Frick Collection

A place filled with video screens, LED signs, and flashing lights; a world wonder or a tourist nightmare depending on your perspective, the "new" Times Square is a family-friendly theme park of themed restaurants, theaters and hotels, as well as a developing business district. The lights and signs can be viewed anytime, but the most enchanting experience comes when one visits Times Square at night, as all the signs and screens are ablaze with color. Times Square is also well known for its famous New Year's Eve ball drop. Those looking for the seedy Times Square of years past will find it around the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and on Eighth Avenue to the west. A ticket booth selling discounted Broadway and off-Broadway shows. However, the cheaper tickets aren't the only attraction, as the back of the booth is a large, red-lit glass staircase facing Times Square, which serves as a set of bleachers and offers an excellent opportunity to get above the street and just watch the crowds and flashing signs. Above the booth is a video screen with a live feed of the top step, giving you a chance to appear (if only briefly) on one of the many signs in Times Square. Originally the second-tallest building in the world when it opened in 1905, One Times Square was constructed to be the headquarters for The New York Times, a function it would serve for less than ten years. The annual Times Square ball drop is performed from the roof of this building. And you can't miss the famous Dow Jones news and sports zipper (the first news ticker in the world) attached to its lower facade.

The former residence of William Dyckman, who owned several hundred acres of farmland covering much of what is now Inwood and Washington heights. Nestled incongruously at the otherwise unremarkable corner of 204th and Broadway, the farmhouse has been converted into a small museum of life in early Manhattan and hosts various programs for the neighborhood. The "Hessian Huts" in the back yard are a leftover from the British occupation of Manhattan during the Revolutionary War!

Governors Island has a long military history, home to headquarters and military posts of the United States Army from 1794 until 1966, then a complex for the U.S. Coast Guard before becoming a historic district open to tours.

Dedicated to preserving and collecting television programs as a service to the public, the museum consists of two museum branches in Los Angeles and New York City; combined they hold over 100,000 television programs that are available to the public, providing a historical, artistic and cultural perspective to television and radio. You may use their library here for the price of admission. They have lots of old shows and a database so you can see if they have what you want.

This pretty 17-story Beaux Arts building was completed in 1904 and designed to be New York City's first air conditioned hotel. It was a residential hotel, and housed a number of very famous people, including the Hall of Fame baseball player, Babe Ruth; the Italian tenor, Enrico Caruso; the modernist composer, Igor Stravinsky; the Italian conductor of the NBC Symphony, Arturo Toscanini; and writers Theodore Dreiser and Isaac Bashevis Singer. The building is now a condominium.

A memorial to the Holocaust.

A museum dedicated to the history of the NYPD.

A spacious green lawn that was originally home to a herd of sheep, which grazed in the meadow and tended to in their nearby pen - a Victorian style building which today is the Tavern on the Green restaurant (see Eat below).

The Asia Society is a unique educational organization like no other in the area promoting relationships and understanding among and of leaders, people, and organizations of Asia. It features a vast array of Asian art including art, business, culture, and education, promoting collaboration and a new, progressive understanding of Asian relations. The opportunities for discovery here are endless, with lessons about art, calligraphy, language, literature, politics, and religion.

Most well known as the Model Boat Pond, visitors can often see a racing regatta between members of the Model Yacht Club, or rent a model boat from a boathouse and cafe on the pond. Just to the north of the pond is the Alice in Wonderland sculpture depicting the Tea Party scene, and on the west side of the pond is the Hans Christian Andersen sculpture, which shows the writer seated on a bench reading a book to his Ugly Duckling character.

Holding a remarkably large collection, each of the 5 floors of this massive building has expansive and well-designed exhibits devoted to astronomy, biology, geology, anthropology, climatology, and paleontology. You will want to allow a full day if you hope to see the entirety of the museum. Some of the highlights are the Rose Center for Earth and Space on the northeast corner of the building, which contains a seven-story glass cube holding the Hayden Planetarium, a huge sphere suspended above the exhibit halls below and holding a "cosmic pathway" exhibit; the numerous habitat diorama halls on the first, second and third floors, with recreations of African, Asian, North American, and ocean plants and animals, including a full-size model of a Blue Whale suspended above the Ocean Life Hall; a Hall of Minerals and Gems, which contains many rare and beautiful specimens, including the largest star sapphire in the world and a chunk of a massive meteorite; extensive anthropology halls on the first, second, and third floors, with exhibits devoted to people of Asia, Africa, Central America, the Pacific, and Native Americans; and the natural history halls on the fourth floor, with one of the largest collections of dinosaur skeletons in the world.

This neo-Romanesque fairy castle was built in 1891, and a northern addition in very similar style was built in 1933. The older building is a busy post office serving Downtown Brooklyn and the northern addition houses the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York.

A vintage carousel built in 1908 and situated on this spot since the 1950s, it's the fourth carousel to inhabit this location and is beautifully painted.

The John Bowne House was built by John Bowne in 1661. It is the oldest building in Queens, and it is one of the oldest buildings in New York City. John Bowne was a Quaker who advocated religious freedom, which was later written into the Bill of Rights. John Bowne's great-grandson, Robert Bowne, strongly advocated for the end of slavery in America. The house was the home of several generations of the Bowne House until 1945, when it was donated and converted into a museum.

Built in 1765, this is the oldest house on Manhattan Island. It served as George Washington's headquarters in 1776. Now a museum set on a 1.5-acre park, it features a decorative-arts collection representing the colonial and Revolutionary War periods. Washington's office is among the 12 restored rooms.