Five Boroughs is a New York City guide built for the way people actually move around the city — whether you have lived here for twenty years or landed this morning.
Open it and you get the places closest to you, sorted by how far you would really have to walk. Tap any one of them and you get the things that matter before you set off: the address, the hours, what it costs, and which subway lines genuinely stop nearby.
WHAT IS INSIDE
• Over 400 places across all five boroughs — restaurants, hotels, museums and sights, shops, bars and music venues.
• Nearby, sorted by walking distance, as a list or on a map.
• Real subway directions. Each place lists the stations that actually serve it, the routes that stop there, and how long the walk takes. This comes from the MTA's own scheduling data, not from a sentence in a book.
• Restaurant health grades from the New York City Health Department, so you know before you sit down.
• Honest prices. Ranges are read as numbers you can filter on, and compulsory extras such as hotel resort fees are listed separately — a room advertised at $180 with a mandatory $35 fee is shown as what it really costs.
• Neighbourhood profiles that say what each area is good for and, just as usefully, what it is not.
• Nine self-guided walks and ready-made days, with numbered stops you tick off as you go and a map of the route.
• Photographs of many landmarks, each shown with its photographer and licence.
• History and architecture: when a building opened, who designed it, and whether it is a protected landmark.
• Live bike-share availability and current weather when you have a signal.
• Save places you like, grouped by area so your list doubles as a plan.
• Share any place, list or walk as plain text — the person you send it to does not need this app.
BUILT TO WORK WHEN YOUR PHONE DOES NOT
The whole guide is stored on your device. On the subway, in a basement bar, on an international plan you would rather not use — the places, addresses, hours, prices and subway directions are all still there. Only the map tiles, photos and live feeds need a connection.
NO ACCOUNT, NO TRACKING
There is nothing to sign up for. Your saved places and your progress through a walk stay on your phone. Your location is used to sort and map what is near you, and is never sent anywhere. There are no adverts and no analytics.
Location access is optional. Refuse it and the app still works — it simply measures distances from the middle of Manhattan and tells you that is what it is doing.
WHERE THE INFORMATION COMES FROM
The listings are built on the factual content of Frommer's New York City 2026, 11th edition (FrommerMedia LLC): names, addresses, contact details, hours, price bands and transit. Every description you read in this app is written from those facts. None of the guide's review writing is reproduced.
Layered on top are open datasets, including two government sources:
• Subway stations and routes: Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) scheduling data. Source: https://www.mta.info/developers
• Restaurant inspection grades: New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, via NYC Open Data. Source: https://www.nyc.gov/site/doh/services/restaurant-grades.page
• Current weather: US National Weather Service. Source: https://www.weather.gov
Also: Overture Maps Foundation for positions, websites and social links; Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons for historic facts and freely licensed photographs; OpenStreetMap for map tiles and geocoding. Full credits are in the app, under About.
Five Boroughs is an independent app. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the MTA, the City of New York, the National Weather Service, or any other government entity — it republishes their public data.
A GUIDE, NOT A GUARANTEE
Restaurants close, museums change their hours, and fares go up. Where the app could not confirm a detail, it says so on the place itself. Check anything time-critical before you travel.
Recent changes:
Enjoy our new New York City Travel Guide! As always send us any messages for suggestions, bug fixes, or just say hello!
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