Remarkable 5 Minute Drone Video Shows All 5 Boroughs From Above

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Do NYC in Four Days

For those who don’t mind a non-stop vacation (always on the move!), here is my outline of how to see the best of NYC–- all 5 boroughs of it!–- in 4 days, assuming you get an early start each day and have good weather.

DAY ONE: Fair or not, most people dismiss Staten Island and the Bronx as the lesser of the boroughs, so let’s get those out of the way first (while also doing a small part of Manhattan and Brooklyn).

Start your day at Battery Park, the lowest tip of Manhattan. From there, you can take the Staten Island ferry. Not only will you sail past the Statue of Liberty, but you can cross Staten Island off the list, and get right back on the next boat back to Manhattan! Once back, walk up Broadway (hey there’s the Wall St bull!). Veer right once you hit City Hall Park, and look for the Brooklyn Bridge. Once you get across, continue the path into downtown Brooklyn. Look for Borough Hall, where you can get a Bronx-bound 2 train. Take that to Pelham Pkwy, and treat yourself to a few hours at the Bronx Zoo. Exit the zoo at the western pedestrian exit (by W. 183rd). Walk east to Arthur Ave, then up that street to experience the ‘Little Italy’ of the Bronx. Turn east on Fordham Rd, and get a B or D train down to Yankee Stadium to catch a game.

DAY TWO: For the second day, you’re returning to Brooklyn!

Start the day by taking the L train to the Bedford stop in Williamsburg, and explore the heart of NYC hipsterdom. When you’re done, walk over to Metropolitan Ave, and head east… at Havemeyer St, be sure to take a detour into the The City Reliquary Museum for an off-beat look at NYC history. A few blocks from there, take the G train down to Hoyt St and transfer to a Manhattan-bound A/C for two stops to High St. From there, walk down Old Fulton St until you get to Brooklyn Bridge Park. After exploring all of that, head to the south end of the park, and turn up Atlantic Ave, then south again at Court St. Boerum Hill/Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens is a really nice area to walk through, and quintessentially Brooklyn. Turn east when you hit Union St, and you’ll get to walk past the Gowanus Canal (so toxic! so hip!) on your way through Park Slope. Where Union ends, you’ll find yourself at Grand Army Plaza and and the northern entrance to Prospect Park. You’ll want to take your time exploring this park. When you get to the south end of the park, head for the subway (the F train at Fort Hamilton if the west side; the Q at Parkside if the east side), and head to the end of the line and Coney Island. End your Brooklyn adventure with a hot dog at Nathan’s, riding some historic rides, and taking in the people watching on the boardwalk.

DAY THREE: Get ready for a day of exploring the queen to Brooklyn’s king.
Start the day by taking the 7 train to Vernon Blvd and your first neighborhood of the day… Long Island City. There’s a really nice waterfront park here, and a lot of new development along the river. From this area, walk north into Astoria. If you’re into pop culture, you will want to aim for the Museum of the Moving Image on 35th Ave. From there, take a Queens-bound R train to Roosevelt Ave/Jackson Heights. This area of Queens is very diverse, and will be heaven to fans of ethnic foods. After this, get on a Flushing-bound 7 train and go to 111 St. Walk down to Flushing-Meadows-Corona Park, which is bigger overall than either Central Park or Prospect Park, though showing its age far more. Check out the old structures from past Worlds Fairs, and the panorama at the Queens Museum. Head south along the pedestrian bridge that crosses the LIE to see Meadow Lake and the southern end of the park. When you get to the end of the park, start walking west (even past Queens Blvd) until you get to Forest Hills. Wander to the southeast end of the neighborhood (look for the private streets) to see what, I think, is NYC’s most gorgeous residential neighborhood. Grab dinner somewhere along Austin St, then treat yourself to a LIRR ride back to Manhattan.

DAY FOUR: Exhausted yet? Too bad, you still have Manhattan to explore!
Start your day by taking the A, C, D, or B train up to 125st St in Harlem. Walk past the Apollo Theater, and head to Marcus Garvey Park. From here, head south down 5th Ave. The stretch of 5th between 105th and 82nd Sts is known as Museum Mile, where you can find, among others, El Museo del Barrio, the Museum of the City of New York, the Guggenheim, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Once you are done with this, enter Central Park at the 79th St entrance, and head west toward Belvedere Castle. From there, you can head south through the rambles, cross the Bow Bridge, and see the Bethesda Fountain, continue down through the mall, and down toward the Pond. Exit the park on the southwest tip, and head back down 5th Ave to see NYC’s most famous shopping strip. In between 50th & 49th Sts, head into Rockefeller Center. Continue west from there, and head down Broadway for… you guessed it… Times Square. After avoiding an army of costumed buskers, head east on 42nd St to Grand Central Station. Walk back up to 5th Ave. and head down to 34th St, where you will find the Empire State Building, a favorite of giant apes and tourists alike. Walk down 34th St, and head all the way west. At 11th Ave. you will find thenorthern end of the High Line. You can walk the length of the High Line all the way down into the West Village. You’ll want to make your way east through the Village’s winding streets 'til you hit Washington Square Park. From here, head east into the East Village and/or the Lower East Side, grab a late dinner, and toast yourself to a very full vacation.

And if you need help planning such an adventure, I am happy to help!

[Bonus tip! Unless you like missing flights, never take a cab from Manhattan to JFK Airport (LaGuardia? You should be fine). Grab a LIRR train to Jamaica at Penn Station, transfer to the AirTrain to JFK. Cheaper, quicker.]

DUMBO

When we organize DUMBO tours in Brooklyn, one of the first questions we get asked is, what does "DUMBO" mean? An acronym meaning 'Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass', this once-industrial hub is now home to Brooklyn's growing tech industry and some of the most expensive real estate in all of New York.

It is also one of my favorites areas to walk around. Join me one of my next excursions!

Red Hook, Brooklyn

Yesterday, I did a great tour of one of my favorite Brooklyn neighborhoods... Red Hook.

Red Hook has a lot of history, but let’s sum it up briefly: Once a bustling home of shipping and industrial business, then cliche crime-filled pariah, now home to a wonderful re-birth.

There are no direct subway routes that go through Red Hook (though there are bus routes), but there are two easy enough ways to get there. My usual way: Take the F train to Carroll St and walk west across the BQE pedestrian bridge, then to Van Brunt St and down. Or, the one we’ll go with here… the scenic way: Take the Ikea water taxi from Manhattan ($5 on weekdays, free on weekends) from Pier 11 on the South St Seaport area. This water taxi ride will give you great views of the Brooklyn Bridge, Governors Island, Statue of Liberty, and all in between. After about 15 minutes, you will arrive at the Ikea docks.

From here, head up to Beard St and head left. The first place you’ll want to stop is right there, Erie Basin Park, which isn’t nearly as seedy as the linked writeup indicates (as far as I have seen). Past here, continue down Beard St, and make a left on Conover. Here you will find Sunny’s Bar, which has been around since 1890, and is back after Hurricane Sandy knocked it out of commission.

Right past there, at the waterfront, you’ll find Pier 44 Waterfront Garden, which Curbed describes as being “the center of this neighborhood’s eclectic mix of small businesses, arts organizations, and historic structures”. Definitely take some time strolling along this stretch. Continue up this boardwalk and back up toward Van Dyke St. At the corner of Van Dyke & Ferris, you will find Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pies, which has been drawing people to the area since before the gentrification. Right past this, you’ll find another waterfront oasis, Louis Valentino, Jr. Park and Pier. The far end of this pier has the best views in all of Brooklyn of the Statue of Liberty.

After the park, head back toward Ferris St. The few side-streets that run between Ferris & Van Brunt (Coffey, Dikeman, Wolcott, Sullivan) have a lot of interesting homes and warehouse spaces on them, and I recommend taking some time to criss-cross these streets. You may even see a large ship at the nearby Cruise Terminal.

Along this waterfront area, you will also the growing craft business boom transforming Red Hook.... wineries, whiskey distilleries, chocolate factories, glassworks, woodworking, metal shops, and much more.

Around this area, on Van Brunt St., there’s also a lot of good restaurants in the area: Fort Defiance, The Good Fork, and Hometown Bar-B-Que. You will also see Brooklyn Crab, a popular beach-style club. As you make your way north up Van Brunt, you’ll come across lots of small shops, dive bars, and small eateries. The most prominent of these are the bakery Baked and the Red Hook Lobster Pound. Continue up Van Brunt for a look at the Red Hook Container Terminal.

From there, you could head east toward Carroll Gardens for the F or G trains, or back down to the waterfront for a water taxi back to Manhattan.

The Brooklyn Scenic Route

Feeling energetic? One of my all-time favorites walk I did solo was a breezy, sunny 11-mile jaunt through some of Brooklyn’s most scenic neighborhoods.

I started the day in the Ditmas Park section of Flatbush (part of the Victorian Flatbush sub-section). I made my way up Marlborough Rd and then Buckingham Rd through the Prospect Park South area and its gorgeous, historic mansions… these alone are worth a trip to the area if you’ve never been.

From there, up through the Parade Grounds and into Prospect Park. I walked along the western side of the park up until the northwest side, and then turned down 9th St into Park Slope. I turned east at 5th Ave, then north at 3rd St to pass by the Old Stone House (a reconstructed 1699 Dutch farmhouse that was central to the Battle of Brooklyn).

From there, kept up 3rd St through Gowanus, which I always love to walk through (it’s the charms of the polluted waters). Much like the canal itself, the bridges of Gowanus have a lot of history. I turned north up Hoyt St through Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens, in search of a particular spot on my to-do list. I turned left onto Wyckoff St, to find house #108. Called the “mosaic house”, this home has been intricately decorated with all sorts of objects… beads, tiles, shells, glass, buttons, and blocks. It’s really amazing to take several minutes and just really admire the time and detail put into this mosaic.

After Wyckoff, I turned right onto Court St, the main stretch of the Cobble Hill neighborhood. My father once lived here, and I have fond memories of exploring the area, and seeing movies at Cobble Hill Cinemas, which is still there. Continuing into Downtown Brooklyn-– so-named early on in the borough’s development; it’s actually pretty far north-– I turned right onto Joralemon St, in search of another to-do. 58 Joralemon is, according to Wikipedia, “the world’s only Greek Revival subway ventilator”, and has been designed to look like just another brownstone of Brooklyn Heights.

Continuing up, I landed in Brooklyn Bridge Park, an 85-acre space reclaimed from Brooklyn’s industrial waterfront past. Lots of work was being done to improve the park. Judging by the lines at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, people were happy as is. This park is one of the great legacies of the Bloomberg era.

Past the park, I wandered into DUMBO down Plymouth St., continuing on into Vinegar Hill (almost every neighborhood I walked in today, by the way, is a city landmark district… sorry Gowanus, not there yet). I would wager most New Yorkers have never set foot in this small neighborhood, and would likely not find it very interesting, but I love it. It is mostly known for being home to a huge mansion that was once home to the Commandant’s House of the nearby Navy Yard. And that is where I was headed next.

The Brooklyn Navy Yard dates back to early years of America, and was decommissioned in 1966 amidst the economic troubles of the times. In the past decade, efforts have begun to re-purpose the yards as a new site for economic development. I visited Building 92 (entrance at Flushing Ave & Carlton Ave), a public visitors center and history museum for the yards.

After that, I headed up Carlton Ave toward the Fort Greene neighborhood and famous park that bears its name. After that, I hopped a G train to head home and rest my weary feet.

This whole walk took me about 4 hours. If you had a friend vacationing in NYC and they wanted to see Brooklyn for the first time, and they were willing to sacrifice a day out of Manhattan, I think this walk would give them a fantastic overview. If they wanted more of Brooklyn, it would be very easy to get on a G headed the other way, and head to Williamsburg for dinner.