The Dominican community
Washington Heights (roughly 155th to 193rd Street, though locals and definitions vary) has been the center of Dominican-American life in New York since significant immigration began in the 1960s, and it remains the largest Dominican community outside the Dominican Republic itself. The neighborhood is dense with Dominican restaurants, bakeries, barbershops, and street life that has its own distinct character from the Manhattan most visitors experience.
The Cloisters
The Metropolitan Museum's medieval art branch, housed in a building assembled from actual European monastery and cloister sections shipped to New York in the early 20th century. It sits in Fort Tryon Park at the northern tip of Manhattan, overlooking the Hudson River and the New Jersey Palisades. The collection — tapestries, illuminated manuscripts, altarpieces, and the famous Unicorn Tapestries — is extraordinary, and the setting makes it feel genuinely different from any other museum experience in the city. Included with Met admission on the same day. Worth an entire separate trip.
Fort Tryon Park
The park surrounding the Cloisters is a genuine Olmsted-firm design (Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., not the elder) with Hudson River views and a Heather Garden that is, in season, one of the finest public gardens in the city. Free to enter; the Cloisters are ticketed separately from the park grounds.
Getting there
The A train (express to 181st Street) is the fastest route from Midtown — about 25 minutes. The neighborhood is also reachable by the 1 train, which takes slightly longer but has stations closer to the Cloisters.