The Best Time to Visit New York City
Late September to early November, and it is not close. What every month actually feels like, when hotels are cheapest, and the two weeks we would tell a friend to avoid.
Come in October. The weather is the best this city gets, the parks turn, everyone is back from the summer, and the whole place is working properly. Late September and early November are within touching distance of it.
Come in February if money matters more than weather. Hotel rates fall further after the holidays than at any other point in the year, the museums are empty, and the city is entirely open. You will need a real coat.
The two weeks we would steer a friend away from: the stretch between Christmas and New Year, when the crowds and the prices both peak, and mid-July to mid-August, when the humidity makes a walking city hard work.
Here is every month, honestly.
The year in one table
| Average high / low | What it feels like | Crowds and prices | |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 40F / 28F | Cold, bright, empty. The city belongs to the people who live here | Cheapest of the year after week one |
| February | 42F / 30F | Same, plus the chance of real snow, which is worth seeing | Still cheap, still quiet |
| March | 50F / 36F | Unreliable. Can be spring, can be January | Low, rising toward the end |
| April | 62F / 46F | Properly good. Blossom in the parks, jacket weather | Climbing, and Easter spikes |
| May | 71F / 55F | The other best month. Warm, long evenings, everything outdoors | Busy and pricey |
| June | 80F / 64F | Hot but not yet heavy. Rooftops and beaches open up | Busy |
| July | 85F / 70F | Humid. Subway platforms are much hotter than the street | Busy, though locals leave |
| August | 83F / 69F | The same, with more thunderstorms and a quieter city | Slightly cheaper than July |
| September | 76F / 62F | Excellent from about the 10th. Summer warmth, autumn air | Busy, and worth it |
| October | 65F / 51F | The best month. Cool, clear, the parks turn | Busy, and still worth it |
| November | 54F / 42F | Underrated. Crisp, the season starts, the parade | Moderate until Thanksgiving |
| December | 44F / 34F | Cold and lit up. The whole city performs | Early December fine, late December peak |
Temperatures are the Central Park normals, which is the number New Yorkers actually quote.
Fall is the answer
From about the tenth of September to the middle of November, New York does the thing it is best at. The humidity breaks, the light goes gold in the afternoon, and it becomes the ideal temperature for walking twenty blocks without thinking about it, which is how you should be seeing this city anyway.
The parks are the argument. Central Park, Prospect Park and Fort Tryon all turn, and they turn later than people expect: peak color is usually late October into the first week of November. We keep the dates in NYC fall foliage.
October has the best weather. November has the marathon, the balloon inflation the night before Thanksgiving, and a city starting to switch its lights on. Both are good answers.
Spring is the other answer
Late April to early June is the mirror image of the fall and nearly as good: 60s and 70s, blossom, outdoor tables reopening, everyone in a better mood than they were in March.
The catch is price. Spring is when conference season, graduation season and everyone else’s holiday collide, so the same hotel room costs more in May than in October.
Summer: hot, humid, and cheaper than you think
July and August average the mid 80s, which does not sound bad until you have stood on a subway platform in it. The heat sits on this city rather than passing through it.
But it empties. Actual New Yorkers leave at weekends, which means the restaurant you could not get into in October has a table, and August rates are often softer than July.
If you do come in summer, do what people here do: start early, take the middle of the day indoors, and get on the water. The beaches are real beaches and they are on the subway, and the NYC Ferry is $4.50 of moving air.
Winter: the cheap, quiet, cold secret
After the first week of January, New York becomes affordable in a way it never is otherwise, and stays that way until about March.
What you get for the cold: hotel rates at their yearly floor, museums with room to stand in front of the famous painting, restaurants that answer the phone, and a city doing its ordinary business rather than performing. Snow here is genuinely beautiful for about six hours before it turns grey, and the parks in it are worth setting an alarm for.
What you give up: the parks are bare, the rooftops are shut, and you will not be lingering outdoors.
December is its own thing
December is not really winter here, it is a season of its own. The tree, the windows, the markets and the lights turn the middle of the city into an attraction, and the whole thing is genuinely good.
Go in early December. The first two weeks have everything up and running with a fraction of the crowds, and hotel rates that have not yet gone vertical. By the week between Christmas and New Year, midtown is at a standstill, the same room costs three times more, and Times Square on the 31st involves standing in a pen for nine hours with no bathroom.
Everything that is on, with dates: NYC in December, the Christmas markets, the holiday windows walk and the Dyker Heights lights.
The one thing that matters more than the month
Whether you can walk. New York is a walking city in every season, and the difference between a good trip and a hard one is usually feet rather than weather. Whatever month you pick, bring the shoes you would walk ten miles in, and plan days that do not cross the city twice.
That is most of what our three days in NYC itinerary is doing, and it works in any month on this page.
Questions about anything in this guide? Reach MUSEENYC at museenyc.art@gmail.com or @museenyc on Instagram.