BEYOND NEW YORK: EXPLORE THESE EAST COAST CITIES

THESE CITIES PROVE THERE’S MUCH MORE TO THE US’S EAST COAST THAN JUST NEW YORK. WORDS: STEPHANIE CAVAGNARO

Swaggeringly self-assured, New York City is an indomitable force. This mega metropolis, immortalised on the silver screen countless times, has bags of assets and knows how to flaunt them: steel skyscrapers squeezed together like blades of grass, sandy beaches, bold Broadway plays, good grub, grand galleries, and paths crisscrossing Central Park’s vast meadows, hills and gardens. Stretching along the Hudson and East Rivers and the Atlantic Ocean, New York is split into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island. It’s North America’s largest city by a long shot, and remains a nonstop raucous ride with late nights, bright neon lights and cool cosmopolitan clout.

According to NYC & Company, visitor numbers to the US’s most popular city have nearly tripled since 1991. The pandemic affected this trajectory, but the organisation predicts a record of more than 70 million tourists will visit New York in 2025. So, why not step off the crowded sidewalks and try another east coast city instead? Washington, DC, Philadelphia and Boston are close by, making them ideal add-ons, with plenty of historical and cultural capital to rival the Big Apple, while hip coastal Portland (not to be confused with the Oregon one) and quirky Baltimore have big town charm in a smaller package.

We dig into the unique offering of these metropolises, each vying to be travellers’ next city break.

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