Liberty Kitsch and New York exclusive stories, like one of the guys who tried every slice of pizza in the city. Williamsburg enjoys the simple pleasures of life: German Chocolate Cake in the backyard in Bakery, spelling bees Matute free at Pete Candy Store, 1980 video games, and craft beer in Barcade. American classic reinvented as the chicken cooked under a brick served with a conspiratorial wink and sides of oysters in Williamsburg Marlow & Sons. For something simpler, honest meat and drink, try Peter Luger, 100-year-old German meat, or head to Fette Sau for barbecue and bourbon in a converted auto body shop. Williamsburg hotels have more space and no traffic problems of Manhattan, and it is much closer to airports La Guardia and JFK.
Morningside Heights – NYC
Just above the Upper West Side is Morningside Heights, a classic overachiever with the highest concentration of colleges and seminaries of Manhattan. The Hungarian Pastry Shop and Oren’s Daily Roast provide fuel for the decrees of the School of Music in Manhattan, picnics, and protests in Low Library at Columbia University, and browse the collection of the Barnard College of ‘zines by women. For moments of contemplation away from the noise of the city, tour the gardens in Grant’s Tomb and check out an organ concert in the unfinished Cathedral of St. John the Divine. North of 125th Street, Washington Heights revives the senses with Dominican Diners and unexpected works of the art masterpiece. The Cloisters houses the collection of medieval art in the Metropolitan Museum a landmark in 1930, built of stones salvaged from old European monasteries. Inside the historic complex Audubon Terrace, the Hispanic Society of America is aligned with the Goyas, El Greco, and Spanish decorative arts. For adventure, climb the rock to overlook the Hudson River in Fort Tryton Park, or explore the decommissioned Little Red Lighthouse covered under the George Washington Bridge.
Midtown East – NYC
Manhattan owes its iconic profile and over-the-top style Midtown East. Give your regards to Broadway from Herald Square, then summit the neighboring Empire State with vertiginous 360-degree views. King Kong was right: this is the best view of Manhattan. Farther uptown, top of the rock three floors offers a panoramic observation platform on the Empire State and Chrysler buildings of Rockefeller Center. Nobody makes holidays like Midtown East, with its parade of Macy’s Day Thanksgiving, Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall, and the ice rink and the multi-story Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. Between parties, Midtown East hits the books in the public library in New York and works towards world peace at the United Nations. MoMa Manhattan keeps talking with daring performance. Even busy commuters stop and look at the glass windows of Tiffany and the main concourse of Grand Central Terminal, promotions, and toast with champagne and oysters at Grand Central’s vintage 1913 Oyster Bar.
Park Slope – NYC
Some reasons to drag out of Park Slope and Prospect Heights are obvious: the risk-taking Brooklyn Museum, autumn leaves and summer roses in Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and concerts by Jay-Z to Barbara Streisand in the Barclay center. Blue Ribbon Brasserie in Park Slope earn their awards with inventive surf-and-turf like oysters and bone marrow, and Union Hall bar aims to please everyone with leather club chairs and bookshelves, bocce ball courts and live music. The F and Q lines connect Manhattan to Prospect Heights at the Prospect Park, and from there to the carnival rides and recently renovated boardwalk at Coney Island. Walk past new stores and old stone houses where children still play on the steps of Park Slope, and see what keeps New Yorkers here.
South Bronx – NYC
The Bronx seems gruff at the start, but only tourists buy that act. This northern city is the destination of choice for New Yorkers under 12 years old, attracted by the gorillas, polar bears, and tigers at the Bronx Zoo. Whether you’re supporting the home team or give the old Bronx cheer, the crowd goes crazy for games at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. For a genuine gourmet trip, skip Little Italy and head to the Italian delis along Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. To answer the obvious question: yes, scenes from The Sopranos were filmed here. If the concrete jungle of Manhattan lets you claustrophobic, find room to breathe between the greenery in the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. No annual sample train Botanical Garden party perish with model trains chugging past New York landmarks made entirely from plants. The Bronx has not been Brooklynized and remains a neighborhood of mixed economic and ethnically family. New row houses, old projects of high-rise housing, and chain stores in the art deco buildings are all part of the landscape of the Bronx.
Downtown Brooklyn – NYC
Down under the overpass bridge, Manhattan may not sound like the kind of place you want to spend a date night, but DUMBO will change your mind. Sunsets are sublime in the Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park, where you can see through the port of Manhattan. Shows in DUMBO Arts Center regularly overflow into art crawls and installations under the bridge, and theater and acting music productions of Broadway-release worthy in-store Santa Ana. LEED Green Art Space Galapagos knows that comedy Nerd and burlesque nights down better with a full bar. The good news is that DUMBO is within walking distance of the York Street subway. Downtown Brooklyn is relatively absent in the nightlife but shows the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Rose Cinemas in Fort Greene worth the detour. Reserve ahead of one of the 18 seats at the table of the Michelin-starred chef inside the Brooklyn Fare grocery store, or venture over to acclaimed Vinegar Hill House for newfangled old-fashioned feasts of cast-iron-roasted chicken and Guinness chocolate cake.
Upper West Side – NYC
Get ready for fun! Opera, natural history, fashion, and design may seem too much in other places, but in the Upper West Side had them all. Look inside the brilliant jewelry box theater at Lincoln Center, and find dancers, Metropolitan Opera divas, and the entire New York Philharmonic. During New York Fashion Week, supermodel lumbers through the Lincoln Center as giraffes in Safari. Jazz at Lincoln Center in Columbus Circle has finished near the controversial new ceramic-tiled home of the Museum of Arts and Design. The upper west side has matured, but also ideal for families. The American Museum of Natural History was the scene of the Night at the Museum movie blockbuster, and mummies, dinosaurs, and meteorites are the stars of its breaking collection of 32 million weird and wonderful specimens. For gifted children, Children’s Museum of Manhattan offers Grinch toy-making workshops, while Symphony Space offers readings with Lemony Snickett and other children’s book authors. Children and parents worn out by the Central Park Playground Safari can nap in the strawberry fields later on.
Midtown West – NYC
The urge to break into song is undeniable that here, even if you do not have a concert at Carnegie Hall. Broadway marquees lining from 42nd to 54th bring all kinds of rhythms to mind, and Times Square may have to hum Auld Lang Syne months before New Year’s Eve. The decline of the illuminated ball has announced calendar changes in Times Square since 1908, but the neighborhood has changed around him. Blinking jumbotrons and digital stock tickers line Broadway’s Great White Way, and attractions for the whole family 42nd Street attractions like Madame Tussaud’s and Ripley’s Believe It or Not! help draw 39 million visitors a year to the area. Times Square ads underwear and lingerie-clad cowboy singing naked are distant echoes crummy days Midnight Cowboy Midtown West in the 1970s when swindlers and palaces of pornography received newcomers from all over the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Smoking is one of the many vices, now banned in Times Square, and city planners are rebranding neighboring Hell’s Kitchen to make it seem less intimidating for Javits Convention Center visitors. But memories still surfaces Gentlemen’s club in the Hell’s Kitchen flea market, and native New Yorker Lady Gaga keeps trying to shock seen-it-all Midtowners at Madison Square Garden. Do you think you can do better? Koreatown karaoke bars are standing by.
Tribeca – NYC
Back in the potential of the 1970s, artists saw in old textile stores in the Triangle Below Canal St ( “Tribeca”) – and now more desirable than patch US real estate. The neighborhood is one of the places with more history, with cobbled streets and stately homes from 1804 to 1828 federal along Harrison Street. Comfort food will Tribeca luxury restaurants like Tribakery, Edward, and The Harrison, but Bubby’s Pie Company remains sentimental favorite neighborhood for hamburgers and breakfast evening. Tribeca has a glorious backyard in Hudson River Park, overlooking the sunset and five miles of trails. And yes, it probably was a celebrity jogging past-Tribeca lofts and the ostentatious Tribeca Grand Hotel are the crash pads of choice for movie starlets proving themselves on Broadway. Tribeca had a creative comeback after September 11, when a long time resident Robert De Niro’s Tribeca was co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival ago.
Chinatown – NYC
New York names can be misleading. Little Italy should be called “Tiny and a kind of Italian”, while Chinatown is a city on the Vietnamese noodles. Separated from Nolita neighborhood, Little Italy has very little to call their own in addition to the annual feast of San Gennaro. Ravenite social club once received Lucky Luciano and John Gotti as a Little Italy gangster’s club; today is a luxury shoe boutique store. Today only 5% of the residents of Little Italy are actually American Italian, but anyone can be Italian to spend the night in classic restaurants like Torrisi Italian Specialties and the cozy welcoming Focolare. Chinatown and Little Italy share a border and a historical designation, but their outlook is markedly different. The attacks of September 11 hurt business in the neighboring Chinatown, with a sharp drop in tourism and trade in local clothing. But the neighborhood rose, and today’s Chinatown has about 90,000 inhabitants, many Chinese and Vietnamese origin. Although many residents came after 1965, this is one of the largest and oldest Chinatowns in the West. The Museum of Chinese in America traces the history of Chinese New Yorkers from 1858 to the present and offers tours to walk over historical places like Chinese restaurants, cinemas, shops, and landmarks.
Lower East Side – NYC
The pot gets its flavor from the Lower East Side where Kosher-salted delis meet spicy Puerto Rican bodegas on Delancey Street. Eldridge Street echoes with klezmer and Chinese opera in the annual Egg Cream & Egg Roll Festival every June. More on Bowery St, the New Museum Contemporary Museum of Art induces double-take and Bowery Ballroom will keep you up late. For New Yorkers who dream of Manhattan before the gentrification of the Bowery, the Tenement Museum Lower East Side is an important reality check. Once you have seen the cramped conditions in which it received fresh arrivals in the proverbial boat from Ellis Island, condominiums do not look like a bad alternative. Boutique hotels along Rivington and a high density of restaurants make the East Village a place much more charming landing spot for visitors now.staurants make the East Village a far more attractive landing spot for visitors today.
Nolita – NYC
Shop in Nolita till you drop at one of the elegant boutique hotels in Soho. The child rebels Little Italy and Soho, North of Little Italy ( “Nolita”) package fashionable shops and date-worthy restaurants into 16 blocks. SoHo’s oldest and largest, with narrow streets lined with wrought iron and glass lofts dating back to the industrial revolution. Average rents increased so galleries have been replaced by chain stores in Soho, but still a fabulous place to stay. But if you want to make a table in Soho, call ahead. Soho has the most notorious waiting lists of Manhattan, especially at Balthazar. Cosmopolitans date nights call for a foreign film at the Film Forum SoHo and Italian-accented food in bars at Nolita like Peasant or Balaboosta. Nolita is the home to the 1809 Old St. Patrick Cathedral, but it’s okay if you plan to skip the Sunday morning mass.
Greenwich Village – NYC
Namedropping comes with the territory in Greenwich Village. Manhattan museums would be half empty without the people, the home of painters Winslow Homer to Jackson Pollock. Jazz greats John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, and Miles Davis played the Village Vanguard and the first US integrated clubs around Sheridan Square. In between sets at Bleecker Street dives like the Bitter End, the popular legends like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Simon & Garfunkel were mixed with perpetual protesters in Washington Square Park. Musicals are so high in the city; the people prefer off-off-Broadway drama and underground comedy by Jerry Seinfeld and Louis CK at the Comedy Cellar and Village Lantern. Writer’s block is dissolved in Village cafes and bookstores, regular sites for writers Mark Twain to Maya Angelou. But the Village is not all the talks. NBA players are elbowed aside by street ballers at the nation’s toughest pick-up game, held in the 4th court known as the cage. Customers of gay bars made history when they defied a police raid in 1969 at Stonewall Inn; today it is a national historic monument. Christopher Street remains out and proud, although the scene of the LGBT trendy bar has shifted to the north of the Meatpacking district.
NoHo – NYC
When you ask a punk to pass the salt, you have officially arrived in the East Village. This addition of East Greenwich Village got its legendary street representative graffiti artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring and the late, great CBGB punk club. East Village scene lives in a late-night delis Poles around Tompkins Square Park, poetry contests at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and tattooed neck-spa-goers in the Russian and Turkish baths. During the day the East Village straightens and makes nice with skaters and sidewalks exchange Starbuckers around Astor Place. Chefs live in reality in the East Village, handing out awards winning food at reasonable prices at Momofuku Noodle Bar, Milk Bar, and Terroir Wine Bar. But real estate developers with no such scruples have carved off a hunk of East Village north of Houston, forming the exclusive NoHo district. Where East Village walk-ups and vintage shops basement end, NoHo lofts and curated storefronts start.
Brooklyn Heights – NYC
Diehard Manhattanites who kvetch about crossing a bridge learn the error of their ways in Brooklyn Heights. These tree-lined streets are a study in 19th century New York architecture, including 1880 Queen Anne which is now the Brooklyn Historical Society. Nothing takes the edge of a New York summer as a chocolate chunk of Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory with caramel sauce, enjoy the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge. The best sunset views of Manhattan are along Brooklyn Heights Promenade, but there are plenty of native Brooklyn quirks here too. When you need a beard trim or a Yemeni lamb, no need to look beyond the Brooklyn Heights brownstone housing Atlantic Barber / Yemeni Cafe. Montague Street fashion stores offer looks that easily move from the uptown, downtown, or upstate. Stop by New York Transit Museum to pose in Vintage wagons and listen to lurid stories of building tunnels underground under the East River, although you may want to forget that when riding the subway back to Manhattan .
Harlem – NYC
Think of the cultural advancement of the United States, and it most likely happened in Harlem. This neighborhood survived flappers and mobsters in the 1920s, almost everyone booed off stage at the Apollo, except Ella Fitzgerald, Jimi Hendrix and Michael Jackson, and revolutionized America from Marcus Garvey to Malcolm X. See the writing on the wall at Graffiti Wall of Fame at 106th and park, then go to the Studio Museum to see the change of art history by African American artists. Harlem launched jazz and hip hop and teaches Madonna to vogue, so expect big nights out. Get educated on the Jazz Museum in Harlem before jazz ensembles in the historic art deco Lenox Lounge. Hit Shrine for slick beats and reggae, and end at Ginny’s Supper Club for soul food with a side of blue. The morning after, Amy Ruth serves the special Reverend Al Sharpton special: chicken and waffles, optional gravy. East Harlem is largely Latino, and known as El Barrio. The neighborhood pride is the El Museo del Barrio, a small space filled with the contemporary Caribbean and Latin art and encounters with such notables as Nobel Prize-winning poet Derek Walcott.
