American Folk Art Museum

New York City

　　This small institution offers rotating exhibitions in three small galleries. Past exhibits have included quilts made by 19th-century soldiers and sculptures by a celebrated Ghanaian coffin-maker of forts through which slaves were trafficked. The gift shop is a trove of unique, artsy items: books, jewelry, accessories, scarves, home decor etc....

Pace Gallery

New York City

　　With seven galleries across the world – including this eight-story Chelsea flagship – and decades of experience showing the work of such artists as Willem de Kooning, Barbara Hepworth and Julian Schnabel, gargantuan Pace is a landmark on any tour. With a glimmering exterior constructed from volcanic ash, the 75,000-sq-ft...

Prospect Park

New York City

　　Brooklyn is blessed with a number of historic, view-laden and well used green spaces, but its emerald is Prospect Park. The designers of the 585-acre park – Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux – considered it an improvement on their other New York project, Central Park, and between rambling its...

Socrates Sculpture Park

New York City

　　First carved out of an abandoned dump by sculptor Mark di Suvero, Socrates is now a city park on the river's edge with beautiful views and a rotating series of installations. Try to time a visit with free events – such as yoga on weekends from mid-May to late September,...

New York Earth Room

New York City

　　Since 1980 the oddity of the New York Earth Room, the work of artist Walter De Maria, has been wooing the curious with something not easily found in the city: dirt (250 cu yd, or 280,000lb, of it, to be exact). Walking into the small space is a heady experience,...

Strawberry Fields

New York City

　　Standing inside the park across from the famous Dakota Building, where John Lennon was fatally shot in 1980, is this poignant, tear-shaped garden – a memorial to the slain star. It contains a grove of stately elms and a tiled mosaic that says, simply, ‘Imagine.' The spot is officially designated...

Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay & Lesbian Art

New York City

　　The world's first museum dedicated to LGBTIQ+ themes stages six to eight annual exhibitions of both homegrown and international art. Offerings have included solo-artist retrospectives as well as themed shows exploring the likes of 'art and sex along the New York waterfront.' Much of the work on display is from...

Public Theater

New York City

　　This legendary theater was founded as the Shakespeare Workshop back in 1954 and has launched some of New York's big hits, including Hamilton in 2015. Today, you'll find a lineup of innovative programming as well as reimagined classics, with Shakespeare in heavy rotation. Speaking of the bard, the Public also...

Delacorte Theater

New York City

　　Every summer the Public Theater heads here to present its fabulous free productions of Shakespeare in the Park, which founder Joseph Papp began back in 1954, before the lovely, leafy, open-air theater was even built. Productions are usually superb and it's a magical experience: waiting in line for tickets is...

National Museum of the American Indian

New York City

　　An affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, this elegant tribute to Native American culture occupies Cass Gilbert's spectacular 1907 Custom House, one of NYC's finest beaux-arts buildings. Beyond a vast elliptical rotunda capped by a 140-ton skylight, sleek galleries play host to changing exhibitions featuring Native American art, culture, life and...

Hudson Yards

New York City

　　After six years of construction and $25 billion of investment, the first phase of Manhattan's new megadevelopment 'neighborhood' on the Hudson finally opened in 2019, giving visitors and locals a chance to see how New York is re-imagining itself for the future, unburdened by the shackles of tradition and nostalgia....

Blue Note

New York City

　　With the likes of Sarah Vaughan, Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie gracing its stage since it opened in 1981, Blue Note is one of NYC's premier jazz clubs. Most shows are $20 to $45 at the bar or $35 to $55 at a table, but prices rise for the biggest...

David Zwirner

New York City

　　David Zwirner operates several galleries around Chelsea, including this five-story, sustainability-certified building with 30,000 sq ft of exhibition space. He stages some of New York's best gallery shows, including the work of such artists as Sigmar Polke, Yayoi Kusama and Donald Judd. Long lines can be a hassle. 　　Zwirner has...

Museum at FIT

New York City

　　Fashionistas won't want to miss a visit to the fabulous sartorial exhibits at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), which holds one of the world's richest collections of garments, textiles and accessories – more than 50,000 items spanning the 18th century to the present day. The school's museum features innovative,...

New York Public Library

New York City

　　Loyally guarded by 'Patience' and 'Fortitude' (the marble lions overlooking Fifth Ave), this beaux-arts show-off is one of NYC's best free attractions. When dedicated in 1911, New York’s flagship library ranked as the largest marble structure ever built in the US, and to this day its recently restored Rose Main...

Green-Wood Cemetery

New York City

　　If you want to enjoy a slice of scenic Brooklyn in total peace and quiet, make for Green-Wood Cemetery. This historic burial ground set on the borough’s highest point covers 478 hilly acres with more than 7000 trees (many of which are over 150 years old); its myriad tombs, mausoleums,...

Rockefeller Center

New York City

　　This 22-acre 'city within a city' debuted at the height of the Great Depression, with developer John D Rockefeller Jr footing the $100-million price tag. Taking nine years to build, it was America's first multiuse retail, entertainment and office space – a sprawl of 19 buildings (14 of which are...

Citi Field

New York City

　　The home of the New York Mets, the city's underdog baseball team, Citi Field opened in 2009, replacing the earlier Mets HQ, Shea Stadium. In contrast to the very contemporary interior features, the facade has a somewhat old-fashioned pattern of arches; the food offerings, far removed from hot dogs and...

Madison Square Garden

New York City

　　NYC's major performance venue – part of the massive complex housing Penn Station – hosts big-arena performers, from Kanye West to Madonna. It’s also a sports arena, with New York Knicks (www.nba.com/knicks) and New York Liberty (https://liberty.wnba.com) basketball games and New York Rangers (www.nhl.com/rangers) hockey games, as well as boxing...

Radio City Music Hall

New York City

　　This spectacular moderne movie palace was the brainchild of vaudeville producer Samuel Lionel 'Roxy' Rothafel. Never one for understatement, Roxy launched his venue on December 23, 1932, with an over-the-top extravaganza that included camp dance troupe the Roxyettes (mercifully renamed the Rockettes). Guided tours (75 minutes) of the sumptuous interiors...

Met Cloisters

New York City

　　On a hilltop overlooking the Hudson River, the Cloisters is a curious architectural jigsaw, its many parts made up of various European monasteries and other historic buildings. Built in the 1930s to house the Metropolitan Museum’s medieval treasures, its frescoes, tapestries and paintings are set in galleries that sit around...

American Museum of Natural History

New York City

　　Founded back in 1869, this venerable museum contains a veritable wonderland of more than 34 million objects, specimens and artifacts – including armies of menacing dinosaur skeletons, herds of stuffed wildlife, and a crystal garden of gems and minerals. This New York icon is rightly recognized as one of the...

Grand Central Terminal

New York City

　　Completed in 1913, Grand Central Terminal – commonly, if incorrectly, called Grand Central Station – is one of New York’s most venerated beaux-arts beauties. Adorned with Tennessee-marble floors and Italian-marble ticket counters, its glorious main concourse is capped by a vaulted ceiling depicting the constellations, designed by French painter Paul...

Yankee Stadium

New York City

　　The Boston Red Sox like to talk about their record of nine World Series championships in the last 90 years…well, the Yankees have won a mere 27 in that period. The team’s magic appeared to have moved with them across 161st St to the new Yankee Stadium, where they played...

Industry City

New York City

　　These six towering warehouses by the Brooklyn waterfront have been repurposed as a 35-acre hub for shops, design studios, start-ups and nonprofits. The slick design lacks Brooklyn's characteristic grungy spirit, but it's worth stopping by for lunch at the very good food court or summer performances, held in the outdoor...

Nathan’s Famous

New York City

　　The hot dog was invented in Coney Island in 1867, which means that eating a frankfurter is practically obligatory here. The top choice: Nathan’s Famous, founded by Polish immigrant Nathan Handwerker in 1916. The hot dogs are the real deal, but the menu runs the gamut from fried clams to...

Times Square

New York City

　　Love it or hate it, the intersection of Broadway and Seventh Ave (aka Times Square) pumps out the NYC of the global imagination – yellow cabs, golden arches, soaring skyscrapers and razzle-dazzle Broadway marquees. It's right here that Al Jolson 'made it' in the 1927 film The Jazz Singer, that...

New York Botanical Garden

New York City

　　Founded back in 1891, this welcome expanse of green takes in 50 acres of old-growth forest, alongside lush gardens, ornate greenhouses and water features – a surprising find in the middle of the gritty, built-up Bronx. Covering a 250-acre plot of prime, green real estate surrounded by the crush of...

Coney Island

New York City

　　About an hour by subway from Midtown, this popular seaside neighborhood makes for a great day trip. The wide sandy beach has retained its nostalgic, kitschy and slightly sleazy charms, wood-plank boardwalk and famous Cyclone roller-coaster amid a modern amusement-park area. Nathan's Famous churns out hot dogs, and the New...

Luna Park

New York City

　　The original Luna Park, the most famous of Coney Island's competing amusement parks, opened in 1903 and reigned for decades until destroyed by fire in the 1944. A completely new Luna Park was constructed in 2010, incorporating as its showpiece the classically clackety wooden roller coaster the Cyclone ($10), which...

Top of the Rock

New York City

　　When it comes to views in New York City, you’ll be spoiled for choice. The One World Observatory may have the edge for height, and the Empire State Building has the been-there appeal but for views of midtown, it’s hard to beat Top of the Rock – the open-air crown...

Brooklyn Museum

New York City

　　This encyclopedic museum, imagined as the centerpiece of the 19th-century Brooklyn Institute, occupies a five-story, 560,000-sq-ft beaux-arts building stuffed with more than 1.5 million objects – ancient Egyptian sarcophagi, 19th-century period rooms, and a cornucopia of art. This elegant, airy space is an inspiring place to explore, and a calmer...

Museum of Modern Art

New York City

　　Superstar of the modern-art scene, MoMA's galleries are a Who’s Who of artistic heavyweights: Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Rothko, Pollock and Bourgeois. Since its founding in 1929, the museum has amassed a stunning collection of around 200,000 artworks, documenting both the emerging creative ideas and movements of the...

High Line

New York City

　　It’s hard to believe that the 1½-mile-long High Line – a shining example of brilliant urban renewal – was once a dingy freight line that anchored a rather unsavory district of slaughterhouses. Today, this eye-catching attraction is one of New York's best-loved green spaces, drawing visitors who come to stroll,...

Bronx Zoo

New York City

　　This 265-acre zoo is the country’s biggest and oldest, with over 6000 animals and re-created habitats from around the world, from African plains to Asian rainforests. It’s deservedly popular, with especially large crowds on discounted Wednesdays and weekends in good weather, and any day in July or August (try to...

Brooklyn Botanic Garden

New York City

　　Opened in 1911 and now one of Brooklyn's most picturesque sights, this 52-acre garden is home to thousands of plants and trees and a Japanese garden where river turtles swim alongside a Shinto shrine. The best times to visit are late April or early May, when the blooming cherry trees...

Chrysler Building

New York City

　　Designed by William Van Alen and completed in 1930, the 77-floor Chrysler Building is the pinup for New York's purest art deco architecture, guarded by stylized eagles of chromium nickel and topped by a beautiful seven-tiered spire reminiscent of the rising sun. The building was constructed as the headquarters for...

National September 11 Memorial Museum

New York City

　　When the twin towers of the World Trade Center toppled during the awful events of 11 September 2001, it led to years of soul-searching about what would be an appropriate memorial to replace these lost landmarks. Eventually, New York City opted for subtlety and dignity, and the end result was...

Statue of Liberty

New York City

　　It’s been over a century since Lady Liberty made her debut appearance on the New York skyline, but this iconic statue is still one of the city’s most enduring symbols. First conceived in 1865 by French intellectual Édouard de Laboulaye as a monument to the republican principles shared by France...

Guggenheim Museum

New York City

　　A New York icon, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, more commonly known as the Guggenheim, is an internationally-renowned art museum and one of the most significant architectural icons of the 20th century. 　　Architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s conical white spiral is probably more famous than the artworks inside, which include works...

One World Observatory

New York City

　　Spanning three levels at the top of the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, One World Observatory offers dazzling panoramic views over Manhattan's crystal garden of skyscrapers. On a clear day you'll be able to see all five boroughs and parts of surrounding states, as well as the Brooklyn Bridge...

Empire State Building

New York City

　　The Chrysler Building may be prettier, and One World Trade Center taller, but the queen bee of the New York skyline remains the Empire State Building. NYC's former tallest star has enjoyed close-ups in around a hundred films and countless skyline snapshots. Heading up to the top is as quintessentially...

Ellis Island

New York City

　　Located in New York Harbor, Ellis Island is the US's most famous and historically important gateway and is home to one of the country’s most moving museums. It pays tribute to the indelible courage of more than 12 million immigrants who passed through this processing station between 1892 and 1924,...

Central Park

New York City

　　One of the world’s most renowned green spaces, Central Park comprises 843 acres of rolling meadows, boulder-studded outcroppings, elm-lined walkways, manicured European-style gardens, a lake and a reservoir — not to mention an outdoor theater, a memorial to John Lennon, an idyllic waterside eatery and a famous Alice in Wonderland statue. 　　Highlights...

Metropolitan Museum of Art

New York City

　　What started with a handful of paintings brought over from Europe or donated by a coterie of philanthropically minded robber barons in the 19th century has since become a massive collection of two million works of art representing 5000 years of history. It's also become one of the most beloved corners of...