199 Best Sights in New York, USA

The National Museum of Mathematics (aka MoMath) transforms math into hands-on fun for all ages—even if numbers aren’t your thing. Solve mind-bending puzzles, ride a trike with square wheels, make your own color patterns with magnetic tiles, play brain games at interactive stations, and much more. Adults will love it as much as kids, making it a rare museum where everyone can geek out. Don’t miss the stellar gift shop, packed with clever, math-inspired finds.

There's no exact formula to get kids excited about math, but the sleek two-floor National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath)—the only cultural institution of its kind in all of North America—comes close to finding the perfect fun-to-math ratio. Kids can ride square-wheel trikes, create human fractal trees, build virtual 3-D geometric shapes (which can be printed out on a 3-D printer for a fee), use lasers to explore cross sections of objects, solve dozens of puzzles, and generally bend their minds. The popular Robot Swarm exhibition allows kids to explore swarm robotics and interact with two dozen small (Roomba-like) glowing robots using simple math rules. Exhibits are best suited to kids aged six and up, but preschoolers can still enjoy many interactive exhibits like the Math Square, a light-up floor programmed with math games, simulations, and patterns.

The museum closes at 2:30 pm the first Wednesday of every month.

Massive granite columns rise to a pediment topped by a double row of statues at the marvelous Beaux-Arts Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House (1907), which is home to the New York branch of this Smithsonian museum (the other is in Washington, D.C.). Inside, the oval stairwell and rotunda embellished with shipping-theme murals (completed in the 1930s) is well worth a look. The permanent exhibition, Infinity of Nations, is an encyclopedic survey of Native American cultures from across the continent, with the entire museum preserving more than 825,000 art pieces and artifacts dating from ancient to modern times. The venue presents changing exhibitions, videos and films, dance, music, and storytelling programs. There's also an excellent Museum Store serving as NYC's best place to purchase authentic Native American merchandise.

Dozens of sailplanes and gliders, dating from the late 19th to the late 20th century, are on display at this museum, part of Harris Hill Park. Movies and exhibits help explain and explore the heritage of gliding. You can even take a sailplane ride ($70; April–November weather permitting; reservations required).

You can join the gawking crowds watching news tapings outside the NBC studios (which are in the art deco GE Building on Rockefeller Plaza), or you can get even closer to the action (without having to elbow anyone) by taking a slick behind-the-scenes tour of the legendary studios. Tours depart every 20 minutes daily, delving into the history of television and the actual recording studios of some of the network's top shows, like Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and NBC Nightly News. Tours start at the Shop at NBC Studios (49th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues); visitors must reserve tickets, which are sold online, in advance, and children must be at least six years old.

At the northwestern edge of Flushing Meadows Corona Park, this museum has more than 400 hands-on exhibits that make science a playground for inquisitive minds of all ages. Learn about the science behind bubbles by playing with them at The Big Bubble Experiment. Immerse yourself in Maker Space, where activities like woodworking, 3-D printing, and building electronics rotate daily. The 3D Movie Theatre, Rocket Park Mini Golf, and Science Playground require extra fees.

Niagara Falls generates power at one of the largest hydroelectric plants in the world (the largest in New York State). The visitor center, 4½ mi north of the falls, has more than 50 hands-on exhibits, including an operating model-size generator, and educational displays on energy efficiency and hydroelectric power generation. Atop the Robert Moses Power Plant, the visitor center has sweeping views of the Niagara Gorge.

This reconstructed Dutch farmhouse dating back to 1699 played a central role in the Battle of Brooklyn, one of the largest battles of the Revolutionary War. In the 1880s, it served as the clubhouse of the early Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team, and today it's a small, family-friendly museum that looks back at the history of the site, from the Lenape tribes to Revolutionary times in Brooklyn, from the 1640s to 1783. Art exhibits, concerts, plays, and other community events take place year-round.

There are several thrills involved in visiting One World Trade Center, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, not the least of which are the spectacular views of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and New Jersey. If you time your visit around dusk, you'll get daytime views as well as sunset and sparkling evening lights. The observatory occupies the 100th, 101st, and 102nd floors of One WTC, and the experience includes an exhilarating trip up in the world's fastest elevators, during which a journey through history is projected on the elevator walls. After you step out at the top, there's also a two-minute video of time-lapse images of Lower Manhattan. The ground floor has exhibits and personal stories about the building of the tower. Admission prices rise for "priority" entrance and other combo tickets (best bought online with timed entry); the box office, security checkpoint, and observatory entrance are on the West Street side of the tower. With some reservations, you can purchase prix-fixe dining or bar packages for ONE Dine restaurant on the 101st floor, which include observatory tickets.

A multicultural approach helps children enjoy the fine arts through masks and puppets, ranging from English marionettes to Indonesian shadow puppets. Performances are given at 11 am on some Saturdays from October to April. The theater also has a storytelling series. Browse masks, puppets, and traditional wooden toys in the gift shop.

More than 400 rare and unique bicycles and related antiques and memorabilia are on display at one of the largest bicycle museums in the world.

Adjacent to Flushing Meadows Corona Park, these 39 acres include rose and herb gardens, an arboretum, and plantings especially designed to attract bees and birds. An environmentally friendly visitor center uses solar energy and recycles gray water. To learn more about what you're looking at, use the garden's guides, like the summer plant walk guide, the Indigenous Heritage plant guide, or the winter plant walk guide.

Between the zoo and the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Corona Park lies the Queens Museum. Don't miss the astonishing Panorama of the City of New York, a nearly 900,000-building model of NYC made for the 1964 World's Fair, and the world's largest scale model. There are also rotating exhibitions of contemporary art, a massive map of the NYC water supply system, a permanent collection of Louis Comfort Tiffany stained glass, and an ongoing a mural display by Caroline Kent. Parking is free but limited.

Flushing Meadows Corona Park is home to the intimate Queens Zoo, featuring animals of North and South America. The 18-acre facility includes pumas, Andean bears, Canadian lynx, and southern pudus, the world’s smallest deer species. The zoo also maintains a farm with domestic animals including sheep, goats, horses, rabbits, and more. The last ticket is sold 30 minutes before closing.

Housed in an 1892 freight station, the museum exhibits a Reading Railroad track car, a 1907 snowplow, and a 1925 Long Island Rail Road caboose. Admission includes a guided tour and admission and tour of the Riverhead site, where most of the train cars reside and much of the restoration work takes place. If you want to make a day of it, for an extra fee, ride the nearby LIRR for a tour of both sites.

More than a home for old railroad cars, this museum, with another location in Greenport, outlines the history and development of Long Island railroads. Created in 1990, the museum and its curators preserve and restore cars and artifacts that contributed to the island's communities and industries. A World's Fair miniture train ride operates spring through autumn, weather permitting. Admission includes a guided tour of both sites. If you want to make a day of it, for an extra fee ride the nearby LIRR for transportation between the sites.

One of the oldest stock-car racing tracks in the country and the only NASCAR track in the New York Metropolitan area, Riverhead Raceway also hosts monster truck rallies, school bus demolition derbies, and hosts special events including amusement rides and fireworks. Bring ear plugs if you don't like loud noises.

Walk right up to cows, camels, and more than 200 other animals. Old McDonald's has been educating children about farm life since 1986. The complex includes a calf-raising facility as part of a 1,200-acre working farm. There's also a miniature-golf course, pony rides, and a hayride.

Everyone in the family can play with hands-on exhibits that focus on science and technology and their impact on our daily lives, as well as some nature and local cultural-heritage exhibits. Highlights include Light Here/Light Now, an optics exhibit; the interactive Expedition Earth, which delves into how the region was formed; a Seneca Indian exhibit; and the Strasenburgh Planetarium, which presents astronomy and laser-light shows and large-format films about space and Earth.

Part of the half-mile loop at this zoo is a treetop boardwalk that allows you to traipse above fields of reindeer and other hoofed animals. You can touch the Asian elephants, which have been bred here for decades. Sand cats, ocelots, meerkats, penguins, red pandas, and Amur tigers reside here, too, along with hundreds of other animals. A reptile house and a free-flight aviary are among the indoor exhibits.

This simple theme park (2 mi northwest of Wilmington) with rides and live reindeer is ideal for small children. Santa and his helpers talk with children, and elves practice their crafts in shops around the park. On Sunday evenings in late December, visitors can take in the brightly lighted Village of Lights.

Early televisions and kitchen appliances are part of a vast General Electric archive that traces the city's scientific and cultural history. Interactive children's displays explore science and technology.

A tide-pool touch tank and a two-story kinetic ball sculpture are among the 100-plus exhibits at this hands-on museum catering to youngsters. The Sagan Planetwalk, a to-scale solar-system walking tour around the city, honors scientist Carl Sagan, who taught at Cornell University. Outside there's a wooden playground.

The Jack Rabbit, a wooden roller coaster built in 1920, is the most famous ride at this park on the Lake Ontario shore. Sampling all the water rides, the log flume, the carousel, the bumper cars, and the midway makes for a very full day.

Why did reform movements flourish in the Finger Lakes? Many of the answers are at this museum, where narratives of water power, transportation, industry, and cultural history are interwoven to tell the story of 19th-century Seneca Falls. The museum has interactive exhibits for kids, who are urged to ask questions of tour guides.