New York City

New York City is five boroughs, but most visits concentrate on Manhattan and the parts of Brooklyn and Queens immediately across the East River. Manhattan's grid north of Houston Street makes orientation simple — numbered streets run east-west, avenues north-south — while the older streets below it wander and require a map.

The city is walkable in a way few large American cities are, and the subway covers the gaps. A well-planned day here usually means one neighbourhood on foot plus one train ride, not a checklist spread across the island.

Few cities pack this much museum, theatre, architecture and food into an area you can cross on foot. The density is the point: a world-class collection, a century-old deli and a skyline view can occupy the same afternoon.

It is also a city of neighbourhoods with genuinely distinct populations, languages and food: Jackson Heights, Sunset Park and Arthur Avenue are as much New York as Times Square, and considerably more rewarding.

• Walk the Brooklyn Bridge toward Manhattan, early or late. The approach from the Brooklyn side gives you the skyline ahead rather than behind; the pedestrian deck is busy by mid-morning.
• Central Park on a weekday. The Ramble, the Reservoir loop and the North Woods are quiet and feel nothing like the postcard sections near the south entrances.
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Too large for one visit — pick two or three wings. The American Wing, the Egyptian temple and the rooftop in season are the usual first choices.
• A Broadway or off-Broadway show. Off-Broadway houses are smaller, cheaper and often the better theatre. Same-day discount options exist; check official channels rather than street sellers.
• The 9/11 Memorial and Museum. The memorial pools are outdoors and free; the museum below is demanding and deserves unhurried time.
• The Staten Island Ferry. Free, frequent, and passes the Statue of Liberty — the best-value harbour view in the city if you do not need to land on the island.
• Eat across Queens. Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights and Flushing's Chinese food halls are among the most varied eating in the United States.

April to early June and September to early November are the two clear windows: mild, long daylight, parks at their best. Autumn is the more reliable of the two.

July and August are hot and humid, with subway platforms noticeably worse than the street; the compensation is free outdoor programming and thinner weekday crowds as locals leave. January and February are cold and grey but genuinely cheap, and the museums are the point in winter anyway. Late November through New Year is festive, crowded and the most expensive stretch of the year.

Midtown is convenient for theatre and transport and priced accordingly; it empties of atmosphere at night. Lower Manhattan and the Financial District often offer better rates, with good subway access and a quiet weekend feel.

Greenwich Village, Chelsea and the Lower East Side put you in walkable neighbourhoods with real evenings. The Upper West Side is residential, calm and close to Central Park and the natural history museum.

Brooklyn: Downtown Brooklyn, Williamsburg, Park Slope — is usually cheaper for the same quality and is one or two subway stops from Manhattan. Rooms across the city are small; check the size and whether there is a nightly facility fee on top of the rate.

Greenwich Village and the West Village: low brick townhouses, off-grid streets, jazz clubs and the most pleasant aimless walking in Manhattan.

SoHo and Tribeca: cast-iron architecture, galleries and retail, cobbled streets.

Lower East Side and Chinatown: tenement history, bars, and one of the oldest Chinese communities in the country, immediately adjacent.

Harlem: the Apollo, gospel services, Striver's Row brownstones and a strong food scene along Lenox Avenue.

Upper East Side: Museum Mile, from the Met up to the Guggenheim and the Cooper Hewitt.

Williamsburg and Bushwick (Brooklyn): warehouses turned into bars, music venues and murals.

Jackson Heights and Flushing (Queens): South Asian, Latin American and East Asian food at a depth Manhattan does not match.

Coney Island: boardwalk, beach and the aquarium; a long subway ride that feels like leaving the city.

The subway runs 24 hours and is the fastest way to move. Pay by tapping a contactless card or phone at the turnstile: there is no need to buy a separate travel card for a short trip, and the system caps the weekly charge automatically once you have made enough taps on the same card.

Read the letters and numbers: express trains skip most stops, and an express boarded by mistake can carry you sixty blocks past your destination. Weekend engineering work reroutes lines regularly, so check the posted notices or an app rather than assuming.

Buses are slower but useful crosstown. Taxis and ride-hailing are plentiful and get stuck in the same traffic. From the airports: JFK connects by AirTrain to the subway or Long Island Rail Road, Newark by AirTrain to New Jersey Transit, and LaGuardia by bus links — all three are far cheaper than a car and usually faster in peak hours.

New York's food identity is immigrant food scaled up over a century: bagels, pastrami, pizza by the slice, Chinese, Dominican, West African, Korean, Greek. The good version of each is rarely in the tourist core.

Practical points: pizza is sold by the slice and eaten standing; delis are counter service and you order by telling them what you want, not by pointing at a menu; food halls and street carts are legitimate meals, not snacks. Tipping is expected in sit-down restaurants and bars, typically around twenty per cent, and some restaurants now add a service charge instead — check the bill so you do not pay twice.

Tap water is safe and good. Reservations matter for popular restaurants and much less elsewhere.

The Hudson Valley: Beacon for Dia's large-scale contemporary art, Cold Spring for a village and a river hike, both reachable by Metro-North from Grand Central.

Storm King Art Center: monumental sculpture across five hundred acres of landscape, seasonal, reachable by bus combinations from Port Authority.

Philadelphia: under two hours by train, enough for the historic core and a museum.

The Rockaways or Long Beach: ocean beaches reachable by subway and train respectively, worth it in summer.

Governors Island: a short ferry from Lower Manhattan, car-free, open seasonally; the least effort of any escape on this list.

New York is expensive at the hotel and restaurant lines and cheap everywhere else. The subway is inexpensive and covers the whole trip. A large share of the best experiences — the parks, the Staten Island Ferry, the High Line, the Brooklyn Bridge, the memorial pools, neighbourhood walking — cost nothing at all.

Where costs concentrate: hotel rates, particularly late November to New Year; sit-down dinners once tax and tipping are added; premium observation decks, of which there are now several competing; and Broadway orchestra seats. Several major museums operate suggested or pay-what-you-wish admission for some visitors: check the current policy on each museum's own site, as these have changed.

Prices are not the final price. Sales tax is added at the register and tipping is expected on top in restaurants, bars and taxis. Budget roughly a third above menu prices for a sit-down meal.

Walk more than you plan to. Twenty north-south blocks is about a mile; crosstown blocks are much longer. Comfortable shoes matter more than any other piece of packing.

Avoid ticket sellers on the street for shows and attractions. Buy from the venue, the official discount booths, or the attraction's own site.

Check weekend subway changes before setting out. Line closures and rerouting are routine and are posted at stations and in transit apps.

Stand right on escalators, keep to the right on pavements, and step out of the flow before stopping to look at your phone.