Manhattan Transfer - the 1970s band took the legendary city name and made it their own. Frank Sinatra sung about wanting to be a part of it, to stray across a city that never sleeps in a pair of vagabond shoes. New York can be anything you want it to be. Immortalised in countless films and television programs, the city is one of the world’s great metropolises. New York offers everything from the ethnic flavours of Little Italy, Chinatown and the Jewish delis of the Lower East Side to the galleries, groovy shops and cafes of SoHo, the glitz of the Theatre District, the dizzying affluence of Park Lane and the incredible shopping on Fifth Avenue.
The city comprises five boroughs and is draped across a grid pattern of avenues and streets. Most of the best sights are found on Manhattan Island, but the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island offer individual appeal. Some of the best pizza pie is served in Brooklyn, the Bronx is home to Yankee Stadium and baseball and the views of Manhattan aboard the Staten Island Ferry are enviable.
The sheer volume of things to do – theatre, ballet, museums, opera, wining, dining, shopping and exploring is astonishing. The city boasts 18,000 restaurants. And, no visit is complete without a spot of shopping at Bloomingdales. Have what Sally wanted when she was at Katz’s Deli with Harry, admire the city atop the Empire State Building, enjoy a drink at the Waldorf Astoria, meet the neoclassical Lady Liberty, embark on a cultural exchange at MoMA – Museum of Modern Art, stroll through Central Park, catch a yellow cab, eat a giant pretzel, gorge on a streetcart hot dog, ride the NYC Subway, catch a Yankee’s baseball game, shop at Sak’s Fifth Avenue.
It’s why visitors keep streaming in from all over the globe, grasping at their silver-screen visions – and finding them – but discovering plenty more in the city that never sleeps. Beyond the Big Apple, the beauty of Long Island, the Hamptons and the Adirondack Mountains beckons.
