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New York
It’s Time for New York City! World-class culture, dining, entertainment—find it all in the five boroughs. There’s never been a better time to plan your trip.
Epicenter of the arts. Architectural darling. Dining and shopping capital. Trendsetter. New York City wears many crowns, and spreads an irresistible feast for all.
Check out the views from the top of the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, or One World Observatory. Take yourself on a museum crawl, starting at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on the northeastern edge of Central Park. Then, make your way north several blocks to the Guggenheim Museum and eventually to the Museum of the City of New York, one of the best places to learn about the Big Apple’s history.
Go to Chinatown for dim sum and to Little Italy for cannoli. Head to a jazz club in Harlem, check out the independent artist galleries that dot Chelsea, shop along Fifth Avenue, and pay a visit to the Statue of Liberty.
You could spend an entire day in Central Park alone, checking out its zoo, carousel, lakes, and ice rink. A number of gardens and meadows make for excellent people-watching and host impromptu musical performances on nice days. Traveling in the summer? Make sure to check the schedule for Shakespeare in the Park.
Best Time to Go
New York is a city that’s always celebrating something, and summer is one of the best times to visit. Outdoor concert season is in full swing. Free movies and theatrical performances fill the city’s parks, street vendors are everywhere, and street fairs abound. But subway platforms can get steamy, lines can get long, and temperatures can soar among the city’s high-rises. If this sounds like misery, visit between Thanksgiving and the New Year, when temperatures are cooler and department store windows are decked out for the holidays. During this time, Manhattan’s three major outdoor ice rinks are open, a giant Christmas tree marks Rockefeller Center, and holiday light shows are more elaborate than anything you could ever imagine.
Getting around
Trains: The New York City subway is one of the most extensive public transit systems in the world. It connects Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, and runs on Staten Island. Each ride costs $2.75. A seven-day pass is available for $33 and covers both trains and buses.
Buses: A network of buses offers easy access to the rare spots not served by nearby train stations and to New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Individual bus rides cost $2.75. Seven-day transit passes cost $33 and cover trains and buses. While buses can be convenient, traffic can sometimes make them easy to outwalk.
Ferries: One of the best ways to hop among New York’s boroughs in good weather is a ferry. Ferries connect Queens, the western coast of Brooklyn, the eastern side of Manhattan, and Staten Island. Rides are $2.75 each. Subway and bus passes aren’t accepted on New York ferries. The Staten Island Ferry is free.
Taxis: Cabs are all over Manhattan, but a little harder to find in parts of Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. Green cabs offer service in northern Manhattan and the outer boroughs. To hail a cab, look for one that has its light on and raise your arm. All New York cabs are metered and required to accept credit cards.
Rideshare: Uber and Lyft are all over New York and offer similar pricing. Rideshare can be the best way to travel in parts of Brooklyn and Queens.
Culinary Capital
There’s never been a better time to dine in New York. It’s a hotbed of seasonal and locally sourced cuisine – with restaurants growing vegetables on roof gardens or upstate farms, sourcing meats and seafood from nearby sustainable outfits, and embracing artisanal everything, from coffee roasting and whiskey distilling to chocolate and cheese making. Bars have also taken creativity to new heights, with pre-Prohibition-era cocktails served alongside delectable small plates – indeed, gastropubs are some of the most creative places to eat these days. Of course, you can also hit a gourmet food truck or dine at one of the city’s 75 Michelin-starred restaurants.
Nexus of the Arts
The Met, MoMA and the Guggenheim are just the beginning of a dizzying list of art-world icons. You’ll find museums devoted to everything from fin de siècle Vienna to medieval European treasures, and sprawling galleries filled with Japanese sculpture, postmodern American painting, Himalayan textiles and New York City lore. For a glimpse of current and future greats, delve into the cutting-edge galleries of Chelsea and the Lower East Side, with their festive opening-night parties (usually Thursday night if you want to join in), or head to new frontiers in Brooklyn and Queens.
To know "The City" like a local might still be the greatest badge of honor for travelers. But take a breath: you won't be able to cover the countless museums, galleries, restaurants, watering holes—and, yes, $1 pizza slices—all in one visit, but that's the good news. Now that the outer boroughs draw as much attention as Manhattan, it makes repeated trips not only possible, but essential.
Fall in New York
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You could easily spend a lifetime in the US and still feel like you’ve just scratched the surface.
It’s epic on every scale. After all, this is a place where you can watch the thunderous spectacle of Niagara Falls, trek through the soaring Black Hills of South Dakota and cruise along California’s glorious Pacific Coast; where you can ski at Lake Tahoe, go cattle ranching in the Midwest and imbibe live jazz in New Orleans.
The options, it seems, are endless.
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