Things to Do in New York City

Located on the southern tip of Manhattan, Battery Park is a 25-acre public park sitting right on the New York Harbor. The attraction is named after the artillery batteries that were once positioned there for protection. When visiting, it’s enjoyable to explore the many gardens, as well as admire the views of the Statue of Liberty and relax on a bench and listen to the water. While Battery Park gives visitors a chance to enjoy the outdoors, it also provides a glimpse into the past. For example, in 1855 the park’s Castle Garden became the world’s first immigrant depot. Additionally, the park also served as the gateway for European newcomers long before Ellis Island existed. Littered around the grounds you’ll also find memorials like the East Coast Memorial that honors the U.S. 4,601 missing servicemen who died during combat in the Atlantic Ocean during WWII and the New York Korean War Veterans Memorial, commemorating military personal who served during the Korean Conflict from 1950 to1953. Today, Battery Park provides ferry transportation to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. During the summer, visitors can enjoy free music concerts at the park’s Castle Clinton, as well as the annual River to River Festival in June and July with more than 500 dance, performance and music events.

The Apollo Theater in the heart of Harlem is one of the world’s most famous live music venues. Some of the biggest names in contemporary music have played the Apollo, including Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, and the master of soul, James Brown.

Hear jazz, blues or R&B, or come along on a Wednesday evening for the long-running Amateur Night. Stars who first flexed their talents as amateurs on the Apollo’s legendary stage include Michael Jackson and Lauryn Hill.

Informative and entertaining daily tours highlight the history of the Apollo and the performers who've played there.

Designed in the late 1860s by architects Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmstead and as part of their “Greensward Plan” to beautify a then-young Central Park, this turret-topped castle of schist and granite stands atop Vista Rock, looking out on the woodlands of The Ramble, the Turtle Pond, and panoramic views of the Upper West Side.

Originally built in 1865 as a Victorian Folly – a structure with no intended use beyond sheer delight – it would come to be used as both a weather station and a nature center. In 1919, the National Weather Service began taking wind and rainfall readings from the top floor of Belvedere’s tower, the highest point in Central Park; this practice continues today. Over the next several decades, the largely empty structure of high ceilings and winding staircases fell into increasing disrepair, until it was renovated and re-opened in 1983 as the Henry Luce Nature Observatory.

This iconic upstate mountain range is contained within a 6.1 million-acre state park and includes two peaks that reach more than 5,000 feet. An impressive network of scenic trails attracts nature-loving travelers to this popular park, and calm, beautiful rivers are ideal for canoeing and kayaking.

Located in Central Park on the lower level of Bethesda Terrace, Bethesda Fountain, or “Angel of the Waters,” features a neoclassical eight-foot-bronze angel holding a lily on top of a tiered fountain. Bethesda Fountain is considered not only one of the most beautiful fountains in New York, but also in the world. It is one of the city’s largest fountains, at twenty-six feet high by ninety-six feet wide. The angel, designed by Emma Stebbins, was the only sculpture commissioned as park of Central Park’s original design. During the initial stages of Central Park’s planning, the idea was to create a welcoming “open-air hall of reception” where visitors could enjoy views from a terrace overlooking the lake. They also wanted something that blended in with the surrounding nature, which was to be the focus of the park. Bethesda Fountain was a fitting choice then, and still is today. Additionally, when the Croton Aqueduct was opened in 1842 to bring fresh water to New York City, Bethesda Fountain was used to commemorate this purification, which is why the angel carries in her outstretched hand a lily, the symbol of purity. She also stands about four small cherubim, which symbolize peace, health, purity and temperance.

You can view Bethesda Fountain from 6am to 1am. To get to Bethesda Fountain by subway on the West Side take the A, B, C, D lines to 72nd Street. If traveling on the East Side, take the 4, 5, 6 lines to 68th Street.

In 1860, the Bavarian-born Bloomingdale brothers, Joseph and Lyman, began selling ladies’ hoop skirts in a storefront on the Lower East Side; by 1872, they’d expanded their trade to a wider variety of European-made garments for both men and women, and moved their operations to a row house in then-unfashionable Midtown.

Within a few years this area would become home to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, streetcar service and a wealthy clientele, inspiring the brothers to open their flagship department store on 59th Street and Lexington Avenue. Encompassing an entire city block, the building was reconceived in the Art Deco style in 1930 by architects Starrett & Van Vleck, who also designed the flagships for Bloomingdale’s competitors Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor and more.

Known as the home of the “Big Brown Bag,” Bloomingdale’s offers seven-and-a-half floors of luxury goods, sportswear, accessories, jewelry, and home wares, as well as a ground-floor Visitor’s Center where you can consult a shopping concierge, check your coat and packages, receive a $50 gift certificate to be used in the store, and arrange to have your purchases delivered to your lodgings. Home to six different eateries, including an outpost of New York City’s famous Magnolia Cupcakes, you can easily spend half a day or more in this enormous shrine to shopping.