New York City. Discover. Experience the best of New York City. Contents. Michael Grosberg, Cristian Bonetto, Carolina A Miranda, Brandon Presser

Transcription

1 Contents I Discover New York City Experience the best of New York City This edition written and researched by Michael Grosberg, Cristian Bonetto, Carolina A Miranda, Brandon Presser

2 Discover New York City Lower Manhattan & the Financial District (p47 ) Iconic monuments, riverfront access and Wall St mingle at the island s southern end. Don t Miss Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island SoHo & Chinatown (p73 ) Soup dumpling parlors and hawkers selling bric-a-brac next door to cobblestone streets and big-name stores. Don t Miss Chinatown East Village & Lower East Side (p97 ) Two of the city s hottest hoods that lure students, bankers and scruffier types alike. Don t Miss St Marks Place Greenwich Village, Chelsea & the Meatpacking District (p121 ) Quaint, intimate streets plus trendy nightlife, shopping and art galleries galore. Don t Miss The High Line Union Square, Flatiron District & Gramercy (p149 ) A bustling, vibrant park binds surrounding areas filled with good eats. Don t Miss Union Square

3 Greenwich Village, Chelsea & the Meatpacking District (p121) Lower Manhattan & the Financial District (p47) SoHo & Chinatown (p73) Upper West Side & Central Park (p219) Midtown (p165) East Village & Lower East Side (p97) Upper East Side (p199) Union Square, Flatiron District & Gramercy (p149) Midtown (p165 ) Times Square, Broadway theaters, canyons of skyscrapers, and bustling crowds that rarely thin. Don t Miss Times Square, Museum of Modern Art Upper East Side (p199 ) High-end boutiques, sophisticated mansions and Museum Mile one of the most cultured strips in the world. Don t Miss Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guggenheim Museum Upper West Side & Central Park (p219 ) Home to the premier performing arts center and the park that helps define the city. Don t Miss Central Park

4 Contents Plan Your Trip Discover New York City Welcome to New York City...6 Highlights Map...8 New York City s Top 25 Experiences...10 Top Days in New York City Month by Month...40 What s New Get Inspired Need to Know...44 Lower Manhattan & the Financial District 47 Highlights Walking Tour Don't Miss...52 Sights Eating Drinking & Nightlife Entertainment Shopping Sports & Activities SoHo & Chinatown 73 Highlights...74 Walking Tour...76 Don't Miss...78 Sights Eating Drinking & Nightlife Entertainment Shopping...92 East Village & Lower East Side 97 Highlights Walking Tour Don't Miss Sights Eating Drinking & Nightlife Entertainment Shopping Sports & Activities Greenwich Village, Chelsea & the Meatpacking District 121 Highlights Walking Tour Don't Miss Sights Eating Drinking & Nightlife Entertainment Shopping Sports & Activities Union Square, Flatiron District & Gramercy 149 Highlights Walking Tour Don't Miss Sights Eating Drinking & Nightlife Entertainment Shopping Midtown 165 Highlights Walking Tour...168

5 In Focus Survival Guide Don't Miss Sights Eating Drinking & Nightlife Entertainment Shopping Upper East Side 199 Highlights Walking Tour Don't Miss Sights Eating Drinking & Nightlife Entertainment Shopping New York City Today History Family Travel Food Performing Arts Literature & the Arts Gay & Lesbian New York City Shopping Sleeping Transport Directory Behind the Scenes Index How to Use This Book Our Writers Upper West Side & Central Park 219 Highlights Walking Tour Don't Miss Sights Eating Drinking & Nightlife Entertainment Shopping Sports & Activities Upper Manhattan & the Outer Boroughs 243

6 Welcome to New York City Loud, fast and pulsing with energy, New York City (population 8.3 million) is symphonic, exhausting and always evolving. Maybe only a Walt Whitman poem cataloging typical city scenes from the humblest hole-in-the wall to grand buildings could begin to do the city justice. It remains one of the world s creative and business centers. Fashion, theater, food, music, publishing, advertising and, of course, finance, all thrive here. As Groucho Marx once said, When it s 9:30 in New York, it s 1937 in Los Angeles. Coming to NYC from anywhere else for the first time is like stepping into a movie; one you ve probably been unknowingly writing; one that contains all imagined possibilities. Almost every country in the world has a presence here. From Brooklyn s Russian enclave in Brighton Beach to the mini South America in Queens, and from the middle of Times Square to the most obscure corner of the Bronx, you ll find extremes. You can experience a little bit of every thing. You can decide if you d like your day to be filled with high culture in an uptown museum and trendy eating in the Village, or if you like your city to be tougher you can choose to spend an afternoon wandering through the twisting streets and art galleries of downtown. Just don t be too shocked if your day of high culture turns gritty when you come across a gifted jazz singer on the subway platform, or if your bohemian day gets fancy when a trendy boutique seduces you and you re shelling out for the perfect pair of shoes before you know it. New York City is constantly in the process of reinventing itself. And so too are the successive waves of immigrants who have populated the city and the striving artists who have pinned their hopes and dreams on making it here. You can experience a little bit of everything in NYC RICHARD I'ANSON/LONELY PLANET IMAGES 6

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8 Our Story A beat-up old car, a few dollars in the pocket and a sense of adventure. In 1972 that s all Tony and Maureen Wheeler needed for the trip of a lifetime across Europe and Asia overland to Australia. It took several months, and at the end broke but inspired they sat at their kitchen table writing and stapling together their first travel guide, Across Asia on the Cheap. Within a week they d sold 1500 copies. Lonely Planet was born. Today, Lonely Planet has offices in Melbourne, London and Oakland, with more than 600 staff and writers. We share Tony s belief that a great guidebook should do three things: inform, educate and amuse. Our Writers MICHAEL G ROSBERG Coordinating Author, Plan Your Trip, New York City In Focus Growing up Michael spent holidays with his large New York City family and grew to know their neighborhoods as if they were his own. After several long overseas trips and many careers, some abroad, Michael returned to New York City for graduate school and taught literature and writing in several NYC colleges. He s lived in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn and taught in the Bronx; this is the fifth Lonely Planet book Michael has written about the city. Read more about Michael at: lonelyplanet.com/members/michaelgrosberg CRISTIAN B ONETTO Lower Manhattan & the Financial District, Midtown, Upper Manhattan & the Outer Boroughs Raised on a diet of Sesame Street, Cristian s fondness for stoops and subways began in his diaper days. Since then, the one-time TV and theater scribe has played both tourist and local in NYC, writing about the city s food, architecture and art for numerous international publications. When he s not downing dirty martinis in Manhattan, you ll find him on assignment in Italy, Scandinavia or Southeast Asia. CAROLINA A MIRANDA Upper East Side, Upper West Side & Central Park, Upper Manhattan & the Outer Boroughs Carolina has lived in New York for almost two decades. During her time in the city, she s attended the roller derby, canoed through industrial canals, watched basement performance art, seen operas at Lincoln Center and gotten engaged on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum. Her stories have appeared in Time, ARTnews, Budget Travel and National Public Radio. She is a regular contributor at WNYC. Find her on Twitter BRANDON P RESSER SoHo & Chinatown, East Village & the Lower East Side, Greenwich Village, Chelsea & the Meatpacking District, Union Square, Flatiron District & Gramercy After earning an art history degree from Harvard University and working at the Musée du Louvre, Brandon swapped landscape canvases for the real deal and joined the glamorous ranks of eternal nomadism. Today, Brandon works as a fulltime freelance writer and photographer. He s penned more than 40 guidebooks, from Iceland to Thailand and many lands in between. When he s not on the road he calls New York City home. Brandon also wrote the Survival Guide chapters in this guide. Read more about Brandon at: lonelyplanet.com/members/brandonpresser Published by Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd ABN nd edition Oct 2012 ISBN Lonely Planet 2012 Photographs as indicated Printed in China Although the authors and Lonely Planet have taken all reasonable care in preparing this book, we make no warranty about the accuracy or completeness of its content and, to the maximum extent permitted, disclaim all liability arising from its use. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, except brief extracts for the purpose of review, and no part of this publication may be sold or hired, without the written permission of the publisher. Lonely Planet and the Lonely Planet logo are trademarks of Lonely Planet and are registered in the US Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Lonely Planet does not allow its name or logo to be appropriated by commercial establishments, such as retailers, restaurants or hotels. Please let us know of any misuses: lonelyplanet.com/ip.