New York
New York City
New York City is the country's most-visited destination — five boroughs, an unending supply of museums, observation decks, neighborhoods, and food. The most rewarding visits skip the obvious traps, plan around the queue patterns, and balance one Manhattan day with one outer-borough day. Spring (April-May) and fall (September-October) are the strongest windows.
33 booking options
Hotels
Where to Stay
1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge
DUMBO, Brooklyn
Sustainable luxury at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge in DUMBO — reclaimed wood, living plant walls, and the city's best rooftop pool with direct Manhattan skyline views.
The Knickerbocker
Times Square
The 1906 historic luxury hotel at the southeast corner of Times Square — the building where the original Manhattan cocktail was reportedly created — now a 330-room boutique with a rooftop New Year's Eve viewing bar.
The Beekman, a Thompson Hotel
Financial District / Civic Center
The 1881 historic landmark in Lower Manhattan — a 287-room boutique with a nine-story Victorian atrium and rooftop bar, three blocks from City Hall and the 9/11 Memorial.
Moxy NYC Times Square
Times Square
Marriott's design-forward mid-range brand — 612 small but cleverly-designed rooms two blocks from Times Square, with three on-site bars including a rooftop with skyline views.
Ace Hotel New York
Flatiron / NoMad
The 2009 Flatiron boutique that started the Ace chain's NYC presence — 282 rooms in a 1904 building, with the Breslin gastropub downstairs and the Stumptown coffee that helped third-wave coffee land in NYC.
The Greenwich Hotel
Tribeca
Robert De Niro's Tribeca hotel — 88 individually-designed rooms above the Locanda Verde restaurant, with the Shibui Spa pool in a converted Japanese farmhouse beneath the lobby.
Aman New York
Fifth Avenue / Crown Building
The ultra-luxury Aman chain's NYC property opened in 2022 in the Crown Building on Fifth Avenue — 83 enormous rooms (average 750 sq ft, the largest in NYC), three-story spa with 25-meter pool, and rates that start at $3,000+/night.
Attractions & Tours
What to Do
Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island
The defining symbol of New York and one of the most-photographed monuments in the world — ferry-only access from Battery Park, with Ellis Island and the Immigration Museum on the same ticket.
Empire State Building
The 1931 art deco icon that defined the New York skyline — 86th-floor outdoor observation deck and 102nd-floor enclosed observatory, with King Kong references everywhere.
Top of the Rock
The 70th-floor observation deck at Rockefeller Center — the only place to see the Empire State Building IN your skyline photo. Three levels of open-air viewing.
One World Observatory
The observation deck at the top of One World Trade Center — the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, with the most emotionally weighted view in the city.
SUMMIT One Vanderbilt
The newest observation experience in NYC — a mirrored immersive art installation across multiple floors at the top of One Vanderbilt, including glass-floor ledges and an outdoor terrace.
Edge at Hudson Yards
The Western Hemisphere's highest outdoor sky deck — a triangular cantilever 1,131 feet above the Hudson, with a glass floor section and an angled-out glass wall.
9/11 Memorial & Museum
The memorial pools and underground museum at the World Trade Center site — one of the most important historical sites in modern American history, and one of the heaviest visiting experiences in NYC.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
One of the world's great encyclopedic museums — Egyptian, Greek, Roman, European masters, American wing, modern art, Asian art, Islamic art, costume institute, all under one roof on Fifth Avenue.
Museum of Modern Art
The world's most important modern art museum — Picasso, Matisse, Van Gogh's "Starry Night", Warhol, the canonical 20th-century collection plus a serious contemporary program.
American Museum of Natural History
The 28-building complex on the Upper West Side with dinosaur halls, the Rose Center planetarium, the blue whale, and the new Gilder Center — one of NYC's great family museums and a classic since 1869.
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Renzo Piano-designed museum at the foot of the High Line in the Meatpacking District — focused on 20th- and 21st-century American art, with a sculpture garden and outdoor decks at every floor.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Frank Lloyd Wright's spiral building on Fifth Avenue — a museum where the architecture is the experience as much as the art, with rotating contemporary exhibitions and a strong permanent modern collection.
Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
The aircraft carrier USS Intrepid permanently moored at Pier 86 on the Hudson — plus the space shuttle Enterprise, the supersonic Concorde, and the Growler submarine. A working naval museum that fills three exhibit spaces.
Madame Tussauds New York
The Times Square wax museum — celebrities, sports figures, politicians, historical icons. Touristy in the way Times Square is touristy, but kids love it and the photo ops are unmatched.
New York Harbor Sightseeing Cruise
Circle the Statue of Liberty, the Manhattan skyline, and Brooklyn Bridge by boat — the original NYC sightseeing experience, with several operators (Circle Line, Hornblower, and others) running 60-180 minute loops.
NYC Hop-on Hop-off Bus Tour
Open-top double-decker bus tours covering Manhattan, with hop-on/hop-off stops at major attractions. A useful first-day orientation; less useful for subway-confident travelers.
New York City Helicopter Tour
Manhattan from the air — 12 to 30 minute helicopter loops past the Statue of Liberty, Manhattan skyline, Central Park, and the Brooklyn Bridge. The fastest splurge experience in NYC.
Brooklyn Museum
One of the oldest and largest art museums in the country — founded 1897, anchoring Prospect Park's edge with strong Egyptian, feminist art, and African collections plus a long history of bold contemporary programming.
New York Aquarium
The oldest continuously operating aquarium in the country (1896) — on the Coney Island boardwalk, with sharks, sea lions, walruses, and direct ocean access. Pair with Coney Island's boardwalk, rides, and Nathan's Hot Dogs.
New York Botanical Garden
250 acres in the Bronx — landmark Victorian conservatory, native forest, rose garden, and the famous Holiday Train Show in winter. One of the great gardens of the world, in a borough most visitors miss.
Bronx Zoo
265 acres in the Bronx — one of the largest urban zoos in the world, with the Congo Gorilla Forest, the African Plains, JungleWorld, and a serious conservation mission since 1899.
New-York Historical Society
Founded 1804, the oldest museum in NYC — American history through the lens of New York, with one of the country's great Tiffany lamp collections and a serious women's history initiative. Upper West Side, next door to AMNH.
Color Factory NYC
The SoHo immersive experience built around color — 16 interactive rooms covering chromatic phenomena, optical illusions, and a now-iconic ball pit. Photo-museum genre, kid- and Instagram-friendly.
ArteChouse New York
Digital art and immersive projection space in Chelsea Market — floor-to-ceiling installations that change every few months, with motion-responsive art and a serious aesthetic above the typical photo-museum.
Mercer Labs Museum of Art & Technology
15 rooms of immersive art and technology at the base of One Vanderbilt — opened 2024, designed by digital artist Roy Nachum, currently bundled with SUMMIT One Vanderbilt for combined visits.
Broadway Show Tickets
41 professional theaters in the Times Square / Theater District cluster — the world's most-recognized commercial theater scene, with current long-runners (Lion King, Hamilton, Wicked, Aladdin, Book of Mormon) and constant new openings.
Go Deeper
The complete New York City guide
Neighborhood picks, itineraries, FAQs, and local answers from our New York City specialists — including 7 in-depth travel guides.