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Public space

Parks & places

Parks, piers, plazas and gardens. Free places to sit, walk and look — the half of the city you don't have to buy anything to use.

See all 48 on the map

Everywhere worth going

ParkCentral Park · Rockefeller Park GardenWave Hill · Ford Foundation Atrium BeachConey Island · Rockaway Beach StreetFreeman Alley · Commerce Street PlazaTimes Square PromenadeBrooklyn Heights Promenade TrailHudson River Greenway · The High Line PierPier 3, Brooklyn Bridge Park · Louis Valentino Jr. Park and Pier ViewpointThe Manhattan Bridge Lookout BridgeWilliamsburg Bridge · Manhattan Bridge LandmarkGrand Central Main Concourse · New York Public Library WaterfrontGantry Plaza State Park

Park

9.9Central ParkManhattan843 acres of engineered wilderness that the rest of the city was built around.9.9Rockefeller ParkTribecaThe best open space downtown, and the one that hits differently if you actually live here.9.8Prospect ParkPark SlopeA wilder, more rural Central Park — the same designers, a decade later, on land they liked better.9.8Washington Square ParkGreenwich VillageThe rawest square in New York — everything happening at once, and never the same twice.9.7Morningside ParkHarlemA cliff face with a waterfall at the bottom, separating Harlem from Morningside Heights.9.6Inwood Hill ParkInwoodThe last old-growth forest left on Manhattan, at the very top of the island.9.6Riverside ParkUpper West SideFour miles of Hudson waterfront that the Upper West Side treats as its back garden.9.6Van Cortlandt ParkRiverdaleA thousand acres with the oldest house in the Bronx, a freshwater lake and the first public golf course in America.9.5Carl Schurz ParkUpper East SideThe mayor's front garden, on a promenade over the East River.9.2Riverbank State ParkHarlemA 28-acre park built on the roof of a sewage treatment plant, with a pool, a rink and the Hudson in front of it.9.2Fort Greene ParkFort GreeneOlmsted and Vaux on a hill, with a 149-foot column on top of a crypt.9.2Tudor City GreensMidtownTwo private-feeling gardens above 42nd Street that anyone can walk into.9.1Bennett ParkWashington HeightsThe highest natural point in Manhattan, marked by a rock and a plaque almost nobody visits.9.1Cobble Hill ParkCobble HillAn acre of brick paths and benches that works as somebody else's front garden.9.1Fort Tryon ParkWashington HeightsThe best park in Manhattan that most of Manhattan has never been to.8.9Pelham Bay ParkPelham BayThe biggest park in New York City, three times the size of Central Park, with a saltwater shoreline.8.9Bryant ParkMidtownMidtown'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.8.9Domino ParkWilliamsburgThe old sugar refinery site, rebuilt as a waterfront park that kept its cranes.8.6Marcus Garvey ParkHarlemA rocky outcrop in the middle of Harlem, with the last fire watchtower in America on top.

Garden

9.8Wave HillRiverdale$$A public garden on a bluff over the Hudson, looking straight at the Palisades.9.7Ford Foundation AtriumMidtownA third of an acre of indoor jungle behind a glass wall on 43rd Street, free to visit.8.9Chinese Scholar's GardenSnug Harbor$A classical Chinese garden on Staten Island, built by artisans from Suzhou.

Beach

9.8Coney IslandConey IslandA boardwalk, a wooden roller coaster from 1927, and the Atlantic at the end of four subway lines.9.8Rockaway BeachRockaway BeachA proper beach town inside the city — and the ferry ride out is half the reason to go.9.1Pebble BeachDUMBOA stony little beach under the Manhattan Bridge, and the hinge of the whole DUMBO waterfront.8.9Orchard BeachPelham BayThe Bronx Riviera: a mile of crescent sand Robert Moses built by hand, and the city's best beach day if you are not going to Rockaway.

Street

9.8Freeman AlleyNolitaA narrow, graffiti-lined alley off Rivington that dead-ends at one of downtown's best-hidden restaurant doors.9.7Commerce StreetWest VillageA crooked two-block street that explains why people romanticize the West Village.9.1Love LaneBrooklyn HeightsOne block long, and named, the story goes, for the couples who used to walk it.8.5The 187th Street StepsWashington HeightsA street that gave up and became a staircase, climbing the ridge in one go.8.5Greenwich StreetTribecaA walk down Lower Manhattan that changes century every few blocks.8.5Orange, Pineapple & Cranberry StreetsBrooklyn HeightsThree short blocks of Brooklyn Heights with the best names and the best doorways in the city.8.1Riverside Drive at 96thUpper West SideThe best walk on the Upper West Side, in either direction from 96th.

Plaza

9.7Times SquareTimes SquareYes, 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.

Promenade

9.7Brooklyn Heights PromenadeBrooklyn HeightsA third of a mile of cantilevered walkway with the entire skyline laid out in front of it.

Trail

9.7Hudson River GreenwayManhattanThe most scenic ride in New York — get lost on it, and the George Washington Bridge never seems to get closer.9.7The High LineChelseaA freight rail viaduct that was going to be demolished, replanted instead.

Pier

9.6Pier 3, Brooklyn Bridge ParkBrooklyn HeightsA local escape into greenery, with art installations you find rather than get shown.9.2Louis Valentino Jr. Park and PierRed HookThe closest straight-on view of the Statue of Liberty you can get standing on land.

Viewpoint

9.6The Manhattan Bridge LookoutDUMBOThe bridge with Manhattan sitting perfectly proportioned behind it — and far fewer people than the famous corner.

Bridge

9.6Williamsburg BridgeWilliamsburgThe one to walk. Impeccable views from both sides, and a subway running straight down the middle.9.5Manhattan BridgeDUMBORolling thunder. Walk it at sunset, stand in the right spot, and feel the subway come through the steel.9.2High BridgeWashington HeightsNew York's oldest standing bridge, built to carry water, reopened for walking in 2015.8.5Brooklyn BridgeDUMBOGenuinely beautiful, and home to some of the worst crowds in the city — go early and it is a different bridge.

Landmark

9.5Grand Central Main ConcourseMidtownThe best room in New York, and it costs nothing to stand in it.9.4New York Public LibraryMidtownThe 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.9.1190th Street–Overlook TerraceWashington HeightsA subway station carved 140 feet into the rock, with a tunnel that opens onto a park.

Waterfront

8.7Gantry Plaza State ParkLong Island CityThe best head-on view of Midtown, from the Queens side of the river.