New York City’s Tribeca neighborhood, often affectionately called “Hollywood East,” is one of the city's most dynamic neighborhoods. Follow our T+L guide and you’ll do it right. For more travel tips, visit travelandleisure.com/video. Many attribute much of the transformation of Tribeca—a former no-man's land now filled with cool shops and hip restaurants—to Robert De Niro, who is the owner of the handsome, 88-room Greenwich Hotel. During the star-studded Tribeca Film Festival, this is his home base. To get a taste of the pseudo-casual yet super hip restaurant scene now led by of-the-moment chefs like Matt Abramcyk, try his unassuming yet undeniably cool bar Smith & Mills, in a design-forward space on North Moore Street. Keep an eye on this restaurateur; he turns out new projects almost every year. Like Tribeca itself, Aire Ancient Baths retains its old Manhattan roots but has a shiny, new veneer. The Roman-style bathhouse, formerly a 19th-century textile factory, is furnished with wooden benches made from scaffolds of the city’s Triborough Bridge. Visit for a soak and forget all about the hustle outside.

• published: 04 Nov 2014
• views: 3