Free entry
PlaceActivities
Brooklyn Bridge Park
A waterfront walk with Manhattan across the water. Come for a change of pace, a stretch of lawn or the view from the piers.
The New York edit
New in our New York edit
Recently added recommendations. New here does not mean newly opened.
Recently added recommendations. New here does not mean newly opened. This is our growing New York selection. Follow each listing for checked practical information and the official source.
On the house
EventExhibitions
Certainly an Act: Works on Paper by Pope.L
Drawing as a way to question language, race and meaning. A free exhibition at the Drawing Center, with extended hours on its final Friday and Saturday.
GuideCulture
New York, with room to breathe
Three free places to spend time, from a SoHo art room to the Brooklyn waterfront. Pick one and let the day grow from there.
PlaceActivities
Museum of Modern Art: MoMA
Modern and contemporary art in Midtown. Choose a few galleries to linger in, then leave room for the sculpture garden.
StoryCulture
Free in New York: read the small print
A free park, a free gallery and a museum’s free evening are different kinds of plans. Here is how to make the distinction useful.
GuideCulture
An afternoon on Manhattan’s west side
Start with art at the Whitney, take the High Line at your own pace, and keep a Village pizza stop in reserve.
RestaurantPizza
Joe’s Pizza: Carmine Street
A pizza stop at the Carmine Street branch in Greenwich Village. Keep the meal simple and leave the rest of the afternoon open.
PlaceActivities
Whitney Museum of American Art
American art beside the Hudson, with the High Line close by. Make a gallery visit the anchor of a west-side afternoon.
RestaurantDeli
Katz’s Delicatessen
Pastrami, corned beef and a Lower East Side meal with a sense of occasion. This is the Houston Street restaurant.
EventExhibitions
Pierre Huyghe: UUmwelt
Machine-generated images meet the sculpture garden. Pierre Huyghe’s installation asks what thought might look like from outside a human mind.
EventExhibitions
Andy Warhol Family Album
Polaroids of friends, collaborators and everyday life. A closer look at Warhol’s personal world on the Whitney’s seventh floor.
Free entry
PlaceActivities
The Drawing Center
A free art stop on Wooster Street, devoted to what drawing can be. Start with the current exhibition and look closely.
Free entry
PlaceActivities
The High Line
Gardens and a different angle on the streets below. Follow as much of the elevated park as you feel like, with no entry fee.
On the house
EventCulture
Story Hour on the Hudson
An easy family pause at Riverside Park’s 102nd Street Field House, with books and guest readers.
EventExhibitions
Architects of Liberation: Modernism in Western Africa
Architecture and independence across seven West African countries, explored through drawings, models, photographs and films at MoMA.
GuideCulture
New York: look up, slow down
A museum, a Midtown park and an East Village table. A day with one cultural anchor and enough space around it.
RestaurantUkrainian
Veselka: East Village
Ukrainian cooking at Second Avenue and East Ninth Street. A place to sit down over pierogi and turn a walk into a meal.
Free entry
PlaceActivities
Bryant Park
A free Midtown pause behind the New York Public Library. Bring a book, find a chair and look up at the buildings around you.
Free entry
PlaceCulture
New York Public Library: Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
A free cultural stop on Fifth Avenue, where grand public rooms sit alongside a working research library and exhibitions drawn from its collections.
PlaceCulture
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
A museum for looking at how things are made and used, housed on the Upper East Side. A strong choice when you want design rather than another painting gallery.
Free entry
PlaceCulture
Socrates Sculpture Park
A free outdoor art park on the Queens waterfront, with changing installations and a view across the East River.
RestaurantFrench
Balthazar
A SoHo brasserie with a full day of service, from weekday breakfast to dinner. Useful when the meal is part of the outing.
GuideCulture
New York: books, design and outdoor art
Three cultural visits with different rhythms: a public library, a design museum and a sculpture park beside the East River.
PlaceFood & drink
The Bar Room at The Beekman
Cocktails and a table beneath The Beekman’s soaring atrium, a downtown address where looking up is part of the evening.