Summer in New York is a great time to explore all the city has to offer. But if you're a real New Yorker, you're really busy. You don't have all summer to enjoy summer.
So with the help of the many magazines, websites and blogs devoted to uncovering the city's best-kept secrets, here's how to fit every single sight, sound and taste of summer in New York into one perfect day.
10 AM: Start your perfect day by going to an outdoor concert and eating some ethnic food, or as New Yorkers call it, "grooving and noshing." There's an abandoned industrial park in Astoria where you can groove to some Greek music while noshing on a breakfast gyro.
11 AM: It might seem early for a drink but it's 5 PM somewhere. Specifically, in Warsaw, Poland. Make your way to the secret new Polish beer garden in the western tower of the Koscuiszko Bridge.
Noon: Cool down at the Red Hook Igloo, constructed on a decaying pier by a group of former magazine staffers turned locavore Inuits. Nosh on farm-raised walrus kebab while discussing the decline of print media with a Yale graduate dressed like an Eskimo.
1 PM: The playground of P.S. 52 in Sheepshead Bay has become the epicenter of New York's burgeoning grime revival scene. Groove to a Dizzee Rascal cover act while noshing on fish-and-chips fried up by a guy who claims to be The Streets' cousin.
2 PM: Who says New York doesn't have outdoor activities? Head to the Bronx for an urban rappelling class. You'll climb a residential apartment building with skinny bearded guys taking girls in rompers on whimsical first dates.
3 PM: Dive in to the Harlem River, and swim-groove to the music coming from the stereos of cars on the Major Deegan Expressway while trying not to swallow-nosh the water.
3:15 PM: Make a quick stop at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, New York's summer headquarters for treating infections caused by swimming in the Harlem River.
4 PM: Outdoor concert #3. Groove to music while noshing on food.
5 PM: The best place to enjoy a summer happy hour in New York is an exclusive bar on the roof of a boutique hotel. Worried about the tough door policy? Good thing you just learned how to scale a building.
6 PM: You no longer have to feel bad about missing out on New York's gritty but exhilarating past. Descend a few hundred yards below Manhattan for the popular "Summer in the Seventies" reality tour. Join Ed Koch and Reggie Jackson in a stalled subway car while a group of teenage graffiti artists invent hip-hop.
7 PM: Outdoor concerts #4-9. Grooving, noshing, etc.
9 PM: Take the Staten Island Ferry to Fresh Kills, where New York's biggest landfill has been transformed into New York's best outdoor cinema. Bring a blanket and enjoy a Fellini flick atop a mountain of slowly decomposing trash.
11 PM: It's not too late for a day trip! Catch the last train to Montauk.
2 AM: Surf under the stars, but only for a few minutes. You have to start walking now if you want to make it to Southampton for brunch.
11 AM: Nothing says summer in New York like an elegant brunch in the Hamptons after a 30-mile walk along the highway.
1 PM: Get the train back to the city! There are some outdoor concerts you really don't want to miss.