NEW YORK

However much the tourist authorities try to encourage visitors, the large and rambling state of NEW YORK stands inevitably in the shadow of America's most celebrated city. The words "New York" bring to mind soaring skyscrapers and congested streets, not the 50,000 square miles of rolling dairy farmland, colonial villages, workaday towns, lakes, waterfalls and towering mountains that spread north and west from New York City and constitute upstate New York. Just an hour's drive north of Manhattan, the valley of the Hudson River, with the moody Catskill Mountains rising stealthily from the west bank, offers a respite from the intensity of the city. Much wilder and more rugged are the peaks of the vast Adirondack Mountains further north – far beyond the scope of a casual excursion, but holding some of eastern America's most enticing scenery.

To the west, the slender Finger Lakes and endless miles of dairy farms and vineyards occupy the central portion of the state. Few of the cities hold much of interest, but the smaller towns, like Ivy League Ithaca, can be quite charming for a day or two, while the venerable spa town of Saratoga Springs attracts thousands of punters during the August horse racing season. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as nation-molding political and military battles were taking place, semi-feudal Dutch landowning dynasties such as the Van Rensselaers held sway upstate. Their control over tens of thousands of tenant farmers was barely affected by the transfer of colonial power from Holland to Britain, or even by American independence. Only with the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, linking New York City with the Great Lakes, did the interior start to open up; improved opportunities for trade enabled canal-side cities like Rochester, Syracuse and especially Buffalo to undergo massive expansion. On the other hand, this industrial and agricultural growth in the hinterland served, inevitably, to increase the financial standing of the Wall Street capitalists. The story of the past century and a half has been one of New York City's political and economic domination of New York State, though Governor George Pataki's popularity has buoyed upstate politicians, if not fully redressed the imbalance

New York City
Buy the Rough Guide to New York City The most beguiling city in the world, New York is an adrenaline-charged, history-laden place that holds immense romantic appeal for visitors. Wandering the streets here, you'll cut between buildings that are icons to the modern age – and whether gazing at the flickering lights of the midtown skyscrapers as you speed across the Queensboro bridge, experiencing the 4am half-life downtown, or just wasting the morning on the Staten Island ferry, you really would have to be made of stone not to be moved by it all. There's no place quite like it.

While the events of September 11, 2001, which demolished the World Trade Center, shook New York to its core, the populace responded resiliently under the composed aegis of then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Until the attacks, many New Yorkers loved to hate Giuliani, partly because they saw him as committed to making their city too much like everyone else's. To some extent he succeeded, and during the late Nineties New York seemed cleaner, safer, and more liveable, as the city took on a truly international allure and shook off the more notorious aspects to its reputation. However, the maverick quality of New York and its people still shines as brightly as it ever did. Even in the aftermath of the World Trade Center's collapse, New York remains a unique and fascinating city – and one you'll want to return to again and again.

You could spend weeks in New York and still barely scratch the surface, but there are some key attractions – and some pleasures – that you won't want to miss. There are the different ethnic neighborhoods, like lower Manhattan's Chinatown and the traditionally Jewish Lower East Side (not so much anymore); and the more artsy concentrations of SoHo, TriBeCa, and the East and West Villages. Of course, there is the celebrated architecture of corporate Manhattan, with the skyscrapers in downtown and midtown forming the most indelible images. There are the museums, not just the Metropolitan and MoMA, but countless other smaller collections that afford weeks of happy wandering. In between sights, you can eat just about anything, at any time, cooked in any style; you can drink in any kind of company; and sit through any number of obscure movies. The more established arts – dance, theater, music – are superbly catered for; and New York's clubs are as varied and exciting as you might expect. And for the avid consumer, the choice of shops is vast, almost numbingly exhaustive in this heartland of the great capitalist dream.

Museum of the City of New York
1220 5th Ave (103rd St). Wed–Sat 10am–5pm, Sun noon–5pm, Tues 10am–2pm for pre-registered tour groups only; suggested donation $7, students $4, families $12; tel 212/534-1672, www.mcny.org. #6 to 103rd St–Lexington Ave. Spaciously housed in a neo-Georgian mansion, the permanent collection of this museum provides a history of the city from Dutch times to the present. Prints, photographs, costumes and furniture are displayed on four floors, and a film about the city's history runs continuously. One of its permanent exhibits is New York Toy Stories, an engaging trip from the late 1800s to today that consists of all manner of motion toys, board games, sports equipment, and doll houses. This is a comprehensive, worthwhile and fascinating look at the evolution of a city. (The museum is scheduled to relocate downtown to the Tweed Courthouse in the spring of 2003.)

New York State Theater and Avery Fisher Hall
The spare and elegant New York State Theater (tel 212/870-5570), on the south side of the Lincoln Center plaza, is home to the New York City Ballet, the New York City Opera and the famed annual December performances of The Nutcracker Suite. The ballet season runs from late November through February, and from early April through June; the opera season starts in July and runs through mid-November. Avery Fisher Hall (tel 212/875-5030), on the north side of the plaza, does not possess the magnificence of the auditorium across the way, and the most exciting thing about the hall is its foyer, dominated by a huge hanging sculpture. The New York Philharmonic performs here from September through May; the less expensive Mostly Mozart concerts take place here in July and August.

New York Botanical Gardens
Tues–Sun 10am–6pm; $3, $2 seniors and students, 3–12 $1, free on Wed, parking $5; tel 718/817-8700, www.nybg.org. #B or #D train to Bedford Park Blvd. Across the road from the zoo's main entrance is the back turnstile of the New York Botanical Gardens, incorporated in 1891, which in their southernmost reaches are as wild as anything you're likely to see upstate. Its scientific facilities include a museum, library, herbarium, and a research laboratory. Further north near the main entrance are more cultivated stretches. The Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, a landmark, turn-of-the-nineteenth-century crystal palace, showcases jungle and desert ecosystems, a palm court and a fern forest, among other seasonal displays.

To view Vacation Rental Homes in NEW YORK click here.

Return to Vacation Guides