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New York City: ‘Boroughing it’



By Julienne Schaer


Noting that New York is a “city of neighborhoods,” Chris Heywood, vice president for travel and tourism public relations for NYC and Company, the city’s convention and visitors bureau, recommends these spots in each of the five boroughs.

Manhattan
“Governors Island has become a destination in and of itself. Just a seven-minute ferry ride off the coast of Lower Manhattan, it offers entertainment options, a ‘water taxi’ beach — sand, but no swimming — and seven miles of car-free bike trails. It’s a real hidden gem here.”

http://govisland.com/html/home/home.shtml

The Bronx

“Wave Hill is a bucolic park overlooking the bluffs of the Hudson River. It’s one of the most peaceful places in the city. In the summer, they offer yoga on certain Sundays.”

http://wavehill.org/home/

“The ‘Newport, Rhode Island of New York City,’ City Island is a beautiful fishing village with seafood restaurants, antique shops and even a Victorian bed-and-breakfast, Le Refuge Inn, where they have a wonderful restaurant.”

The town has a strong shipbuilding heritage, producing minesweepers, tugboats and landing craft during World War II and yachts in the succeeding years, including seven America’s Cup-winning yachts.

http://www.cityisland.com/contact.html

Queens
“MoMA P.S.1, the sister to the Museum of Modern Art, is a contemporary art museum showing off experimental art right in Long Island City, close to midtown. The Queens Museum of Art offers a great panoramic model of New York City.”

The Panorama of the City of New York was built for the 1964 New York World’s Fair. Updated in 1992, the 9,335-square-foot model shows every single building constructed prior to that time in every borough, a total of 895,000 individual structures. In addition to the panoramic model, the Queens Museum of Art’s permanent collection includes the Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass and World’s Fair collections.

Guided tours for groups are available of both museums.

http://www.queensmuseum.org/ 
http://ps1.org/ 

Brooklyn
“Check out the new Brooklyn Bridge Park and take in the beauty of the Brooklyn waterfront.”

The park, located along the East River between the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, is an urban oasis with a promenade and large green lawns with views of the New York Harbor, the Manhattan skyline and the Brooklyn Bridge. The park is a great bird-watching site.

http://www.brooklynbridgepark.org/

Staten Island
The Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art, founded in 1945, is located in a rustic complex of fieldstone buildings that resemble a Tibetan mountain monastery. The surrounding landscape features a fishpond and meditation cells.

The New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden is part of Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden, an 83-acre park-like setting of museums, gardens and theaters. The Chinese Scholar’s Garden is located in one of the Second Empire Victorian cottages along Cottage Row.

http://www.snug-harbor.org/chinese.html
www.tibetanmuseum.org/index.htm

For more on New York City:

New York City bite by bite
‘Boroughing it’
WEB EXCLUSIVE! More New York City itineraries