Map view
Niagara Falls
Best time to visit: June-Aug
Cost: $
- Group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States
- The largest of the three is Horseshoe Falls, which straddles the international border of the two countries
- Bridal Veil Falls is separated from Horseshoe Falls by Goat Island and from American Falls by Luna Island, with both islands situated in New York
#5 in Best Attractions in the USA
#6 in Best Landmarks in the USA
#17 in Best Attractions in the World
#52 in Most Surreal Attractions in the USA
#59 in Best Landmarks in the World
Statue of Liberty
Best time to visit: April-June, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City
- The copper statue, a gift from the people of France, its metal framework was built by Gustave Eiffel
- The statue was dedicated in 1886
Central Park
Best time to visit: April-June
Cost: $
- Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan
- It is the most visited urban park in the United States, and is the most filmed location in the world
#11 in Best Attractions in the USA
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Best time to visit: April-June, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Largest art museum in the Americas
- It is ranked eighth in the list of most-visited art museums in the world, and is the second-most visited art museum in the United States
- Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments
Times Square
Best time to visit: April-June, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City
- It is brightly lit at all hours by numerous digital billboards and advertisements as well as businesses offering 24/7 service
#23 in Best Landmarks in the World
#34 in Best Attractions in the USA
#36 in Best Landmarks in the USA
Museum of Modern Art
Best time to visit: April-June, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, that plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of the largest and most influential museums of modern art in the world
- MoMA's collection offers an overview of modern and contemporary art, including works of architecture and design, drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, prints, illustrated and artist's books, film, and electronic media
Empire State Building
Best time to visit: April-June, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, built from 1930 to 1931
- Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the state of New York.
- The Empire State Building was the world's tallest building until the first tower of the World Trade Center was topped out in 1970; following the September 11 attacks in 2001, the Empire State Building was New York City's tallest building until it was surpassed in 2012
- As of 2022, the building is the seventh-tallest building in New York City, and the sixth-tallest freestanding structure in the Americas
#8 in Best Landmarks in the USA
#14 in Best Landmarks in the World
#51 in Best Attractions in the USA
American Museum of Natural History
Best time to visit: April-June, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Museum complex that comprises 26 interconnected buildings housing 45 permanent exhibition halls, in addition to a planetarium and a library
- The museum collections contain over 34 million specimens of plants, animals, fungi, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, human remains, and human cultural artifacts, as well as specialized collections for frozen tissue and genomic and astrophysical data, of which only a small fraction can be displayed at any given time
New York State Museum, Albany
Best time to visit: April-June, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Museum that houses art, artifacts (prehistoric and historic), and ecofacts that reflect New York’s cultural, natural, and geological development
- It is the oldest and largest state museum in the US
Brooklyn Bridge
Best time to visit: April-June, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Hybrid cable-stayed/suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn
- Opened in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River
- It was also the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time of its opening
- The span was originally called the New York and Brooklyn Bridge or the East River Bridge but was officially renamed the Brooklyn Bridge in 1915
#25 in Best Landmarks in the USA
National September 11 Memorial & Museum
Best time to visit: April-June, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Memorial and museum in New York City commemorating the September 11 attacks of 2001, which killed 2,977 people, and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which killed six
- The memorial is located at the World Trade Center site, the former location of the Twin Towers that were destroyed during the September 11 attacks
#12 in Best Museums in the USA
Cooper's Beach
Best time to visit: April-June, Sept
Cost: $
- Beach with guards on duty, that offers snacks and chair/umbrella rentals, with high-end fee to park
#8 in Best Beaches in the USA
Ellis Island
Best time to visit: April-June, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Federally owned island in New York Harbor, situated within the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York, that was the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United States
- From 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 million immigrants arriving at the Port of New York and New Jersey were processed there under federal law
- Today, it is part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument and is accessible to the public only by ferry
#40 in Best Landmarks in the USA
#41 in Best Landmarks in the World
Highland Park, Rochester
Best time to visit: June-Aug
Cost: $
- Arboretum that features over 1,200 lilac shrubs representing over 500 varieties, as well as additional woody plants including Japanese maples, magnolias, and other tree species; a selection of shrubs including barberries, azaleas, mountain laurel, andromeda, and 700 varieties of rhododendron; and a rock garden with dwarf evergreens
- The gardens also feature herbaceous plants including spring bulbs, wildflowers, and a pansy bed with 10,000 plants, designed into an oval floral "carpet" with a pattern that changes each year
Indian, Finger Lakes, and Gorge Trail Loop, Watkins Glen State Park
Walk difficulty: Moderate
Best time to visit: mid May-early June, Sept-late Oct
Cost: $
- Watkins Glen State Park is in New York's Finger Lakes region, and it was opened to the public in 1863, was privately run as a tourist resort until 1906, when it was purchased by New York State
- The centerpiece of the park is a 400-foot-deep (120 m) narrow gorge cut through rock by Glen Creek, a stream that was left hanging when glaciers of the Ice age deepened the Seneca valley, increasing the tributary stream gradient to create rapids and waterfalls wherever there were layers of hard rock
Chrysler Building
Best time to visit: April-June, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Art Deco skyscraper on the East Side of Manhattan in New York City, it is the tallest brick building in the world with a steel framework, and it was the world's tallest building for 11 months after its completion in 1930
- As of 2019, the Chrysler is the 11th-tallest building in the city, tied with The New York Times Building
#40 in Best Landmarks in the World
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Cooperstown
Best time to visit: April-Sept
Cost: $
- History museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, that serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-related artifacts and exhibits, honoring those who have excelled in playing, managing, and serving the sport
Grand Central Terminal
Best time to visit: April-June, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Commuter rail terminal located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City
- The terminal is the third-busiest train station in North America, after New York Penn Station and Toronto Union Station
#35 in Best Landmarks in the USA
Cornell Botanic Gardens, Ithaca
Best time to visit: April-June, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Botanical garden that specializes in trees and shrubs native to New York State, as well as a themed herb garden
- In addition to the gardens and arboretum, Cornell Botanic Gardens also manages an additional 3,500 acres (of biologically diverse natural areas, including bogs, fens, gorges, glens, meadows, and woodlands
One World Trade Center
Best time to visit: April-June, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Main building of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City
- One World Trade Center is the tallest building in the United States, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, and the seventh-tallest in the world
- The supertall structure has the same name as the North Tower of the original World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001
- The new skyscraper stands on the northwest corner of the World Trade Center site, on the site of the original 6 World Trade Center
#58 in Best Landmarks in the World
Saratoga Spa State Park, Adirondack Mountains
Best time to visit: May-Sept
Cost: $
- State park that has grounds which contain mineral springs, classical bath and spa houses, and the Saratoga Performing Arts Center
- Saratoga's "spouters" spring up due to the pressure of pockets of carbonic gas trapped beneath deep layers of shale
- The famous mineral springs arise from fissures in the Saratoga Fault, which runs 65 miles (105 km)
Broadway
Best time to visit: Sept-Nov
Cost: $$
- Broadway theatre, or Broadway, are the theatrical performances presented in the 41 professional theatres, located in the Theater District and the Lincoln Center along Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City
- Broadway and London's West End together represent the highest commercial level of live theater in the English-speaking world
- The term "Broadway theatre" is generally reserved for venues with a seating capacity of at least 500 people
- Smaller theaters in New York are referred to as off-Broadway (regardless of location)
Brooklyn Museum
Best time to visit: April-June, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- New York City's second largest art museum, it contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects
- Significant areas of the collection include antiquities, specifically their collection of Egyptian antiquities spanning over 3,000 years
- European, African, Oceanic, and Japanese art make for notable antiquities collections
- American art is heavily represented, starting at the Colonial period
- Artists represented in the collection include Norman Rockwell, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Max Weber
#30 in Best Museums in the USA
Darwin D. Martin House, Buffalo
Best time to visit: June-Aug
Cost: $
- Historic house museum in Buffalo, the property's buildings were designed by renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright and built between 1903 and 1905
- The house is considered to be one of the most important projects from Wright's Prairie School era
Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
Best time to visit: April-June, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- American military and maritime history museum in New York City with a collection of museum ships
- The museum showcases the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid, the cruise missile submarine USS Growler, a Concorde SST, a Lockheed A-12 supersonic reconnaissance plane, and the Space Shuttle Enterprise
- On the lower deck there is also a reproduction of a World War I biplane.
- Founded in 1982
John Brown Farm State Historic Site, Lake Placid
Best time to visit: May-Aug
Cost: $
- Home and final resting place of abolitionist John Brown (1800–1859), where John Brown moved in 1849 to teach farming to African Americans
- John Brown arrived in upstate New York as part of a project to assist Blacks in becoming property owners and thus voters, under New York State law at the time
- He gave away hundreds of 40-acre tracts of Adirondack wilderness, to be cleared and farmed
- The Timbuctoo experiment was a failure, as almost all the Blacks, save Lyman Epps, left within a few years; it was too cold and isolated, and clearing land and creating a farm is hard work
- John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was an effort by abolitionist John Brown, from October 16 to 18, 1859, to initiate a slave revolt in Southern states by taking over the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (since 1863, West Virginia)
- It has been called the dress rehearsal for, or tragic prelude to, the Civil War
Madame Tussauds New York
Best time to visit: Jan-May, Sept-Oct
Cost: $
- Tourist attraction and wax museum located in the Times Square neighborhood of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, founded by the wax sculptor, Marie Tussaud
- Notable wax figures include famous actors, musicians, leaders, and pop culture icons
- Opened on November 15, 2000
#35 in Best Museums in the USA
Goat Island Scenic Walk, Niagara Falls State Park
Walk difficulty: Easy
Best time to visit: June-Aug
Cost: $
- Niagara Falls State Park is located in the City of Niagara Falls, it is recognized as the oldest state park in the United States
- In addition to its views of the American Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, and the Canadian Falls, the park overlooks the Niagara Gorge and allows access to the Maid of the Mist tour boats, Cave of the Winds, Goat Island, the Prospect Point Observation Tower, and a statue of Nikola Tesla
Pier 17 South Street Seaport
Best time to visit: April-June, Sept-Nov
Cost: $$
- The South Street Seaport is a historic area in the New York City borough of Manhattan
- The neighborhood features some of the oldest architecture in downtown Manhattan, and includes the largest concentration of restored early 19th-century commercial buildings in the city
- This includes renovated original mercantile buildings, renovated sailing ships, the former Fulton Fish Market, and modern tourist malls featuring food, shopping, and nightlife
Skaneateles Lake
Best time to visit: May-Sept
Cost: $
- One of the Finger Lakes in central New York, the name Skaneateles means long lake in one of the local Iroquoian languages
- It is one of the cleanest lakes in the United States
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Best time to visit: April-June, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Art museum on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, it is the permanent home of a continuously expanding collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art
- The museum was established by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in 1939 as the Museum of Non-Objective Painting
- The museum's building, a landmark work of 20th-century architecture designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, drew controversy for the unusual shape of its display spaces and took 15 years to design and build; it was completed in 1959
#41 in Best Museums in the USA
The Evolution Store
Best time to visit: April-June, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Museum-style shop carrying science and natural history related collectibles, gifts and furnishings
Whitney Museum
Best time to visit: April-June, Sept-Nov
Cost: $
- Art museum in Manhattan, in New York City, founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), a wealthy and prominent American socialite, sculptor, and art patron after whom it is named
- The Whitney focuses on 20th- and 21st-century American art
- Its permanent collection, spanning the late-19th century to the present, comprises more than 25,000 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, films, videos, and artifacts of new media by more than 3,500 artists
- It places particular emphasis on exhibiting the work of living artists as well as maintaining an extensive permanent collection of important pieces from the first half of the last century
#25 in Best Museums in the USA