Riverside Park Review

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Riverside Park

  • Address: W. 58th to W. 156th Sts. between Riverside Dr. and Hudson River, Upper West Side, New York, NY, 10024 | Map It

Fodor's Review:

Walking around concrete and skyscrapers all day, you can easily miss the expansive waterfront park just blocks away. Riverside Park—bordering the Hudson from 58th to 156th streets—dishes out a dose of tranquillity. Its original sections, designed by Olmsted and Vaux of Central Park fame and laid out between 1873 and 1888, are often outshone by Olmsted's "other" park. But with its waterfront bike and walking paths and lighter crowds, Riverside Park holds its own.

One of the park's loveliest attributes is a half-mile waterfront promenade, a rare spot in Manhattan where you can walk right along the river's edge. Reach it by heading through an underpass beneath the West Side Highway at the park's entrance at West 72nd Street and Riverside Drive (look for the statue of Eleanor Roosevelt). The promenade takes you past the 79th Street Boat Basin, where you can watch a flotilla of houseboats bobbing in the water. Above it, a ramp leads to the Rotunda, home in summer to the Boat Basin Café, an open-air spot for a burger, a beer, and river views.

At the end of the promenade and up a staircase, a community garden explodes with flowers. Cresting a hill along Riverside Drive at West 89th Street stands the Civil War Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument (1902, designed by Paul M. Duboy), an imposing 96-foot-high circle of white-marble columns.

  • Subway: 1, 2, 3 to 72nd St.
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