Staten Island

The land of Shaolin (according to the Wu Tang Clan, whose borough this is), velour sweatsuits, pasta with gravy (red meat sauce), homes of clapboard and aluminum siding, three cast members of MTV's Jersey Shore, and the starting point of the NYC marathon, Staten Island feels light years away from Manhattan. If not for its namesake ferry, which docks in downtown St George, it might even be mostly forgotten. Unfashionably suburban, it's not without historical and cultural drawcards, and can make a pleasant mini-break within a high-energy tour of New York.