New York: the boroughs beyond Manhattan worth staying in
Brooklyn and Long Island City offer half the price and surprisingly better access to the things that matter.
6 min read
Manhattan hotels are priced for the business traveller, which means that leisure visitors are paying rates calibrated to corporate expense accounts. The alternatives are closer and better connected than they were five years ago, and in several cases offer a better experience of New York than Midtown provides.
Williamsburg, Brooklyn has transformed from a neighbourhood to a destination in its own right. The hotel stock is modern and well-designed — several properties here would be considered excellent in any other city. The L train to Manhattan takes eight minutes; the J/M/Z provides a slower but visually interesting alternative route. The restaurants, bars and independent retail on Bedford Avenue and the surrounding streets are now part of the standard New York cultural circuit.
Long Island City, Queens is directly across the East River from Midtown Manhattan — the skyline views from the waterfront parks are better than most you will pay for in Manhattan itself. Hotel prices here run at roughly sixty percent of comparable Midtown properties. The 7 train takes ten minutes to Times Square. The area around 5 Pointz remains a centre of street art and creative activity.
DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) in Brooklyn offers a different proposition: a neighbourhood that has become thoroughly gentrified, with art galleries, excellent restaurants and the kind of cobbled-street, converted-warehouse aesthetic that New York does better than any other American city. The hotel options are limited but growing; the proximity to Brooklyn Bridge Park and the Manhattan Bridge walkway means the views are consistently spectacular.
The practical note: New York's subway is genuinely useful for borough travel in a way that no other American city's public transport matches. The anxiety about "leaving Manhattan" that some first-time visitors have tends to evaporate after the first subway ride to Brooklyn. The city is better understood as a network than as an island.
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