Manhattan takes two days. New York takes the rest of the week.
Which observation deck is worth the money. Whether the Liberty ferry eats a whole morning. What a Central Park pedicab really costs. Reviews of every tour you can book in New York City.
A deck, the harbour ferry, a pedicab through the park, the bridges after dark.
The five bookings a first New York week hangs off. What each costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The first deckSUMMIT One Vanderbilt TicketsMirrored rooms and a glass floor over Madison Avenue. Take the slot an hour before sunset and you get the city twice.
02The harbour morningStatue of Liberty & Ellis Island with FerryBoth islands on one ferry ticket, with the audio guide through the Great Hall at Ellis. Earliest boat, every time.
03The park in ninety minutesCentral Park Pedicab Guided ToursBethesda Terrace, Strawberry Fields and the Bow Bridge, with somebody else doing the pedalling.
04After dark on the waterCircle Line 2h Harbor Lights Cruise Skip-The-Box-OfficeRound the bottom of Manhattan with the bridges lit and most of the deck to yourself.
05One lap, fifteen minutesManhattan Helicopter TourOff the Downtown Heliport, out past the Statue and back up the Hudson. Nothing else compresses the city like it.
New York was a port before it was anything else. Half the good mornings still start at a pier.
Four kinds of day on the harbour, what it costs to board each one, and which pier it leaves from.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · Circle Line 2.5 Hour Best of NYC Boat Cruise
Liberty and EllisBoth islands on one ticket, pedestal access, the Great Hall.
Skyline circuitsRound the island in two and a half hours, or an hour past the bridges.
Under sailA schooner or a 1920s motor yacht. Drinks on deck, no engine noise.
Dinner afloatA window table while Midtown slides past the glass.
All 59 days on the water →
What New York books faster than anything else.
Every New York review →The tours more travellers take than anything else in the city, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
SUMMIT One Vanderbilt Tickets
Review SUMMIT One Vanderbilt in New York, with mirror rooms, glass skyboxes, skyline views, practical tips, pricing, timing, and honest drawbacks.
From · $47
Read our review →
2
Empire State Building Tickets – Observatory & Museum
from $47
3
Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island with Ferry
from $19
4
American Museum of Natural History Ticket
from $37
5
Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Tour: All Options
from $69
6
New York in One Day Guided Sightseeing Tour
from $99
7
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Entry Ticket
from $30
8
One World Observatory Skip-the-Line Ticket
from $30
Harlem on a Sunday, Canal Street at lunch, Bushwick after that.
The subway is twenty minutes and two dollars ninety. What it does not give you is the guide who knows which pizzeria on Mulberry Street is still family-run, or which church on 125th welcomes visitors at the ten o'clock service.
Four decks over Manhattan, and a helicopter for anyone who would rather not queue.
Summit throws mirrors at you, the Empire State gives you the postcard, Top of the Rock puts the Empire State in the frame and Edge hangs you off the side of Hudson Yards. They are not the same purchase.
Central Park is 843 acres. A pedicab covers it; your legs will not.
Everything in the park →
The famous half of the park is the bottom third: Bethesda Terrace, the Mall, Bow Bridge, Strawberry Fields, the Dakota over the trees. That loop is a comfortable ninety minutes on wheels and a punishing afternoon on foot in August.
- 1Central Park Pedicab Guided Toursfrom $38
- 2Private Central Park Pedicab Tourfrom $38
- 3Central Park Bike Rentalsfrom $9
A pedicab, and a driver who knows it
Two people under a hood, stopping wherever you point. The drivers work the park daily and will tell you which film was shot at which arch, which is most of the appeal.
Horse and carriage from Central Park South
Licensed carriages line up along Central Park South. Short loops take in the Pond and Wollman Rink; the longer ones get as far as Bethesda. Priced by the carriage, not the head.
Rent the bike and ride the loop road
The 6.1-mile loop road is closed to traffic. A rental and a map is the cheapest way to see the whole park, and the only way to get north of the Reservoir without walking.
Manhattan is the arrival. Brooklyn, Harlem and Queens are the trip.
Six places to build a day around: the park in the middle, the borough over the bridge, the Sunday music uptown, the brownstone lanes below 14th Street, the cast iron and the noodle shops downtown, and the two boroughs almost nobody crosses the river for.
What a day out in New York actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. The city has a reputation for being expensive, and a surprising amount of the best of it comes in under the price of dinner.
Walking tours, park rentals, single-deck tickets and the food walks that end at lunch.
The full-day standards: harbour cruises with a guide, Broadway seats, the Dyker Heights lights run, a day trip out of Midtown.
Helicopters, private guides, chartered boats and the once-a-trip decisions that earn it.
Niagara, Washington and the Amish country, all out of Midtown before breakfast.
The coaches leave from the blocks around Penn Station and Port Authority, usually between six and seven in the morning. Washington is a long day and back the same night. Niagara is two, and the falls are worth the bus.
- 1Guided Day Trip to Washington DC by Van or Busfrom $104
- 2Washington and Philadelphia 1-Day Tourfrom $104
- 3Full-Day Washington DC City Highlights Tourfrom $149
Broadway at eight, a jazz set at eleven.
Curtains go up at seven or eight and the theatre district empties into the restaurants by half ten. That is when the Village basements fill: Blue Note, the Vanguard, the rooms on Bleecker Street that hold forty people and start late.
Every Broadway ticket →
Four New York bookings that will not wait.
Most of this city can be arranged over breakfast on the day. These four run on timed entry slots, seat maps and a calendar that takes no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01SUMMIT One Vanderbilt TicketsEntry is by timed slot with a cap on each one. The hour before sunset is the slot everybody wants, and it goes first.
- 02Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island with FerryOnly one ferry operator lands on the islands, and crown access is a separate, much smaller allocation released months out.
- 03Aladdin the Musical on BroadwaySeats are sold by the seat map. Wait and you are choosing between the back of the balcony and a different show.
- 044-Hour Dyker Heights Holiday Lights Bus TourThe lights are up for about five weeks in December and the tours run nightly through them. Outside that window there is nothing to see.
When New York turns cold, wet, or both.
January runs below freezing and the wind comes down the avenues. August does the opposite and the subway platforms hit forty degrees. Both have the same answer: put the day indoors. Marble halls, a terminal that is worth an hour on its own, a matinee, a long lunch.
By place — the boroughs and the streets
By kind of day — deck, boat, walk or table
Two days in New York, in the order that actually works.
The bridge
Summit
BroadwayThe newest New York tour reviews.
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