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This charming, tiny street in the heart of the West Village packs a lot of attractions in its narrow frame. While the street is by no means crowded - rather, like many streets in the area, it features historic town houses (although the ones here are slightly more modern, reminiscent of Lower East Side tenements rather than the 19th century brick of elsewhere in the Village) and a dearth of chain stores - it nevertheless offers plenty of dining and shopping choices. On the street itself, you can check out local favorite Cornelia Street Cafe, nearby Home - with an excellent wine list - the Pearl Oyster Bar if you're feeling decadent, or Sushi Mambo if you're in the mood for some Asian cuisine. A wealth of other restaurants, including Burrito Loco, Tio Pepe, and Risotteria, are all a few moments away, right off the street itself. With the Akira Ikeda art gallery located right on Cornelia Street, and the IFC film centre around the corner, culture vultures will find more than enough to keep them occupied here.

The tree-lined streets of this historic, bucolic block are among the city's most scenic. With elegant brownstones and red-brick townhouses, this largely residential street manages to combine a village-like feel with the vibrancy of The Village. Spend the afternoon sitting with friends on the iconic stoops of Perry Street, then head to nearby Bleecker or Hudson Street to visit a French bistro or lively cocktail bar. Try the trendy Italian Spasso, on Hudson just off Perry, or nearby Casa La Femme for delectable Moroccan fare. If you're in the mood for a night out, head to the other room (no capitals), a comfortable yet stylish bar right on Perry Street itself. Other recommended venues on or near Perry Street include the art gallery and cafe Doma, popular brunch spot Extra Virgin, and restaurant St. Ambrosius. While this area can be pricey, even for New York City's high standards, it's nevertheless one of the most pleasant spots in New York: a perfect balance of beauty and activity

Want a discount on a radio or TV monitor? Then you've come to the right place - West 27th Street is full of discount outlets and chains, including a branch of the Payless shoe store and a Sleepy's mattress stop. But if you're not bargain-hunting, there's little to do here, although tourists may be drawn to the raunchy-but-interesting Museum of Sex further east. Dining options are pretty limited around this parts: chains, Asian take-out, and happy-hour-joints abound, although a recommended option for those looking for something with a little more personality is Rooftop Garden Bar at 230 Fifth Avenue, which offers stunning panoramic views of the Empire State Building and the rest of downtown New York. The Fashion Institute of Technology is here, attracting an arty crowd, but the neighborhood doesn't have nearly the boho cachet of the blocks surrounding parts of the NYU campus. This area is serviceable, but in a city with so much character, it seems a bit basic and lacking in personality.

While not as cozy as Carnegie Hill, this stretch of the Upper East Side is nevertheless pleasant and comfortable. Home to a number of good, popular restaurants further east, such as Mediterranee, Orsay, and the charming tea house Alice's Tea Cup a couple of blocks south, this district is family-friendly but nevertheless sufficiently "adult" to provide some entertainment for the grown-ups, in the forms of a couple of more upmarket bars like Vino, as well as more relaxed places like watering hole Phoenix Park. However, the area is primarily residential, and real night owls might want to consider a place further downtown.

Medical facilities are particularly strong here, with Sloan Kettering Cancer Hospital, one of the nation (if not the world's) best cancer research centres, and New York Presbyterian Healthcare Centre, and the Hospital for Special Surgery. Hunter College is also close by for those wishing to enroll or even take courses on a by-interest basis, while nearby high schools include St. Vincent Ferrar and Talent Unlimited High School, and the prestigious Catholic Dominican Academy.

Eat your heart out, Gossip Girl! Few visitors to New York, particularly those with a fashionable bent, will escape the city without a visit to Fifth Avenue in the 50's, home to some of the most elegant design houses in the world. From Bergdorf Goodman to Saks Fifth Avenue, Bendel to Armani and Prada, this district is filled with high-end labels taking up some very high-end real estate. The area lights up at Christmastime as stores strive to outdoor each other with elaborate window displays (although pedestrian travel can verge on the unbearable). Head further east, however, and the vibe gets more relaxed. While Sutton Place all the way to the East marks one of the city's most prestigious old-money enclaves, 56th Street between these two poles of elegance is more relaxed, with local restaurants, shops, cafes, and galleries. The original P.J. Clarke's on 55th and 3rd has been made venerable with age.

Less crowded with shoppers and out-of-towners than the East 30's, and less sedate than the East 50's, this district is perfect for well-heeled, international diplomatic types looking to live around the U.N. The atmosphere is cosmopolitan yet subdued - there are plenty of elegant cocktail bars here, but few raucous dive bars. If you can wrangle an invitation, visit one of the elegant, London-style clubs for Manhattan's elite - the Yale Club and Harvard Club are two favorites. Also worth a look is the Yacht Club and the Algonquin Hotel - former home of the Round Table at which famous wit Dorothy Parker presided. Further east there's a wealth of restaurants and clubs catering more specifically to the U.N. set. Recommendations include the Overlook Lounge, laid-back Ben and Jack's Steak House, and charming Catalyst, a bookstore and cafe for all the neighborhood's bibliophiles. Elegant yet not snobby, and closer to the theatres and concert halls of midtown than the Upper East Side, East 44th Street is a fine choice for a couple or family (the United Stations School is very nearby!). Grand Central Terminal makes for easy transportation.

Like much of the Upper East Side, East 78th Street works best for families. Its nightlife is limited to a few frat-boy and preppy pubs on 2nd and 3rd Avenue (often visited by finance-dads seeking to recapture their glory days over beer pong), while playgrounds (in Central Park) and good schools (Chapin, Brearley, Birch Wathen Lenox, etc., all nearby) abound. While the restaurants and cafes around Madison Avenue give the adults something to do - there's great shopping here, especially for haute-vintage aficionados (Michael's and Encore, both on Madison and 77th, are dream-spots for fashionistas looking to buy second-hand), as well as fine established UES restaurants like Candle 79 one block north. Lexington Avenue is also a lively "hub" for this area, with All Soul's Church serving as a social focal point for many of the families in the area. Not great for 20-somethings looking to party, but for well-heeled older couples looking to start a family, this is a great place to settle down.

A bit removed from the town's commercial center, which is based around Water Street, this elegant residential promenade passes through the central campus of prestigious red-brick-and-ivy Phillips Exeter Academy, one of the best (some would argue the best) schools in the country. Yet this is decidedly not a "campus" street - there are in fact relatively few commercial buildings on the street: rather, the street is lined with gorgeous, 19th century houses (one of which, Browning House, an Academy Property, is a dead ringer for Disneyland's Phantom Manor). While many of the houses here are faculty or student housing, there are a few available for non-affiliated families, and these are all eminently worthwhile. With the exception of a glut of pedestrians holding up traffic at 8 am when students file across the street to their classes, the Academy presence is rarely problematic for residents, and for families with children, the location can in fact be a great boon for parents looking to send their children as "day students."
Bucolic charm, historic pedigree, and five minutes' walk to shops and restaurants? This street is a New England paradise.

Less picturesque than the historic, colonial heart of Exeter, Railroad Avenue can at times feel a bit depressing, especially when compared the the town's lovelier centre. Conveniently located next to the Downeaster Amtrak Rail Service (which is regular, but not often enough for the noise to be too annoying), the area around the train station is home to Romeo's, one of the town's more popular pizzerias (on Lincoln Street) as well as to a general store that also operates an authentic, down-home "truck style" cafe (expect coffee served in mugs, seats at the counter, and plenty of pie). Walk closer into town along Lincoln Street and the buildings steadily grow more historic. A popular bakery here is worth a stop for some delectable cakes and biscuits. But for livelier activity, and more New England charm, consider living closer to the centre of town, although such quaintness comes with a price tag.

Like its neighbors Orchard Street and Ludlow Street, Elridge Street is a "standard" Lower East Side Street - pleasant, if not beautiful, with remnants of the Lower East Side's historic tenement culture alongside a wealth of more contemporary cultural outfits: poetry readings, literary cafes, galleries, and bars. Lively but not overcrowded, this street is home to the Museum at Elridge Street, an insightful look into the Jewish history of the region, as well as to a number of Chinese restaurants - a spillover from nearby Chinatown. Visit Best Fuhzhou, Prosperity Dumpling, or Hing Shing Seafood store for a nice meal or take-away, or party the night away at Inhibit Karaoke Lounge. The blend of LES and Chinatown culture makes for a lively, if sometimes noisy, street culture. The north end of the street has less of a Chinese influence, and is home to the James Fuentes, Woodward, and Lmak Projects art galleries.

Clarkson Street has good bits and bad bits. When it's nice, it's really nice: the eastern end of the street, where Clarkson turns into Carmine Street, is home to charming cafes like Tanti Baci and Cafe Espanol, plenty of green space at the James J. Walker Park, art galleries like Gran Enzo Sperno, and plenty of boutiques and chocolatiers. The prestigious City as School is here, as is the Carmine Street Pool. But while proximity to the West Side Highway is a plus for plenty of athletes, who use the running and bike paths obscured from traffic by a wall of foliage, on Clarkson Street the atmosphere gets a bit sketchy: this place is home to Mystique Gentleman's club, a seedy strip joint, Hot 97, the hip-hop radio station that has seen shootings and violence as late as 2006, and a pornographic video/gaming store - none of which are places many New Yorkers would feel comfortable walking past on their way home at night. A great street - but make sure your building is on the eastern side of it.

With its Greek Revival house (one of which was the home of Dirty Dancing star Jennifer Gray), Bethune Street is a classic example of the quiet, tree-lined historic streets that are characteristic of this neighborhood. Its historic pedigree is impeccable: famous art photographer Diane Arbus committed suicide on this street at number 77, a former artists' colony, and Kurt Vonnegut's character Howard Campell (from novel Mother Nights) also lived on this street. Today this street is peaceful and pleasant, with plenty of greenery near Beeker Playground and the Hudson River Greenway, which also offers a bicycle path and river views. While this street's not known for its lively nightlife, there's nevertheless plenty to do: visit nearby Bank Street Theatre for some off-off Broadway productions, or dine at the charming vinoteca Entwine, Mexican Tortilla Flats, or charming French bistro Le Recette. Just avoid the party-hardy crowd of the nearby Meatpacking District!

Not as historic or as pretty as the West Village, not as lively as Chelsea, West 15th Street is a largely commercial area with little distinctive character or charm. It has its perks - it's close to several 14th Street/Union Square subway stops for a variety of subway lines - and the convenience of Union Square, with its myriad cafes, bookstores, and record shops (not to mention a pleasant picnicking park). But West 15th Street itself is little more than a basic shopping destination. Nearby high-street options include Pier 1 Imports, Foot Locker, Urban Outfitters, and Staples, while dining choices tend to be of the equally chain variety: there's a Subway, and a nearby Starbucks. Further west, however, choices get more interesting - visit the Chelsea Market for some local finds, or try trendier dining options like Le Gamin Cafe, La Taza Deora, or the Chelsea-fied Vynl. Avoid the Port Authority building at night - it's a bit sketchy.

This short stretch of Tribeca, located just steps from the Washington Market Park and Tribeca Performing Arts Centre, is dense indeed when it comes to attractions-per-foot . With an easy-to-reach subway stop (serving the A,C,E,F,N, and R trains), it's ideal for active types looking to get in and out of the city centre at a moment's notice - but the attractions here are numerous enough to entertained even the most seasoned New Yorker. Visit galleries like Ethan Cohen Fine Art, Artflag, Pelavin Editions, or nearby Michael Perez Gallery, or indulge in the cafes a mere stone's throw from the street. Nearby dining options include health-fan-favorite Viet Cafe, laid-back Gloria's Restaurant, Dean's Pizzeria - for those who prefer their pies upmarket - Zutto Japanese, and trendy speakeasy-style bar Hideaway. While the area's dense, it's not crowded - these bars are populated without there being ten-mile-long queues: the area's bars have a largely well-heeled, yet "local" feel: a perfect balance of elegant and comfort.

After the devastating attacks of 9/11 nearly ten years ago, Vesey Street - one of the streets adjacent to the World Trade Centre city - was decimated right along with the centre itself. But just as reconstruction of the trade centre site has at last begun, with a new tower in the works, so has Vesey Street worked to build itself up again. There are a few restaurants in the vicinity - Au Mandarin provides quick and simple delivery for office workers looking to eat in - and offices like Verizon and American Express are located here. Regardless, however, this street is somewhat dismal and depressing, even for a commercial street, given its location and the still largely-empty construction site: a literal void in the centre of downtown Manhattan. Tourists may wish to visit Ground Zero - although for some New Yorkers the idea of turning this painful memory into a tourist attraction is an anathema - but unless you're working here, there's little to bring you in this direction.

Just south of Confucius Plaza, Division Street marks the gradual merging of Chinatown proper with the housing projects and low-income-developments that dot the very eastern section of the Lower East Side. Division Street is just a stone's throw from the lower/middle-income development Knickerbocker Village. It's not exactly ugly, although it's a far cry from the charming historical town houses of Greenwich Village. Yet Division Street, as its name implies, suffers from being the border of two neighborhoods. There's not much to do here, although the Museum at Elridge Street is an insightful look into the history of the Lower East Jewish community. Dining options are plentiful in Chinatown - Fuleen Seafood is right on Division Street itself - or try some non-Asian dining on the eastern end of the street at Bacaro or Les Enfants Terribles. Seward Park is the area's closest patch of greenery, and is of a relatively decent size.

Dominated by the campus of NYU, which is dotted all around this area, the small, little-known Great Jones Street is an ideal destination for artistically-inclined 20-somethings, whether NYU students or no, looking to get involved in the city's hipster-lite nightlife. With a massive NYU development at one end of the street, Great Jones Street is not the place to go to if you want to avoid noise or fake-IDs, but there's plenty of options if you're willing to join in the fun: check out the oddly named Chinatown Brasserie, or go low-key with the West 3rd Common. Le Basket is also popular for its French delicacies. One of the city's most popular brunches is at nearby Five Points, so gear up for an afternoon of mimosas and lox. There's also an enormously high number of art galleries, craftsmen, and vintage boutiques on the block, including Michael Andrews Bespoke and retro-types' dream Screaming Mimies, delivering high-class vintage gear. A lovely, lively street.

This scenic slice of SoHo, with picturesque red brick town houses and plenty of green foliage, is among downtown's more pleasant streets. With its wooden facades - home to plenty of arty boutiques and all-organic restaurants - it is a welcome respite from the all-too-modern concrete blocks that fill up some nearby streets. There's plenty to do and see here: the Thompson Cafe is a popular spot for locals to drink lattes or cappuccinos and people-watch, while the French-Moroccan Country Cafe is an elegant piece of cross-cultural fusion. Shops and boutiques along this street include the delectable Kee's Chocolate, the Meg Cohen Design Shop, L'Artisan Parfumeur, Cartesian Graphics, and more. The end of the street provides some welcome parkland in the form of Juan Pablo Duarte Square, but the major attractive of this charming, if pricey, street is its "village" feel - it combines the elegance of New York's best with some much-needed peace and quiet in the big city. At least until the lights go off...this area's nightlife can prove hectic if unmanaged.

Not quite the posh tree-lined enclave of the Upper East Side, not quite the buzzing commercial area of midtown, the East 50's are one of the rare parts of New York City to lack a distinct neighborhood character. Around 5th Avenue, the area is gorgeous and elegant - here is the shopping capital of the world, where Bergdorf's and Bendel's are populated by an international jet-setting (and jet-shopping) elite. But head further east and the landscape changes, transforming into a largely sedate area filled with office buildings and their attendant amenities (plenty of Starbucks and sandwich delis). By the time you reach the East River, however, you've found your way to another up-and-coming neighborhood: the stunning river-views in these modern developments have attracted a number of young professionals drawn by the low prices and picturesque panoramas, and the far East 50's have a decidedly "young" vibe. Hit up some up-and-coming-bars like the River Club, Mimi's, Travis, and the perennially popular Le Perigourd, popular with the uber-posh old money Sutton Place set located just a few blocks to the north.

Just one block south of the crowded, cramped 42 Street, here on East 41st Street the density has already dissipated. Grand Central, for easy transport access, is but a short walk away, as are the oft-packed theatres of Midtown and Broadway. But this street, largely commercial, is far calmer. The vibe here is "seasoned professional" rather than "eager tourist," and the restaurants, cafes, and nightlife reflect the needs of the white-collar workers who spend their days at the Art Deco office skyscrapers that are so common in this part of midtown. Popular eateries in this district include popular Mexican restaurant Sinigual Contemporary, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, and the Tuscan Cibo. If you head even further East, close to the river, you reach the picturesque Tudor City development, a quiet, middle-class village in the heart of an otherwise buzzing commercial area. One of the rare really residential parts of Midtown, it's ideal for diplomats or other international types looking to be close to the U.N.