Attractions & Tours
Things to Do in New York City
Tours, attractions, and experiences in New York City — booking direct where we can, vetted affiliate partners where we can't.
26 attractions
Museums
New York City Museums
8 listings
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
One of the world's great encyclopedic museums — Egyptian, Greek, Roman, European masters, American wing, modern art, Asian art, Islamic art, costume institute, all under one roof on Fifth Avenue.
Museum of Modern Art
The world's most important modern art museum — Picasso, Matisse, Van Gogh's "Starry Night", Warhol, the canonical 20th-century collection plus a serious contemporary program.
American Museum of Natural History
The 28-building complex on the Upper West Side with dinosaur halls, the Rose Center planetarium, the blue whale, and the new Gilder Center — one of NYC's great family museums and a classic since 1869.
Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
The aircraft carrier USS Intrepid permanently moored at Pier 86 on the Hudson — plus the space shuttle Enterprise, the supersonic Concorde, and the Growler submarine. A working naval museum that fills three exhibit spaces.
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Renzo Piano-designed museum at the foot of the High Line in the Meatpacking District — focused on 20th- and 21st-century American art, with a sculpture garden and outdoor decks at every floor.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Frank Lloyd Wright's spiral building on Fifth Avenue — a museum where the architecture is the experience as much as the art, with rotating contemporary exhibitions and a strong permanent modern collection.
Brooklyn Museum
One of the oldest and largest art museums in the country — founded 1897, anchoring Prospect Park's edge with strong Egyptian, feminist art, and African collections plus a long history of bold contemporary programming.
New-York Historical Society
Founded 1804, the oldest museum in NYC — American history through the lens of New York, with one of the country's great Tiffany lamp collections and a serious women's history initiative. Upper West Side, next door to AMNH.
Observation Decks
New York City Observation Decks
5 listings
Empire State Building
The 1931 art deco icon that defined the New York skyline — 86th-floor outdoor observation deck and 102nd-floor enclosed observatory, with King Kong references everywhere.
Top of the Rock
The 70th-floor observation deck at Rockefeller Center — the only place to see the Empire State Building IN your skyline photo. Three levels of open-air viewing.
One World Observatory
The observation deck at the top of One World Trade Center — the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, with the most emotionally weighted view in the city.
SUMMIT One Vanderbilt
The newest observation experience in NYC — a mirrored immersive art installation across multiple floors at the top of One Vanderbilt, including glass-floor ledges and an outdoor terrace.
Edge at Hudson Yards
The Western Hemisphere's highest outdoor sky deck — a triangular cantilever 1,131 feet above the Hudson, with a glass floor section and an angled-out glass wall.
Entertainment
New York City Entertainment
5 listings
Broadway Show Tickets
41 professional theaters in the Times Square / Theater District cluster — the world's most-recognized commercial theater scene, with current long-runners (Lion King, Hamilton, Wicked, Aladdin, Book of Mormon) and constant new openings.
Madame Tussauds New York
The Times Square wax museum — celebrities, sports figures, politicians, historical icons. Touristy in the way Times Square is touristy, but kids love it and the photo ops are unmatched.
Color Factory NYC
The SoHo immersive experience built around color — 16 interactive rooms covering chromatic phenomena, optical illusions, and a now-iconic ball pit. Photo-museum genre, kid- and Instagram-friendly.
ArteChouse New York
Digital art and immersive projection space in Chelsea Market — floor-to-ceiling installations that change every few months, with motion-responsive art and a serious aesthetic above the typical photo-museum.
Mercer Labs Museum of Art & Technology
15 rooms of immersive art and technology at the base of One Vanderbilt — opened 2024, designed by digital artist Roy Nachum, currently bundled with SUMMIT One Vanderbilt for combined visits.
Tours
New York City Tours
3 listings
New York Harbor Sightseeing Cruise
Circle the Statue of Liberty, the Manhattan skyline, and Brooklyn Bridge by boat — the original NYC sightseeing experience, with several operators (Circle Line, Hornblower, and others) running 60-180 minute loops.
NYC Hop-on Hop-off Bus Tour
Open-top double-decker bus tours covering Manhattan, with hop-on/hop-off stops at major attractions. A useful first-day orientation; less useful for subway-confident travelers.
New York City Helicopter Tour
Manhattan from the air — 12 to 30 minute helicopter loops past the Statue of Liberty, Manhattan skyline, Central Park, and the Brooklyn Bridge. The fastest splurge experience in NYC.
Historic Sites
New York City Historic Sites
2 listings
Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island
The defining symbol of New York and one of the most-photographed monuments in the world — ferry-only access from Battery Park, with Ellis Island and the Immigration Museum on the same ticket.
9/11 Memorial & Museum
The memorial pools and underground museum at the World Trade Center site — one of the most important historical sites in modern American history, and one of the heaviest visiting experiences in NYC.
Family
New York City Family
2 listings
Bronx Zoo
265 acres in the Bronx — one of the largest urban zoos in the world, with the Congo Gorilla Forest, the African Plains, JungleWorld, and a serious conservation mission since 1899.
New York Aquarium
The oldest continuously operating aquarium in the country (1896) — on the Coney Island boardwalk, with sharks, sea lions, walruses, and direct ocean access. Pair with Coney Island's boardwalk, rides, and Nathan's Hot Dogs.
Outdoor
New York City Outdoor
1 listing
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