The City That
Has Never
Stopped Being Made

Midtown (34th to 59th Streets) is the New York of postcards — Times Square (overwhelming at night; best approached as a phenomenon rather than a destination), Rockefeller Center (the Art Deco complex with the NBC Studios, the famous Christmas tree, and Top of the Rock observation deck), Fifth Avenue (the Met is at the top; the Plaza Hotel, Bergdorf Goodman, Tiffany & Co., Saks Fifth Avenue in the middle), Grand Central Terminal (the Beaux-Arts main concourse is the finest interior in New York — stand at the balcony overlook at 9am on a weekday morning), and the Theatre District (Broadway shows, 41 theatres). Midtown is where most hotels are; it is not where most of the city's character is. Arrive for the landmarks, leave for the neighbourhoods.

The Upper East Side — Fifth Avenue from 59th to 104th — is Museum Mile: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim (Frank Lloyd Wright's spiral, Kandinsky collection), the Frick Collection (the finest private art collection in New York, open in its restored mansion), the Cooper Hewitt (design museum in Andrew Carnegie's 1902 mansion), and the Jewish Museum. The residential streets east of Park Avenue (particularly 73rd to 84th Streets) are some of the finest pre-war apartment architecture in the world. Lexington Avenue between 70th and 80th has the best neighbourhood cafés — E.A.T. (Eli Zabar's deli and cafe) on 80th is an institution.

The Upper West Side — west of Central Park from 59th to 110th — is the most residential and intellectually dense neighbourhood in Manhattan: the American Museum of Natural History (the Hayden Planetarium, the Hall of Ocean Life, the Rose Center — plan a full day), Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, the NY City Ballet — the most concentrated performing arts campus in the world), and the neighbourhood itself: brownstone townhouses, Zabar's deli (the finest deli counter in New York — buy smoked salmon, cream cheese, and a bagel), and Riverside Park (4 miles of Hudson riverfront park, quieter than Central Park, with the Hudson River views the east side doesn't have).

The West Village is the New York neighbourhood that most closely matches what people imagine New York to feel like: cobblestone streets (specifically the area around Weehawken Street and Commerce Street), a human-scaled grid that breaks the Midtown logic, remarkable restaurants on every block (Via Carota, Buvette, Frenchette, Joe's Pizza on Carmine, Russ & Daughters on Houston for smoked fish — the best in the city), and the sense of the city as it operated before the glass towers arrived. The High Line's southern end (Gansevoort Street) is within walking distance; the Whitney Museum is on Gansevoort. The Village is the best neighbourhood to base a first New York visit from.

SoHo (South of Houston) contains the highest concentration of cast-iron architecture in the world — 26 blocks of mid-19th-century warehouse buildings with ornate facades, converted over the 1970s and 80s from garment district warehouses to artist lofts, then galleries, then high-end retail. The galleries that made SoHo famous have mostly moved to Chelsea (West 20s) but the architecture remains extraordinary — walk Greene Street (the finest continuous block of cast-iron facades in the city) with your eyes up. The shopping (Chanel, Prada, Dior, Apple SoHo, McNally Jackson Books) is exceptional; the brunch crowds on weekends are extreme. NoHo (north of Houston) is quieter with excellent Japanese restaurants (Mimi on Madison, Nishida on Great Jones).

Chelsea (West 14th to 34th, west of Eighth Avenue) is the contemporary art capital of New York — the West 20s gallery district (particularly West 24th and West 25th between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues) contains 200+ galleries in converted warehouse buildings, open Tuesday–Saturday, free. The High Line runs through the neighbourhood; the Whitney Museum is at its south end (Gansevoort). Hudson Yards — the largest private real estate development in US history, on a platform built above the rail yards — contains the Shed (NYC's newest arts centre), the Edge (the highest outdoor observation deck in the Western Hemisphere at 335m), and Vessel (Thomas Heatherwick's honeycomb sculpture, 16 floors of interconnected staircases — free to access).

The Lower East Side — the neighbourhood that received the largest wave of Eastern European Jewish immigration in the late 19th century — retains its food culture as its most tangible historical legacy. Katz's Delicatessen (205 E Houston Street — open since 1888, the pastrami sandwich is a rite of passage, the deli counter procedure is part of the experience — take your ticket, order at the counter, pay when you leave) is New York's most important food institution. Russ & Daughters (179 Houston — smoked fish, cream cheese, bagels — a century of operation) is the finest. The East Village (north of Houston) is the neighbourhood: St Marks Place, Momofuku Noodle Bar (David Chang's original), McSorley's Old Ale House (operating since 1854 — oldest continuously operating saloon in NYC).

Tribeca (Triangle Below Canal Street) is the most expensive residential neighbourhood in New York — the converted warehouses and loft buildings that made it a celebrity enclave (Jay-Z, Taylor Swift, Robert De Niro, who founded the Tribeca Film Festival) have some of the finest interiors in the city. The neighbourhood has outstanding restaurants (Locanda Verde, Tiny's, Odeon) and the Hudson River Park waterfront, with cycling paths, picnic lawns, and views of the Statue of Liberty across the harbour. The Financial District — immediately to the east — contains Wall Street (the New York Stock Exchange building is an extraordinary Beaux-Arts facade), the 9/11 Memorial and Museum (the two reflecting pools are one of the most powerful memorial designs in the world), and One World Observatory at the top of One World Trade Center (541m).

Brooklyn is not one neighbourhood but a borough of 2.7 million people — larger than Chicago in population. DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) has the best Manhattan views in New York: stand at the intersection of Washington Street and Water Street and look through the Manhattan Bridge arch toward the Empire State Building — this is the single most photographed view in New York. Brooklyn Bridge Park (under the bridge, along the East River waterfront) is one of the finest new parks in any US city. Williamsburg (the most gentrified neighbourhood in NYC, with excellent restaurants, music venues, and the Smorgasburg outdoor food market on weekend mornings) and Park Slope (19th-century brownstones, the Brooklyn Museum, Prospect Park) complete the Brooklyn visitor circuit.