Brooklyn stopped being Manhattan's overflow long ago. Today it sets the pace — in food, in music, in the way a neighbourhood can reinvent itself in a decade. Give it a full day and let the borough's independent streak show you around.
Williamsburg and Greenpoint
Start on the waterfront in Williamsburg, where the Manhattan skyline glitters across the East River and the smorgasbord food market draws crowds on weekends. Wander north into Greenpoint for Polish bakeries, vintage shops and the quiet residential charm that the guidebooks still miss.
Brownstone Brooklyn
Prospect Heights, Fort Greene and Park Slope form the borough's leafy heart, all stoops and tree-lined avenues radiating from Prospect Park — Olmsted and Vaux's masterpiece, which many New Yorkers prefer to Central Park. The Brooklyn Museum and Botanic Garden sit on its eastern edge.
Red Hook's edge
Finish in Red Hook, cut off from the subway and all the better for it. Cobbled streets, harbour views of the Statue of Liberty, a famous key-lime-pie shop and some of the best cocktail bars in the city make this the borough's most atmospheric corner.
