A stroll through Brooklyn
 

Hello Fodor's advisors extraordinaire. We'll be in your lovely and amazing city in mid- June. On the Saturday before departure, we would like to explore Brooklyn . I thought we'd walk across the bridge and then explore. We may start with a tour of the Woolworth building on the Manhattan side.

Ideally, I think, we'd walk the bridge, visit Brooklyn Heights, Dumbo, Brooklyn Bridge Park, maybe the transit museum, Jane's Carousel, grab some pizza ( not necessarily Grimaldi's just something really delicious), Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory? Or Jacque Torres chocolates, and if we are there long enough, probably a good , casual dinner. Feel free to add in anything else that should be on the list.Then we would return via the East River Ferry which I've read offers a new way to see the city.

My question is , what's the best route and what streets should we use to make the most of our day there? Yes, I can use a map to route something myself,but I am hoping for suggestions like "After crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, I take the stairs and make a left down Washington Street and head to Water Street where I get a coffee and pastry from either Jacque Torres or Almondine" or
" To get to the Heights, walk back up Old Fulton Street and make a right down Henry. Go a block or two and make a right on Middagh. The oldest house in the Heights is on the corner of Middagh and Willow."

This is from a very nice post on Trip Advisor, but included some areas not on the list ( it was in answer to someone else's query and tastes) and omitted some sights we'd like to see.

I would also appreciate any Ferry tips you might have. Thank you to all who respond. I know this may require a longer post and I appreciate you taking the time to make our family's day more enjoyable. By the way, we are a family of four including 2 teens, ages 14 and 16.

Sounds good but just keep in mind that you will be covering only a very tiny, upscale fraction of the large borough of Brooklyn. You might consider beginning with a walk on the boardwalk in Coney Island (if weather is good) or a visit to the Russian area of Brighton Beach (arriving by train) and then taking train back to downtown Brooklyn from where you can proceed with your planned tour, finishing off with a walk back to Manhattan on the Bridge. Or do that in reverse, saving the beach for the end of the day and returning by subway.

Just a thought...there are so many options, depending on your interests.

ekscrunchy's suggestion is NOT commensurate with your desired goals.

Coney Island is a haul for people wanting to hang out in the Heights or in DUMBO. It's at least a 35-minute train ride from the Heights, longer from Manhattan, and that's if you hit the connections. From the Heights, you have to catch the 2 or 3 at Clark, transfer at Atlantic Avenue (which is a labyrinth) for the B or Q and go to the end of the Q line. That's 15-20 minutes just to get to the closest train that will take you to Coney Island. If you take the Q the whole way, it's local and that means about 35 minutes on the Q alone; if you catch the B express, you can shave about 10-12 off that. Or you can run through the greater part of the Atlantic Avenue station to catch the N train, which will take about 25-30 minutes or a touch less to get to Coney Island, plus the extra 5 for the long transfer.

Each of these time estimates is ONE WAY (although coming back from Coney Island to Manhattan, you take the N train because it has construction in Brooklyn and is skipping about seven local stops going to Manhattan only - this means it's five stops to Manhattan see www.mta.info). It's actually easier to go from DUMBO or the Heights to Williamsburg by crossing the East River twice (take the A/C or 2/3 or 4/5 to Fulton Street, change for the J, take the J over the Williamsburg Bridge) than getting to Coney Island.

Big Russ- that sounds terribly complicated for people who didn't grow up with a great public transit system ( my husband and I were raised in southern Ca.) and only ever made real use of public transit occasionally when we lived near San Fran.
I'm already intimidated by the subway system without several transfers involved. : )
Any thoughts on a logical order to hit all of our desired spots?

Ekscrunchy- we considered Coney Island, but decided against it for this trip. Maybe next time. We only have 5 1/2 days, so I'm sure we're missing a lot of wonderful things.

What do you think about taking the East River Ferry back to Manhattan? I think the stop nearest uptown is in midtownish area? We'll to figure it out from there. Do you feel the ferry is a good option rather than walking back across the Brooklyn Bridge or subway?

Ferry back to Manhattan? It would depend on where I was headed and how quickly I needed to get there. You plan to do this "before your departure"--to where to you need to go? Back to the hotel to retrieve luggage? In what area of Manhattan? Any departure time constraints?

Ellenem- I was considering taking the East River Ferry. On the website it looks like it goes from Brooklyn Bridge Park to 34th st. In midtown, about 5 stops. From there we'd have to find our way to either The Guggenheim if they are offering flexible admission prices that evening ( It's a Saturday) or back to our hotel on the UWS. This would be at the end of our day in Brooklyn so I don't think we'd be pressed for time unless we make additional plans. We don't actually depart for home until the next night.

Check out this small van tour, which includes pizza, movie clips and covers a lot of ground in 4 hours. We enjoyed it, and it would have a lot of appeal to teenagers too. You pick up the tour in Lower Manhattan (Union Square) and skip the lines at the pizza prices. It is expensive, but lunch is included, and it's NYC.

http://www.asliceofbrooklyn.com

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attracti..._New_York.html

bookmarking for this spring or fall. Great suggestion on the tour.

Thanks mocha_dolce. I'll check it out ,but I'm thinking we want to walk the bridge. Maybe that's part of the tour though.