Rooftops / Observation deck / Midtown
On the MUSEENYC M ListThe M List — one we'd cross the city for, and keep going back to. See the list →
Empire State Building Observatory
Dead center of Manhattan, with all four sides of the island in front of you — and the only deck where that is true.
- Where
- 20 W 34th St, Manhattan, Midtown Open in Google Maps ↗
- Price
- $$$
- Get
- The 86th floor ticket · Express, if you can stretch to it
- Go when
- Go in the evening and stay into the night
- Good for
- Skyline views · Photos · All four sides
- Good with
- Solo · A date
- Website
- www.esbnyc.com
Every other high place in this city shows you part of it. This one is in the middle, so you get all four sides — the island north and south, the rivers either way, and the grid running out to the edges of what you can see. That is the whole reason it is worth doing, and it is genuinely magical to stand in.
Go in the evening and stay. The light changing over and the city switching on underneath you is the version to see; arriving in daylight and leaving before dark is getting half of it.
What to know
Get the 86th floor ticket — the open-air deck is the one you came for. If you can stretch to it, pay for the express pass: it skips the line, and the time it buys back is worth more than the money. It also happens to be a good way to impress whoever you brought.
Open until 11pm daily. The 86th floor starts around $44 and express roughly doubles it.
If you are weighing this against Top of the Rock, the Edge or Summit, we compared all five in NYC observation decks.
Going? Tell them MUSEENYC sent you. It's not a discount and there's nothing to redeem — we just want them to know where you heard it.