Day Tripper: Red Hook

Between keeping within your budget and scheduling time off from work, planning a vacation can be stressful.

If you find you have too little time to travel and not enough money in your bank account, there’s no need to fret.

Each Thursday, Douglaston Patch will profile one of the five boroughs’ unique neighborhoods, where you can sample some local culture and culinary delights.

This week’s pick is Red Hook:

Noon

Grab a bit of lunch at The Good Fork, a popular local restaurant and bar located at 391 Van Brunt St. The eatery offers a variety of starters, including English pea croquette, fig salad, crab cake, steamed mussels, dumplings and homemade ravioli.

The restaurant's main course offerings are Peking duck breast, The Good Fork Burger, griller grouper," Korean-style steak and eggs, roasted Sullivan Farm chicken, wild Atlantic cod and Berkshire pork shoulder.

For more information, visit The Good Fork's website.

2 p.m. 

Take a tour of The Waterfront Museum, which includes a floating classroom, a showboat barge and great views of New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty.

The museum, which was founded in 1986, is also home to Barge 79, a wooden covered barge that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The museum is located near a waterfront park and boardwalk. Group tours can be given any day of the week. Otherwise, the museum is open on Thursdays from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturdays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Click here to visit the museum's website.

4 p.m.

Stop by the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, a not-for-profit exhibition space that includes outdoor sculpture shows as well as visual and experimental arts programs, musical performances, film screenings and poetry readings. The group's gallery is located in a Civil War-era warehouse on the harbor at 76 Degraw Street.

For information on current programs, call 718-596-2506 or visit the coalition's website.

6 p.m.

End your day with dinner at Alma Restaurant, a Mexican restaurant that features a rooftop terrace and bar. 

Alma offers a winter prix fix menu and a variety of dishes, including Mole Poblano de Pollo, enchiladas, Costillas de Puerco, Poblano Relleno and Cazuela de Pescado.

Click here to visit the eatery's website.