First exit to Brooklyn

Once, tourists in Brooklyn were mostly people who needed better directions, Windsor Terrace resident Tom Botti recalls. ‘Usually it was someone who got confused on the subway and wanted help getting back to Manhattan.’

Now visitors are coming to Brooklyn on purpose. Botti is a guide with City Sights NY (1-212 812 2700, www.citysightsny.com), which runs six bus tours into Brooklyn each day. Gray Line also operates hop-on, hop-off tours to the borough (with stops at the Botanic Garden and Fulton Mall).

‘It’s a more real and culturally interesting part of the city,’ says Miguel Garcia, who’s visiting the borough from Madrid. Another guest, Pat O’Brien of New Orleans, says he was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan when he was growing up in the 1950s.

The burgeoning interest has led to a spike in hotel construction. When the New York Marriott Brooklyn opened in 1998, it was the borough’s first new hotel in 68 years. Since then, Brooklyn has gained another 600 or so hotel rooms, and 2,000 more are on the way. ‘About once a week someone on one of the tours will say they plan to check out of their hotel in Manhattan and stay in Brooklyn instead,’ Botti says. ‘They’re absolutely charmed by the place, and they figure they can save a few bucks to boot.’

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