New York

The city that never sleeps — Broadway, Central Park and infinite energy.

New York City is the most recognisable city in the world — a place whose skyline, energy and cultural mythology have shaped global imagination more profoundly than any other urban environment. The five boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island form the most complex, diverse and inexhaustible city in the Western Hemisphere, a place where you can spend weeks and feel you've only scratched the surface. Manhattan is the island at the centre of it all — the skyscrapers of Midtown and Downtown, Central Park (843 acres of designed nature in the heart of the city), the museums of the Upper East Side (the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, the American Museum of Natural History), the brownstone neighbourhoods of the Upper West Side and Harlem, the bohemian energy of Greenwich Village and the East Village, and the galleries and designer restaurants of Chelsea and the Meatpacking District. Brooklyn has transformed into one of the world's most creative and culinarily exciting urban areas — DUMBO, Williamsburg, Park Slope and Red Hook each have distinctive characters. The Brooklyn Bridge walk, the High Line park (in Manhattan) and the 9/11 Memorial are must-experiences. Times Square is overwhelming and worth witnessing once. The Staten Island Ferry is free and gives the best views of the Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty. New York is expensive but offers extraordinary value in its free institutions.