199 Best Sights in New York, USA

Eleven miles east of Long Beach, this 6½-mile-long expanse of white sand is one of the best-known and most popular of Long Island's beaches. The 2,500-acre park is loaded with facilities and activites to keep locals and visitors busy day and night. A 1½-mile-long boardwalk has deck games (fee), mini-golf, a pool, playgrounds, picnic areas, and two surf-casting areas (by permit), and hosts special summer events like live music at the bandshell. Lifeguards are on duty from late May to mid-September. The park can be reached from the Wantagh and Meadowbrook parkways (head south). Be prepared for crowds on weekends. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; showers; toilets. Best for: surfing; swimming; walking; windsurfing.

Internationally renowned, this cultural destination attracts more than 6.5 million visitors annually to its massive, white-travertine-clad complex of buildings, including the homes of the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, the Juilliard School, the Film Center, a branch of the New York Public Library specializing in the performing arts, and the Damrosch Park outdoor performance space. All of this makes Lincoln Center one of the nation's most concentrated destinations for the performing arts. The16-acre campus, containing 30 venues in all, was designed by prolific New York architect Wallace Harrison and was built over the course of several years from 1962 to 1969. When David Geffen Hall reopened in fall 2022 after a two-year $550 million renovation, the acoustically superior venue—home to the New York Philharmonic, the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States—evoked and honored the vibrant Black and Puerto Rican neighborhood that had been razed to make way for the complex with a multimedia piece by the composer Etienne Charles called “San Juan Hill.” The opening included a commitment to making programming more accessible to all audiences: performances from within the Wu Tsai Theater are simulcast on the lobby’s Hauser Digital Wall for anyone to experience, and rotating visual artworks are also shown on the digital wall as well as on the facade on 65th Street at Broadway. You can also get a glimpse of artists working and rehearsing in the new Sidewalk Studio facing Broadway.

The Metropolitan Opera House, notable for its arched entrance, features immense chandeliers and Marc Chagall paintings, both of which can be seen from outside. Even the fountain in the central plaza puts on a show, with performances that include spouts of water 40 feet high. From mid-May to mid-August, Lincoln Center's "Summer for the City" presents hundreds of mostly free events. 

Guided tours (weekdays 2 pm and 3:45 pm) are 75 minutes and include backstage access to Geffen and Tully halls where visitors can enjoy a unique look behind the scenes at rehearsals, technical work, backstage areas, and theaters. Book tickets online or at Geffen Hall Box Offices.

Much like the High Line when it opened, Little Island was an instant hit with locals and visitors when the gates to this man-made isle in the middle of the Hudson River first swung open in May 2021. The 2.4-acre park is elevated on 132 tulip-looking concrete stilts and connected to Manhattan by two footbridges. Funded mostly by Barry Diller and Diane von Fürstenberg, the island park and its rolling stair-clad hills make for a fun wander. It also provides stunning views of the Manhattan skyline. There's a small outdoor food court and an ambient amphitheater for free concerts.

With touch tanks, a submarine simulator, sea lion kisses, swimming with the sharks, and a shark keeper program, this aquarium offers a truly interactive and hands-on experience for its visitors. Based on the theme of the Lost City of Atlantis, indoor and outdoor exhibits, such as a natural rockscape pool and salt marsh, offer a compelling glimpse of regional marine life. Educational programs and events for kids include "sleeping with the fish" overnight stays; for the adults, there are wine cruises. A "Behind the Scenes" tour is offered twice daily and provides a glimpse into the inner workings of the aquarium.

The ball that Babe Ruth hit for his 500th home run and Shoeless Joe Jackson's shoes are among the memorabilia that help to make this shrine to America's favorite pastime so beloved. Plaques bearing the pictures and biographies of major-league notables line the walls in the actual hall of fame. The museum also has multimedia displays, exhibits geared to children, and a research library with photos, documents, and videos. New hall members are inducted during a ceremony held on the grounds of Clark's Sports Center. The event, which may be scheduled for any weekend between June and August, is free.

Run by the Wildlife Conservation Society, one of the country's oldest continually operating aquariums is home to hundreds of aquatic species. At the Sea Cliffs, watch penguins, sea lions, sea otters, and seals frolic; the best action is at feeding time. The Ocean Wonders: Sharks! exhibit holds a giant tank of sharks and rays—there's even a glass tunnel underneath you can walk through. The Playquarium, which features a Touch Pool of crabs, marine snails, and sea urchin, also invites children to imagine themselves as sharks, sardines, or whales amid a kelp forest, coral reef, and sandy shore. Purchase tickets online for discounted rates.

History buffs, train geeks, and playful children will all appreciate this unique museum inside an underground, decommissioned 1930s subway station. Exhibitions include timelines of the transit system's construction and evolution over the decades, but the true highlight is the subway platform two levels down, featuring train cars of different eras of the subway, dating back over a century ago. Adults and kids alike can wander these cars, each a time capsule of vintage aesthetics and advertising, or sit behind the driving wheel of a replica MTA bus. There are also old turnstiles and other transit memorabilia. The gift shop carries subway-line socks, decorative tile reproductions, and other fun souvenirs.

New York City's oldest (and perhaps most under-the-radar) museum, founded in 1804, has an extensive research library in addition to sleek interactive technology, a children's museum, and inventive exhibitions that shed light on America's history, art, and architecture. The eclectic permanent collection includes more than 14 million pieces of art, literature, prints, photographs, and memorabilia, and special exhibitions showcase the museum's unique voice and ability to provide fresh insight on all things related to New York and the nation. The Henry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture includes 100 dazzling Tiffany lamps on display and historic treasures that tell the American story in a novel way. Also part of the Luce Center is the Center for Women's History, examining the untold stories of women who have impacted and continue to shape the American experience. The DiMenna Children's History Museum on the lower level invites children to become "history detectives" and explore New York's past through interactive displays, hands-on activities, and the stories of notable New York children through the centuries. The gift shop offers excellent New York--specific gifts and souvenirs.

In late 2023, the museum began construction of its Democracy Wing, scheduled to open in 2026 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. The new wing will include expanded space for educational programs, state-of-the-art preservation facilities, a new exhibition gallery, a courtyard, and rooftop garden terraces. The museum will remain open during construction.

Re-creating a pre–Civil War farming community, this living-history museum sits on 200 pastoral acres with soft hills and lovely meadows. The 45 historic buildings were moved to this spot from other parts of Long Island and include two general stores, nine homes, a schoolhouse, a tavern, a church, and a working farm with animals. The guides, dressed in period costume, love sharing their knowledge of local history. Special events and seasonal celebrations are held throughout the year.

All the vintage aircraft at this museum still fly; indeed, many are used during air shows, held on weekends from mid-June to mid-October (weather permitting). The collection includes a reproduction of Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis and fighter planes from World War I. For a thrill you can don a Snoopy-style cap and goggles and soar over the area in an open-cockpit biplane. Ride booths open at 10 on weekends of air shows, and the rides are $65 per person. Air shows start at 2.

The center was built for the 1932 Olympics and renovated and expanded for the 1980 Games. During the latter, the arena here was the site of the U.S. ice-hockey team's win over the seemingly unbeatable Soviets, which led the men to a U.S. gold medal. The victory came to be known as the "Miracle on Ice." The center also houses other ice rinks, a museum, and convention space. Winter Olympics enthusiasts can purchase bobsled and luge rides with a professional on the competition track for $60 to $75. Tours of the center are available at 10, 11:30, and 1, Tuesday through Saturday for $8.50. A 50-minute audiocassette tour of the center is an option. The center hosts hockey and figure-skating tournaments and ice shows as well as other special events.

Built in 1923, this famous wood-planked walkway is better known as the Coney Island Boardwalk, and in summer it seems like all of Brooklyn is out strolling along the 2½-mile stretch. The quintessential walk starts at the end of the pier in Coney Island, opposite the Parachute Jump, where you can see the shoreline stretched out before you, where the waves of the Atlantic Ocean meet the Big Apple. From here to Brighton Beach is a little over a mile and should take about a half hour at a leisurely amble. Admire the modernistic, rectangular structures perched over the beach, housing bathrooms and lifeguard stations.

This expansive green space runs alongside the Hudson River—hence its name—and offers a welcome dose of tranquility from 72nd to 158th Street, as does the park's south extension, from about 59th to 72nd Street. Walking and biking paths dot the entire park, among them the broad Promenade between 83rd and 96th Streets. The park's original sections were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux of Central Park fame and laid out between 1873 and 1888. Riverside Park also includes the soaring white marble Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument (at 89th Street), dedicated to New Yorkers who served in the Civil War, and the Warsaw Ghetto Memorial Plaza (at 80th Street), dedicated in 1947. The 79th Street Marina, with its café, visiting yachts, and permanently moored houseboats, is closed for renovations to make the marina climate resilient and expand access for boaters.

More than 100 sculptures by major international artists—including David Smith, Alexander Calder, and Isamu Noguchi—are spread out on 500 acres of hills, fields, meadows, and woodlands. The relationship between art and nature is a focus for the center. For the best overview of the grounds and collection, ride the shuttle (wheelchair-accessible), which runs every half hour. Free "Highlights of the Collection" walk-in tours are offered daily at 2. Designated picnic areas have tree-shaded tables. Whether or not you picnic, consider wearing bug repellent. Kids love to run around the grounds and the sculptures; you just need to make sure they don't touch the installations.

Play is taken seriously at the second-largest children's museum in the country, home to the world's largest collection of toys, dolls, and play-related artifacts and to the National Toy Hall of Fame. Within its 282,000-square-foot footprint are interactive exhibits like Reading Adventureland, where you follow a yellow-brick road into a pop-up book of life-size literary creations; Sesame Street (created in collaboration with Sesame Workshop); a pint-size market where kids run the store; and an indoor butterfly garden and aquarium. Also on display are some of dolls and dollhouses of museum founder Margaret Woodbury Strong (1897–1969), who collected some 17,000 dolls throughout her life.

Taking you 1,210 feet and 93 floors above the heart of New York City, in part via an all-glass-enclosed elevator, NYC’s newest observation deck (opened in late 2021) "elevates" the observation deck concept, offering unique immersive and multisensory art installations amid three levels. Among them, the Air exhibit by Kenzo Digital evokes mirrored floors and ceilings to reflect and multiply the incredible skyline views of the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, and beyond. In fact, there are so many reflective surfaces in this experience that Summit recommends pants and sunglasses to protect your modesty and your eyes.

The 91st and 92nd floors are completely enclosed. The views are endless and even with crowds, it is easy to find an impressive selfie backdrop. After you have had your fill of spotting NYC rooftops and before you come back down to earth, linger a while longer at Après on the 93rd floor, where you can enjoy food, coffee, and cocktails on the wraparound terrace. Those who dare to go higher can try Ascent, the world’s largest exterior glass-floor elevator, which takes you up the outside of the building to its highest point.

This leafy park is a favorite spot, year-round, for the neighborhood locals who lunch on the benches, picnic in the central green spaces, and put on impromptu jazz concerts. There's a year-round farmers' market by the southwest corner on Sunday, and an annual Halloween dog-costume event. It wasn't always so rosy in the park, though: in 1988, police followed then-mayor Ed Koch's orders to evict the many homeless people who had set up makeshift shelters here, and homeless rights and anti-gentrification activists fought back with sticks and bottles. The park was reclaimed and reopened in 1992 with a midnight curfew, still in effect today.

What looks like a giant block of yellow cheese is actually the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, an interactive space where kids can run, touch, and play with abandon. Exhibits include a greenhouse, a rooftop play space, World Brooklyn—a warren of rooms dedicated to various NYC cultures—and the new Air Maze, where kids can insert objects into a topsy-turvy pneumatic-tube system. Check their calendar for ongoing programs, including their Drag Story Hour, which celebrates gender diversity.

This historic wooden roller coaster first thrilled riders in 1927, and it'll still make you scream. Anticipation builds as the cars slowly clack up to the first unforgettable 85-foot plunge—and the look on your face is captured in photos that you can purchase at the end of the ride. The Cyclone might not have the speed or the twists and turns of more modern rides, but that's all part of its rickety charm. It's one of two New York City landmarks in Coney Island, and deservingly in the National Register of Historic Places.

The gleaming Unisphere (an enormous, 140-foot-high, steel globe) might tip you off that this 898-acre park, which is the largest in the borough, was the site of two World's Fairs. Take advantage of the park's barbecue pits, seasonal boat and kayak rentals, sports fields, and cultural festivals, but don't forget the art museum, science hall, zoo, theater, carousel, indoor pool, ice-skating rink, pitch-and-putt and mini-golf courses, and model-airplane field. Set aside a day to hit a few primary spots: several are clustered together on the park's northwest side, but reaching others will require long (though peaceful) walks.

The outdoor Queens Night Market ( www.queensnightmarket.com) is held Saturday evening, late April through October, near the New York Hall of Science. It's reminiscent of Asia's popular food markets and generally has about 100 vendors serving flavorful, often-adventurous global fare.

The flat grounds are ideal for family biking; bike rentals are available at two locations from March to early November.

The park is open from 6 am to 9 pm, 365 days a year (as in most city parks, exercise caution when visiting outside daytime hours).

Manhattan's only floating museum—a historic, nonprofit, and educational institution like no other—occupies the Intrepid, a 900-foot-long aircraft carrier that was launched in 1943 and decommissioned in 1974. The carrier's most trying moment of service, the day it was attacked in World War II by kamikaze pilots, is recounted in a stirring multimedia presentation. On the ship’s various indoor and outdoor decks is a collection of 28 aircraft. NASA's original prototype orbiter that paved the way for the space-shuttle program, the Enterprise, is housed in a climate-controlled pavilion on the Intrepid’s flight deck. Fascinating exhibits share the shuttle's history, along with many more stories and artifacts from America's aviation, naval, and military heritage.

Docked alongside the Intrepid, the submarine Growler—the only American guided-missile submarine open to the public—offers a firsthand look at life aboard a submarine, as well as a close-up inspection of the once top-secret missile command center. Also in the museum’s collection is a retired British Airways Concorde Alpha Delta G-BOAD passenger jet, which holds the record for the fastest Atlantic crossing by any Concorde. The museum provides specialized programs and resources to support visitors with disabilities and their families.

Set in the shadow of the giant Rockefeller Center Christmas tree (in season), the city's most iconic ice-skating rink is a quintessential winter experience for visitors and a long-standing tradition for many locals. General-admission, timed-ticket skating can be reserved in advance, in person or online. The Rink has changing specials and packages, so check the website for seasonal ticket deals.

Bring your own sledgehammers and pry bars or rent them from the gift shop, stake a "claim," and begin your search for quarry. No matter where you prospect, you're not likely to be disappointed. Many open pits are an easy walk to the right or left of the visitor center, where you can see beads, stones, an extensive book section, and other rock-related items. You might venture up the steep hillside in hope of finding a pocket containing hundreds of "diamonds"—really quartz crystals with diamondlike facets. The views of the wooded valley and the Mohawk River are a find in themselves.

Often overlooked due to its location amid downtown’s Civic Center courthouses and high-rises, this powerful, compact site is well worth a visit to learn about a lesser-known part of New York’s colonial history. The African Burial Ground National Monument commemorates what was once a 6-acre cemetery, discovered in 1991 when an archaeological study for a new development revealed more than 15,000 intact skeletal remains of enslaved and free Africans. Today, visitors can view the 24-foot-high Ancestral Chamber and the large Circle of the Diaspora, each made of stone from Africa and North America, adorned with African symbols, and designed with symbolic details that honor those who were laid to rest at the site. On the other side of the block, the visitor center features the “Reclaiming Our History” exhibit, details about the work and life of African people in early New York, and the 20th-century community success that preserved the burial ground. The memorial was proclaimed a national monument in 2006 in a ceremony presided over by former mayor Michael Bloomberg and poet Maya Angelou. The visitor center is located at 290 Broadway and the Outdoor Monument is located on the corner of Duane Street and African Burial Ground Way (Elk Street).

The focus of this museum near Lincoln Center is its incredible collection of work by folk and self-taught artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, including the single largest collection of reclusive Chicago artist Henry Darger, known for his painstakingly detailed collage paintings of fantasy worlds. The gift shop has an impressive collection of handcrafted items.

Boats and river memorabilia depict life on the St. Lawrence River. The collection of 205 craft includes an 8-foot canoe and a 65-foot yacht. Landlubbers may appreciate an exhibit that shows the Thousand Islands as a vacation destination; in its heyday, 15 trains arrived daily from New York City and Boston.

Dive into Niagara's other water wonder. This is a close encounter with more than 1,500 aquatic animals, including sharks, piranhas, sea lions, octopus, and moray eels. The aquarium has sea-lion demonstrations and penguin feedings daily, and an outdoor harbor-seal exhibit.