Guides - Insight Guides Explore New York The Best Routes Around the City

How To Use This E-Book

This Explore Guide has been produced by the editors of Insight Guides, whose books have set the standard for visual travel guides since 1970. With top-quality photography and authoritative recommendations, these guidebooks bring you the very best routes and itineraries in the worlds most exciting destinations.

Best Routes

The routes in this book provide something to suit all budgets, tastes and trip lengths. As well as covering the destinations many classic attractions, the itineraries track lesser-known sights, and there are also excursions for those who want to extend their visit outside of Manhattan. The routes embrace a range of interests, so whether you are an art fan, a gourmet, a history buff or have kids to entertain, you will find an option to suit.

We recommend reading the whole of a route before setting out. This should help you to familiarise yourself with it and enable you to plan where to stop for refreshments options are shown in the Food and Drink box at the end of each tour.

Introduction

The routes are set in context by this introductory section, giving an overview of the destination to set the scene, plus background information on food and drink, shopping and more, while a succinct history timeline highlights the key events over the centuries.

Directory

Also supporting the routes is a Directory chapter, with a clearly organised AZ of practical information, our pick of where to stay while you are there and select restaurant listings; these eateries complement the more low-key cafs and restaurants that feature within the routes and are intended to offer a wider choice for evening dining. Also included here are some nightlife listings, and our recommendations for books and films about the destination.

Getting around the e-book

In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.

Maps

All key attractions and sights mentioned in the text are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map] just tap this to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

Images

Youll find hundreds of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of the destination. Simply double-tap on an image to see it full-screen.

2013 Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

Table of Contents

Recommended Routes For...

Art enthusiasts

Theres more art than can be seen in a lifetime: from the big five the Met ().

Dreamstime

Foodies

For fresh produce try Union Square Greenmarket, Eataly or Chelsea Market () are packed with gourmet goodies.

Nowitz Photography/Apa Publications

Movie buffs New York

King Kong clambered up the Empire State Building ().

Getty Images

Nightlife

Check out the alt-rock scene on the Lower East Side ().

Dreamstime

The performing arts

Take in a Broadway show on the Great White Way ().

Paul Kolnik/New York City Ballet

Shoppers

Go on a shopping spree at Fifth Avenue department stores ().

iStockphoto

Skyscraper spotting

Explore the vertical city, including the Flatiron ().

iStockphoto

Spectacular views

Take in glorious views from the Empire State Building ().

iStockphoto

The busy streets of Manhattan

Nowitz Photography/Apa Publications

Explore New York

The 50 million-plus visitors who come each year arrive with skyscraper-high expectations, but with jaw-dropping architecture, world-class cultural sights, and fabulous shops and restaurants, the Big Apple does not disappoint.

In his writings on the city, Here is New York , the childrens author, critic, and Pulitzer Prize-winner E.B. White wrote, New York is nothing like Paris; it is nothing like London; and it is not Spokane multiplied by sixty, or Detroit multiplied by four. It is by all odds the loftiest of cities. It even managed to reach the highest point in the sky at the lowest moment of the Depression.

Since its purchase by the Dutch in 1626, through its growth as a maritime hub, to its contemporary position as the cultural and financial center of the United States, New York his risen to become a crossroads of the world and a place where the air tingles with the promise that everything is possible.

Fifth Avenue at night

iStockphoto

Statistics

The statistics are quite something: 6,400 miles (10,300km) of streets, 578 miles (930km) of waterfront, 18,000 restaurants, around 13,000 taxis, over 6,000 city buses, 150 museums, and 400 art galleries, more than 240 theaters, and 29,000 acres (11,736 hectares) of parks. Whatever youre after, from world-class museums on the Upper East Side to cutting-edge couture in the Meatpacking District, youll find it here. If you stay in a sky-high hotel far above the teeming streets, or stroll in Central Park, or walk out onto the terrace overlooking the Hudson River at the Cloisters, you may even be able to find that city-center rarity: peace and quiet.