Looking for a cheap way to cover a lot of ground in New York City while avoiding traffic snarls and subway smells? One that lets you hear that woman playing a dulcimer on one block, smell Jamaican jerk chicken on the next and pass the Chrysler Building on another, all while feeling a breeze on your face?

Biking is the only way to check all those boxes. And New York's Citi Bike system is the best way to do this without the commitment of your own bicycle. Say it rains, or you feel like staying for a few drinks. You just find another way back.

I discovered this five years ago, when the pandemic forced my exercise outside. I got my cardio pushing the bulky blue bikes over the bridges connecting Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan, or on the hilly loop around Prospect Park. With few cars on the street, I conquered the jitters I felt riding in New York's lively traffic.

Now I've grown so hooked on Citi Bike that I've visited more than 1,250 of its more than 2,200 stations, including every station in Manhattan, becoming an accidental expert on my hometown in the process. The bikes are everywhere, blanketing all of Manhattan and huge chunks of the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn (plus Jersey City and Hoboken, New Jersey) with more stations to come this year.

Below I've compiled three cultural and food biking tours through all of New York's Citi Bike boroughs (they also include trips on a tramway and a ferry!). Before we start, here a few rules and tips I learnt the hard way.

Here's when it's better to use a Citi Bike: when you want to go where cars and subways can't. Spins around the Central Park loop or along the length of Manhattan by the Hudson River are bike-only propositions with gorgeous scenery. But Citi Bikes are also utilitarian, especially on routes that involve a change of direction instead of a straight shot. A trip from Central Park South to the Guggenheim Museum on the Upper East Side might take 39 minutes on foot and 30 minutes by bus and subway, but just 12 by Citi Bike through Central Park.

Here's how to plan a fast, comfortable route: New York boasts the largest bike network in North America with 1,550 lane miles -- a third of them are protected bike lanes, which mean you can sail past Radio City Music Hall even in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Google Maps and Citymapper are both helpful for finding routes, as both provide real-time Citi Bike docking info. On Google Maps, if you select "biking" as a map overlay, protected bike lanes show up as solid green lines, while dotted green lines are more exposed to traffic. On Citymapper, if you put in your destination and select "Bikes", it provides different route options for a quiet, regular or fast ride.

And finally, one more safety tip: you can stay alert and still have fun. Stop if you want to take a photo, enjoy the view or double-check your route -- that's the best way to avoid a stray car door or a moped coming at you the wrong way down a one-way street (there are, unfortunately, lots of these). Along those lines, keep your ears open for honking cars and your earbuds in your pocket. And wearing a helmet is always the smart move.

Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge is the first thing I suggest to anyone jonesing for iconic New York City views. Its majestic granite towers and steel cables have been making visitors' jaws drop since 1883, all while delivering thousands of commuters to and from work each day (it's fun to watch them hopscotch around the tourists). This ride offers a smorgasbord of beautiful sights: the Manhattan skyline and New York Harbor, the historic brownstones of Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens and the arty corners of Red Hook.

Follow this ride on Google Maps using these directions. At your first Citi Bike stop, press "Start" to begin. Here are some things you'll see along the way.

There are several Citi Bike stations near the entry point to the Brooklyn Bridge near City Hall in Manhattan. Once you snag a bike, take the protected lane over the bridge, where you'll see New York's booming second skyline in Brooklyn. Peek north as you cycle for an even deeper sense of the city's kinetic energy, with barges, sailboats and jet skis navigating the East River as helicopters whizz by overhead. As you exit the bridge and loop through Cadman Plaza Park and down to the East River, head south through Brooklyn Bridge Park. New life has sprung from once-abandoned piers, with basketball courts, soccer fields, a marina, playgrounds and all-encompassing views of the Manhattan waterfront, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I recommend cutting east at Atlantic Avenue then south on Henry Street for a Japanese lunch at Hibino -- the obento box is a bargain at $17. (Atlantic doesn't have bike lanes, so if traffic looks too gnarly, dock at the top of the avenue and walk the four blocks to the restaurant.)

Make your way back west to Columbia Street and continue south along the waterfront bike lane. This route gives a sense of New York's industrial guts, the cranes and containers reminding us that it's still a port town. Eventually you will reach Red Hook, where you'll discover Pioneer Works, an arts centre in a former iron works built in 1866 with a beautiful garden. (It's free to enter, and will resume regular visiting hours on September 13 after an installation.) Finish with an adult beverage at Sunny's, a legendary cash-only longshoreman's saloon that looks like it came straight out of On the Waterfront. It's an intimate space for live music that skews towards bluegrass.

On balmy weekends it can be hard to find an empty Citi Bike dock in Red Hook near the water -- everyone has the same idea. Keep a close eye on the app to snag one.

Best way back to Manhattan: the NYC Ferry from Red Hook is a 10-minute walk from Sunny's and can deliver you to Wall Street in 10 minutes.

Roosevelt Island is a classic New York paradox: an unexplored enigma to most New Yorkers that's a stone's throw from everything. But there's no better place to get a sense of Manhattan's verticality than this two-mile strip in the East River. It's an easy jump from there to Queens, home to possibly the greatest concentration of global cuisine -- as well as my favourite under-the-radar museum.

Follow this ride on Google Maps using these directions. At your first Citi Bike stop on Roosevelt Island, press "Start" to begin. Here are some things you'll see along the way.

This route doesn't start on a bike, but rather the aerial Roosevelt Island Tramway ($2.90) on 60th Street and 2nd Avenue in Manhattan, which provides a pigeon's-eye view of the city as it climbs over the river to the island. There's a Citi Bike station where the tram terminates. Enjoy a loop around the island, which largely car-free and home to about 14,000 residents. Check out the Four Freedoms State Park, a memorial to President Franklin D Roosevelt designed by famed architect Louis Kahn, and six New York City historical landmarks, including the Blackwell House (one of the city's few remaining historic farm houses) and a stone lighthouse. Most striking is the "Renwick Ruin", the haunted-looking ivy-covered remains of what was once a smallpox hospital dating back to 1856.

Zip over the Roosevelt Island Bridge to Queens and head north on Vernon Boulevard to the Noguchi Museum ($16 general admission). Most New Yorkers have never visited this 40-year-old institution dedicated to sculptor Isamu Noguchi, who collaborated with greats ranging from choreographer Martha Graham to composer John Cage. Their loss. Park your bike in front of the museum and step inside a series of spare indoor galleries, and a serene central rock garden, all filled with his works. Don't let the Costco across the street fool you -- this is one of the city's most tranquil spots.

From there, head to the heart of Astoria, a culinary potpourri offering eats from Greece to Colombia to the Balkans and beyond. If you push north then east from the museum, you'll reach Mombar, a cash-only BYOB Egyptian dinner spot in Astoria known for its hummus, couscous and less common dishes (hello, lamb brains). The giant eye above the front door and the walls of tchotchkes only add to the feeling that Mombar is one of one.

Best way back to Manhattan: it's a 15-minute walk from Mombar to Steinway Street station, where you can get the M or R trains. Barring that, splurge on a taxi.

The Bronx is so much more than the Yankees. It is a borough rich in food and culture, and though tourists often skip it, it's a mistake not to visit. This short route gives you a taste of its great Dominican and Italian eating spots, and delivers you to the gates of two of New York's great public institutions: the New York Botanical Garden and the Bronx Zoo.

Follow this ride on Google Maps using these directions. At your first Citi Bike stop, press "Start" to begin. Here are some things you'll see along the way.

Take the subway to Bedford Park Boulevard (the 4, B and D all stop here) and grab a bike from one of the nearby docks. As you enjoy a nice downhill ride east on Bedford Park Boulevard, look for an open basement window in an apartment building between Decatur and Marion Avenues. Seriously. There you'll find Quipes Supremo, a tiny business run out of the kitchen of married couple Adria and José. They sell empanadas, pastries and, most importantly, quipes, a Dominican variation on the Middle Eastern kibbeh made of bulgar wheat filled with ground chicken or beef. Don't sleep on their juices -- the passion fruit hit me just right on a recent hot day.

Dock your bike on Bedford Park Boulevard and eat, then walk the seven minutes to the main entrance of the city's beloved New York Botanical Garden (there are no closer docks -- I learnt this the hard way). Here you'll find a 250-acre antidote to the city's intensity with more than a million living plants, trees and fungi. To really disappear, head for the Thain Family Forest, which, according to NYBG, is the largest uncut expanse of the city's original wooded landscape. Some of its trees date back to the American Revolution.

When you're done, hop on a bike down Southern Boulevard, to Crotona Avenue and towards Arthur Avenue. Manhattan's Little Italy is shrinking, but Arthur Avenue remains a thriving hub of Italian-American culture that still draws tourists to its quiet corner of the Bronx. Stop at Tino's Delicatessen for a mountainous sandwich and the 113-year-old Egidio Pastry Shop for a cannoli chaser. Have you ever fantasised about a sausage chandelier? Arthur Avenue's Calabria Pork Store has one.

Take the short ride back to Southern Boulevard for the Bronx Zoo (admission, from $38.20 for ages 13+), entering at Gate B. It's the best urban zoo this side of San Diego. The tigers in the Wild Asia Monorail (open May to October) will confirm any suspicions you have that New York really does have everything.

Best way back to Manhattan: grab the 2 or 5 train from West Farms Square-East Tremont Avenue station, a five-minute walk from the zoo's Asia Gate (Gate A) at its southern end.

For New Yorkers or long-term visitors, an annual Citi Bike membership is $219.99. Non-members can buy a day pass for $25, or a single 30-minute trip for $4.99. E-bikes come with an extra charge; citibikenyc.com

Adam Thompson is a journalist based in New York City