MUSEUMS
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
For nearly a century and a half, the Met has remained the cultural epicenter of New York City, thanks to forward-thinking exhibits and an extensive permanent collection. With its Gothic-Revival-style building, iconic tiered steps, and Central Park location, the building is a sight to be seen.
9/11 Memorial and Museum
The World Trade Center’s twin 110-storey towers once dominated the Manhattan skyline, but were destroyed by suicide-piloted jetliners on September 11, 2001, with a tragic loss of life. Where the two towers of the World Trade Center once stood, now stand two square reflecting pools, each one acre in size. Known as the National September 11 Memorial, the area is a tribute to the almost 3,000 people killed as a result of attacks on September 11, 2001 and also the six people killed in the earlier World Trade Center bombing in February, 1993.
The Met Breuer
When the Whitney Museum of American Art relocated to its jazzy new downtown headquarters in 2016, it wasn’t long before the Metropolitan Museum of Art swooped in on Marcel Breuer’s Brutalist-style building for its latest extension. The new annex, dubbed the Met Breuer (BROY-er), showcases modern and contemporary works that are as thought-provoking as the landmark space in which they reside.
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
Set in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, the Museum features 125,000 square feet of gallery space filled with modern and contemporary art and while the range is far-reaching, the art is spread out so the galleries don’t feel overwhelming.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Frank Lloyd Wright designed the iconic building that houses Solomon R. Guggenheim’s modern art collection, which includes paintings by Kandinsky, plus works by Picasso, Klee, Miró, and more.
American Museum of Natural History
Truly one of the world’s great natural history museums, the American Museum of Natural History spans four city blocks just across from Central Park. All aspects of the natural world are represented here, from a vast collection of taxidermy mammals, to depictions of the life of Native American tribes, to an entire hall dedicated to marine life—including a life-size model of a gigantic blue whale.
Whitney Museum of American Art
This museum houses 50,000 square feet of indoor galleries, four outdoor exhibition spaces and terraces, and a ground-floor restaurant and a top-floor bar, both by Danny Meyer, one of the town’s toniest restaurateurs.
The Frick Collection
The Henry Clay Frick House, spans an entire city block along Fifth Avenue—and nearly every inch is filled with the art enthusiast’s collection of old master paintings and fine furniture.
New Museum
The New Museum founded in 1977, contains all things contemporary and modern, in all mediums, and tends to champion lesser known artists (recent shows have included Australian painter Helen Johnson, L.A.-based filmmaker Kahlil Joseph, and Philadelphia installation artist Alex Da Corte). Exhibits can be hit or miss, and enjoyment of them tends to be wildly subjective.
Neue Galerie New York
The museum is dedicated entirely to 19th-century German and Austrian art and design, with a collection that spans paintings, furniture, sculpture, photography, and manuscripts. The star attraction, arguably, is Gustav Klimt’s mesmerizing and iconic painting, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, completed in 1907.
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
The collection here spans centuries, and includes all things related to design (there are over 200,000 pieces), from furniture and metalwork to sculpture, musical instruments, and pottery. It’s also more under-the-radar than its bigger neighbors like the Guggenheim and the Met.
Museum of the City of New York
The Colonial-style structure near the top of Central Park was built specifically to house the Museum of the City of New York in 1932. The collection here is over 1.5 million pieces strong, and incorporates photography, paintings, drawings, furniture, decorative objects, and manuscripts—all having to do with the history of New York City’s five boroughs.
International Center of Photography
The International Center of Photography showcases images with a purpose, often with enlightening exhibitions focused on social and political commentary. Past exhibitions have run the gamut from travel-focused to “Generation Wealth” by Lauren Greenfield, a commentary on money, status, and celebrity in America and the world.
Museum of Arts and Design
Dedicated to contemporary art, crafts, and design from all over the world, MAD (as it’s known) is a large museum occupying a renovated building on Columbus Circle. Its location makes it an easy stop-by, if you’re in the neighborhood. Throughout its four floors, MAD showcases a range of work, from jewelry and tableware to tapestries and sculpture, which means there’s something for everyone, no matter their particular design interest.
Studio Museum in Harlem
This two-level, 60,000 square foot museum is unparalleled in its exploration of African American art and culture. Because of the broad scope of the museum, virtually all mediums are represented here, including photography (from the likes of Kara Walker and James Van Der Zee), sculpture, paintings, prints, and drawings. It’s a perfect museum for anyone interested in the historic neighborhood, the creative people who have inhabited it, or contemporary art.
The Jewish Museum
The largest museum of its kind outside of Israel, the Jewish Museum has over 30,000 items in its collection. Spanning Jewish ceremonial art, sculpture, archeological artifacts, and painting, the collection also includes famous works from the likes of Marc Chagall, Man Ray, and Eva Hesse.
The Morgan Library & Museum
The Morgan is like a multi-hyphenate millennial—only instead of actress/model/influencer/whatever leads to early retirement, it’s museum/library/landmark/historic site/music venue. Inside the multimillionaire’s personal library, expanded into a must-see museum and cultural space, you’ll find rare artifacts, paintings, and books, some dating back to 4000 B.C., that are worth more than your house.
Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA)
On the fringes of NYC’s Chinatown, this intimate museum is housed in a modern, Maya Lin-designed space on Centre Street. The collection documents the history of Chinese Americans, from the 19th-century to the present, and includes more than 65,000 works, from photographs to textiles and clothing.
Brooklyn Museum
At 560,000 square feet, Brooklyn Museum is the third largest museum in New York City, and one of the its great institutions. Housed in a Beaux-Arts building from 1897, it sits on the edge of Prospect Park, inviting for spontaneous walk-ins. With 1.5 million works as part of the collection, just about every form of art is represented here. Particular standouts include its selection of paintings by Dennis Hopper and Norman Rockwell, and a top-notch Egyptian artifacts gallery.
MoMA PS1
Located in a striking Renaissance Revival former public school building in Long Island City, Queens, MoMA PS1’s setting is just as interesting as its collection. All manner of cutting-edge contemporary art is shown here, with a collection over 200,000 pieces strong, from the likes of James Turrell and Ai Weiwei.
Museum of the Moving Image
Housed in a former film production studio from the 1920s in Queens, the Museum of the Moving Image is a fun, family-friendly resource for all things film, television, and digital images, with about 130,000 items in its collection. It’s also a film and TV buff’s dream come true, with costumes, technical equipment, still photography, and design materials on display, plus two floors of interactive exhibits and a full schedule of screenings.
The Cloisters
Located on four acres in northern Manhattan’s Fort Tryon Park, the Met Cloisters is a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is America’s only museum dedicated exclusively to the art and architecture of the Middle Ages. The building incorporates five medieval cloisters into a modern museum structure, creating a historic, contextualized backdrop in which to view the art.
Mmuseumm
Arguably the most unusual museum in New York, Mmuseumm is located in an old freight elevator in an alley in Chinatown. Its tiny collection is composed of everyday objects shown in unusual ways, like “The Cornflake Taxonomy,” which presented individual cornflakes as if they were collectors’ items, noting their detailed size, color, and shape.
Rubin Museum of Art
Located in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, the Rubin Museum is dedicated to the art of the Himalayas and India. Spanning 1,500 years and 38,000 pieces, the Rubin’s collection is a comprehensive, unparalleled deep dive into the art of the Himalayas, composed of sculptures, paintings, installations (that display rituals such as Nepalese wax metal casting), and reproductions of murals of Tibet’s Lukhang Temple.
Tenement Museum
On a tour of the tenements, you’ll hear personal histories of the working-class individuals who lived there and see how they made do with cramped quarters to build new lives in America. On a neighborhood walking tour—the other way to visit the museum—you’ll learn about the evolution of the Lower East Side and how its thriving immigrant population made it the most densely populated area in the country during the 1900s.
New-York Historical Society
Founded in 1804, the New-York Historical Society is New York City’s first museum, and today it houses a collection that’s soared to about 1.6 million works, from paintings and water colors to George Washington’s bed from Valley Forge.
PARKS
Battery Park
This park situated at the tip of Manhattan was masterfully redesigned by Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf. This horticultural city staple boasts 10,000 square feet encompassing the Gardens of Remembrance, 60,000 square feet of new perennial gardens and a variety of stunning native plants and trees preserved by The Battery Conservancy.
The British Garden at Hanover Square
This midtown park opened in 2002 to commemorate the 67 British civilians who lost their lives in the September 11 World Trade centre attacks. The contemporary park, by British architects Isabel and Julian Bannerman features stone benches made in England.
The Central Park Conservatory Garden
This free public park is accessible at Fifth Avenue and 105th Street, and is open from 8:00 a.m. until dusk. The garden has evolved from a conservatory that opened in 1898 to a flourishing manicured green space featuring wild plants, Victorian flowerbeds, a French-style fountain as well as rare Japanese lilac trees and plants.
Westside Community Garden
This lush public green space, which has a greenhouse, vegetable plot, and flower park, is the product of an urban development project in the 1980s. It’s situated atop a landscape that was once a vacant deposit for trash on Columbus Avenue. Under the reign of landscape designer Terry Schnadelbach, the garden was transformed into a retreat with an amphitheatre-style seating area. The garden is open to the public and hosts a wide range of events from barbecues to outdoor concerts.
Riverside Park
This massive park spans four miles along the Hudson River. It has a biking path, skate park, water trail, recreational courts, picturesque landscapes, and plenty of greenery and plants.
Brooklyn Botanical Garden’s Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden
This unique Japanese garden in Brooklyn is steeped in history and tradition. The garden has been cultivated since the early 1800’s and currently exhibits a wide range of distinguished Japanese artifacts including a 500-year-old Japanese lantern. The space also contains a lily pond and a plaza filled with cherry trees.
6BC Botanical Garden in the East Village
Established in 1980 by dedicated volunteers who sought to create a central community garden, this lovely urban haven boasts hundreds of exotic and native plant species. Apart from its diverse selection of plants, it also serves as a versatile venue for local musicians, artists, writers, photographers, and filmmakers.
Wave Hill, The Bronx
This massive public garden located in the Bronx covers 28 acres. Wave Hill boasts a variety of manicured and wild gardens plants and exhibits, from an Aquatic Garden featuring waterlilies and monocots to an English-style wild garden and conservatory that hosts exotic plants.
Creative Little Garden
This charming garden has become a sanctuary in the East Village. Maintained by dedicated members, the Creative Little Garden is a certified National Wildlife Federation Habitat that is filled with local wildlife from berries to birds. The green space is free of charge and is easily accessible to the public and pets on a leash.
Queens Botanical Garden
The Queens Botanical Garden is home to an eclectic mix of vegetables and flowers. Don’t miss the Cherry Circle, which contains rare cherry blossoms, and the Fragrance Walk, which is filled with wonderful smelling perennials and bulbs.
High Line Park
Find peace and quiet above the city at High Line Park, a trendy green space build on a defunct railroad track that once ran across Manhattan’s West Side. The park features tons of funky seating and impressive views of the city.
MARKETS
Smorgasburg
It’s not just the idyllic views of Manhattan that attract thousands to this, the king of food markets in NYC in the trendy Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg. Smorgasburg is located at the East River State Park at Kent Ave. and N. 7th Street on Saturdays, and at Breeze Hill in Prospect Park on Sundays. Regardless of where its held, it’s ground zero for the type of fusion foods that New York has become famous for creating and/or popularizing like the (in)famous Ramen Burger. Dubbed “the Woodstock of Eating” by the New York Times, this is where you go to sample the city’s trendiest foods and flavors, from bahn mi and kalby tacos, to waffle sundaes, micro-brewed beers, or just a good old fashioned hot dog – topped with kimchee and seaweed.
Brooklyn Flea
This NYC market, which sells crafts, vintage furniture, clothing, collectibles and more, is a haven for quirky finds. Show up early and dedicate at least a couple of hours to simply getting lost among tables representing over 100 local vendors. There isn’t much that isn’t on sale at here but we especially enjoy looking for vintage jewelry and antiques along with items made by local artisans, like handbags. Music heads can also geek out at the various stands bursting with old vinyl.
LIC Flea Market
Many visitors to New York never leave Manhattan and if they do it’s to go to Brooklyn. In doing so they miss what might just be the most interesting borough of them all – Queens. The LIC Flea Market is one of the most exciting and vibrant of the markets in NYC. It has some of the same crafty, collectible vibe as Brooklyn Flea, plus it offers a variety of food vendors and a special music series in August. It’s not quite as trendy as its Brooklyn counterpart, but it’s where all the Smorgasburg vendors go to get the inspiration for their next creations – one of the best markets in NYC for ethnic foods of nearly any persuasion.
Queens Night Market
At this NYC market you can find 100+ vendors selling crafts, food, and art, along with cultural performances and entertainment all under the stars. The list of vendors reads like something out of the United Nations: Romanian chimney cakes, fried ice cream, Korean Pancakes, Chilean street food, Sri Lankan snacks, Trinidadian shark sandwiches…the list goes on and on.
Union Square Greenmarket
This market is a favorite among locals for its wide variety of local produce, wines, cheeses and other foodie staples that make a perfect picnic lunch for anyone visiting the city. In the autumn it is the perfect place to get delicious, fresh apples that flood in from up-state.
Chelsea Market
Chelsea Market is often labeled “touristy” in the guidebooks. It’s true that there are a lot of tourists here; but there are also plenty of locals. In fact, there is a lot of everyone because the market is simply jaw-dropping. Open year-round and indoors, Chelsea Market is still the number one must-see market in NYC. This site, along the High Line in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, offers over 35 vendors selling food, cooking supplies, and collectibles in all varieties.
Red Hook Food Vendors
Red Hook Food Vendors is the best market in NYC for Latin American food. Although New York City is awash with latin foods, this is the market for those who want food cooked by Latins for Latins—from Mexican tacos to Peruvian ceviche to Salvadoran pupusas to good ol’ Costa Rican gallo pinto with friend plantains.
Mad Sq. Eats & Eataly
Right in front of the famous Flatiron Building, the seasonal event Mad Sq. Eats brings some of New York’s most innovative cuisine to the street. This food market is a great spot to grab lunch, and is part of the UrbanSpace group that hosts a number of these open air food vendor events across the city. Because Mad Sq. Eats is seasonal (it is open in the Spring and Fall only), there’s another option in the area when it comes to food—Eataly. Right across from Madison Square Park, Eataly emulates the food markets of Italy, complete with freshly-made pasta, wine and cheese bars, and a beer garden on the roof. Stop in for a full meal, or just grab a few ingredients for dinner.
Kalustyan’s
Kalusytan’s is a two-floor Indian and Middle Eastern specialty spice and food store at 123 Lexington Ave. in Manhattan. One of the best-kept secrets in NYC, it’s the place to go for hard to find hot sauces, spices, and all manner of specialty foods. The tea and spice selection alone is worth a stop for locals and visitors alike. This family run operation has been in business since 1944 and It’s one of our favorite markets in the city just to go and browse.
