NEW YORK: THE FLIP SIDE

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There are eight million stories in the naked city - so why does everyone stick to the same tired dozen or so? Fact is, New York's main attractions mostly live up to their hype which means that many visitors never venture beyond them. But these iconic sights can, especially in summer, feel busy, overtouristy and tired. Happily, you don't have to stray far from the beaten path to find a less crowded, less hectic, less expensive and less mainstream New York state of mind. Below is a solid list of alternatives that easily match the Big Apple's biggest venues: not pallid substitutes, simply lesser-known attractions that locals quietly prefer.

Empire State Building 

Try The Top Of The Rock

If you want to ascend a skyscraper (and who doesn't?), skip the Empire State, where the lines are hideous and the roof deck is often inexplicably closed. Besides, it's better to view the city's most iconic building from the 70th floor of Nelson Rockefeller's art deco masterpiece - whose vastly superior views (an unobstructed 360 degree panorama including Central Park) make up for its slightly smaller stature. Ticketing is sane and simple: simply go online and book a time slot (no worries if you miss it, rescheduling's a snap). There is an added thrill, of course, if you're a fan of the comedy show 30 Rock.

30 Rockefeller Plaza, entrance on 50th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues; open 8am- midnight every day. Admission: adults $25/€20, senior citizens $23/€18, children $16/€12.50.
www.topoftherocknyc.com

The Metropolitan Museum Of Art

Try The Morgan Or The Frick

The Met is magnificent, but it's also massive. If a manageably sized, beautifully curated museum housed in a Gilded Age mansion appeals, you've got two excellent options in Manhattan.

Wedged between Fifth and Park Avenues at East 37th Street, the Morgan Library and Museum was built to house Pierpont Morgan's fabulous collection of books, art, and manuscripts. The library may be the most beautiful interior space in New York. This summer, an exhibit of drawings from Renaissance Venice shares space with the luminous permanent collection.

225 Madison Avenue, open Tuesday to Sunday. Admission: adults $15/€11.80, senior citizens and children aged 10-16 $10/€7.80, free for under 10s, +1 212 685 0008
www.themorgan.org

Further up near Central Park, the Frick Collection showcases a formidable collection of Old Master paintings, most of which are still arranged according to Henry Clay Frick's original whim. The building and its adjacent gardens are anachronistically luxurious. Don't miss the Holbein portraits of Sir Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell, hanging on opposite sides of a fireplace in the Living Hall.

1 East 70th Street, open Tuesday to Sundays. Admission: adults $18/€14, senior citizens $15/ €11.80, students $10/€7.80; no children under 10. +1 212 288 0700
www.frick.org

The High Line

Walking Across The

The High Line is a wonderfully revealing urban walk. However, navigating its narrow boardwalk on a summer weekend can feel like a cattle call. Instead, stroll across New York's oldest, most beautiful bridge on foot from Manhattan.

When you touch down in Brooklyn, head downhill toward the brand new Brooklyn Bridge park - which has lawns for sprawling, meandering paths, a carousel, a playground and the excellent Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory on Fulton Landing. Grab a cone and explore the waterfront, then head east to charming DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) for supper and dessert.

Try Al Mar at 111 Front Street which makes a mean smoked salmon sandwich, followed by the artisanal chocolates at Jacques Torres at 66 Water Street which bring a whole new meaning to death by chocolate. Alternatively, across the way, Almondine at 85 Water Street may possibly be the best bakery in New York. Forget Magnolia.

Get on to the Brooklyn Bridge Promenade at Centre Street on the Lower East Side

The Statue of Liberty 

Governor's Island

This summer the entire statue is closed for repairs, but no matter, the colossal statue is best appreciated from a distance, and there's no better view than from Governor's Island.

The city of New York bought the island from the Coast Guard for a dollar in 2003. It's an astonishing spot - smack in the middle of the harbour. With unparalleled views of the city, the island feels like a ghost town tricked out by thoughtful patrons.

Wandering through the shuttered buildings and oddly rural meadows feels transgressive and thrilling - who knew this place existed? Take the free five-minute ferry ride across the harbour, and, depending on when you visit, you'll find games, races, swims, a Jazz-age party, concerts, art, sculpture, food festivals, gardening exhibitions, hands-on classes, miniature golf, performances, scavenger hunts, walking tours, and more. (Practically everything, by the way, is free.)

Snag a hammock at Picnic Point and watch the ships go by in front of the Statue of Liberty, almost close enough to touch. Food trucks ensure you won't go hungry and rotating art exhibits (many of which encourage participation) guarantee you'll never be bored.

Open every summer weekend from 10am-7pm; activities vary by date, so check the website. Ferries run every half-hour from 10 South Street in Manhattan, and continuously from Pier 6 in Brooklyn; you can also take the East River ferry
(www.nywaterway.com).
www.govisland.com

SoHo

Williamsburg

Sadly, SoHo, crammed with chain stores, choked with tourists and traffic is no longer boho. Instead, check out Brooklyn's Williamsburg, an artsy enclave overflowing with hipster boutiques, bodegas and bars, with the streets still retaining an authentic edge of shabby cool.

You can get there by subway (get off at Bedford Avenue on North 7th Street), but the fabulous East River Ferry is by far the best way to go. Disembark at North Williamsburg. Right next to the ferry landing there's street food galore at Smorgasburg every Saturday; the same spot on Sundays hosts Brooklyn Flea, the city's best outdoor market for art, vintage clothing, tchotchkes, plus more incredible food.

Bedford Avenue is the main drag; while every storefront beckons, try Catbird, at 219 Bedford, for jewellery; and the unmarked Malin on North Sixth, between Bedford and Driggs for expertly curated vintage clothes.

The new gastropub Allswell, at 124 Bedford Ave (chef Nate Smith comes from Greenwich Village's renowned Spotted Pig) is presently getting rave reviews. Burgers are delicious and dirt cheap at Pop's, at 167 North 8th Street and the speakeasy Hotel Delmano down North 9th at the corner of Berry makes lovely vintage cocktails. Don't forget to explore beyond Bedford; even edgier shops abound on the neighbourhood's limits.

Williamsburg can be found at the end of the Williamsburg Bridge. For East River ferry schedules, visit www.nywaterway.com; for Smorgasburg and Brooklyn Flea, visit www.brooklynflea.com

The Lincoln Center

Bargemusic

Classical music loses something in the formal, often pricey environs of a concert hall. Just under the Brooklyn Bridge, a renovated 1899 coffee barge moored at Fulton Landing presents a year-round series of first-rate chamber music concerts in an absolutely stunning space.

On Saturdays at 3pm there's a free family concert. The barge itself is intimate (the front rows put you inches from performers) and acoustically wonderful; pauses between movements are punctuated by the gentle slap of waves or even the occasional blast from passing tugboats - "That sounded better in rehearsal," quipped the pianist at a recent performance. Through the windows, behind the performers, rise the skyscrapers of Lower Manhattan. Glorious.

www.bargemusic.org

Summer Concerts In Central Park

Prospect Park Summerfest

Central Park is justifiably famous for outdoor shows, but unless you've scored the (often eye-wateringly expensive) tickets months in advance, you're out of luck. However, Brooklyn's Prospect Park, another of Frederick Law Olmstead's verdant city oases, hosts outdoor events all summer long. Best of all, they're free.

Bring a picnic or don't - dozens of food and drink carts will make it easy to improvise once you're there, and join locals on the lawn in front of the Prospect Park Bandshell for shows ranging from movie sing-alongs to avant-garde dance to ballet to rap to punk to blues and everything in between. Some highlights: gospel giants Sweet Honey in the Rock (8 July), post-punk favourites Wild Flag and Mission of Burma (3 August) and Lyle Lovett (11 August). Six benefit concerts, whose ticket prices help underwrite the free shows, take place over the course of the summer, and this year include Wilco and Sigur Rós.

+1 718 683 5600
www.bricartsmedia.org

Times Square 

Times Square 

Yes, it's tacky and noisy and crowded. Yes, the chain stores and restaurants (Red Lobster? Applebees?) are more Milwaukee than Manhattan. But for over-the-top American kitsch and vulgarity, there's simply nothing to rival Times Square - which is why you can't, in good conscience, miss it.

But you can outsmart the mob by slipping into the Renaissance Hotel (2 Times Square) and taking the elevator to the second-story R Lounge. The bar juts like the prow of a ship over Times Square; get a window table, order a beer and enjoy all the neon with none of the noise.

Then walk two blocks south east to the lovely Bryant Park, midtown's prettiest public space. Play ping-pong or bocce (a type of boules) under the trees, read a bestseller or magazine - the outdoor Bryant Park Reading Room works on the honour system - or join nearby office workers for a picnic on the grass. Locals use midtownlunch.com to find restaurants; its twitter feed gives constant food-truck-location updates - an excellent idea.

The park backs up to the main branch of the New York Public Library, recently spiffed up for its centenary. Its hushed, cool interior (don't miss the Rose Reading Room on the third floor) is the perfect antidote to the chaotic bustle you left behind on 42nd Street. This, of course, is New York in a nutshell: utter chaos to blissful calm, all in the space of a few blocks.

FR New york: de l'autre côté

A un moment donné, tout visiteur a besoin de trouver une alternative aux principales attractions touristiques de New York, dit Fernanda Moore

Voici des alternatives moins courues et moins chères aux sites emblématiques.

Non : The Empire State Building Visitez : Top of the Rock Evitez l'Empire State, avec ses queues interminables. Mieux vaut voir ce célèbre building depuis le 70èmeétage du Nelson Rockefeller, chef d'oeuvre de l'art déco. 30 Rockefeller Plaza, entrée sur la 50th Street entre les 5th et 6th Avenues ; www.topoftherocknyc.com

Non : The Metropolitan Museum of Art Visitez : The Morgan Le Met est une splendeur, mais démesuré. Si vous préférez un musée de taille abordable, essayez le Morgan Library and Museum. Ce manoir de l'âge d'or héberge la fabuleuse collection de livres et de manuscrits de Pierpont Morgan. 225 Madison Avenue, www.themorgan.org

Non : The High Line Oui : la traversée du Pont de Brooklyn La High Line est une magnifique promenade urbaine, dont les chemins étroits peuvent vite être peuplés le week-end. Traversez plutôt le plus ancien pont de New York depuis Manhattan. Rejoignez la Promenade du Pont de Brooklyn à Centre Street dans le Lower East Side

Non : La Statue de la Liberté Oui : Governor's Island Cet été, la statue est fermée pour rénovation. Appréciez-la de loin, et notamment de Governor's Island. Le lieu est étonnant - en plein milieu du port. Sans mentionner les concerts, les expositions, les snacks ambulants et les hamacs pour le pique-nique. 
www.govisland.com

Zappez : SoHo Visitez : Williamsburg C'est triste, mais avec ses chaînes de magasins et ses touristes, SoHo n'est plus vraiment bobo. Faites plutôt un tour du côté de Williamsburg à Brooklyn, qui déborde de boutiques trendy et de bars, les rues conservant ce côté authentiquement délabré. Williamsburg se trouve à l'extrémité du Pont de Williamsburg (ou station de métro Bedford Avenue).

NL New york: Anders Bekeken

Hieronder vindt u een aantal alternatieven voor de New Yorkse toeristische trekpleisters

De New Yorkse iconen zijn tijdens de zomer vaak drukbezocht en vermoeiend. Gelukkig hoeft u niet zo ver te zoeken naar alternatieven voor deze hot spots.

Don't: The Empire State Building Do: Top of the Rock Een beter alternatief om het grootste icoon van de stad te bewonderen. Vanop de 70ste verdieping van dit art Deco meesterwerk van de hand van Nelson Rockefeller heeft u een prachtig en weids uitzicht.
www.topoftherocknyc.com

Don't: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Do: The Morgan Houdt u van een qua oppervlakte goed te doen, mooi onderhouden museum gevestigd in een herenhuis uit het Gouden Tijdperk? Probeer dan zeker the Morgan Library and Museum, dat werd gebouwd voor het bewaren van de indrukwekkende verzameling boeken en manuscripten van Pierpont Morgan.
www.themorgan.org

Don't: The High Line Do: Een wandeling over the Brooklyn Bridge. Kies voor een wandeling te voet vanuit Manhattan over de oudste en mooiste brug van New York. Brooklyn Bridge Promenade, Centre Street, Lower East Side

Don't: The Statue of Liberty Do: Governor's Island Deze zomer is het volledige standbeeld gesloten voor onderhoudswerken. Maakt niet uit want u kunt het beeld het beste bewonderen vanop afstand. Governor's Island biedt het allerbeste uitzicht. De stad New York kocht het eiland in 2003 voor een dollar van de Kustwacht. Een prachtige plek, middenin de haven. 
www.govisland.com

Don't: SoHo Do: Williamsburg Ga een kijkje nemen in Williamsburg, een kunstzinnige buurt in Brooklyn die bulkt van de hippe boetiekjes en bars. De straten ademen hier nog een authentiek cool sfeertje uit. Williamsburg vindt u aan het einde van de Williamsburg Bridge (Metro Bedford Avenue).

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