New York City

Why go

New York is a big city that still works at street level. You can leave a Lower East Side deli with a pastrami sandwich carved by hand, as it has been since 1888, ride under the East River for $3, and climb out in Queens among Colombian bakeries and Himalayan dumpling counters. Density does the work. A short walk in Manhattan passes more theatres, galleries and late kitchens than many capitals hold in their whole centre.

It is also loud and tiring. Hotel rooms averaged $333.71 a night in 2025, before tax. Spend on the few things you care about and walk everywhere else.

The Staten Island Ferry slides past the Statue of Liberty at no charge, the 9/11 Memorial pools are open every day, and Central Park, the High Line and the Brooklyn Bridge cost nothing but time. Pack comfortable shoes and a contactless card.

The lay of the land

The city has five boroughs. Manhattan is the narrow island in the middle. Brooklyn and Queens sit across the East River on the western end of Long Island, the Bronx lies north on the mainland, and Staten Island is south-west across the harbour. Most visitors spend their days in Manhattan below 110th Street and their evenings in Manhattan or north Brooklyn.

North of Houston Street, Manhattan is a grid. Avenues run north to south and numbered streets run east to west. Twenty blocks north or south is about a mile, or 20 minutes on foot, while each long crosstown block between avenues takes three or four minutes. Fifth Avenue splits the island into East and West, so East 53rd Street and West 53rd Street sit on opposite sides of it. Below Houston, the older street plan of Greenwich Village, SoHo, Chinatown and the Financial District ignores the grid. Your phone earns its keep there.

Midtown, roughly 34th to 59th Streets, holds Times Square, the theatre district, Grand Central and the observation decks. Central Park fills the space from 59th to 110th Streets, with the Upper West Side on one flank and the Upper East Side's Museum Mile on the other. Harlem starts above the park. Across the East River, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights are one or two subway stops from Manhattan, and Long Island City faces Midtown from the Queens shore.

When to go

The best weeks fall between late April and early June, and again from September to early November. NOAA's 1991–2020 normals for Central Park put the average high at 22°C in May and 25°C in September, with October cooling to a crisp 18°C. The parks are green or turning, rooftops are open and the cultural calendar is full.

Summer is hot and sticky. July averages 29°C by day and 21°C at night, and subway platforms trap the heat. In return you get free concerts in the parks, Fourth of July fireworks and easier restaurant bookings in August, when many New Yorkers leave town.

December is festive and dear: the Rockefeller Center tree, the department-store windows, New Year's Eve in Times Square. January to early March brings the year's lowest hotel rates, average highs of 4–10°C and the odd snowstorm.

A few dates move prices. The TCS New York City Marathon runs on Sunday 1 November 2026, and Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade follows on Thursday 26 November. The UN General Assembly's high-level week each September fills Midtown hotels and closes streets on the East Side. If your trip overlaps any of them, book the room before the flight.

What it costs

Accommodation is most of the bill. The state comptroller reports that New York hotels averaged $333.71 a night in 2025 and ran at 84.1% occupancy, the highest of any US market for the third year running. Then come the taxes: 8.875% sales tax, the city's 5.875% hotel occupancy tax, a $2 city room charge and a $1.50 state unit fee per night. A $300 room costs about $348 before any "destination" or "facility" fee.

Food runs from cheap to ruinous. A plain slice costs close to $4, according to a decade-long survey reported by Gothamist, and a deli coffee $2.50–5. A pastrami sandwich at Katz's is $28.95. At sit-down restaurants, add 8.875% tax and an 18–20% tip; dinner for two with a drink each at a mid-range place lands around $130–200.

Transport is good value. Subway and bus fares stop at $35 in any seven days, the Staten Island Ferry is free and NYC Ferry routes cost $4.50 a ride. Museums are not cheap: MoMA and the Met each charge $30 for adults from outside New York State, and the main observation decks sell standard tickets from about $42.

Locals save by eating in Queens and Brooklyn, drinking at happy hour and treating the Staten Island Ferry as the best harbour cruise in town. Beer is the surprise. A survey published in April 2026 put the median pint in Brooklyn at $8.02, and Manhattan bars charge more.

Getting there and around

Three airports serve the city. From JFK, the AirTrain ($8.75) runs to subway and rail connections at Jamaica and Howard Beach; add a $3 subway fare and you reach Midtown in 60–75 minutes. Yellow cabs charge a flat $70 between JFK and Manhattan, but surcharges, tolls and a tip push the real total to roughly $95–110. From LaGuardia, the free Q70 bus connects with the subway at Jackson Heights. Newark, in New Jersey, links by AirTrain to NJ Transit trains that reach New York Penn Station in about 30 minutes for $17.25.

In town, ride the subway for anything beyond a 20-minute walk. It runs 24 hours. Tap a contactless bank card or phone at the turnstile: a ride costs $3, a transfer within two hours is free, and once you have spent $35 in a seven-day period on the same card or device, the rest of that week's rides cost nothing. MetroCards are no longer sold.

Express and local trains share tracks, so read the sign on the train before you board. Overnight and weekend engineering work reroutes lines often; Citymapper and the MTA app show the changes. Buses crawl through Midtown but help on crosstown trips, and they take the same taps. The city's promised fare-free bus programme had not started as of October 2026.

Yellow taxis stop when the roof light is on. Uber and Lyft work across the city and add a $1.50 congestion charge to trips south of 60th Street; taxis add 75 cents. Citi Bike costs $4.99 for a 30-minute ride or $25 for a day pass, and the Hudson River Greenway is the most pleasant long ride in town.

Leave the car at home. Vehicles entering Manhattan below 60th Street pay a $9 congestion toll at peak times, a charge that survived the federal government's attempt to cancel it in court in March 2026, and parking costs far more.

Where to stay

Midtown suits first-timers and theatre trips. Most subway lines pass through it and it has the biggest stock of rooms, but it is loud, rooms are small and you will cross Times Square more often than you want.

For a neighbourhood feel, look at Greenwich Village and the West Village: low buildings, cafés, jazz clubs and Washington Square Park, with prices to match. The Lower East Side and East Village suit night owls and anyone who eats late. The Upper West Side is quieter and works for families, with Central Park and the American Museum of Natural History close by.

Value lies across the river. Long Island City in Queens is a stop or two from Midtown and has newer hotels with skyline views, often for less than Manhattan. Williamsburg costs about the same as Manhattan but puts you among the bars and restaurants you would otherwise cross the river for. Financial District hotels lose their business travellers at weekends, so check Friday and Saturday rates there. For a dawn flight, the TWA Hotel sits inside JFK's 1962 terminal.

What to do

Start in the harbour. Ferries to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island leave from Battery Park, and Statue City Cruises is the only authorised operator. Adult tickets cost $26.30 with pedestal or crown access, which you reserve in advance; crown places go months ahead. Allow four or five hours and give Ellis Island the larger share, because its immigration museum tells the city's story better than the statue's pedestal does.

Don't try to see the whole Met. Pick three collections, such as the Temple of Dendur, the European paintings and the arms and armour, and leave before your feet give out. The $30 ticket also covers The Met Cloisters in northern Manhattan on the same day. The Met closes on Wednesdays and stays open until 9 pm on Fridays and Saturdays. MoMA, also $30, opens until 8:30 pm on Fridays, but its free Friday evenings are for New York State residents only.

The 9/11 Memorial's twin pools are free and open from 8 am to 8 pm. The museum beneath costs $24–36, takes at least two hours and is emotionally heavy. Free tickets for Monday evenings (5:30–7 pm) are released online at 7 am that day.

Walk Central Park south to north on a weekday morning: Bethesda Terrace, the Bow Bridge, the Ramble, then out at the Met on Fifth Avenue. Cross the Brooklyn Bridge toward Brooklyn before 9 am, while the promenade is still walkable, and finish in Brooklyn Bridge Park for the skyline.

For Broadway, the TKTS booth in Times Square sells same-day seats at 20–50% off. Digital lotteries and rush tickets on TodayTix and Broadway Direct give you a shot at sold-out shows for a fraction of the box-office price.

Coney Island is the end of the D, F, N and Q lines, about an hour from Midtown, with the boardwalk, the 1927 Cyclone and Nathan's hot dogs. The NYC Ferry's Rockaway route reaches the city's surf beach from Wall Street for $4.50. For a full day out, Metro-North trains from Grand Central follow the Hudson to Beacon in about 90 minutes. Dia Beacon, a minimalist art museum in a former box-printing factory near the station, opens Friday to Monday, and the MTA sells a combined rail-and-admission deal.

Eat and drink

Katz's Delicatessen (1888) on Houston Street carves pastrami by hand, and Russ & Daughters (1914), a block away, sells bagels with smoked salmon and cream cheese. Nom Wah Tea Parlor has served dim sum on Doyers Street since 1920. Veselka has fed the East Village pierogi and borscht since 1954. Joe's Pizza on Carmine Street has sold slices since 1975: order a plain slice, fold it and eat it standing up.

For range, ride the 7 train into Queens. Jackson Heights packs South Asian sweet shops, Himalayan momo counters and Colombian bakeries into a few blocks, and Flushing's basement food courts serve hand-pulled noodles and soup dumplings. In Harlem, Sylvia's has served soul food on Malcolm X Boulevard for more than 60 years. Smorgasburg's weekend markets run from April to October, on Saturdays in Williamsburg and Sundays in Prospect Park.

Tip 18–20% at table-service restaurants, and default to 20%. Leave $1–2 a drink at bars. Book popular dinner spots on Resy or OpenTable, sometimes weeks out; for walk-ins, arrive by 5:30 pm or after 9:30 pm. Bars can serve until 4 am.

Practicalities

Cards and phones work almost everywhere, including taxis and turnstiles. Carry a few small bills for street carts, tips and the occasional cash-only counter. Shelf and menu prices exclude sales tax, so the total is always higher than the sticker.

Most foreign phones roam. Otherwise, buy a US eSIM before you fly; small data packs start at a few dollars. Tap water is safe and good. Plugs are types A and B at 120 volts, so check that your chargers accept 100–240 V.

At night, ride in the middle of the train, near the conductor. An empty carriage on a crowded train usually means broken air conditioning or a problem, so pick another. Hold your phone away from the doors. On the street, walk on the right, step aside to check your map, and let people off the train before you board.

Same-sex couples go unremarked in most of the city. The Stonewall National Monument in the West Village marks the 1969 uprising, and the Pride March fills Fifth Avenue on the last Sunday in June. Accessibility is uneven: every city bus has a ramp or lift, but many subway stations still have no elevator, so check the MTA's accessible-station map before you plan a route.

A few words help. A bodega is a corner shop, a schmear is cream cheese on a bagel, and a "regular" coffee comes with milk and sugar.

What nobody tells you

Times Square deserves five minutes after dark. The restaurants around it are mostly chains at premium prices, so walk west to Ninth Avenue in Hell's Kitchen. Costumed characters expect cash for photos, and the "free" CD pushed into your hand comes with a demand for money.

The Statue of Liberty day is long. Security lines are slow, crown tickets vanish months out, and many visitors would be happier with the free Staten Island Ferry and a long afternoon at Ellis Island. Street sellers around Battery Park push "statue" cruises that never land on the island. Buy only from Statue City Cruises or at Castle Clinton.

Observation decks cost $40 or more and show you nothing on a cloudy day. Check the forecast that morning and buy late.

Noise is constant. Sirens, pre-dawn garbage trucks, delivery e-bikes and construction all follow you indoors, so ask for a high floor at the back of the building.

Summer platforms are stifling even when the trains are cold, and August humidity makes a 20-minute walk feel like an hour. Save museum days for the hottest afternoons.

Hotel "destination" and "facility" fees have not gone away. They must now appear in the advertised total, but they still raise it, so read the final screen before you pay.