New York neighborhoods

New York is a cosmopolitan city and one of the most important in the United States. It is divided into five boroughs known as New York boroughs, each with a very different and unique atmosphere: the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Bronx

The Bronx is north of New York, separated from Manhattan by the Harlem River. It owes its name to Jonas Bronck, a Dutchman who created the first settlement as part of the New Netherlands colony in 1639. This district has been part of the city since 1874 and occupies 109 square kilometers, almost twice the size of Manhattan despite being fewer residents.

In the 1970s, high unemployment and poverty led to increased crime, and the Bronx was virtually uninhabitable, earning it a certain notoriety in movies and television series. Although today there are still some conflictive areas, the truth is that the situation has improved a lot since then.

Cradle of rap and hip hop, one of the coolest ways to get to know this district is through a guided tour, since it allows us to know anecdotes and curiosities that we would not otherwise know. You can even do a tour of contrasts where, on a bus, we can see the differences that exist between the different neighborhoods that make it up.

Baseball fans cannot miss the opportunity to see a game live in New York. The current Yankee Stadium is a remodeling of the original, which closed its doors in 2008. A year later, New Yankee Stadium was inaugurated in the South Bronx with a capacity for almost 50.000 people.

Another place to visit in the Bronx is the New York Botanical Garden, which has 50 gardens, making it one of the largest in the United States. The botanical garden also contains original trees and plants from the time when New York was founded. A true marvel.

Once in the Bronx you may want to visit its zoo, the largest on the planet. It is located in Bronx Park, south of the New York Botanical Garden. It is a good plan to carry out during a trip to New York as a family because they will enjoy this mixture of a playground and a zoo, where children can feed some animals such as lambs or llamas. It currently has about 4.000 species spread over 107 hectares, some in danger of extinction.

On the other hand, the Bay Plaza in the Bronx is the largest shopping center in New York. It has three floors and houses a large number of shops where you can buy souvenirs. There are also good places to eat here but since the Bronx is a multicultural neighborhood where you will find many different types of food at good prices.

Queens

Located north of Brooklyn and shares the border with the Bronx and east with Manhattan. It occupies an area of ​​283 km2 and has about 2,3 million residents, being the second most populous district in New York and one of the most multicultural.

Although it is not of great tourist interest, there are some places that are worth visiting during a trip to New York. One of them is MoMA PS1, a modern art center that belongs to the famous Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan. Another very interesting place is the Museum of the Moving Image, dedicated to audiovisual production, its technologies and associated artistic forms. Its collections range from the precursor devices of the cinematograph, to demonstrations of the latest digital developments, to memorabilia collections that movie lovers are sure to enjoy.

Another must-see museum here is the Queens Museum located in Flushing Meadows Park, which houses permanent and traveling collections, especially contemporary modern art.

Speaking of Flushing Meadows, here's also the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, where the US Open has been played since 1978. Queens is well known for its sporting events and here you can see the home of the New York Mets, the second most important baseball team in New York.

Brooklyn

Since 1898, Brooklyn has been one of the five boroughs of New York and before that it became the fourth largest city in the United States behind New York, Chicago and Philadelphia. Its name comes from the city of Breukelen, in the Netherlands and with more than 2,6 million Brooklyn is the district with the largest number of inhabitants where people of Russian, Italian, Jamaican and Jussian descent live together. Dutch or Ukrainian, among others.

There is so much to do in Brooklyn to have a great time. To begin the visit, you can go to the famous bridge that connects the districts of Brooklyn and Manhattan, which was built at the end of the XNUMXth century and was at the time the longest suspension bridge on the planet. Below it is a very picturesque neighborhood called DUMBO, a place full of artists, shops, restaurants and art galleries. Also here is the Brooklyn Bridge Park, from where you can take some spectacular photos of downtown Manhattan.

Speaking of photography, surely you want to immortalize your visit to Brooklyn by going to the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood to take some pictures of the beautiful Victorian houses that are in this residential neighborhood with excellent views of Manhattan.

Another activity to do in this district is to attend a Brooklyn Nets game at Barclay's Center. Without a doubt, one of the best plans to do as a family and for NBA fans.

A very fun excursion to do with children in Brooklyn is Coney Island, especially in the warmer months of the year. There is an amusement park and the boardwalk is lined with food stalls. Both locals and tourists enjoy its beach during the summer and the best thing is that it can be easily reached by metro.

Manhattan

In Manhattan we can find the most typical and popular New York. It is the district with the largest population in New York and it is home to the largest cultural, financial and commercial centers in the world.

The island of Manhattan is huge, it is divided into three areas, Downtown, Midtown and Uptown. Downtown is the area where the New York we know today was born and where are the most iconic neighborhoods of Manhattan such as the Financial District (where you can see Wall Street, the World Trade Center or Battery Park), Soho, Tribeca, Chinatown , Little Italy or the East Villa.

Midtown is where the emblems of New York are located such as the Grand Station, the Empire State, the Chrysler Building, the Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Times Square and the MOMA among others.

The Uptown area is less visited because it is a more residential area, although it contains emblematic places that we must visit, such as Central Park, the largest urban park in New York and one of the largest in the world.