Brooklyn 202 tour
This tour expands on Brooklyn 101, adding adjacent neighborhods. We can see row houses, mansions, parks, colleges, and a great sculpture garden.
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This extensive tour of neighborhoods in the Brownstone Brooklyn belt combines major segments of the Brooklyn 101 tour (Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO), plus pieces of the Fort Greene & Clinton Hill tour and/or the Cobble Hill & Carroll Gardens tour, and/or the Atlantic Ave. & Downtown Brooklyn tour. In other words, you have options.
Brooklyn tour highlights Sculpture at the Pratt Institute,
Brooklyn 202 tour
We typically meet in near Brooklyn's magnificent Grand Army Plaza, the psychic center of Brooklyn. We'll see some marvelous architecture and get a feel for Park Slope, the city's most livable neighborhood ( according to NY magazine), an epicenter of the borough's gentrification yet also boasting the country's largest co-operative grocery.
(Alternatively, we can also do the route starting in DUMBO, making our way deeper into Brooklyn, which follows the expansionist path of Brooklyn history. That's my recommended path for Brooklyn 101.) We'll visit Brooklyn's most famous park, Prospect Park, a cousin to and contrast with Olmsted & Vaux's earlier Central Park, and see the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch. On Saturdays, there's a Greenmarket outside the park. If it's open, we'll step into the Brooklyn Public Library's Central Library. We'll continue past the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (maybe go in) and see the Brooklyn Museum's imposing facade and possibly enter the vestibule We subway to Atlantic Terminal and explore Fort Greene (row houses, arts, Spike Lee's HQ) and possibly its neighbor, Clinton Hill, including the Pratt Institute and its magnificent sculpture garden. (Note: the Pratt campus is currently closed to visitors, so we see it from the street.) Both have great architecture and trees. (Alternative: skip much or all of Fort Greene/Clinton Hill and instead go to Cobble Hill & Carroll Gardens, two charming but very much not undiscovered neighborhoods near Downtown Brooklyn and Brooklyn Heights, which have historic churches, good bakeries/shopping, and tree-lined streets.) We then travel by subway to the institutional heart of Brooklyn, home of Borough Hall, Brooklyn's old City Hall, and see part of Downtown Brooklyn: older skyscrapers, new developments, and governmental buildings. Our route takes us into Brooklyn Heights, the city's first historic district and still a vital residential neighborhood. At the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, we find glorious views of the Manhattan skyline and the Brooklyn Bridge. After a walk past Brooklyn's most famous church, we descend to the waterfront explore Fulton Ferry and adjacent DUMBO. There are numerous food options. And we/re near the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge. The scope of the tour is variable: I have conceptualized it as a 4-6-hour tour, building on the 3-hour Brooklyn 101, but it can be shorter (if we cut some things), or longer, depending on how many components we add. |
Distance from Midtown Manhattan: 25-35 minutes, by subway
Cost: see fees here Basic tour length: 4-6 hours (see fees), maybe longer if we stop for lunch Starting place: B/Q to Seventh Avenue, 2/3 to Grand Army Plaza; can also start at Brooklyn Museum/Botanic Garden or Atlantic Terminal. Or we start at Fulton Ferry/DUMBO. Ending place: If we start in Park Slope, we end near Fulton Ferry/DUMBO. If we start in DUMBO, we end near the Brooklyn Museum or in Park Slope. Highlights: History, architecture, waterfront views, parks, arts institutions, civic life Before tour: Visit Brooklyn Museum or Brooklyn Botanic Garden After tour: Eat in Fulton Ferry/DUMBO: ice cream, pizza. Walk Brooklyn Bridge. Take NYC Ferry to Wall Street, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Long Island City, 34th Street Potential tour extensions with me: DUMBO, Williamsburg, Crown Heights, Brooklyn Bridge, Atlantic Avenue Why I like leading this tour: Brooklyn is still too big to capture in four or five or six hours, but this puts a lot together in a vigorous walk. We'll earn our lunch/snacks! |