Brooklyn, New York, NY

Includes:
Brooklyn (Williamsburg)
Brooklyn (Park Slope)
Brooklyn (Brooklyn Heights)
Brooklyn (Prospect Heights)
Brooklyn (Bushwick)
Brooklyn (Greenpoint)

Once associated with hard knocks and tough multicultural neighborhoods, Brooklyn is now more popular than ever as a bona fide New York social scene. Located just over the East River, the borough is home to roughly 2.6 million people, making “BK” the most populous of New York’s five boroughs.

Despite ongoing gentrification and a flood of high-tech and entertainment companies that have moved in since the millennium, the area still stands apart as a less expensive alternative to exorbitantly priced Manhattan. Everything from rents to the price of beer allows for post-grad upstarts, struggling musicians, blue-collar Joes, and a melting pot of the world’s ethnicities to work and play in the big city without getting buried in debt.

During the day, Prospect Park – built by the same designers behind Central Park – serves as the epicenter of social activity, binding multiple neighborhoods with roughly six hundred acres of lush meadows, lakes, sporting fields, and live performance spaces.

Streets teem with every kind of ethnic market and alternative shopping boutique imaginable, while major tourist destinations like the amusement mecca of Coney Island compete with the nation’s second-largest public art museum, celebrated concert halls, and the Brooklyn Flea Market at Fort Greene – arguably New York’s most popular flea market.

At night, Brooklyn comes alive with incredible live indie music joints, unique gastropubs, large-scale beer gardens, and authentic international eateries that bring together generations of culinary tradition.

Long-standing Brooklynites are intensely loyal about their love for the borough’s rebellious attitude, musical devotion, and gritty nature, and while certain areas can get hairy at night, Brooklyn is a must for anyone looking to witness the above-average party scene that the average New Yorker now enjoys.