East Village & Lower East Side

This surprising walk will take you across the East River to the hip neighborhood of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, with its countless restaurants, cafés, and vintage stores where New York hipsters eat and shop. The vibe here is creative and dynamic, and the low buildings offer a different view of the city than the skyscraper-filled streets of Manhattan. This is a popular backdrop for movies, and if you're lucky, you might just stumble upon a shoot and end up being an extra.

 

Brooklyn has always been a melting pot of cultures, and this is still evident in Williamsburg. Its inception was in the area that is now South Williamsburg. Large populations of Hasidic Jews, Puerto Ricans, and Dominicans live in this part of the neighborhood. North Williamsburg, known simply as the “North Side,” is home to large Polish and Italian communities.

 

Recent years have seen more and more young Manhattanites making the move across the water, and Williamsburg has become one of Brooklyn’s hippest neighborhoods. While artists and creative types were the trailblazers of this new generation of residents, today there is also a growing influx of young professionals who live and work in luxury apartments on the waterfront, with views of the city. These new buildings are tucked between old, industrial structures such as the Domino Factory, which you can sail past on the ferry. Restaurants and new secondhand stores open up to cater to the area’s new residents all the time. The Smorgasburg food market, toward the end of this walk, is a popular destination on Saturdays, and comes highly recommended for foodies.

This walk takes you through two extremely different neighborhoods, which is typical of New York: Chinatown, which until a few decades ago was a dangerous area, and the neighborhood where the WTC stood, which now features the impressive 9/11 Memorial and Tribute Center.



Up until the 19th century, life in New York City was primarily concentrated in a small part of what is now Lower Manhattan. This historic area is rich with beautiful buildings dating back to some of the city’s earliest days, from the imposing Gregorian and Federal-style architecture around Wall Street to the apartment buildings and temples in Chinatown.

 

The Lower East Side is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city. Some 200 years ago this area was flooded with immigrants, and today this has contributed to the multitude of cafés, restaurants, bars and music venues this part of town is known for. For example, check out The Leadbelly and The Fat Radish on this walk: two very different restaurants, both by the same owner, and with a typical Lower East Side-vibe. During the 1970s the neighborhood attracted creative and eccentric rebels, who gave rise to New York City as we now know it. Today the area is becoming increasingly more gentrified and many young people are attracted to the trendy bars, cafés, and boutiques. This is a part of New York that still goes against the grain, full of colorful, inspirational murals and street poets.

 

Finish your walk at Edith Machinist, a shopper's paradise for vintage lovers, then head to Schiller’s Liquor Bar for an exceptional glass of wine.