New Yorkers can spot a tourist like a needle in a haystack, but you don’t need a Brooklyn accent or a Yankees hat to fit right in. It’s all about the inside scoop, knowing what New Yorkers know, and getting the city to work for you instead of the other way around. It doesn’t matter if you’re visiting for a few days or calling it home for the rest of your life, here’s some info to get you started.
Essentials
New York City is a collection of boroughs: Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. Contrary to popular belief, there are great things to experience in all five. Except for Staten Island. Stay away from there.
- If you have to get to LaGuardia airport during rush hour - consider taking a subway uptown to 86th street and take a taxi from there. It will save you an hour of traffic and $30.
- Contrary to popular belief, New Yorkers are generally friendly, just don’t try to talk to them on the subway.
- Avoid using the subway in summer.
- Central Park is a great spot for outdoor sports and fitness. Jog around the Reservoir, rollerblade along the paths, or play Frisbee on the Great Lawn.
- Rent a Zipcar to drive upstate or to the Hamptons.
- Times Square is a death trap.
- Some of the best food is in the Outer Boroughs.
- Forget Ralph’s, Safeway, or Vons. Your local bodega will be your best friend.
Cabs
If you pay by credit card, the cabbie will hassle you. Tip a bit more. Going home after the bar? Rain? Snow? Hot? Expect a shortage of cabs. No, the cabbie’s not talking to you, they’re on the phone.
Subways
The subway moves millions of people a day. It’s a great way to get to get a good sense of what NYC is really like. It might be intimidating at first, but if you follow our tips you’ll be an expert in no time.
- Don’t call the lines by their colors.
- Exiting at a turnstile? Be courteous and give people rushing to trains priority.
- Don’t hold the doors.
- Express trains are always on the inside track.
- Never put your bag on the seat next to you. Use your lap.
Talk the talk
- Bodega bow-day-gah: local market
- Slice A slice of cheese pizza
- Houston how-stun: A major street that divides the city
- SoHo South of Houston
- NoLiTa noh-lee-tah: North of Little Italy
- Bridge & Tunnel the out of town crowd that travels via tunnel to get to the city
- crosstown Getting from west to east or vice versa
Walk the Walk
While walking around, imagine you are a car on a highway. Would you stop in the middle of the road to look at something? Would you drive slowly in the fast lane?
- Streets run east to west, going higher as you go west, Avenues run north to south, starting from 11th ave on the west to to 1st on the east. Past 1st it goes A, B, C, then D.
- Most even-numbered streets run one-way eastward. Navigation tip: If cars are going from left to right while looking at an even-numbered street, you’re facing north.
- Everybody jaywalks. Everybody.
- Have to pee? Crown Plaza Hotel (49th & Broadway), Marriot Marquis (47th & Broadway), and any Starbucks.
Food
Check out my favorite places to eat in NYC.
Neighborhoods
Alphabet City
Avenue A: You’re alright. Avenue B: You’re brave. Avenue C: You’re crazy. Avenue D: You’re dead. But that was the 80’s. Today you can find pockets of Puerto Rican and Dominican culture, great bars, bistros and boutiques here. Tompkins Square Park, Nuyorican’s Poetry Cafe
Chelsea
Head here on Thursday nights for free wine and world-class art shows, stay for the slightly less crowded Trader Joes. Walk south into the Meat Packing district and its cobblestone roads for designer stores, The High Line, and nightclubs. The High Line, Cielo, Chelsea Art Galleies
Chinatown
Take in the sights, sounds, and smells (oh god, the smells!) while eating affordable food. Stay away from the Canal street hawkers, any local will tell you the less-touristy Chinatown is off the F train in LES. Columbus Park, Chinatown Ice Cream Factory
East Village
Also known as NYU’s campus, it’s an ethnically and culturally diverse area which tends to be pretty young. Walk by dozens of stores, bars, and restaurants while dodging drunk bar-hoppers. Crif Dog, The Bowery Poetry Club
Financial district
Internationally famous for Wall Street, it is Downtown’s Midtown without the culture. It’s a total ghost town at night, but expect a constant mass of Statue of Liberty and 9/11 memorial-seeking tourists during the day with government security keeping the peace. Wall Street, 9/11 Memorial, Water Taxi
Gramercy / Murray Hill / Kips Bay
A dash of frat boys trying to grow up and a splash of masala dosa, this conglomerate is an intersting clash of cultures. Madison Square Park, Shake Shack, Gramercy Park
Harlem
A mecca for African American culture, foodies in the know trek up to Harlem for its out-of-the way culinary treasures and a night at the Apollo. Apollo Theater, Abyssinian Baptist, Dinosaur Bar-B-Que
Koreatown
Super-concentrated on 32nd Street bewteen 5th and 6th Avenues, K-Town is great for late-night soju-fueled karaoke, Korean grub, and ESL classes. Maru, Paris Baguette
Lower East Side
Filled with hip boutiques and divey bars, it’s a losing battle between old-school charm and new-school gentrification. Weekend-night crowds tend to stay north of Delancey and closer to Allen Street. UESers call the entire south east part of Manhattan “LES”. (They’re wrong.) Milk and Honey, Reed Space, The Meatball Factory
Little Italy
A shadow of its old self, it has been reduced to a sad 2-block stretch by an exploding Chinatown. Worth maybe a 5 minute visit on your walk from SoHo to the LES, but don’t blink or you’ll miss it. Di Palo’s
Midtown
Office building sprawl across several hundred blocks, with a few great museums and food trucks culture sprinkled throughout. Natives know this area as a place to work, not to play. MoMA, The Apple Store
SoHo
Best to brave the throngs of shoppers in the mecca of retail during the week, when it’s less crowded. Its cast-iron façades and cobblestone side streets house Manhattan’s unofficial open-air mall. Walter de Maria’s Earth Room, Kiosk, Uniqlo
Times Square
Avoid at all costs, unless you have friends in town. It’s best seen at night when the neon lights fill the sky. TKTS, 53rd & 6th Halal Cart, Forever 21 Flagship Store
TriBeCa
Rub shoulders with hedge-fund wives and celebrities escaping from the crowds as they brunch near their expensive lofts. A kid-friendly neighborhood, it’s the Upper West of downtown. 92YTribeca, Hook & Ladder Company #8, Hudson River Parkway
Upper East Side
Sandwiched in between Central Park and the East River, it houses world-class museums and some of the most expensive real estate and facelifts on the island. Visit Fifth Avenue for some of the world’s most expensive window-shopping. The Met, The Guggenheim Museum, Central Park
Upper West Side
The “strolling ground” for many well-off Manhattan families, it is known to most tourists as the home to the Museum of Natural History, and the place where John Lennon was shot. Generally quiet, it’s where hardened Manhattanites go to soften up and make babies. Grey’s Papaya, Columbus Circle, Lincoln Center
West Village
Its rows of red-bricked townhouses house expensively precious, little, apartments that overlook tree-lined streets with throngs of wannabe Carries, Mirandas, Samanthas and Charlottes shopping at Marc Jacobs. Oh, and it’s also home to some of the best jazz in Manhattan. Smalls, Fat Cat, Hudson River Park