Welcome to the City That Never Sleeps! In order for you to hit every item on your must-do list, you would have to forgo sleep. Our advice: don’t plan to cover all of New York in one visit. There is just too much to experience and see. Instead, arrive with a game plan that focuses on a few select attractions, and allow yourself time to wander and explore some of the city’s neighborhoods — either on your own or on a tour.

If you can steer a boat, you can easily navigate New York. More than 200 years ago, city commissioners established the original grid of 12 north-south avenues and 155 east-west streets that shapes most of Manhattan today. First Avenue begins near the East River and 12th Avenue near the Hudson River. The east-west dividing line is Fifth Avenue, and it is about seven avenues to a mile. First Street is in Lower Manhattan while 125th Street is in Harlem, or uptown, which also means north in directions. Thus, downtown is always south. It is about 20 street blocks to a mile.

Walking is easy here, although the cement takes a toll on your feet after several hours. Public transportation is excellent. Ferries, PATH trains and buses link the New Jersey marinas to Manhattan. The subways are fast, efficient and safe. Buses, while slower, go everywhere. The website for the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) at www.mta.info has a helpful trip-planning link. Call 511 for more information. Taxis are plentiful (except at rush hour or when it rains), but the metered fares add up quickly. A typical ride from Midtown to Lower Manhattan will set you back $20 or more.

You’ll find excellent guidance from NYC & Company (212-484-1222), the city’s official visitor information center. Tons of private companies offer assistance, too, just be wary of those shrewd sales folks (and websites) working on commissions. Ask a lot of questions and be sure you completely understand any deal. Even our editor, a one-time city resident, was hornswoggled into a bus tour that did not run as promised by the smooth-tongued peddler. Naturally, you’ll want to visit some of the best-known landmarks. Anticipate crowds everywhere — try to remain calm yet assertive.

Statue Cruises (877-523-9849) runs to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island from Manhattan’s Battery Park and New Jersey’s Liberty State Park, which is adjacent to Liberty Landing Marina. If you want inside access to Lady Liberty and her crown, purchase tickets months in advance. Long lines and sellouts are common. The state park’s Liberty Science Center (201-200-1000) is a great adventure on a rainy day. A historic train terminal where immigrants left for their new homes and a 9/11 memorial are among other park sites. 

While you’re on the Jersey side, see what’s happening in Hoboken. The birthplace of baseball and of crooner Frank Sinatra, Hoboken has undergone its own transformation over the past couple of decades, including improvements along the river, much like Jersey City and Weehawken.

Across the Hudson and very close to North Cove Marina are Wall Street and The National September 11 Memorial & Museum. New Jersey ferries run from Liberty Landing Marina and Hoboken/14th Street, adjacent to The Shipyard Marina, to the World Financial Terminal, which is a few blocks from Ground Zero. Liberty Landing Ferry allows bikes, dogs and strollers at no additional charge.

Uptown in Midtown you have the Empire State Building (20 W. 34th Street) and Rockefeller Center, which is between 48th and 51st streets and Fifth and Sixth avenues. On Fifth Avenue you’ll find the famed stretch of luxurious shops from 49th to 60th streets. If you’re staying at New Jersey’s Shipyard Marina, neighboring NY Waterway (800-533-3779) has a ferry that goes to W. 39th Street, which is not far from these sites. From ONE°15 Brooklyn Marina, you can reach Midtown via the New York Water Taxi (212-742-1969), which stops at West 42nd Street.

Midtown is where you’ll find the Theater District, which encompasses Broadway from 40th to 54th streets, branching out east and west between Sixth and Eighth avenues. Broadway runs a northwest-southeast diagonal in this stretch. At 3 p.m. each day, you can buy half-price show tickets at the TKTS kiosk in Times Square, which is at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue between West 42nd and 47th streets. More than 50 million people visit these crossroads annually, one of the world’s busiest pedestrian areas. A scene to be seen if you’ve never been, Times Square bustles with hustlers among the elbow-to-elbow throng. Aggressive performers all want a picture with you, and they are highly offended if you do not pay for the privilege.

Farther uptown, you have Central Park, the borough’s largest, which begins at 59th Street between Fifth and Eighth avenues. It is America’s most visited urban park and the world’s most filmed location. A couple blocks to the west is Lincoln Center, home to the Metropolitan Opera House, New York Philharmonic, New York City Ballet, Juilliard School and the Manhattan campus of Fordham University.

Twelve blocks to the north is the American Museum of Natural History (200 Central Park West; 212-769-5100). If you’re moored at the 79th Street Boat Basin, head due east for six blocks to the reach the museum and Central Park. Cut straight through the park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1000 Fifth Ave.; 212-535-7710). Stroll along Fifth Avenue and Central Park West to see some of the world’s most expensive real estate and maybe a celebrity.

If you haven’t had your fill of boats — and don’t want to combat the waters in your own vessel — you will find many alternatives like the ones already mentioned as well as those in the Ferries listings later in this chapter. Baseball fans can travel by boat to both Yankees and Mets home games via NY Waterway and New York Water Taxi. The granddaddy of cruises is the Circle Line (212-563-3200), which has a 2.5-hour circumnavigation of Manhattan that departs frequently from West 42nd Street at the Hudson River. We recommend this trip highly, as it helps to get your bearings and to see what the waterways are like while someone else is at the helm. Bonus points if you follow along with your chart.

The cheapest ride — it’s free — is the Staten Island Ferry, departing Manhattan from the terminal at Whitehall and South streets. On this 5-mile, half-hour cruise you’ll get close enough to the Statue of Liberty to take pictures of your friends with the Lady standing proudly in the background.

When you’re on Staten Island, be sure to check out Snug Harbor Cultural Center (718-448-2500), a mile from the ferry docks on the Kill Van Kull. Once a “retirement community for sailors,” it is now home to the Staten Island Botanical Garden, Staten Island Museum, Staten Island Children’s Museum, and more.

Sailors may enjoy chasing the breeze aboard the 105-foot schooner America 2.0, operated by the Classic Harbor Line (212-627-1825), which also runs the Adirondack, a replica of a 1890s schooner, and the 1920s-style luxury motor yacht Manhattan. They operate out of Chelsea Piers Marina (212-336-6600). These docks, just south of West 23rd Street, have many stories to tell; they were a major embarkation station for the military in early wars; the arrival wharves for newcomers at the peak of European immigration; the scheduled arrival destination for the Titanic on its maiden (and only) voyage; and the departure point for the ill-fated Lusitania. Today, the former ocean liner piers are an entertainment complex where you can ice skate, hit golf balls at a driving range or baseballs in a batting cage, bowl, rock climb ... you name it.

Three blocks to the north, Pier 66 Maritime (212-989-6363) is dubbed the “People’s Pier.” This old railroad barge is home to the Lightship Frying Pan and attracts both neighbors and visitors to see the historic ships, hear free live music and enjoy a drink or a meal at the outdoor café.

Farther north, climb aboard the USS Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum Complex (212-245-0072). Located at Pier 86 and 46th Street, the 872-foot World War II aircraft carrier holds the Space Shuttle Enterprise in addition to the guided missile submarine Growler and many other exhibits. Be sure to allow a little extra time to take in the Space Shuttle Pavilion. Seventeen dynamic exhibit zones feature original artifacts, photographs, audio and films that immerse visitors in the science and history of the era.

A block south of the USS Intrepid is Pier 84, one of the largest on the Manhattan waterfront. It is a small part of the truly impressive, 550-acre Hudson River Park (212-627-2020), which stretches from The Battery at Manhattan’s southern tip upriver to 59th Street. Decades ago, this waterfront was lined with decrepit wharves and bordered by a falling-down elevated highway. On more than a dozen quays and along the 4-plus-mile greenway you’ll find bike and walking paths, sports fields and courts, picnic and communal areas, children’s playgrounds and endless entertainment opportunities.

Pier 84 is one of several within Hudson River Park that has a dog run, where fresh water is usually available and the fenced areas are cleaned at least twice a day. Two others bookend Chelsea Piers Marina within the Gansevoort Peninsula and Chelsea Waterside Parks, and there is another in the Tribeca Upland, just north of North Cove Marina. The latter — at Piers 25 and 26 — is the most popular, separating breeds by size, delighting your toy poodle, dachshund, Shar Pei, Labrador or Neapolitan Mastiff. (If you have the last one aboard, you are definitely going to need a bigger boat!)

Along your Hudson River walk, trek inland a block or two onto the redeveloped elevated freight rails that are now a celebrated attraction, The High Line (212-500-6035). Urban planners around the world envy this aerial greenway that incorporates the neighborhood’s industrial past. It runs from Gansevoort Street (around West 13th Street) in the Meatpacking District to West 34th Street, between 11th and 12th avenues.

A highlight on the High Line’s north end is The Shed (545 W. 30th Street; 646-455-3494). It opened in 2019 to rave reviews for its arts, music and gardens, which provide a nice respite for food and coffee. You’ll need a rest after challenging the Vessel, a 16-story sculpture just behind The Shed that is also a series of 154 interconnecting staircases. A roundtrip on the Vessel is one mile. The honeycomb installation — some call it a bona fide tourist trap — is so popular that you have to book a time in advance to start your ascent. Tickets are free for the first hour of operation; afterward, the cost is $10. At the south end of the High Line is the spectacular Whitney Museum of Art (99 Gansevoort St.; 212-570-3600). All of these new attractions are part of what is now dubbed Hudson Yards, a neighborhood that was avoided a decade ago.

Farther north on the Upper West Side is Riverside Park, which stretches for 4 miles up to 158th Street. It is home to the 79th Street Boat Basin (212-496-2105), a municipal facility undergoing a major revitalization that will cost around $90 million. The marina will be closed during the reconstruction that will take several years. The bike trails within Riverside Park are a great way to work out your sea legs while enjoying tranquil waterside scenery within the bustle of the Big Apple.

The city has another marine facility in a peaceful setting uptown on the northwestern tip of Manhattan above the George Washington Bridge. Dyckman Marina (212-304-0183) abuts Inwood Hill Park at Spuyten Duyvil Creek and Fort Tryon Park, which is home to The Met Cloisters (212-923-3700). Sitting high on a hill, this archive of medieval works is governed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Across town and downtown on the East River, South Street Seaport Museum (12 Fulton St.; 212-748-8600) keeps New York City’s maritime history alive with exhibits, special programs and public sails daily from May thru October. The museum is home to a fleet of historic ships just below the Brooklyn Bridge. The surrounding neighborhood is a historic area of restored and renovated buildings from the 1800s and features some of the city’s oldest architecture.

Governors Island, the 172-acre island that lies 800 yards off the southern tip of Manhattan and even closer to Brooklyn, is a fun summertime weekend destination. It is open to the public for biking, touring, picnicking and free concerts and events. Handsome pre-Civil War buildings, Victorian and Romanesque revival housing and a pair of forts make up the historic district. Ferries (info@govisland.org) depart daily from the Battery Maritime Building, adjacent to Lower Manhattan’s Staten Island Ferry terminal, and on weekends from Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 6, adjacent to ONE°15 Brooklyn Marina and Atlantic Basin at Red Hook, near the intersection of Pioneer Street and Conover Street.