New York: The Rough Guide, Sixth Edition - Softcover

New York City comprises the central island of Manhattan along with four outer boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island. Manhattan, to many, is New York. Certainly, whatever your interest in the city it’s here that you’ll spend the most time, and, unless you have friends elsewhere, are likely to stay. Understanding the intricacies of Manhattan’s layout, and above all getting some grasp on its subway and bus system, should be your first priority. Most importantly, you should realize that New York is very much a city of neighborhoods, and one that is best explored on foot – a fact reflected in the chapters of this guide, which we’ve divided to reflect the best walking tours. For an overview of each neighborhood, and what to see and do there, turn to the introduction of each chapter.

The guide starts at the southern tip of the island and moves north: The Harbor Islands comprises the first section of New York (and America) that most nineteenth-century immigrants would have seen – the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, the latter recalling its history in its excellent Museum of Immigration. The Financial District takes in the skyscrapers and historic buildings of Manhattan’s southern reaches, although the most famous aspect of the skyline down here, the World Trade Center, sadly no longer exists, and the area immediately around was still off-limits at the time of writing. Just east is the area around City Hall, New York’s well-appointed municipal center. North of here, Chinatown is Manhattan’s most populous ethnic neighborhood, a vibrant locale that’s great for Chinese food and shopping. Nearby, Little Italy bears few traces of the once-strong immigrant presence, while the Lower East Side is the city’s traditional gateway neighborhood for new immigrants – originally German, then Jewish, now Hispanic and increasingly Chinese – and is nowadays scattered with some interesting and often trendy bars and clubs. To the west, SoHo is one of the premiere districts for galleries and the commercial art scene, not to mention designer shopping – much like its even swankier neighbor TriBeCa, just to the south, on the edge of the Financial District. North, the West and East Villages form a focus of bars, restaurants and shops catering to students and would-be bohemians – and of course tourists. Chelsea is a largely residential neighborhood that is now mostly known for its gay scene and art galleries and borders on Manhattan’s old Garment District. Murray Hill contains the city’s largest skyscraper and most enduring symbol, the Empire State Building.

Beyond 42nd Street, the main east-west artery of midtown, the character of the city changes quite radically, and the skyline becomes more high-rise and home to some of New York’s most awe-inspiring, neck-cricking architecture. There are also some superb museums and the city’s best shopping as you work your way north up Fifth Avenue as far as 59th Street, where the classic Manhattan vistas are broken by the broad expanse of Central Park, a supreme piece of nineteenth-century landscaping, without which life in Manhattan would be unthinkable. Flanking the park, the mostly residential and fairly affluent Upper West Side boasts Lincoln Center, Manhattan’s temple to the performing arts, the American Museum of Natural History and Riverside Park along the Hudson River. On the other side of the park, the Upper East Side is wealthier and more grandiose, with its nineteenth-century millionaires’ mansions now transformed into a string of magnificent museums known as the "Museum Mile," the most prominent being the vast Metropolitan Museum of Art. Alongside is a patrician residential neighborhood that boasts some of the swankiest addresses in Manhattan, and a nest of designer shops along Madison Avenue in the seventies. Immediately above Central Park, Harlem, the historic black city-within-a-city whose name was for a long time synonymous with racial tension and urban deprivation, has today a healthy sense of an improving go-ahead community – a trend not hindered at all by former President Clinton deciding to set up his offices on 125th Street, Harlem’s main drag. Further north still, Washington Heights, a largely Hispanic neighborhood that few visitors ever venture to visit, features the unusual Cloisters, a nineteenth-century mock-up of a medieval monastery, packed with great European Romanesque and Gothic art and (transplanted) architecture – in short, one of Manhattan’s must-sees.

It’s a fact that few visitors, especially those with limited time, bother to venture off Manhattan Island and out to the outer boroughs, which is a pity, because each of them – Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island – has points of great interest, both from an historical and a contemporary point of view. Some of the city’s best ethnic neighborhoods, and consequently best food, is to be found in the outer boroughs. The more frequented destinations include the picturesque streets of Brooklyn Heights, just across the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan, and the old-world charm of Coney Island and the nearby Russian enclave of Brighton Beach. But get out too, if you can, to sample the Greek seafood restaurants of Astoria in Queens, the Italian restaurants of the Bronx’s Belmont section or the hip nightlife of increasingly trendy Williamsburg in Brooklyn – to name just a few options.

WHEN TO GO

New York’s climate ranges from the stickily hot and humid in mid-summer to well below freezing in January and February: deep midwinter and high summer (many people find the city unbearable in July and August) are much the worst time you could come. Spring is gentle, if unpredictable, and usually wet, while fall is perhaps the best season: come at either time and you’ll find it easier to get things done and the people more welcoming. Whatever time of year you come, dress in layers: buildings tend to be overheated during winter months and air-conditioned to the point of iciness in summer. Also bring comfortable and sturdy shoes – you’re going to be doing a lot of walking.