United States · New York
New York City
The densest concentration of art, theatre, food and sheer street life anywhere, stacked into a walkable grid and served by a subway that never closes.
New York is five boroughs of dense, vertical, relentlessly public life, and the city most visitors already have a picture of before they arrive. Manhattan holds the skyline, Central Park, the museum mile and Broadway within a walkable grid, while the rest of the city carries the neighbourhoods where most New Yorkers actually live and eat. A subway that never stops running ties it together, and the pleasure of the place is less about ticking off sights than about walking a few blocks and finding the character change under your feet.
Suggested stay
4–7 days
Language
English
Currency
USD
Timezone
UTC-4
Why you'll love New York City
The density world-class museums, stages and skyline views sit within a few subway stops of each other, so a single day can hold three cities' worth of ambition
Eating waves of migration have made this one of the great eating cities on earth, from counter-service classics to the immigrant kitchens out in the outer boroughs
Walking the numbered grid makes the city almost impossible to get lost in, and the neighbourhood character changes block by block as you cross it
The night theatre, jazz cellars, comedy rooms and bars that run late in a city genuinely built to be out in after dark
Best time to visit
Apr-Oct
17-29° days
40.713° N, 74.006° W
UTC-4 · America/New York
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Weather & when to go to New York City
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Apr-Oct
Watch for Jun-Nov cyclones & hurricanes risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid New York City
Deep winter, roughly December to February, is the weak stretch: short daylight, wind funnelled down the avenues, grey slush underfoot and the parks and rooftops at their least appealing. It is a trade rather than a write-off, since the museums, theatres and restaurants are all indoors and rates soften once the holiday crush passes.
Top things to do in New York City
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Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island - the harbour ferry and the immigration halls
history 👍 PopularOne ferry from Battery Park serves both islands. Liberty Island gets you under the copper statue, with pedestal and crown access booked well ahead, and Ellis Island holds the restored Great Hall where millions of arrivals were processed, plus the passenger records that make it personal for a lot of visitors.
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Central Park - Bethesda Terrace, the Ramble and the reservoir loop
scenic 👍 PopularOlmsted and Vaux's designed landscape runs for more than fifty blocks through the middle of Manhattan, and it rewards wandering rather than crossing: the arcaded terrace and fountain, the tangled woodland of the Ramble, rowing boats on the lake, and the running path around the reservoir with the Upper East Side skyline behind it.
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Egyptian temple to rooftop skyline
culture arts ⭐ Highly recommendedTwo million square feet of everything, and no one sees it in a day. The set pieces are the Temple of Dendur in its glass hall, the European paintings galleries, the American Wing and the arms and armour court; the roof garden opens in the warm months and looks straight over the park treetops.
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Empire State Building - the art deco tower and its observatories
scenic 👍 PopularThe 1931 skyscraper that still defines the skyline in most people's heads, with a restored art deco lobby and observation decks on the 86th and 102nd floors. Go at opening or late in the evening to dodge the worst of the queues, and know that the rival Midtown decks look better precisely because this tower is in their view.
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Brooklyn Bridge - walk the promenade into Brooklyn
scenic ⭐ Highly recommendedThe gothic stone towers and steel cables of Roebling's 1883 bridge, crossed on a raised timber walkway above the traffic. Start on the Brooklyn side and walk towards Manhattan for the better view, and finish under the arches at Dumbo where the bridge frames the skyline.
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The High Line - a park built on an old elevated freight line
scenicA mile and a half of disused rail viaduct on the west side, replanted with prairie grasses and threaded between buildings above the street. It runs from the Meatpacking District up past Chelsea's gallery blocks to Hudson Yards, with cut-outs looking down over the avenues.
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9/11 Memorial and Museum - the twin voids at Ground Zero
historyTwo sunken pools sit in the footprints of the fallen towers, rimmed with the names of the dead and fed by the largest man-made waterfalls in the country. The museum below ground keeps the slurry wall, the last column and a survivors' staircase, and it is a heavy couple of hours rather than a sight to tick off.
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Museum of Modern Art - Starry Night and the sculpture garden
culture artsThe collection that wrote the canon of modern art: Van Gogh, Picasso's Demoiselles, Monet's water lilies across a whole wall, and floors of design, film and photography. The sculpture garden in the middle is the best free-feeling breather in Midtown.
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Broadway - a show in the Theater District
culture artsForty-odd theatres cluster in the blocks around Times Square, running the long-established musicals alongside straight plays with film actors in them. Same-day discount booths and digital lotteries are the standard way in, and the off-Broadway houses downtown are where the more interesting work usually is.
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Grand Central Terminal - the celestial ceiling and the whispering gallery
historyA beaux-arts station built to impress, with a green-gold zodiac painted across the vault of the main concourse and a four-faced brass clock at its centre. The tiled arches outside the oyster bar carry a whisper diagonally from corner to corner, and the market and dining concourse are worth the detour.
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American Museum of Natural History - the blue whale and the dinosaur halls
culture artsA blue whale hangs over the ocean life hall, a titanosaur fills a room upstairs, and the fossil halls are arranged as an evolutionary walk rather than a parade of skeletons. The attached planetarium sits in a glass cube on the park's west side.
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Eating across the boroughs - bagels, slices, dumplings and Queens
foodThe city's real signature. Boiled-and-baked bagels and pastrami on rye downtown, foldable pizza slices anywhere, Chinatown dumplings and hand-pulled noodles, and out in Queens the stretches of Jackson Heights and Flushing that make a strong case for skipping Manhattan dinner altogether.
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Village jazz clubs - basement rooms in Greenwich Village
nightlife musicThe Village Vanguard has been running its wedge-shaped basement since the 1930s, with the Blue Note, Smalls and the Jazz Gallery filling out the circuit. Sets are short, seating is tight and the late set is usually the loose one.
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Fifth Avenue and SoHo - the flagship shopping stretches
shoppingMidtown Fifth Avenue holds the department stores and the marquee flagships, while SoHo's cast-iron blocks below Houston Street trade the same brands with better streets to walk between them. The vintage and independent shops sit further east, around the Lower East Side and Nolita.
Best areas to stay in New York City
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Midtown Manhattan
First-time visitors $$Skyscrapers, theatres, every subway line at once
Explore hotels in Midtown Manhattan →
Greenwich Village & the West Village
Character & walking $$$Brownstone streets, jazz cellars, slow evenings
Explore hotels in Greenwich Village & the West Village →
Lower East Side & East Village
Nightlife & eating $$Tenement blocks, bars, late-night eating
Explore hotels in Lower East Side & East Village →
Upper West Side
Families & museums $$Leafy, residential, parks either side
Explore hotels in Upper West Side →
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Brooklyn side $$Waterfront warehouses, boutiques, skyline views
Explore hotels in Williamsburg, Brooklyn →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on New York City
Getting to & around New York City
Getting there
Fly into JFK, Newark or LaGuardia; rail and road transfers reach Manhattan in roughly 45 to 75 minutes depending on the airport and traffic
Flight
John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)
About 24 km southeast of Midtown in southern Queens. The reliable route is the AirTrain from the terminals to either Jamaica, for Long Island Rail Road trains into Grand Central and Penn Station in around 20 minutes, or Howard Beach for the subway, which is slower but runs all night. Taxis and rideshare take 45 to 90 minutes depending on traffic. Newark, across the river in New Jersey, connects by AirTrain to rail services into Penn Station in around 45 minutes, and LaGuardia is the closest of the three but has no rail link, so it is buses and road only.
Train
Penn Station / Moynihan Train Hall
Amtrak's Northeast Corridor arrives here from Washington, Philadelphia and Boston, alongside New Jersey Transit and Long Island Rail Road commuter services
Train
Grand Central Terminal
Metro-North lines run in from the Hudson Valley, Westchester and Connecticut, and Long Island trains now reach the lower level at Grand Central Madison
Coach
Port Authority Bus Terminal
Intercity coaches from across the northeast and beyond terminate in Midtown West, with some services also using the Midtown curbside stops
Cruise
Manhattan Cruise Terminal
Transatlantic liners and cruise ships berth on the Hudson at Midtown West, with a second terminal at Red Hook in Brooklyn
Drive
Interstates feed in through tolled bridges and tunnels from every direction, but driving into Manhattan is the least appealing arrival there is: traffic is dense and parking is punishing
Getting around
Subway
The backbone of the city and the only network in the country running 24 hours; check whether your train is local or express before boarding, since express trains skip most stops
TBC
Bus
Slower than the subway but far better for crosstown trips in Manhattan, where the rail lines mostly run north to south
TBC
Walking
The numbered grid above Houston Street makes navigation simple, and twenty north-south blocks work out to roughly a mile
Free
Staten Island Ferry
A free harbour crossing from the southern tip of Manhattan that passes the Statue of Liberty in both directions, day and night
Free
NYC Ferry
East River and Hudson routes connect Manhattan with Brooklyn, Queens and the Rockaways, and double as the cheapest scenic cruise in the city
TBC
Taxi & rideshare
Yellow cabs are hailed on the street and rideshare is everywhere, though in Midtown traffic the subway usually beats both
TBC
Citi Bike
Docked bike share with stations across Manhattan and inner Brooklyn, best on the protected Hudson River greenway and through the parks
TBC
Day trips from New York City
Cold Spring and the Hudson Highlands
Full dayRiver hikes & village
A nineteenth-century village of antique shops and river-view porches at the foot of steep granite hills. Breakneck Ridge and Bull Hill give the classic scramble above the Hudson, and both trailheads are walkable from the train, which makes this the easiest real hike out of the city.
Getting there
train | walk
About 1.5 hr by Metro-North from Grand Central, then on foot
Beacon and Storm King Art Center
Full dayOutdoor sculpture & art
Dia Beacon fills a former printing factory beside the station with room-sized minimalist works, while Storm King sets Calder, Serra and Goldsworthy pieces across five hundred acres of hillside on the far bank. Storm King is seasonal and best on a bike or by walking it slowly.
Getting there
train | bus | car
About 1.5 hr by train to Beacon, then a short taxi or seasonal shuttle across the river
Philadelphia
Full dayFounding history
Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell sit within a few blocks of the country's oldest continuously inhabited residential street, and the art museum steps, Reading Terminal Market and a serious cheesesteak argument fill the rest of the day.
Getting there
train | car
Roughly 1.5 hr each way by train from Penn Station, or a similar drive
Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown
Half dayRiver mansions & legend
The churchyard of Washington Irving's headless horseman story, plus the Rockefeller estate at Kykuit, the gothic revival pile at Lyndhurst and Irving's own cottage at Sunnyside, all strung along a walkable stretch of the east bank.
Getting there
train | bus | car
About 45 min by Metro-North up the Hudson line, then local buses or taxis between the estates
The Hamptons and Montauk
1-2 daysBeach towns & lighthouse
The long Atlantic beaches, hedged summer estates and farm stands of the South Fork, ending at the fishing harbour and clifftop lighthouse at Montauk. Worth an overnight rather than a dash, and at its best either side of the peak summer weeks.
Getting there
train | car
About 3 hr by Long Island Rail Road, or a similar drive without traffic
A little history of New York City
The Lenape lived and fished across the islands and estuaries here long before Dutch traders founded New Amsterdam at the southern tip of Manhattan in the 1620s, running it as a company port whose polyglot, commercial character survived everything that came after. The English took it without a fight in 1664 and renamed it for the Duke of York; a century later it was occupied through most of the Revolutionary War, and it served briefly as the new nation's capital, with Washington inaugurated on Wall Street in 1789.
The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 turned the harbour into the gateway for the American interior, and the city grew explosively on the back of it: the street grid was laid out over farmland, Central Park was carved out of the middle of it, and tens of millions of migrants came ashore, from the Irish and German waves of the mid-1800s to the Italian, eastern European and Jewish arrivals processed through Ellis Island. Consolidation of the five boroughs in 1898 and the first subway line in 1904 made the modern city; skyscrapers, Wall Street, Harlem's cultural flowering, postwar migration from Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, Asia and Latin America, the fiscal crisis of the 1970s and the attacks of 2001 each left their layer on it.
Dutch settlers establish New Amsterdam on Lenape land at the tip of Manhattan
The English take the colony without a shot and rename it New York
George Washington is inaugurated as the first president at Federal Hall on Wall Street
The Erie Canal opens, making the port the gateway to the American interior
Work begins on Central Park to the Greensward plan of Olmsted and Vaux
The Statue of Liberty is dedicated in the harbour
Ellis Island opens as the federal immigration station, processing arrivals until 1954
The five boroughs consolidate into Greater New York
The first subway line opens beneath Manhattan
The Empire State Building is completed and takes the title of tallest in the world
The September 11 attacks destroy the World Trade Center towers
Know before you go
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FAQs about New York City
▸ When is the best time to visit New York City?
April to October is the broad sweet spot. Late spring and September to October are the pick: mild, clear, long evenings and the parks at their best, either in blossom or in autumn colour. Midsummer is hot and humid, but the city is fully alive through it, with rooftops, harbour breezes and air-conditioned museums doing the work. December through February is the weakest stretch, cold and short on daylight, though the indoor city carries on regardless.
▸ How many days do you need in New York City?
Four full days is the sensible floor: enough for a couple of major museums, a park day, downtown and the harbour, a show and one outer-borough evening. Five to seven lets you slow down, cross into Brooklyn or Queens properly and take a day out into the Hudson Valley.
▸ Do I need a car in New York City?
No, and a car is an active liability here. The subway runs around the clock, buses fill the crosstown gaps and most days involve a lot of walking. Rent a car only for a trip out of the city, and pick it up on your way out rather than parking it in Manhattan.
▸ Which airport should I fly into?
JFK has the widest choice of international flights and a straightforward rail route into Manhattan. Newark is often just as quick to reach the west side and can be better for New Jersey or the Hudson side. LaGuardia is the closest to Midtown and handles mostly domestic flights, but it has no rail link, so its journey time swings with the traffic.
▸ Is New York City expensive?
It sits at the top end for a traveller, with accommodation by far the biggest bite and restaurant bills carrying both tax and an expected tip on top of the menu. It scales well, though: the subway, counter-service food, harbour ferries, the parks, and museums with suggested or pay-what-you-wish admission keep a day's spending in check if you plan around them.
▸ Is the subway easy to use, and is it safe?
Easy once you learn two habits: check the uptown or downtown platform before you tap in, and check whether the train is local or express. It is the way most New Yorkers travel at all hours and is generally fine, though late at night the usual big-city sense applies about busier cars and platforms.
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