East Village & Lower East Side

The New Museum of Contemporary Art is a sight to behold: a seven-story stack of ethereal, off-kilter white boxes (designed by Tokyo-based architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA and New York firm Gensler) rearing above its medium-rise neighborhood. It was a long-awaited breath of fresh air along what was a completely gritty Bowery strip when it arrived back in 2007 – since the museum's opening, many glossy new constructions have joined it, quickly transforming this once down-and-out avenue.

This museum allows visitors to briefly inhabit the Lower East Side's heartbreaking, hardscrabble but unexpectedly inspiring heritage. Two remarkably preserved (and minimally restored) 19th-century tenements are the focus of various tours, including the impossibly cramped home and garment shop of the Levine family from Poland, and two immigrant dwellings from the Great Depressions of 1873 and 1929. Visits to the tenement building are available only as part of scheduled guided tours, with many departures each day.

One of the most magical things about New York is that every street tells a story, from the action unfurling before your eyes to the dense history hidden behind colorful facades. St Marks Pl is one of the best strips of pavement in the city for storytelling, as almost every building on these hallowed blocks is rife with tales from a time when the East Village embodied creative bohemianism.

If you’ve been dreaming of those quintessential New York City moments – graffiti on crimson brick, skyscrapers rising overhead, punks, grannies and financial-industry types walking side by side, cute cafes with rickety tables spilling out onto the sidewalks – then the East Village is your Holy Grail. Stick to the area around Tompkins Square Park, and the lettered avenues (known as Alphabet City) to its east, for interesting little nooks in which to eat and drink – as well as a collection of great community gardens that provide leafy respite and the occasional live performance. The streets below Houston St and east of the Bowery are packed with cool boutiques and inventive restaurants, with the odd divey, grungy punk bar still surviving amid the trendy speakeasies. During the day, the vibe is relaxed, whereas at night, when the drinks are flowing, the hormones are pulsing and the crowds descend, it's a very different place. It's a mixed bag, indeed, and perhaps one of the most emblematic of today's city.

Tasty dumplings – filled with pork and chives, chicken and basil, shrimp, or just veggies – are whipped together in iron skillets at light speed and tossed into hungry mouths at unbeatable prices. Try them steamed, fried or in a bowl of steaming noodle soup.