TripHip - Travel Tips and Advice for Traveling on a Budget

What is real New York? It's a question New Yorkers have been asking themselves for decades, if not centuries. Is it the lox-and-rye Upper West Side of Seinfeld and Woody Allen? Is it the dodgy and dark restaurants of Little Italy, with rumored Mob connections? Or is it the Manoho-Blahnik wearing, publicist-dating club scene popularized by Sex and the City, or the slightly classier Upper East Side version made famous by Gossip Girl? The truth is, New York is all of these things and more. But one thing that the "real" New York is not is the "Big Apple" seen on postcards. You are likely to find far, far more tourists near Times Square than New Yorkers, and as for the Empire State Building, in a word no real New Yorker has ever used within the earshot of this writer, "fuggedaboutit." So where to turn when you want a slice of "real" NYC? Try these neighborhoods:

1) The Lower East Side - Where it all began. The LES, as it is known, has a history of being the district of tenements and immigration, of people who came to America with a dream of making it big and often suffered terribly from discrimination and hardship. Today, the LES retains its Russian-Jewish influence, but is also a highly trendy getaway for hipsters, with cocktail bars, beat poetry jams, and intimate indie venues. The East Village, nearby, is the home of grungy bohemia, and although it's mellowed since its "Rent" days, it's still worth a visit, not least for the amazing restaurants (Banjara, on 1st Ave and 6th St, and Mogador, between 2nd and 1st Aves on 8th Street/St. Mark's))

2) The Upper East Side
Elegant, refined, beautiful - this neighborhood, lining Central Park with lush 19th century mansions, exemplifies the Old New York of Edith Wharton or Henry James. With the high-end couture of Madison Avenue's shops, the Old World charm of the Carnegie Hill neighborhood, with outdoor cafes and farmer's-market gourmet delis, and the thrilling people-watching down Park and Fifth Avenues, the Upper East Side will make you feel like a character in "The Age of Innocence."

3) Other Boroughs
New York's historic status as a city of immigrants and dreams is still going strong. But most of these enclaves are now located in Brooklyn or the Bronx rather than downtown Manhattan. Take a day or two to wander the streets in a non-Manhattan borough; you're likely to hear twenty languages spoken and eat Chinese for breakfast, Jamacan for lunch, and Filipino for dinner...