118 Best Sights in New York City, New York

This rust-tinted spaceship of an arena with a lawn for a roof houses the NBA's Brooklyn Nets and the WNBA's New York Liberty, and hosts events from concerts to family shows to boxing. With a capacity hovering around 17,000, Barclays Center also has plenty of room to offer concessions courtesy of local restaurateurs, including Parm, Federoff's Cheesesteaks, and Fuku.

Just steps from the subway, this stretch of golden sand is the showpiece of Brooklyn's oceanside playground. Families set up beach blankets, umbrellas, and coolers, and pickup games of beach volleyball and football add to the excitement. Calm surf, a lively boardwalk, and a handful of restaurants for shade and refreshments complete the package. That spit of land in the distance is the Rockaway Peninsula, in Queens. Amenities: toilets. Best for: people-watching, sunsets, Russian food.

The main thoroughfare of "Little Odessa" is where you'll find a Russian caviar boutique amid the Cyrillic shop signs advertising everything from pickled mushrooms to Armani handbags. When the weather's good, local bakeries sell sweet honey cake, cheese-stuffed vatrushki danishes, and chocolatey rugelach from sidewalk tables.

Built in 1848 as Brooklyn's city hall, this Greek Revival landmark, adorned with Tuckahoe marble, is one of the borough's handsomest buildings. The statue of Lady Justice atop its cast-iron cupola was part of the original plan but wasn't installed until 1988. Today the landmarked building serves as the office of Brooklyn's borough president, and the backdrop of weekend skateboarders in adjacent Columbus Park.

Most of Brooklyn Heights, with picturesque brownstones spanning Old Fulton Street to Atlantic Avenue, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965. This includes the quiet "fruit streets"—Pineapple, Cranberry, and Orange Streets—named in the 19th century by one Lady Middagh, a resident who thought it was more democratic to get rid of the former names of aristocratic families. Ironically, Middagh Street still exists. One notable building in the area is 58 Joralemon Street, which at a glance appears to be a 19th-century Greek revival townhouse, but is actually a facade for an MTA ventilation shaft. 

Four centuries' worth of art and artifacts bring Brooklyn's story to life at this marvelous, newly renovated space. Housed in an 1881 Queen Anne–style National Historic Landmark building, the center surveys the borough's changing identity through interactive exhibitions, landscape paintings, photographs, portraits of Brooklynites, and fascinating memorabilia. The Othmer Library’s magnificent reading room, with its stained-glass windows and carved wooden columns, transports visitors to an earlier era.

Subway tokens, Statue of Liberty figurines, and other artifacts you might find in a New York City time capsule crowd the displays of this quirky, community-run museum inside a former bodega. Recent temporary exhibits have included one with actual children's letters addressed to Spider-Man, sent to his comic book address in Queens. 

This 2½-mile beach, backed by the Riegelmann Boardwalk and the amusement park rides beyond, has become an iconic part of New York legend. Although open (and visited) year-round, the beach really heats up in summer, when it can seem like the entire population of New York is out sunning and swimming. Even in winter, however, you'll see Russian and Eastern European inhabitants of neighboring Brighton Beach strolling the boardwalk in their Sunday best. The annual Polar Bear Plunge on January 1 sees thousands of revelers greet the new year by diving into the frigid waters of the Atlantic. Run by the Coney Island Polar Bear Club, a winter bathing club founded in 1903, it's a ticketed event for charity, with a roped off "official" area. Plenty of New Yorkers who want the jolt of the cold water but don't want to pay and wait in line simply do their own thing farther down the beach, then amble over to Brighton Beach to toast the new year at Tatiana's. Amenities: toilets; snack bars; sports facilities. Best for: swimming; sunbathing; people-watching; the Polar Bear Plunge.

The cast of talented freaks and geeks who keep Coney Island's carnival tradition alive include sword swallowers, fire-eaters, knife throwers, contortionists, and Serpentina the snake dancer. Every show is an extravaganza, with 10 different acts to fascinate and impress. The Coney Island Museum houses a large permanent collection of artifacts, ephemera, photographs, and postcards celebrating the history of this legendary amusement area.