Where to Stay in New York: Choosing Your Neighborhood

Midtown puts you within walking distance of Times Square's theaters, Rockefeller Center, Grand Central and Bryant Park, with more subway lines than anywhere else in the city. For a short first trip with a long list, that convenience is hard to beat.

The trade-off is character. Midtown empties of neighborhood life at night outside the theater blocks, and the streets around Times Square are crowded at every hour. Choose a hotel on a quieter side street, toward Bryant Park or the East Side, and you get the convenience without living inside the crowd.

If your picture of New York is brick rowhouses, crooked streets and a different café on every corner, stay here. The Village is the city's best neighborhood to simply walk out the door into: Washington Square Park for the morning, the old streets west of Seventh Avenue for the afternoon, and more good restaurants per block than you will get through in a week.

It is quieter at night than downtown's nightlife districts, though Bleecker and MacDougal stay lively. Rooms here are fewer and tend to cost more, and some streets are a walk from the nearest subway, so check before you book.

SoHo's cobblestones and cast-iron facades make it the city's shopping district, busy by day and calmer after the stores close. Tribeca, just south, is quieter still: wide old warehouse streets, serious restaurants and some of the city's most polished small hotels.

Both are central, well served by the subway, and easy walking distance to the Village, Chinatown and the Hudson River waterfront. Expect to pay for the polish.

Stay here if your trip is built around food and evenings. The Lower East Side mixes old institutions like Katz's and Russ & Daughters with cocktail bars and late-night restaurants; the East Village adds St. Marks Place, Tompkins Square Park and a dense grid of cheap, good places to eat.

It can be loud on weekend nights, especially near the bar streets, so ask for a room away from the street if you sleep lightly. The payoff is that you will never have to travel far for dinner.

The two neighborhoods on either side of Central Park are calmer, more residential and good for families or slower trips. The Upper East Side puts the Met and Museum Mile at your door; the Upper West Side has the American Museum of Natural History, Zabar's and Riverside Park.

Mornings in the park are the reward. Evenings are quieter than downtown, and the ride to lower Manhattan takes longer, so this suits travelers who would rather spend their days among museums and trees than in bars.

DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights sit at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, with the best views of the Manhattan skyline anywhere and a quick ride into lower Manhattan. They are calm at night and lovely in the morning, especially along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.

Williamsburg is livelier: bars, music venues, vintage shops and a waterfront park facing Midtown. It is one subway stop on the L from Manhattan's East Village, which makes it an easy base for travelers who want Brooklyn's energy without feeling far away.

Just across the East River in Queens, Long Island City has become a hotel district of its own. Several subway lines reach Midtown in a stop or two, rooms tend to cost less than comparable ones in Manhattan, and the waterfront at Gantry Plaza State Park looks straight at the Midtown skyline.

It is quieter and less charming on its inland blocks, but for a value-minded trip that still keeps Manhattan close, it is one of the smartest bases in the city.