Photograph: Jodie Love

Priced out of Park Slope? Keep on riding south, into the Sunset. This large, culturally diverse nabe spans from the harbor east to Ninth Avenue, and from the Prospect Expressway down to 65th Street. You won’t see masses of uppity yuppie mummies (yuppities? muppets?) or baby boutiques here—just quiet, hilly, tree-lined streets bordering green space, thriving ethnic enclaves and plentiful resources for families.

What you’ll find
Victorian-era row housing dominates this residential area, with commercial strips on Fifth and Eighth Avenues. Along Eighth in the 40s and 50s is Chinatown’s main drag. Here, Malaysian, Vietnamese and other Asian restaurants and groceries are also plentiful; dragons take to the street February 12 and 13 for Chinese New Year, and the famous Hong Kong Supermarket (Eighth Ave between 60th and 61st Sts) sells kimchi and live frogs. Bulk-shopping mecca Costco is nearby (Third Ave between 37th and 38th Sts), which means Sunset residents never, ever run out of TP.

Sprawling, stroller-friendly Green-Wood Cemetery (25th St at Fifth Ave) quickly relieves visitors of any squeamishness with its 478 acres of paths and parkland; you may even be tempted to visit the graves of famous New Yorkers like Jean-Michel Basquiat and F.A.O. Schwarz. The Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway project plans to extend its bike paths along the nabe’s harbor access—just not anytime soon.