Must-See New York City: Part 1 by NYC Go Lyrics
NYC Skyline
New York City's skyline is truly awe-inspiring. The skyscrapers, bridges, waterways, islands and monuments create a breathtaking panorama that is instantly recognizable worldwide. While you can feel the immensity of these surroundings from anywhere in the City, the grandeur of the cityscape is best viewed from above. Take an elevator ride up 1,050 feet to the 86th-floor observation deck of the Empire State Building; New York City's second-tallest structure (after One World Trade Center), this soaring art deco masterpiece offers a completely unobstructed, 360-degree view of the city below. For a spectacular vista that includes the Empire State Building itself, head up to the Top of the Rock, located on the 67th, 69th and 70th floors of 30 Rockefeller Plaza (home of NBC Studios). Both the Empire State Building and Top of the Rock are open late, so don't miss the chance to see the City lights shimmer after dark.
Times Square
Not sure where to look while walking through world-famous Times Square? Don't worry—you're not alone. With massive digital billboards whose bright lights make midnight look like midafternoon; star-studded Broadway and Off-Broadway shows (and reduced-price tickets to see them available from the TKTS Discount Booth); people peddling art and jewelry on the street; and, of course, the Naked Cowboy—who plays guitar in his tighty-whities—the expansive stretch of Midtown is a feast for all five senses. Visitors can shop in flagship locations of such stores as Toys "R" Us (which boasts an indoor Ferris wheel), take pictures with wax celebrities at Madame Tussauds, watch the ball drop on New Year's Eve or grab a pre- or post-theater meal along Restaurant Row (West 46th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues), where many eateries offer prix-fixe deals. And with Broadway closed to cars from West 42nd to West 47th Streets, Times Square is now more pedestrian friendly than ever.
Central Park
Spanning 843 acres in the heart of Manhattan, Central Park is one of the world's greatest urban oases, encompassing a diverse landscape of rolling fields, walking trails and tranquil bodies of water—all sculpted by human hands. Designed in the mid-19th century by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, Central Park is the centerpiece of the City's public parks system. Among its attractions are the Central Park Zoo, Belvedere Castle and the Friedsam Memorial Carousel (which, weather permitting, operates seven days a week from April through October and intermittently the rest of the year). Sheep Meadow and the Great Lawn offer sprawling expanses where visitors can relax and enjoy the outdoors. In the winter, there's ice-skating at Trump Rink, which provides a picturesque backdrop for that classic cold-weather pastime. In the summer, the Delacorte Theater hosts Shakespeare in the Park, outdoor performances of the Bard's work. Elsewhere, Rumsey Playfield serves as the primary home for SummerStage, a citywide free performing-arts festival featuring music, dance, theater and more. Notably, Rumsey hosts Metropolitan Opera recitals featuring singers and a pianist from the famed opera company. For more ideas on what to see while visiting the sprawling NYC green space, check out our slideshow of must-see Central Park sights.
NYC Museums
No trip to New York City is complete without experiencing some of its world-class cultural institutions, and Museum Mile is a good place to start. This stretch of Fifth Avenue, from East 82nd to East 105th Streets—actually measuring a little longer than a mile—lays claim to one of the world's densest concentrations of culture. Museums include The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Neue Galerie, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the National Academy Museum & School, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (temporarily closed for renovation through 2014), the Jewish Museum, the Museum of the City of New York and El Museo del Barrio.
Just a short walk away from Museum Mile, the Whitney Museum of American Art showcases one of the nation's premier collections of works by 20th-century American and contemporary masters, while just across Central Park, the mammoth American Museum of Natural History and the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space feature larger-than-life science exhibitions. And a block south, the City's oldest museum, the New York Historical Society, underwent an extensive renovation and expansion in 2011 and introduced the DiMenna Children's History Museum.
The European masterpieces of the Frick Collection are housed in Henry Clay Frick's magnificent Fifth Avenue mansion, and Midtown's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is home to some of the world's most important contemporary artworks. Uptown, the Studio Museum in Harlem showcases the work of black artists, while the Cloisters houses an impressive collection of medieval art juxtaposed with the museum's gorgeous architecture; it also offers charming gardens and stunning views of the Hudson. Brooklyn Museum, one of the largest and oldest art museums in the country, boasts a wide-ranging collection that spans cultures and artistic movements in its Beaux Arts home at the northern end of Prospect Park.
For other great cultural experiences throughout the City—including not only museums, but also music, dance and theater—check out our Arts, Culture & Entertainment page, monthly art calendar and our arts and culture roundup.
Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
The Statue of Liberty is New York City's most recognizable landmark, a gleaming beacon for generations of immigrants seeking a better life in America. To visit the monument, buy tickets online in advance of your trip at statuecruises.com. (Though you can see Lady Liberty from land, the short ferry ride to Liberty Island will bring you up close and personal.)
The nearby Ellis Island Immigration Museum provides a fascinating view of a historic crossroads. At this site, visitors can explore the building that served as the first port of entry in the United States for approximately 12 million immigrants, as well as search ship manifests for passenger names in the American Family Immigration History Center.
Yankee Stadium
The original Yankee Stadium, known as "The House That Ruth Built," opened in 1923 and served as the Yankees' home until 2008. The new Yankee Stadium opened in 2009, and the team capped the venue's inaugural season with its 27th World Series title. This monolith, which retains some of the more beloved features from the old hallowed iteration, is a must-see for any baseball fan. Visitors can take a guided tour, which includes stops at the clubhouse/batting cage area (only during the off-season or when the team is on the road), the dugout and Monument Park, as well as the New York Yankees Museum, which offers a fascinating look at the history of the storied franchise. Of course, professional sports in New York City go much deeper than just the Yankees. To see the City's home teams (including the Yankees) in person, buy tickets to NYC sporting events here.
Flushing Meadows – Corona Park
Though best known as the location of the US Open, Flushing Meadows–Corona Park—which, at 1,255 acres, is the City's fourth-largest park—boasts a range of worthy attractions. It was the site of two World's Fairs (1939–1940 and 1964–1965). The Unisphere, a 140-foot-tall stainless-steel globe built for the 1964–1965 World's Fair, and the observatory towers, site of the final alien fight scene in Men in Black, serve as reminders of the event. Nearby, the New York City Building, built for the New York City Pavilion at the 1939–1940 World's Fair and home of the General Assembly of the United Nations from 1946 to 1950, houses the newly expanded Queens Museum (formerly the Queens Museum of Art). Inside is the not-to-be-missed Panorama of the City of New York, an impressively detailed 9,335-square-foot scale model of the City featuring every building constructed before 1992 as well as Citi Field (which in 2009 replaced Shea Stadium as the home of baseball's Mets). Other Flushing Meadows–Corona Park attractions include the Queens Zoo, the hands-on New York Hall of Science, Queens Botanical Garden, Queens Theatre and the annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival, a weekend-long sporting and cultural event held in August.
Bronx Zoo
Spanning 265 lush acres, the Bronx Zoo is the largest urban wildlife preserve in the United States, home to several authentically re-created habitats that house more than 5,000 animals representing more than 600 species (including an ever-changing cast of "awww"-worthy newborns). See zebras, giraffes and lions roam the African Plains; take a safari through the 6.5-acre Congo Gorilla Forest; watch baboons play in Ethiopian highlands; and meet lemurs, crocodiles and cockroaches in the permanent Madagascar! exhibition—all before lunch. Daily activities, including sea lion and penguin feedings, keep visitors busy all day long, while the Bug Carousel, the 4-D Theatre's Ice-Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and the Children's Zoo are perfect for kids (the latter is undergoing renovations and will reopen in summer 2014). The Bronx Zoo is open seven days a week and offers pay-what-you-wish admission every Wednesday.
New York City's skyline is truly awe-inspiring. The skyscrapers, bridges, waterways, islands and monuments create a breathtaking panorama that is instantly recognizable worldwide. While you can feel the immensity of these surroundings from anywhere in the City, the grandeur of the cityscape is best viewed from above. Take an elevator ride up 1,050 feet to the 86th-floor observation deck of the Empire State Building; New York City's second-tallest structure (after One World Trade Center), this soaring art deco masterpiece offers a completely unobstructed, 360-degree view of the city below. For a spectacular vista that includes the Empire State Building itself, head up to the Top of the Rock, located on the 67th, 69th and 70th floors of 30 Rockefeller Plaza (home of NBC Studios). Both the Empire State Building and Top of the Rock are open late, so don't miss the chance to see the City lights shimmer after dark.
Times Square
Not sure where to look while walking through world-famous Times Square? Don't worry—you're not alone. With massive digital billboards whose bright lights make midnight look like midafternoon; star-studded Broadway and Off-Broadway shows (and reduced-price tickets to see them available from the TKTS Discount Booth); people peddling art and jewelry on the street; and, of course, the Naked Cowboy—who plays guitar in his tighty-whities—the expansive stretch of Midtown is a feast for all five senses. Visitors can shop in flagship locations of such stores as Toys "R" Us (which boasts an indoor Ferris wheel), take pictures with wax celebrities at Madame Tussauds, watch the ball drop on New Year's Eve or grab a pre- or post-theater meal along Restaurant Row (West 46th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues), where many eateries offer prix-fixe deals. And with Broadway closed to cars from West 42nd to West 47th Streets, Times Square is now more pedestrian friendly than ever.
Central Park
Spanning 843 acres in the heart of Manhattan, Central Park is one of the world's greatest urban oases, encompassing a diverse landscape of rolling fields, walking trails and tranquil bodies of water—all sculpted by human hands. Designed in the mid-19th century by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, Central Park is the centerpiece of the City's public parks system. Among its attractions are the Central Park Zoo, Belvedere Castle and the Friedsam Memorial Carousel (which, weather permitting, operates seven days a week from April through October and intermittently the rest of the year). Sheep Meadow and the Great Lawn offer sprawling expanses where visitors can relax and enjoy the outdoors. In the winter, there's ice-skating at Trump Rink, which provides a picturesque backdrop for that classic cold-weather pastime. In the summer, the Delacorte Theater hosts Shakespeare in the Park, outdoor performances of the Bard's work. Elsewhere, Rumsey Playfield serves as the primary home for SummerStage, a citywide free performing-arts festival featuring music, dance, theater and more. Notably, Rumsey hosts Metropolitan Opera recitals featuring singers and a pianist from the famed opera company. For more ideas on what to see while visiting the sprawling NYC green space, check out our slideshow of must-see Central Park sights.
NYC Museums
No trip to New York City is complete without experiencing some of its world-class cultural institutions, and Museum Mile is a good place to start. This stretch of Fifth Avenue, from East 82nd to East 105th Streets—actually measuring a little longer than a mile—lays claim to one of the world's densest concentrations of culture. Museums include The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Neue Galerie, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the National Academy Museum & School, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (temporarily closed for renovation through 2014), the Jewish Museum, the Museum of the City of New York and El Museo del Barrio.
Just a short walk away from Museum Mile, the Whitney Museum of American Art showcases one of the nation's premier collections of works by 20th-century American and contemporary masters, while just across Central Park, the mammoth American Museum of Natural History and the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space feature larger-than-life science exhibitions. And a block south, the City's oldest museum, the New York Historical Society, underwent an extensive renovation and expansion in 2011 and introduced the DiMenna Children's History Museum.
The European masterpieces of the Frick Collection are housed in Henry Clay Frick's magnificent Fifth Avenue mansion, and Midtown's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is home to some of the world's most important contemporary artworks. Uptown, the Studio Museum in Harlem showcases the work of black artists, while the Cloisters houses an impressive collection of medieval art juxtaposed with the museum's gorgeous architecture; it also offers charming gardens and stunning views of the Hudson. Brooklyn Museum, one of the largest and oldest art museums in the country, boasts a wide-ranging collection that spans cultures and artistic movements in its Beaux Arts home at the northern end of Prospect Park.
For other great cultural experiences throughout the City—including not only museums, but also music, dance and theater—check out our Arts, Culture & Entertainment page, monthly art calendar and our arts and culture roundup.
Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
The Statue of Liberty is New York City's most recognizable landmark, a gleaming beacon for generations of immigrants seeking a better life in America. To visit the monument, buy tickets online in advance of your trip at statuecruises.com. (Though you can see Lady Liberty from land, the short ferry ride to Liberty Island will bring you up close and personal.)
The nearby Ellis Island Immigration Museum provides a fascinating view of a historic crossroads. At this site, visitors can explore the building that served as the first port of entry in the United States for approximately 12 million immigrants, as well as search ship manifests for passenger names in the American Family Immigration History Center.
Yankee Stadium
The original Yankee Stadium, known as "The House That Ruth Built," opened in 1923 and served as the Yankees' home until 2008. The new Yankee Stadium opened in 2009, and the team capped the venue's inaugural season with its 27th World Series title. This monolith, which retains some of the more beloved features from the old hallowed iteration, is a must-see for any baseball fan. Visitors can take a guided tour, which includes stops at the clubhouse/batting cage area (only during the off-season or when the team is on the road), the dugout and Monument Park, as well as the New York Yankees Museum, which offers a fascinating look at the history of the storied franchise. Of course, professional sports in New York City go much deeper than just the Yankees. To see the City's home teams (including the Yankees) in person, buy tickets to NYC sporting events here.
Flushing Meadows – Corona Park
Though best known as the location of the US Open, Flushing Meadows–Corona Park—which, at 1,255 acres, is the City's fourth-largest park—boasts a range of worthy attractions. It was the site of two World's Fairs (1939–1940 and 1964–1965). The Unisphere, a 140-foot-tall stainless-steel globe built for the 1964–1965 World's Fair, and the observatory towers, site of the final alien fight scene in Men in Black, serve as reminders of the event. Nearby, the New York City Building, built for the New York City Pavilion at the 1939–1940 World's Fair and home of the General Assembly of the United Nations from 1946 to 1950, houses the newly expanded Queens Museum (formerly the Queens Museum of Art). Inside is the not-to-be-missed Panorama of the City of New York, an impressively detailed 9,335-square-foot scale model of the City featuring every building constructed before 1992 as well as Citi Field (which in 2009 replaced Shea Stadium as the home of baseball's Mets). Other Flushing Meadows–Corona Park attractions include the Queens Zoo, the hands-on New York Hall of Science, Queens Botanical Garden, Queens Theatre and the annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival, a weekend-long sporting and cultural event held in August.
Bronx Zoo
Spanning 265 lush acres, the Bronx Zoo is the largest urban wildlife preserve in the United States, home to several authentically re-created habitats that house more than 5,000 animals representing more than 600 species (including an ever-changing cast of "awww"-worthy newborns). See zebras, giraffes and lions roam the African Plains; take a safari through the 6.5-acre Congo Gorilla Forest; watch baboons play in Ethiopian highlands; and meet lemurs, crocodiles and cockroaches in the permanent Madagascar! exhibition—all before lunch. Daily activities, including sea lion and penguin feedings, keep visitors busy all day long, while the Bug Carousel, the 4-D Theatre's Ice-Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and the Children's Zoo are perfect for kids (the latter is undergoing renovations and will reopen in summer 2014). The Bronx Zoo is open seven days a week and offers pay-what-you-wish admission every Wednesday.