840 Best Sights in New York, USA

Try your luck at prospecting: hammer open the right rocks and you'll find double-terminated quartz crystals, aka Herkimer diamonds. Two open pits are easy to reach. The first is adjacent to the gift shop. Upstairs you can watch an explanatory video or stroll through multiple scientific displays, including exhibits about dinosaurs and fluorescent minerals. The mines are just south of Middleville.

You can stroll the gardens, attend a multimedia show, and tour the restored Georgian-style mansion that was home to Revolutionary War general Nicholas Herkimer. Costumed historical interpreters inform you about the history, crafts, and lifestyle of the 18th century. Picnicking is encouraged.

It's great to read about and trade cards of your favorite players, but this museum puts you face-to-face with them. Thirty-odd baseball legends are immortalized in wax, and will perhaps interest kids more than adults. When your interest in all that wax starts to wane, you can slug it out in the virtual-reality batting cage, buy a team pennant or jersey in the gift shop, or grab lunch in the café.

Beautiful Keuka Lake views are one of the draws at this winery built by John and Josephine Ingle in 1977. John Ingle maintains the winery's Ingle Vineyards, which were planted on the western shore of Canandaigua Lake in 1972 and feature chardonnay, cabernet franc, merlot, Riesling, and pinot noir grapes. Heron Hill's winemaker, Thomas Laszlo, oversees the Heron Hill Vineyards, which were planted here in 1968 and include chardonnay and Riesling grapes. The Heron is open from May through October.

The old factory contains two operating carousels—one from 1916 and a smaller "kiddie carousel" from the 1940s—as well as a menagerie of hand-carved carousel animals, some quite elaborate.

This free museum is part of Bard's highly respected Center for Curatorial Studies. Located on the south end of the Bard campus, it's known for cutting-edge exhibits of contemporary art and includes more than 3,000 works by some of most prominent artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, including Donald Judd, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Cindy Sherman.

Stand on a bridge over the Genesee River, watch and listen to the High Falls cascading 96 feet, and feel the power that drove Rochester's flour mills in the 19th century. The Triphammer Forge, a reconstructed waterwheel, is one of the largest in the state. Frontier Field and Eastman Kodak world headquarters are across the street. The High Falls entertainment district has pubs, clubs, and restaurants, as well as frequent events in summer and a laser show every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

A spectacular 700-foot waterfall and ancient granite cliffs are highlights of the self-guided tour of this gorge. It was created as the Ausable River cut through the granite base of Whiteface Mountain. In winter, you can rent snowshoes, skis, or snowboards. Nearby are a shop, restaurant, and picnic areas. There are only two seasons to visit here: summer and winter.

The High Falls Visitor Center has a museum, with interactive exhibits, that give an overview of Rochester history.

Established in 1888, this was Rochester's first public park. Site of the hugely popular Lilac Festival, Highland Park has more than 500 varieties of lilacs. Walking paths crisscross the park and lead to a reservoir that provides an unobstructed view for miles to the south.

This space is home to two galleries—Hirschl & Adler Galleries and Hirschl & Adler Modern. The galleries focus on American and European paintings, watercolors, drawings, and sculpture from the 18th through the early-20th centuries. The latter differs by specializing in modernist, postwar, and contemporary works.

Occupying almost an entire city block between Broadway and Riverside Drive East on 155th Street in upper Manhattan, the Hispanic Society Museum & Library, a repository of an extraordinarily rich collection of more than half a million items relating to the art and cultures of the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world, opened to the public for the first time in six years in early 2023. Founded in 1904 as a museum for Spanish and Portuguese art, with Goya’s Dutchess of Alba (1797) as a major draw of the collection, the museum reopened with a mission to connect the Society to the art of the 20th and 21st centuries and to its Latino neighborhood of Washington Heights. The Dutchess of Alba is still here, and still a big draw in the arcaded, Spanish Renaissance--style Main Court, which features luscious terra-cotta details. Other highlights include the Sorolla Vision of Spain Gallery housing 14 monumental paintings from the Valencian master painter Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, and the Upper Terrace, an open-air space that looks out over the bronze equestrian statue of El Cid and other fine sculptures. Renovations to the museum continue and will include a visitor center and an education center.

Jewish peddlers in the Adirondacks built this synagogue in 1905. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the synagogue has been restored and contains art exhibits. It also hosts concerts and other activities.

The 1787 Georgian house was the home of Philip Van Rensselaer, one of the region's original Dutch settlers. Guided tours focus on Catherine Putnam, Rensselaer's niece, who lived in the house during the Civil War and World Wars I and II. The collection of family memorabilia encompasses more than 20,000 objects, including furniture, artworks, kitchen items, and pottery pieces; 3,000 photographs; and extensive documents and records. To visit the house you must take the tour, which lasts about an hour and starts on the hour. Note that Cherry Hill is closed currently for restoration.

During the War of 1812, the Americans made a failed attempt to invade Canada from Lewiston, in the Battle of Queenston. The town has further historic significance as the last stateside stop on the Underground Railroad and as the birthplace of Niagara Falls; today's Niagara Gorge is the result of the falls' movement south to their current location. This community of 2,700 is a clean, quiet, small-town contrast with Niagara Falls, which is about a 10-minute drive south. Center Street, lined with restaurants, shops, a pub, and a café, leads down to the waterfront, where the Barton Hill Hotel and Whirlpool Jet Boat launch are located. Lewiston has a virtually nonstop festival calendar in summer, with waterfront concerts almost daily.

New York City's only living-history museum is like a small-scale version of Virginia's Colonial Williamsburg. This 100-acre village, constructed from the 1670s to the early 19th century, was the site of Staten Island's original county seat. Thirteen of the site's 30 historic buildings (28 landmarked) are open to the public. During Open Village season (May–August), you can wander town to encounter historical interpreters in period dress demonstrating Early American crafts and trades such as tinsmithing, broom making, and basket making, or talking politics in the village tavern. During the cold months when most reenactors are on hiatus, guided tours are still available for a few buildings, along with the Historical Museum, built in 1848, housing thousands of Staten Island artifacts within the nine galleries.

Examples of Federal, Dutch, Gothic, Victorian, and Greek Revival architecture are found among the homes and churches here, which date from 1690 to 1930. The Stockade is one of the oldest continuously occupied neighborhoods in the nation. (George Washington slept here.) In warm weather you see people running and relaxing in tiny Riverside Park, along the Mohawk River. Residents open their homes to the public for guided tours during Walkabout Weekend, held in September. At the Stockade Villagers Art Show, also in September, painters set up easels and tents to display their works.

The Historical Association of Lewiston, Inc. has information about events and attractions.

Crowds gather outside the Italianate Canfield Casino, a former gambling hall within the park, to watch the tuxedo set enter one of the August balls. The 1870s building also houses the where exhibits of Victorian furnishings, paintings, original gambling paraphernalia, and historic documents bring the city's history alive. From Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, the museum is open Monday through Saturday 10–4 and Sunday 1–4; the rest of the year it's closed Monday and Tuesday.

The 240-acre Hofstra campus includes the Hofstra Arboretum, which basically is spread throughout the entire campus. It counts more than 8,000 trees of 425 varieties, 50 outdoor sculptures, a 2-acre bird sanctuary, and a 40-foot stone labyrinth for meditation.

The Hofstra Museum has three main spaces in which it shows paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, decorative arts, African and Asian artifacts, and other objects from its permanent collection: the Emily Lowe Gallery (Jun.–July, Mon.–Thurs. 10–4; rest of year, Tues.–Fri. 10–5 and weekends 1–5), in Emily Lowe Hall, and the Rochelle and Irwin A. Lowenfeld Conference and Exhibition Hall and the David Filderman Gallery, both in the main library. Temporary exhibits have covered a range of subjects from Web design to Long Island history.

The 240-acre Hofstra campus includes the Hofstra Arboretum, which basically is spread throughout the entire campus. It counts more than 8,000 trees of 425 varieties, 50 outdoor sculptures, a 2-acre bird sanctuary, and a 40-foot stone labyrinth for meditation. 516/463–6623.

Run by Kathy Grayson, the art-world It girl and former director of the highly influential Deitch Projects, this contemporary-arts gallery usually hosts several shows a month. The artists lean more toward the up-and-coming rather than the establishment, and it's pretty much always worth stopping in to the space for a short but entertaining stroll.

The 19th century poet, playwright, and actor John Howard Payne so loved this circa-1720 saltbox home that, it is said, it became the inspiration for his now-famous lyrics for the song, "Home Sweet Home." Today guided tours lead you through a refined home decorated with English ceramics and American furniture and textiles. The museum is in a historic district within walking distance of 19th-century windmills, including the Old Hook Mill.

The childhood home of artist Edward Hopper now serves as an arts center and exhibition space. The famed painter owned the Federal-style house, which was built in 1858 by his grandfather, until his death in 1967. A group of Nyack citizens saved the structure from ruin in 1971. Jazz concerts are held in the backyard on Thursday evenings in July. Look for free street parking one block north.

The 58-foot-tall lighthouse, operated by the Southold Historical Society, was built in 1847. Together with the adjoining lighthouse keeper's home, it resembles a church. The museum, in the keeper's residence, displays sea captains' journals, sea chests, paintings, and maps. Enjoy the 8-acre park surrounding the lighthouse.

More than 50 interactive exhibits of monsters and mayhem are on display here, including such favorites as Dracula and the Wolfman. Kindergartners and younger children may get quite a fright here.

It's hard to miss the giant mural on the northwest corner of Houston Street and the Bowery, though the artwork itself is constantly changing. It started back in 1982, when Keith Haring, along with his pal Juan Dubose, painted what is believed to have been Haring's first large-scale work. Real estate developer and arts visionary Tony Goldman (he's responsible for Miami's Wynwood Walls) acquired the wall in 1984 and used it for advertisements until 2008, when he and art curator Jeffrey Deitch commissioned a tribute to Haring for what would have been the artist's 50th birthday. Since then, an internationally recognized cast of artists have used the concrete as canvas—including Shepard Fairey and Kenny Scharf in 2010, French artist JR in 2011, and Banksy in 2018.

An elevator takes you down 156 feet to reach these caverns. The 80-minute guided tours lead you along paved walkways and include a ¼-mi boat ride on an underground lake. The temperature down under hovers just above 50°F all year, so dress appropriately. On Friday and Saturday evenings visitors (13 and older) can opt for a lantern-lighted tour; call ahead for a reservation. The grounds include a restaurant and a motel.

Models, artifacts, and photographs illustrate the region's maritime history. Changing exhibits show tugboats and antique fishing and sailing craft. You may board the Half Moon, a replica of Henry Hudson's ship, when it's in dock. Tours to the Rondout Lighthouse (also known as the Kingston Lighthouse) leave from the museum's dock.