Go Outside the Mahattan Experience

In NYC there is a lot to see, eat and absorb in a short amount of time. There are many great food to eat and activities to do while visiting Manhattan, but to find additional unique cultural-jewels it does not always have to involve only staying in one place. It's worth the extra effort for your group to venture outside of Manhattan to see the other cultural-jewels in NYC outer boroughs. I am writing this borough highlight guide to show everyone in the group where to begin the outer borough experience tour.

First, avoid Manhattan street festivals that tend to have all the same merchandise and food at all of them. If you want to go see some better ones go to fairs located in the outer boroughs. One festival I recommend takes place in Brooklyn, every September, is the Atlantic Antic. This fair offers a great assortment of homemade foods and international dishes of every type; Caribbean jewelry, crafts galore and live music all take on Atlantic Avenue. There is a website to see a detailed map of this festival's activities offerings at www.atlanticantic.org To find some listings of this fair and other additional fair locations go and buy some of the many community papers available at any locale newsstand. If you can't find these types of papers, at the locale newsstands, there is another alternative. If you look online at www.onlinenewspapers.com listings. This website lists all newspapers in NYC, then you can look up community events like street festivals event other community related information.

Another alternative activity is trying some one-day adventures. Go outside of the Manhattan experience and take Metro-North trains located at Grand Central Station. This train system offers special commuter-discount packages in Long Island. Some packages that Metro North offers are discounted Long Island beach discounts and discounted festival one-day festival package deals to their annual strawberry festival, wine, beer, and apple festival. These festivals and many other Long Island festival offerings are listed month by month on their events calendar on their website http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/mnr/html/getaways.htm.

Besides the beaches of Long Island, there are two Brooklyn beaches located in Brooklyn to get some sun and surf time during everyone's vacation. The first beach is called Brighton Beach. After the beach activities are done, go and explore the surrounding neighborhood called Brighton Beach. This neighborhood also goes by the nickname "Little Odessa." Go eat some delicious gourmet Russian foods in the many Russian restaurants and gourmet stores located in this locale area. Don't forget famous Coney Island is not far away either. If your group decides to visit the second beach located in Brooklyn called Manhattan Beach, everybody can relax afterwards, at one of the nightly gambling cruise ships located in nearby Brooklyn neighborhood called Sheepshead Bay. In addition, to gambling these boats offer early morning fishing trips.

If not everybody wants to fish or gamble then there is an alternative activity, for the rest of your group, that doesn't like fishing or gambling. Get the shoppers of the group together and hit the discount stores that are located directly across the street from the boats. Both Nine West Shoe outlets and a department store called Loehmann both offer deep discounted clothing prices and shoe prices.

For other eating options besides fish, I suggest you go eat at the famous old restaurant called Lundy that is also located in the same neighborhood. This restaurant is a good food choice for steaks, Sunday brunch and seafood.

Many sites in NYC offer great chances for picture-taking opportunities of NYC famous skyline. But there are other options to consider besides the well -known one The Staten Island Ferry. Two of my favorite ones are the following: If you take the D train to 45th street you can go to Sunset Park and get some Dominican food for a picnic at the park, and I also suggest visiting Gantry Plaza State Park in Long Island City, Queens; that it is located one stop from Grand Central in Manhattan at 48th Avenue.

In Manhattan everybody loves to walk, but if your group is bored and getting tired of walking around and just seeing tall buildings then there is another walking opportunity that doesn't involve just seeing tall buildings. If everybody likes to go hiking on trails then go and visit Staten Island. Your Staten Island Ferry ride would be the last tall building you would see in a while. Instead your group could see nature in Blue Heron Park or Clay Pitt Pond. Also, in Staten Island there are available tours to see what life was like in the early 19th century. Take these tours by visiting Richmond Town museum. This family-oriented place is great to see and eat during the holidays where this place hosts special dinners and holiday themed events. Go to their website to see what events are offered at. http://www.historicrichmondtown.org

Speaking about the early days of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, is the old historical house district, from the early 1800, called Wellsville Heritage Center. This center goal is help people learn about Brooklyn's African American Heritage in Brooklyn. These houses were purchased by some of the first free salves in the North. For more information on how to get to Weekville society go to their website at wwww.weekvillesociety.org Also, in same neighborhood of these houses is where you will find some of NYC best Caribbean food to eat at afterwards.

If your group are art buffs Brooklyn has a great selection of art to see at the Brooklyn Art Museum. The Brooklyn Museum, as well as the World famous Metropolitan Museum of Art, located in Manhattan, offers art buffs a great selection of Egyptian art to enjoy. If you can make the visit to Brooklyn Museum of Art during the first Saturday of every month, you're get an additional bonus besides the seeing their beautiful art. Every first Saturday, of every month, this museum is open late and offers some free cultural-diverse events like a dance party, some free movie screenings and some dance performances. Check the their website for their month-by-month calendar of events at www.brooklynmuseum.org for details about this free event and other current exhibit information.

Also,if your group gets a chance to venture to another hip Brooklyn neighborhood called Williamsburg, Brooklyn there are a lot of great art shops and locale designer clothing's shops and good places to eat. This a great place to explore with the young tennagers of your group. Located right next to this museum for your group to stroll around and smell the roses is the Brooklyn Botanical Garden.

This Garden sponsors some great festivals during the year: their annual spring Cherry Blossom Festival, their annual Red Hot Chili festival during the fall and their annual Rose Festival during the summer. If you get hungry, within a short walking distance, located on Washington Avenue, is an old fashioned restaurant called Tom. This is where everybody can taste a real Brooklyn egg cream.

Speaking of food, Queens has a great food selection for everybody's taste. Visit for the neighborhood Elmhurst Avenue for great Chinese food, taste both great Indian food and Columbian food at Roosevelt Avenue, and great Greek food is available in Astoria. I mentioned some great art attractions in Brooklyn, but in Queens, New York there is plenty more. Go and visit the Museum of Moving Image that highlights movies, visit the Queen's Art Museum, go to the outdoor sculpture garden called the Socrates Sculpture Garden and or go do some additional outer borough shopping with the shoppers of your group and visit some antique shops in the neighborhood Forest Hills.

Finally, in the Bronx, you can do the following things: visit Fordham University beautiful campus and see their university basketball team perform, eat great Italian food at Arthur Avenue, go to the South Bronx to experience the music and culture of locale Spanish artists or go and relax at another great set of gardens at Wave Hill. If everybody in the group was open minded and tasted the many cultural foods of the NYC's outer boroughs, then everybody will have many interesting tales to tell when they get home.

.Tell your friends NYC is not just about Manhattan but much more then everybody thought. There will be many new pictures of great new sites that your group explored and many memories of great meals that everybody shared together, in the outer boroughs, to prove this fact a reality. Take my advice. NYC is more then Manhattan. Your short but sweet tour of cultural-diversity only began there.