Must-see attractions in New York City

  • A woman takes notes in front of a sculpture at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

    Metropolitan Museum of Art

    Upper East Side

    What started with a handful of paintings brought over from Europe or donated by a coterie of philanthropically minded robber barons in the 19th century…

  • OCTOBER 2015: Visitors paddle in boats near a bridge at Central Park..

    Central Park

    Upper West Side & Central Park

    One of the world’s most renowned green spaces, Central Park comprises 843 acres of rolling meadows, boulder-studded outcroppings, elm-lined walkways,…

  • Beautiful view of Manhattan during a summer sunset

    Empire State Building

    Midtown

    The Chrysler Building may be prettier, and One World Trade Center taller, but the queen bee of the New York skyline remains the Empire State Building. NYC…

  • SolomonR. Guggenheim Museum, detailed view

    Guggenheim Museum

    Upper East Side

    A New York icon, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, more commonly known as the Guggenheim, is an internationally-renowned art museum and one of the most…

  • The entrance to the American Museum of American History.

    American Museum of Natural History

    Upper West Side & Central Park

    Founded back in 1869, this venerable museum contains a veritable wonderland of more than 34 million objects, specimens and artifacts – including armies of…

  • NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 15 2005: The Museum of Modern Art on August 15, 2005  in New York City. MOMA is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan. (Photo by Athanasios Gioumpasis/Getty Images)

    Museum of Modern Art

    Midtown

    Superstar of the modern-art scene, MoMA's galleries are a Who’s Who of artistic heavyweights: Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Rothko,…

  • Grand Central nights

    Grand Central Terminal

    Midtown

    Completed in 1913, Grand Central Terminal – commonly, if incorrectly, called Grand Central Station – is one of New York’s most venerated beaux-arts…

  • Chrysler Building , New York City

    Chrysler Building

    Midtown

    Designed by William Van Alen and completed in 1930, the 77-floor Chrysler Building is the pinup for New York's purest art deco architecture, guarded by…

  • ACID RAIN DAMAGE TO STATUES. GREENWOOD CEMETERY. BROOKLYN, NY

    Green-Wood Cemetery

    New York City

    If you want to enjoy a slice of scenic Brooklyn in total peace and quiet, make for Green-Wood Cemetery. This historic burial ground set on the borough’s…

  • Rockefeller Center

    Rockefeller Center

    Midtown

    This 22-acre 'city within a city' debuted at the height of the Great Depression, with developer John D Rockefeller Jr footing the $100-million price tag…

  • Pathway at Highline Park

    High Line

    West Village, Chelsea & Meatpacking District

    It’s hard to believe that the 1½-mile-long High Line – a shining example of brilliant urban renewal – was once a dingy freight line that anchored a rather…

  • Radio City Music Hall, Midtown. ©Dan Herrick/Lonely Planet.

    Radio City Music Hall

    Midtown

    This spectacular moderne movie palace was the brainchild of vaudeville producer Samuel Lionel 'Roxy' Rothafel. Never one for understatement, Roxy launched…

  • June 6, 2018: A small waterfall and bridge at Prospect Park in Brooklyn.

    Prospect Park

    New York City

    Brooklyn is blessed with a number of historic, view-laden and well used green spaces, but its emerald is Prospect Park. The designers of the 585-acre park…

  • Brooklyn, NY, USA - June 27, 2019: Brooklyn Museum

    Brooklyn Museum

    New York City

    This encyclopedic museum, imagined as the centerpiece of the 19th-century Brooklyn Institute, occupies a five-story, 560,000-sq-ft beaux-arts building…

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2000s Style; 60595; Art; Art And Craft; Art Museum; Arts; Chelsea - New York; City; Cityscape; Education; Exhibition; High Line Park; Horizontal; Hotel; Man Made Structure; Manhattan - New York City; Modern; Modern Art; Museum; New York City; No People; Outdoors; Painted Image; Photography; Postmodern; Public Park; Renzo Piano; Staircase; The Americas; Tribal Art; USA; Whitney Museum of American Art;
March 22, 2016: The new Whitney museum, a six-story asymmetrical building designed by Renzo Piano.

    Whitney Museum of American Art

    West Village, Chelsea & Meatpacking District

    After years of construction, the Whitney's downtown location opened to much fanfare in 2015. Anchoring the southern reaches of the High Line, this…

  • An image of a street scene at Pell Street in Chinatown / New York City / Manhattan with the setting sun.

    Chinatown

    SoHo & Chinatown

    A walk through Manhattan's most colorful, cramped neighborhood is never the same, no matter how many times you hit the pavement. Peek inside temples and…

  • Chelsea Market

    West Village, Chelsea & Meatpacking District

    In a shining example of redevelopment and preservation, the Chelsea Market has transformed a former factory into a shopping concourse that caters to…

  • NEW YORK CITY,USA-AUGUST 5,2013:one of the terraces on the rockefeller center where many tourists climb to get a view from above of New York.

    Top of the Rock

    Midtown

    When it comes to views in New York City, you’ll be spoiled for choice. The One World Observatory may have the edge for height, and the Empire State…

  • Exterior with many gothic details against a deep blue sky of the gothic medieval cathedral of Saint John, one of the top attractions of Den Bosch, 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands; Shutterstock ID 180468908; Your name (First / Last): Josh Vogel; Project no. or GL code: 56530; Network activity no. or Cost Centre: Online-Design; Product or Project: 65050/7529/Josh Vogel/LP.com Destination Galleries

    Cathedral Church of St John the Divine

    Harlem & Upper Manhattan

    New York’s most impressive house of worship is a towering monument that looks like it's straight out of medieval Europe. Built in a mix of styles – with…

  • The aircraft carrier USS Intrepid at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on 13 October 2016.

    Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum

    Midtown

    In WWII, under heavy enemy fire, the USS Intrepid endured a torpedo strike and four kamikaze attacks, but this hulking aircraft carrier survived to tell…

  • View of Governors Island and Manhattan from air

    Governors Island

    New York City

    Off-limits to the public for 200 years, former military outpost Governors Island is now one of New York's most popular seasonal playgrounds. The fort…

  • Hudson River Park

    West Village, Chelsea & Meatpacking District

    The High Line may be all the rage these days, but one block away from that famous elevated park stretches a 5-mile-long recreational space that has…

  • CONEY ISLAND - MAR 14: Children from around the world still ride the famous Astro Land Wonder Wheel in Coney Island, March 14, 2010, over 90 years after it was built.; Shutterstock ID 53769967; Your name (First / Last): Josh Vogel; Project no. or GL code: 56530; Network activity no. or Cost Centre: Online-Design; Product or Project: 65050/7529/Josh Vogel/LP.com Destination Galleries

    Coney Island

    New York City

    About an hour by subway from Midtown, this popular seaside neighborhood makes for a great day trip. The wide sandy beach has retained its nostalgic,…

  • Lincoln Center

    Upper West Side & Central Park

    This stark arrangement of gleaming modernist temples houses some of Manhattan’s most important performance companies: the New York Philharmonic, the New…

  • Union Square

    Union Square, Flatiron District & Gramercy

    Union Square is like the Noah’s Ark of New York, rescuing at least two of every kind from the curling seas of concrete. In fact, one would be hard pressed…

  • The Frick Collection courtyard garden.

    Frick Collection

    Upper East Side

    This spectacular art collection sits in a mansion built by steel magnate Henry Clay Frick, one of the many such residences lining the section of Fifth Ave…

  • Washington Square Park is a favorite summer spot for locals

    Washington Square Park

    West Village, Chelsea & Meatpacking District

    This former potter’s field and square for public executions is now the unofficial town square of Greenwich Village, hosting lounging NYU students, tuba…

  • New York From Above

    Flatiron Building

    Union Square, Flatiron District & Gramercy

    Designed by Daniel Burnham and built in 1902, the 20-story Flatiron Building has a narrow triangular footprint that resembles the prow of a massive ship…

  • The Cloisters, Double capitals on columns in Trie Cloister, part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ft. Tryon Park, Upper Manhattan, New York, NY

    Met Cloisters

    Harlem & Upper Manhattan

    On a hilltop overlooking the Hudson River, the Cloisters is a curious architectural jigsaw, its many parts made up of various European monasteries and…

  • Japanese Hill and Pond Garden.

    Brooklyn Botanic Garden

    New York City

    Opened in 1911 and now one of Brooklyn's most picturesque sights, this 52-acre garden is home to thousands of plants and trees and a Japanese garden where…

  • Merchant's House Museum

    SoHo & Chinatown

    Built in 1832 and purchased by merchant Seabury Tredwell three years later, this red-brick mansion remains the most authentic Federal house in town. It's…

  • Nicholas Roerich Museum

    Upper West Side & Central Park

    This compelling little museum, housed in a three-story town house from 1898, is one of Manhattan’s best-kept secrets. It displays 150 paintings by the…

  • Apollo Theater

    Harlem & Upper Manhattan

    The Apollo is an intrinsic part of Harlem history and culture. A leading space for concerts and political rallies since 1914, its venerable stage hosted…

  • Bushwick Collective

    Brooklyn: Williamsburg, Greenpoint & Bushwick

    Further cementing Bushwick's status as Brooklyn's coolest neighborhood is this outdoor gallery of murals by some of the most talented street artists in…

  • Little Italy

    SoHo & Chinatown

    This once-strong Italian neighborhood (film director Martin Scorsese grew up on Elizabeth St) saw an exodus in the mid-20th century when many of its…

  • Pace Gallery

    West Village, Chelsea & Meatpacking District

    With seven galleries across the world – including this eight-story Chelsea flagship – and decades of experience showing the work of such artists as Willem…

  • April 2019: Visitors on staircases at Vessel, which is part of the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project.

    Hudson Yards

    Midtown

    After six years of construction and $25 billion of investment, the first phase of Manhattan's new megadevelopment 'neighborhood' on the Hudson finally…

  • Interior of New York Public Library, Manhattan, New York City, USA

    New York Public Library

    Midtown

    Loyally guarded by 'Patience' and 'Fortitude' (the marble lions overlooking Fifth Ave), this beaux-arts show-off is one of NYC's best free attractions…

  • 500px Photo ID: 69665117 - www.astphotodesign.com

    Times Square

    Midtown

    Love it or hate it, the intersection of Broadway and Seventh Ave (aka Times Square) pumps out the NYC of the global imagination – yellow cabs, golden…

  • Exterior of Saint Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue.

    St Patrick's Cathedral

    Midtown

    America's largest Catholic cathedral graces Fifth Ave with Gothic Revival splendor. Built at a cost of nearly $2 million during the Civil War (and spiffed…

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