Globe Corner Blogs

I think it’s safe to say that traveling to a new city is quite different than moving to one. Visiting a new city is pure excitement: in every direction new cuisines to try, parks to explore, streets to meander through and maybe even a new language to listen to. But when actually relocating, whether for two months or two decades, unadulterated excitement is accompanied by the mundane: coffee? laundry? groceries? bank? Enter Not For Tourists (NFT) Guides.

As a new resident of Brooklyn, or Crooklyn as Spike Lee called it in 1994 and as I now call it to amuse myself, I’ve come to appreciate the NFT guide. It has a great fold-out bus and subway map and has lots of general information about theaters, museums, and parks.

There are also several pages dedicated to each particular neighborhood showing essentials like coffee shops, hospitals and post offices. Basically, there’s a lot of practical stuff in these guides and most of the information is really tailored to residents, not tourists (an instance where judging a book by its cover will serve you well).

What goes without saying is that these guides, despite being updated annually, cannot include every shop or point of interest in any given neighborhood. You will inevitably find great restaurants and grocery stores not listed in the NFT. So, if moving to a new city, I’d recommend this guide, but also a good ol’ fashioned sense of adventure.

Read more: Book Reviews, Guidebooks, New York City, Not For Tourists, Relocating, Travel Tips and Resources


Jess is a GCB alum and now contributes to the travel blog as often as she can. Jess attended Middlebury College so she loves the Green Mountain State. She also studied abroad in Paris for a semester and has traveled through much of western Europe and the UK. Her most recent travels include trips to Portland, OR, Los Angeles, CA and Spain (Madrid and Andalusia). She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS