Even as it turns 400, New York City is somehow always new. Technically, the anniversary belongs to New Amsterdam, the Dutch settlement founded in 1625, but whatever its exact age, the city rejuvenates itself and its residents daily, welcoming 65 million visitors a year, each of whom, per author Tom Wolfe “belongs to New York instantly. One belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.”
Keith Taillon, the author of the new book Walking New York (Quadrille, 2025), says that the city’s welcoming nature, its “historic and ongoing willingness and ability to absorb people from around the world,” is what sets it apart from anywhere else. “I’ve never found another city on Earth that offers such a vibrant and diverse tapestry of cultures, languages, and cuisines, all within a subway ride’s distance,” he says. “That electric feeling of having the actual world at one’s fingertips is something that nowhere else can match.”
Here’s how to spend a magical long weekend in New York City.
Thursday: Explore art, roam Central Park, and catch a Broadway show
The View, on the 47th and 48th floors of the Marriott Marquis Times Square, is New York’s only revolving restaurant. As the name suggests, the vistas are stunning.
Courtesy of the View
New York is a walking city, and it’s easiest if you plan your days by neighborhood. Start your first morning on the Upper East Side at the Frick Collection, which reopened this spring after a five-year closure and immaculate renovation. This is a true house museum—it was built for the American industrialist Henry Clay Frick in 1914—so as you walk through its sumptuous rooms, you might be as wowed by the architecture and period furniture as you are by the Vermeers and Fragonards. (OK, the Vermeers win.) The renovation made the family’s private second floor open to the public for the first time, and it’s a treat seeing landscapes by Charles-François Daubigny and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot hanging in what was once the Fricks’ breakfast room.
After your fill of art, walk a few blocks north to Via Quadronno, where you can pick up sandwiches—a simple caprese or a speck and brie—and then cross Fifth Avenue into Central Park. Enjoy your sandwiches while watching people sail model boats by remote control on the Conservatory Water and then check out the bronze Alice in Wonderland sculpture.
You could easily spend all day in Central Park—listening to buskers at Bethesda Fountain, paying respects to the John Lennon at the “Imagine” mosaic near Strawberry Fields, or saying hi to the sea lions at the zoo—but once you reach 59th Street, hop on the N or R train to 42nd Street and the heart of Times Square.
Brisa Carleton, a Broadway producer for shows including Hamilton and Moulin Rouge, debut novelist, and longtime Times Square resident, recommends theater fans make the Museum of Broadway their first stop. “If you want to really go deep into theater history, it has amazing memorabilia and Broadway artifacts,” she says. “But it also has beautiful Instagram-style installations around some of the major shows that anyone would know, so there’s something for everyone.” The museum also hosts free events with Broadway luminaries, so she encourages visitors to check its calendar. “It’s a cool way to get to learn more about Broadway and have access to people that you would normally only ever see on stage.”
You’ll need your own Broadway costume change before heading out for dinner and a show. Carleton has a handful of preshow dinner favorites, including Gallaghers Steakhouse and the Italian spot La Masseria. Another fun option is the View, the city’s only revolving restaurant, located on the 47th and 48th floors of the Marriott Marquis Times Square. (“If you’ve had a couple drinks, and you think the room is spinning, you’re right,” Carleton says with a laugh.) The restaurant and lounge reopened in February after a plush, art deco–style renovation by the Rockwell Group, which also designs many of Broadway’s best sets. As the room rotates to serve up gorgeous views of Manhattan, dig into fried artichokes, a jumbo lump blue crab cake, and a bone-in rib eye. (You’re sharing, right?) And be sure to tell your server you have a show to get to.
Which show? Take your pick. “I definitely think Moulin Rouge is the best night on Broadway,” says Carleton. “Everybody knows all the music, even though they don’t know that they do. And it has a big ‘wow’ factor.” Her favorite new productions from the 2024–2025 Broadway season include Buena Vista Social Club—“I absolutely adore that show”—and Maybe Happy Ending, this year’s Tony winner for best musical.
After giving the cast and crew a standing ovation, head to the second floor bar at Sardi’s, which has been serving the theater community since the 1920s. The walls here are lined with caricatures of Broadway stars—everyone from Rex Harrison to Nick Jonas—and you’re likely to spot some IRL stars as well. Sit at the bar, order a Manhattan, and get to know your fellow patrons. “Have your Playbill out,” advises Carleton. “It’s an invitation for people to ask you about the show or tell you about their experiences seeing it. It’s a great icebreaker and a way to really connect over theater.”
Friday: Discover singular photo opps and unforgettable pizza
Brooklyn Bridge Park offers lawns for relaxation and plenty of people-watching.
Photo by Michelle Heimerman
Sure, you could take the F train to explore DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), but it’s much more memorable to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. An architectural stunner designed by John A. Roebling, the steel-and-stone suspension bridge opened in 1883 as the first fixed crossing over the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Now, it’s a great place to take photos of New York’s skyline or, rather, selfies in front of New York’s skyline. The Manhattan-side entrance is at Centre Street, just across from City Hall. (If you’re up early and have time, do the Financial District and Seaport walking tour in Taillon’s book to get a broader understanding of New York’s history.) An elevated, pedestrian-only promenade runs between the bridge’s lanes of traffic, and it can be packed, so you’re best off going on a weekday.
Follow the signs to DUMBO and exit at Washington Street. You’ll want to refuel after all that walking, so make your first stop Burrow, a tiny French Japanese bakery tucked into an office building lobby on Jay Street. (FYI: it’s only open Tuesday–Friday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.) Ayako Kurokawa makes delicate opera cakes and tarts that are almost too pretty to eat. Get a cappuccino and a treat to go and wander the neighborhood’s cobblestone streets, popping into shops like Front General Store, for vintage rock tees and Japanese ceramics, and PowerHouse Arena, for photo books and new fiction.
Before lunch, stop on Washington Street at Water Street to get the ubiquitous photo of the Empire State Building framed between two legs of the Manhattan Bridge. Yes, people in their cars will honk at you and tell you to get out of the road. Yes, there will be 50 other tourists vying for the same shot. But, whatever, it’s a memorable photo.
Now, onto pizza. DUMBO has dueling pizza greats: Grimaldi’s and Juliana’s. Years after Patsy Grimaldi sold his famous pie place (and, thus, his name), he and the new owner had a spat, and in the ultimate Brooklyn “screw you,” Patsy opened Juliana’s next door. We’re firmly team Juliana’s for the perfectly crispy-chewy thin crust and just the right amount of fresh mozzarella.
Walk off all that cheese in Brooklyn Bridge Park, designed by star landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh. You can relax on the vast lawns (read that book you bought at PowerHouse?), go for a ride on Jane’s Carousel, or try your hand at rock-climbing at DUMBO Boulders.
When the sun starts to dip, head to the NYC Ferry stop on Pier 1. Take the South Brooklyn route to Red Hook and, if it’s a nice evening, sit on the outdoor upper level and enjoy the views of the Statue of Liberty. Once a busy port and shipping center, Red Hook is now a creative hub, with hip restaurants, art galleries, and music venues. Dinner is at Hometown Bar-B-Que. You’ll likely have to stand in line, but once you bite into that supple brisket, it’ll be worth it.
Finish the night at Sunny’s Bar, a neighborhood institution that first served longshoremen more than 100 years ago. There’s live music here almost every night—bluegrass, jazz, you name it. Get a beer and clap along.
Saturday: Learn about immigrant history and fuel up in Chinatown
A visit to Chinatown isn’t complete without a stop at Nom Wah Tea Parlor.
Photos by Alex Lau
After spending a lot of time looking at Lower Manhattan yesterday, it’s time you put your feet to that pavement. Grab a booth at Russ and Daughters café, the sit-down outpost of the famed Jewish appetizing shop that opened in 1914. Start with latkes with crème fraîche and salmon roe and then opt for the classic board: a bagel with Gaspe Nova smoked salmon, cream cheese, tomato, capers, and onion.
It’s a short walk to the Tenement Museum, which offers a handful of apartment tours that tell the history of the city through the lens of immigrants, migrants, and refugees who came here for a new life. The Under One Roof tour introduces visitors to a Jewish family and an Italian family who both resided at 97 Orchard Street, a five-story tenement building, at the turn of the 20th century. Seeing these tiny, one-bedroom apartments and hearing about the families’ struggles is humbling—and inspiring.
Celebrate another immigrant community over lunch at Nom Wah Tea Parlor, the oldest continually operating restaurant in Chinatown. Here, it’s all about dim sum: pork soup dumplings, shrimp siu mai, egg rolls, pan-fried dumplings. Check off your order on a notepad . . . and then order some more.
Wander through Chinatown and then up to Nolita for some shopping. Look for sleek and simple leather goods at Cuyana, woven ballet flats at Freda Salvador, journals and the best ballpoint pens at Goods for the Study. For something free—imagine that!—pop into artist Walter de Maria’s New York Earth Room, which has been on display on the second floor of 141 Wooster Street in SoHo since 1977. It is exactly what its name implies: a big room filled with dirt.
If you manage to score a reservation to Semma, chef Vijay Kumar’s ode to South Indian cuisine, good on you. (After it earned top honors on the New York Times’ Best Restaurants List in June, it became next to impossible to score a table.) If you don’t, then Uber to one of Taillon’s favorite spots, the West Village institution Corner Bistro, for a Bistro burger, fries, and a beer. “I always err on the side of older haunts, which have not only stood the test of time,” he says, “but which continue to serve their local communities in ways that too many newer establishments fail to do.”
After dinner, it’s a few short blocks to one of Carleton’s favorite places, Marie’s Crisis Cafe, a Broadway piano bar where theater geeks have been gathering for decades, belting out numbers from any and every show: Oklahoma, Cabaret, Rent, Dear Evan Hanson, Kimberly Akimbo. . . . “If you’re looking to do Broadway, but not on Broadway, this is where you go,” Carleton says. Buy a whiskey, request your favorite song, and don’t be stingy with the tips.
Sunday: Relax over brunch in Harlem
The Met Cloisters is open every day (except Wednesday) from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Photo by peck of pickles/Shutterstock
It’s time to go Uptown. JJ Johnson, the chef and founder of the fast-casual restaurant chain Fieldtrip and the author of The Simple Art of Rice, moved to Harlem in 2006, and now he’s basically a neighborhood ambassador. “The general vibe of Harlem is that when you get off the train, someone’s gonna say hello to you, and you should say hello back,” he advises. “It is truly the greatest community in Manhattan because of that.”
Johnson—and New Yorkers in general—love a good brunch. And two of the best are available in Harlem. “When we’re with the kids, we go to Melba’s,” he says. “When it’s just me and my wife, we go to BLVD Bistro for singalong R&B brunch.” His go-tos at Melba’s include the eggnog waffle and fried chicken, mac ’n’ cheese, and the spring rolls. At BLVD, you can dig into jumbo shrimp and cheese grits while you do your best Mary J. Blige impression. (Mimosas help.)
From here, Johnson recommends heading over to Nilu, a gift shop on Malcolm X Boulevard that showcases items from Black makers and businesses, such as fragrances from Harlem Perfume Co. and vintage-inspired bandanas from All Very Goods. You’ll then want to mosey down 120th Street to take in one of the city’s most beautiful displays of late-19th-century brownstones. (Also note: The Studio Museum in Harlem, dedicated to African American art, is set to reopen this fall.)
Taillon recommends going even farther north. “I’m always surprised by how few people, even lifelong New Yorkers, are willing to make the trek up to Washington Heights,” he says. “Beyond the obvious streetscape vibrancy, there are some absolutely stunning parks—Fort Washington, J. Hood Wright, Fort Tryon, Inwood Hill, Highbridge—outstanding food, and an embarrassment of cultural landmarks.”
One such landmark is the Met Cloisters, the country’s only museum dedicated to the art and architecture of the Middle Ages. After a frenetic few days, this museum—located in Fort Tryon Park, overlooking the Hudson River—will feel like a quiet respite. Take in the famous unicorn tapestries, the beautiful Fuentidueña Chapel from Spain, and an entire arcade from the Abbey of St. Michel de Cuxa in France.
For your farewell dinner, hop the subway back downtown. While Manhattan has plenty of buzzy, big-money restaurants, the heart of the city is in the neighborhood spots—those with only a handful of tables and a clientele who knows the staff by name. Casa Mono, a cozy, corner tapas spot in Gramercy Park, has held onto its Michelin Star since 2009. One bite of the scrambled eggs with uni and you’ll see why. Order liberally—pan con tomate, pulpo a la plancha, bone marrow sprinkled with everything bagel spice, patatas bravas, confit goat—and drink whatever Spanish white your knowledgeable server recommends. Savor each bite and each sip, holding on to your perfect New York weekend a little longer.
Where to stay
The Bowery Hotel offers 135 guest rooms, an Italian trattoria, Gemma, and complimentary bicycles to explore the neighborhood.
Photo by Annie Schlechter
The Bowery Hotel is the best option for a hip downtown stay. The boho-chic lobby lounge is drenched in leather, velvet, and dark wood—the perfect place to drink tea and read in the afternoon or toss back a bourbon and mingle with famous musicians after their gig at the nearby Bowery Ballroom. The 135 guest rooms have a lived-in feel and floor-to-ceiling windows that let you take in Lower Manhattan.
The Lowell is a refined and charming hotel located just off Central Park on the Upper East Side. The service here is top-notch and you’ll feel like you’re staying at a well-to-do family friend’s townhouse. Each of the 74 rooms is uniquely designed and features Frette linens, marble baths, and wood-burning fireplaces. At the elegant French restaurant, Marjorelle, dine on Dover sole and pan-seared duck breast.
For jaw-dropping views of Manhattan and the East River, stay at 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge. This airy, modern LEED-certified property is filled with natural light and greenery, offering a pleasing juxtaposition to concrete-filled New York. The rooms feature eco-friendly mattresses, filtered water taps, natural bath products, and yoga mats. Harriet’s Rooftop is the perfect place to watch the sunset over the skyline while sipping a mango margarita.
