Routes

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 long walk takes you along the scenic Hudson River and through the Upper West Side to the heart of Harlem. Start at the southern part of the Upper West Side, where the route heads west past the iconic brownstones and rowhouses so typical of this neighborhood. Next, you will continue along the banks of the Hudson river, through parks, past boathouses and the impressive Columbia University, until you reach the outer limit of the Upper West Side. 

 

While Central Park may be the most famous, it’s certainly not the only park on the Upper West Side. Along the banks of the Hudson River stretches Riverside Park. According to local residents this is Manhattan’s most beautiful park, and they come here for sports, leisure, and the cool breeze off the Hudson during the

hot city summers. 



North of the Upper West Side lies an important center of African-American culture: Harlem. Here you’ll find art galleries, churches (often named after notable African-American figures), the legendary Apollo Theater, and much more. In recent years Harlem has experienced a wave of gentrification, and the neighborhood’s historic brownstones and wide streets have been attracting people from around the city.

 

Upper North Harlem is a bit grittier, so be sure to keep that in mind. The neighborhood is never quiet; people converse loudly in the streets, music can be heard all around, and locals regularly sit on the stoops in front of their homes. Here you can get a sense of Harlem's true soul, and its warm and welcoming vibe.

If you enjoy art, then this walk through New York City's Upper East Side is perfect for you. The stretch known as "Museum Mile" is the pride of the neighborhood, and home to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, the Neue Galerie, and the Frick Collection, which contain some of the most beautiful art collections in the world.

 

The walk will take you through some of the elegant streets of this neighborhood, including different parts of Fifth Avenue. The stretch east of lower Central Park is known as Manhattan’s “Gold Coast.” The area has an incredibly high concentration of private clubs, exclusive schools, art institutions, and millionaires with far reaching influence. No other neighborhood in the country donates as much to national political campaigns as the Upper East Side.

 

East of Park Avenue the neighborhood is more down to earth and much livelier. On Lexington Avenue you’ll find lots of bustling stores and restaurants frequented by young couples and families from the neighborhood.

 

On Madison Avenue you’ll find countless galleries, jewelers, and exclusive stores and boutiques from top designers. Department stores Barneys and Bloomingdale’s are also located here, and shopaholics can regularly be spotted walking down the street with their Little and Big Brown Bags.

 

A great tip, if you happen to be visiting during wintertime: Central Park has one of the most beautiful ice skating rinks!

This walk takes you past New York's best known and most impressive sights, such as its sensational Times Square and dazzling Empire State Building, which offers breathtaking views out over the city.

 

For more than 100 years people have flocked to the Times Square area for entertainment, including everything from opera and vaudeville to comedy and musicals. And all within walking distance from Central Park. In the 1960s and 1970s, gambling dens and sex shows were on nearly every corner. Today the area has a more inviting atmosphere for tourists attending theaters, entertainment venues, and retail stores, drawing in a far different crowd from its former days. 



Broadway cuts right through Times Square. Here you can catch renowned shows like The Lion King, Wicked, The Book of Mormon, and Hamilton (if you can manage to finagle tickets to the perennially sold-out show!). Discounted tickets are available for many shows at the TKTS Booth, where lines form daily.



Admire the impressive Beaux Art architecture of Grand Central Terminal, and the nearby iconic skyscrapers, then head south toward Madison Square Park. Further south, at Union Square, uptown/downtown and east side/west side converge in a park where there is always something going on. Stop to play a game of chess with a stranger, admire the work of local artists, or grab food and a drink at the great restaurants and bars in the area. It’s also an excellent spot to simply sit and people watch. Union Square is also known for its Greenmarket, a lively farmers market.

On this walk you’ll see several charming downtown neighborhoods, each with their own unique personality, perfect for art lovers, fashionistas, and hopeless romantics.

 

Trendy NoLIta (short for “North of Little Italy”), an area located between East Houston, the Bowery, Broome Street, and Lafayette Street, is reminiscent of a tiny Italian village. Elizabeth Street in particular is well-known for its lovely shops and boutiques. NoLIta is such a small neighborhood that you’ll walk right through it and into SoHo before you know it.

 

SoHo (short for “South of Houston Street”) was originally an industrial area full of factories and warehouses, and was later taken over by artists. Today, it’s a major trendsetter in the fashion world. With its grand cast-iron warehouses, luxury boutiques, fashion houses, and art galleries, it offers some of the best shopping in the city.

 

Next you will cross into the West Village, a part of Greenwich Village. This neighborhood is often called ‘Little Bohemia’. It is a tiny urban oasis with an artsy vibe, and plenty of great spots for lunch. Bordering it is the trendy Meatpacking District. Up until recently, this was a place where animal carcasses hung in the streets during the day, and in the 1980s the neighborhood was a hotspot for drugs and prostitution. Today, however, the district is full of high-end stores and trendy restaurants, and it’s a great place for nightlife—especially if you want to do some star-spotting. From here you can head uptown through the beautiful High Line Park, an elevated park dozens of feet above street level. 

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.