Good with

Solo

Places that are better alone, or at least not worse — a counter to sit at, a room where nobody wonders why you came by yourself.

63 places

Best first

9.9Central ParkParkManhattanFree843 acres of engineered wilderness that the rest of the city was built around.9.9Pommes FritesBelgianGreenwich Village$Fresh Belgian frites, a wall of sauces, and the most generous beer pour in New York.9.9Rockefeller ParkParkTribecaFreeThe best open space downtown, and the one that hits differently if you actually live here.9.8Freeman AlleyStreetNolitaFreeA narrow, graffiti-lined alley off Rivington that dead-ends at one of downtown's best-hidden restaurant doors.9.8Joe's PizzaPizzaGreenwich Village$The benchmark. If you only eat one New York slice, this is the one every other slice gets measured against.9.8Prospect ParkParkPark SlopeFreeA wilder, more rural Central Park — the same designers, a decade later, on land they liked better.9.8The Met CloistersMuseumWashington Heights$$Medieval Europe rebuilt in Fort Tryon Park, over the Hudson.9.8Washington Square ParkParkGreenwich VillageFreeThe rawest square in New York — everything happening at once, and never the same twice.9.8Wave HillGardenRiverdale$$A public garden on a bluff over the Hudson, looking straight at the Palisades.9.7Barclays CenterStadiumProspect Heights$Go for a Nets game: a cheap weekday seat up top, a loud Brooklyn crowd, and dinner and drinks before or after instead of inside.9.7Brooklyn MuseumMuseumProspect Heights$$A huge collection next to Prospect Park, and no one's in line.9.7Citi FieldStadiumFlushing$Cheap weekday seats, a Queens crowd and a whole ballgame for less than a night at a bar. Eat before, drink after, and just watch the game.9.7Ford Foundation AtriumGardenMidtownFreeA third of an acre of indoor jungle behind a glass wall on 43rd Street, free to visit.9.7Hudson River GreenwayTrailManhattanFreeThe most scenic ride in New York — get lost on it, and the George Washington Bridge never seems to get closer.9.7Morningside ParkParkHarlemFreeA cliff face with a waterfall at the bottom, separating Harlem from Morningside Heights.9.7New York Transit MuseumMuseumBrooklyn Heights$A real 1936 subway station, closed since 1946, with twenty vintage cars parked on the platform.9.7Times SquarePlazaTimes SquareFreeYes, locals put Times Square on the M List. There is nowhere else on Earth like it: the whole world in a few blocks, and energy you can't find anywhere else.9.7Yankee StadiumStadiumConcourse$A cheap weekday ticket, a seat in the upper deck and fifty thousand people around you. Eat before, drink after, and just watch the game.9.6BasementClubMaspeth$The techno club under Knockdown Center in Maspeth, and a world of its own until morning.9.6Cafe VolkanCoffeeBoerum Hill$$Excellent coffee and food good enough to keep people in their seats long after the cup is empty.9.6Empire State Building ObservatoryObservation deckMidtown$$$Dead center of Manhattan, with all four sides of the island in front of you — and the only deck where that is true.9.6Inwood Hill ParkParkInwoodFreeThe last old-growth forest left on Manhattan, at the very top of the island.9.6Pier 3, Brooklyn Bridge ParkPierBrooklyn HeightsFreeA local escape into greenery, with art installations you find rather than get shown.9.6Riverside ParkParkUpper West SideFreeFour miles of Hudson waterfront that the Upper West Side treats as its back garden.9.6Salon 94GalleryUpper East Side$Serious contemporary art inside a Carnegie Hill mansion, and it costs nothing to walk in.9.6Van Cortlandt ParkParkRiverdaleFreeA thousand acres with the oldest house in the Bronx, a freshwater lake and the first public golf course in America.9.6Williamsburg BridgeBridgeWilliamsburgFreeThe one to walk. Impeccable views from both sides, and a subway running straight down the middle.9.5Carl Schurz ParkParkUpper East SideFreeThe mayor's front garden, on a promenade over the East River.9.5Grand Central Main ConcourseLandmarkMidtownFreeThe best room in New York, and it costs nothing to stand in it.9.5Grand Street Skewer CartChineseChinatown$Charcoal, a hand fan and a stack of skewers on Grand Street — the cheapest great thing you will eat in Chinatown.9.5Manhattan BridgeBridgeDUMBOFreeRolling thunder. Walk it at sunset, stand in the right spot, and feel the subway come through the steel.9.5Mary O'sBakeryEast Village$$A one-room shop in the East Village whose Irish soda bread scones are the reason to go, and it is not close.9.5The Frick CollectionMuseumUpper East Side$Old Masters hung at the scale of a home. It feels like real luxury, because it was.9.4Casa de Montecristo Cigar LoungeCigar loungeMidtown$$$Walk in and you are somewhere else — the premier cigar lounge in New York, and a humidor worth the trip alone.9.4New York Public LibraryLandmarkMidtownFreeThe grandest free building in New York. Marble halls, the lions out front, and a reading room under a painted sky that you can walk into for nothing.9.3Museum of the Moving ImageMuseumAstoria$$Film and TV history in Astoria, with a permanent Jim Henson exhibit.9.2High BridgeBridgeWashington HeightsFreeNew York's oldest standing bridge, built to carry water, reopened for walking in 2015.9.2Louis Valentino Jr. Park and PierPierRed HookFreeThe closest straight-on view of the Statue of Liberty you can get standing on land.9.2Tudor City GreensParkMidtownFreeTwo private-feeling gardens above 42nd Street that anyone can walk into.9.2White Noise CoffeeCoffeeBoerum Hill$$A Smith Street roastery where the kitchen is as considered as the coffee, and still nobody talks about it.9.1190th Street–Overlook TerraceLandmarkWashington HeightsFreeA subway station carved 140 feet into the rock, with a tunnel that opens onto a park.9.1Bennett ParkParkWashington HeightsFreeThe highest natural point in Manhattan, marked by a rock and a plaque almost nobody visits.9.1Fort Tryon ParkParkWashington HeightsFreeThe best park in Manhattan that most of Manhattan has never been to.9.1KopitiamMalaysianLower East Side$$Malaysian food and drinks on East Broadway that hit the spot every single time — walk in, find a seat, order at the counter.9.1Magdy'sMiddle EasternMidtown$A humble Park Avenue cart run by a family who genuinely cook — and portions that outrun the price.9.1Martinez Handmade CigarsShopChelsea$Cigars rolled in front of you just off Seventh Avenue — walk in and you could be in the Dominican Republic.9.1The Noguchi MuseumMuseumAstoria$A sculptor's own museum, in the building he worked in, with a garden in the middle.8.9Bryant ParkParkMidtownFreeMidtown's best place to stop. Sit down, rest your feet, eat something and watch the city go by, a block from everything you came to see.8.9HaandiPakistaniNoMad$Pakistani cooking on Lexington made with real care, in a room that has no interest in impressing you.8.9Pelham Bay ParkParkPelham BayFreeThe biggest park in New York City, three times the size of Central Park, with a saltwater shoreline.8.9The Four-Faced LiarPubWest Village$$The best Guinness we have had in New York, in a dark room off Washington Square that never quite fills.8.9The Halal GuysMiddle EasternMidtown$$The 53rd and 6th cart we have been eating at for fifteen years — and the corner trick that skips the line.8.9The Metropolitan Museum of ArtMuseumUpper East Side$$Two million works and some genuinely magnificent rooms — go off-peak or the crowd wins.8.9The Whitney Museum of American ArtMuseumMeatpacking District$$Renzo Piano's museum at the bottom of the High Line, with outdoor terraces on several floors.8.8MoMA PS1MuseumLong Island City$$A former Queens schoolhouse showing the work MoMA won't put on 53rd Street.8.7Neue GalerieMuseumUpper East Side$$$A small Fifth Avenue mansion holding Klimt’s gold portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, with a Viennese cafe downstairs.8.6Marcus Garvey ParkParkHarlemFreeA rocky outcrop in the middle of Harlem, with the last fire watchtower in America on top.8.5Greenwich StreetStreetTribecaFreeA walk down Lower Manhattan that changes century every few blocks.8.5Super BurritoMexicanMurray Hill$$Mission-style burritos on Third Avenue, signage that could be 1987 Taco Bell, and Guinness on tap.8.5Taiwan Pork Chop HouseTaiwaneseChinatown$A steam-table counter on Doyers, the crooked block below Canal — cheap, fast, and better than it needs to be.8.5The 187th Street StepsStreetWashington HeightsFreeA street that gave up and became a staircase, climbing the ridge in one go.8.1Riverside Drive at 96thStreetUpper West SideFreeThe best walk on the Upper West Side, in either direction from 96th.7.5Roosevelt Island TramwayOddityNew York City$A cable car over the East River for the price of a subway ride. Worth it if you can make it, but you are not missing much if you cannot.

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Questions

What are the best solo spots in New York?

Central Park in Manhattan is our highest-scored, at 9.9/10. 843 acres of engineered wilderness that the rest of the city was built around. We currently list 63 across 33 neighborhoods, all visited and paid for ourselves.

How are these chosen?

Every place on MUSEENYC has already earned its way onto the site — we visit far more than we post. These are the ones we would send you to specifically for this, rather than everywhere that would merely tolerate it. Nobody pays to be included.