Seasonal Activities

New York for All Seasons

Some things about New York are around year long, but each season brings its particular set of activities, too. Following these specific seasonal activities is a section on indoor and outdoor activities that are great any time of year!

Spring

Orchestras, ballet companies, and other groups with regular "seasons" are still in session in the Spring, finishing around May. So catch a ballet at NYCB or ABT, a New York Philharmonic concert at Lincoln Center, or a dance performance at the Joyce Theater.

Grab a City Bike and bike either the Central Park "big loop" or up/down the Hudson River bike path that goes all the way from the southern tip of Manhattan up to Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx!

Visit the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx or the Brooklyn Botanical Garden in Prospect Park. 

Summer

While arts organizations' usual seasons are not in session, outdoor summer arts events abound! 

Every year, the New York Philharmonic plays a couple of free concerts in Central Park. You'll need a ticket -- and you'll need to reserve early! Bring a picnic blanket and your favorite (portable) noms and friends, and enjoy.

Shakespeare in the Park is another beloved free NYC summer activity. Full disclosure, I've never gone, because you have to stand in line for hours for tickets (because they're free!). I've always wanted to try using TaskRabbit to grab tickets to one of these shows ... maybe you can try it and let me know if it worked.

Little Island is NYC's newest park, having just opened in the summer of 2021! Funded in large part by Diane von Furstenberg and some other billionaire, it's built out over the water at 14th St. on the west side, and it's quite a cool space featuring 2 different outdoor venues, some food trucks and tables, park space, and some beautiful lookout points with views of the city's west side and across the Hudson to New Jersey #gorg. Worth a visit in its own right, there was an ambitious and very successful performance series at Little Island during the summer of 2021, and they'll probably bring back some ticketed free concerts next summer!

North River Lobster Company is a restaurant boat where you can eat seafood, drink, and boat up and down the Hudson River for an hour and a half between dockings! Getting on the boat is free; food and drinks are not. It is open from x to y.

Sticking with the boat theme, The Frying Pan is another boat docked on the Hudson that's been converted into a bar with tasty eats, but it doesn't leave the dock. On nice weekend nights in the summer, lines can be long to get in. Good luck deciding whether that was in fact a wave or you're just really drunk!

The Bushwick Collective Block Party takes place on a Saturday during June. It's free, with music, food vendors, and best of all, artists painting new murals throughout these few blocks designated an outdoor art gallery!

Pros: The weather is generally beautiful, though it borders on too hot some times. The odd heat wave every couple years pushes over 100F, but more typical temperatures range from 80-95. There are tons of free outdoor events all over the city, and it's a great time to hit an outdoor bar or beer garden at night!

Cons: New York City's garbage system involves residents putting out their trash on the sidewalk (not in cans, just in bags) on specific days of the week that vary by neighborhood, while businesses hire private companies to come get their trash on whatever schedule they want. This system is an excellent way to guarantee that there will be trash (in bags) sitting on the sidewalks every single day of the week ... and summer temperatures guarantee that you will smell it. Also, all those free events "sell out" FAST, and you'll need to be really on top of it to secure free tickets. Finally, waiting for the subway on a platform that's actually hotter than the outdoor air temperature due to exhaust from train AC is not fun. And when you hit the jackpot and score an un-airconditioned subway car ... that's the cherry on top.

Fall

Fall temperatures are pretty lovely in New York - my only gripe with Fall is that it is a harbinger of winter. I love getting to indulge in fall fashion's boots, blazers, pea coats, scarves, faux fur jackets, and jeans in a city that actually gives a shit.​

Some favorite fall activities:

Mini golfing on the Hudson River

Driving Range at Chelsea Piers

Winter

Over the winter, some restaurants convert into cozy Apres Ski lounges that serve bubbling hot cheese fondue: check out The Winter Garden at The Standard ($$$$ prix fixe), Cafe Select, or Lafayette Grand Cafe ($$$ prix fixe). If you want Fondue with a little less pomp and circumstance, try Murray's Cheese Bar, which is great all year round for its cheese selection.

While it's "touristy," I do love a pre-Christmas walk along 5th avenue between Bryant Park and Central Park. You can start by wandering Bryant Park's Winter Village - grab a rugelach from Breads Bakery's mini outpost and then a hot chocolate! - and then head uptown. The big department stores like Bloomingdales, Saks Fifth Avenue (Oh hey, original Saks!), and Bergdorf Goodman put up elaborate holiday-themed window displays, and smaller stores participate too. At 49th St., you'll reach Rockefeller Center, which displays a ginormous, dazzling Christmas Tree each year at the edge of its ice skating rink. It's pretty magical to visit, but you will wait in an absolutely endless line to skate at Rockefeller Center. If you'd like to skate, Bryant Park also has a rink, and lines are much more reasonable. You can also visit Wohlman Rink (outdoors in Central Park) or Chelsea Piers (indoors, year round) another time!

NYC's parks get festive in the winter too, hosting holiday markets! The aforementioned Bryant Park Winter Village features shops in little greenhouses in addition to its ice skating rink. If you bring your own skates, time on the rink is free! Skate rentals run around $20.  In Union Square, you'll find a maze of huts selling holiday treats and gifts. These markets run from Halloween through New Year's Eve.

Speaking of which, let's talk about New Year's Eve. You've seen the infamous ball drop in Times Square. You do not want to go ANYWHERE NEAR Times Square on NYE!!! Tourists camp out in the area wearing adult diapers to save their spots 24 hours in advance. If you leave, you lose your spot. Do you want to be a human sardine stewing in your own shit in order to see a glittering orb descend for ONE minute? You do not. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

In case you were thinking, "I'll just go to a bar nearby" or "I'll just walk down 39th St. to avoid the crowds," that ain't gonna cut it either. The entire area is a mob scene, and you should steer as clear as possible. You can safely take the subway UNDER Times Square, so long as you don't get OFF there. And you can take it all night long, because NYC is the greatest city in the world. There are tons of people out all night on New Year's, so you shouldn't have safety concerns, especially in more populated areas. Uber typically surges 5-10x on major holidays like New Years, and while cabs don't surge, you simply won't find one at such a high traffic time, so the subway is truly your best bet.

So what SHOULD you do on New Year's Eve in NYC? Well, there's plenty! Downtown Manhattan tends to be pretty fun - lots of bars and restaurants will host New Years specials featuring open bar from ~9-1 or so for around $90-200 depending on the venue. It's a great night to grab dinner somewhere fun and then head to one of those spots. Make sure they're showing the ball drop on TV, so you can watch it like a REAL New Yorker!

Indoor Activities

Sometimes it rains, or it's 100F, and you just don't want to be outside, damnit. Here are some fun indoor NYC activities that are fun during any season!

Starting with an obvious one: hit a museum! Many of them are located along "Museum Mile" right next to each other. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Guggenheim, The Museum of Modern Art (personal fave!), The Frick Gallery, The Natural History Museum, The Jewish Museum, The Whitney, The Morgan Library, The Tenement Museum, The Museum of Sex, The Intrepid, The Cloisters, The Museum of the Moving Image ... there are more. Another favorite of mine is the Noguchi Museum, but it's partially an outdoor sculpture garden, so it's not ideal for the "Indoor Activities" list. The Met often hosts interesting performances, and MoMA always has special exhibits that rotate in and out.

Still on the art thread, gallery hopping in Chelsea makes for an awesome half-day. Of course, it involves some minor outdoor walking between gallery visits. If outside is truly hell, save this one for another day, but if it's just "regular cold" or lightly raining, it'll be enjoyable for sure!

Go axe throwing at Bury the Hatchet in Greenpoint or one of the other axe throwing spots in the city.

Play laser tag, go bowling, or ice skate at Chelsea Piers

See an old or indie movie at the International Film Center (IFC) or a blockbuster at a regular theater

Escape Rooms abound in NYC

Paint 'n' Sip: Harlem's Paint & Pour offers a $50 painting class with an open cocktail bar! Most other venues include one glass of wine in the price of a ticket.

Do a Best Bars in the World bar crawl! 

Sing Karaoke in K-Town: I can't remember the names of half the Karaoke spots in K-Town. Gagopa Karaoke is great, but most of them are really quite fun. You can rent a private room and order drinks, and it's not horribly expensive! Virtually all of these Karaoke spots are upstairs in buildings that might seem kind of sketchy if you're not used to tiny cramped elevators and depressing gray hallways, but it's really fine. 

Relax at AIRE Ancient Spas or the Russian & Turkish Baths

Visit The Strand bookstore, a downtown icon

Outdoor Activities

The High Line

Central Park

Prospect Park

West Side Highway Bike/ Walking Path

Little Island

Rooftop bar

The Bushwick Collective

Take a ferry to NJ, Brooklyn, Staten Island

I've been told there's free kayaking somewhere.

Visit Governor's Island, take the cable car to Roosevelt Island (cat colony, abandoned smallpox hospital)

Visit the bazaar on a Sunday in the low 70s on Columbus

Wander around China Town and Little Italy

Wander around Soho

Wander around the West Village

Wander around the East Village

Wander around the Meatpacking District

Wander around South Street Seaport 

People watch in Washington Square Park