Brooklyn — N.Y.'s 'hip' borough doesn't need to play second fiddle to Manhattan

NEW YORK — Ten years ago, tourists visiting Brooklyn saw it as nothing more than a side trip from Manhattan. Maybe they walked across the Brooklyn Bridge or took the subway out to Coney Island, but few had dinner here or stayed the night.

These days, however, Brooklyn is a destination unto itself.

Now visitors to Brooklyn "stay here and go into Manhattan for the day — or they don't go to Manhattan at all," said Monique Greenwood, who runs the Akwaaba Mansion, a bed and breakfast in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. "Most of my European guests have already done Manhattan. Now they want to see Brooklyn. They're going to the Brooklyn Museum, the Botanic Garden, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. Or they're just hanging out in Brooklyn. They like the idea that it's more of a neighborhood here. They believe that Brooklyn is the hip borough."

The evidence that Brooklyn tourism has come of age is everywhere. The Queen Mary 2 is home-porting in the new cruise terminal in the borough's Red Hook neighborhood. A survey of visitors to the Brooklyn Museum found that 25 percent are from outside the region — compared to 5 percent in 1995. The exalted Michelin guide to fine dining in New York lists 25 Brooklyn restaurants. And drop-ins at Brooklyn Tourism and Visitor Center have nearly doubled in the past year.

When the Brooklyn Marriott opened in 1998, it was the first new hotel to be built in the borough in 68 years. It's been so successful that an additional 280-room tower is being built. Other new hotels are also going up in Brooklyn — including a Holiday Inn Express that opened Aug. 7.

Because large numbers of 20-somethings have settled in trendy neighborhoods like Park Slope, Williamsburg, DUMBO, Red Hook and Carroll Gardens, many tourists initially come to visit family and friends. But what's remarkable is how much sightseeing they do without leaving Brooklyn.

Amy O'Leary, who lives in Carroll Gardens, recently hosted her parents from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Their itinerary included Coney Island, a brick-oven pizzeria (Grimaldi's, 19 Old Fulton St.), and the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, a waterfront walkway with stunning views of lower Manhattan.

"What's so neat about Brooklyn is it's so diverse, so eclectic — it's just enjoyable," said Amy's dad, Larry. "I sat out on her front stoop this morning and just watched the people going by."