Part of Gateway National Recreation Area, which stretches across the harbor to New Jersey, Jamaica Bay is a bucolic patch of wetlands sandwiched incongruously between JFK airport and the Rockaways. The park is a major draw for bird-watchers with sightings of over 330 species. Ospreys and other water birds nest here; you can spot them on a loop trail from the visitor center.
You can borrow binoculars from the visitor center (bring an ID).
13.33 MILES
What started with a handful of paintings brought over from Europe or donated by a coterie of philanthropically minded robber barons in the 19th century…
13.62 MILES
One of the world’s most renowned green spaces, Central Park comprises 843 acres of rolling meadows, boulder-studded outcroppings, elm-lined walkways,…
12.65 MILES
Located in New York Harbor, Ellis Island is the US's most famous and historically important gateway and is home to one of the country’s most moving…
12.38 MILES
The Chrysler Building may be prettier, and One World Trade Center taller, but the queen bee of the New York skyline remains the Empire State Building. NYC…
11.91 MILES
Spanning three levels at the top of the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, One World Observatory offers dazzling panoramic views over Manhattan's…
13.45 MILES
A New York icon, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, more commonly known as the Guggenheim, is an internationally-renowned art museum and one of the most…
12.56 MILES
It’s been over a century since Lady Liberty made her debut appearance on the New York skyline, but this iconic statue is still one of the city’s most…
National September 11 Memorial Museum
11.81 MILES
When the twin towers of the World Trade Center toppled during the awful events of 11 September 2001, it led to years of soul-searching about what would be…
2.19 MILES
These neighborhoods at the far reaches of New York City are unlike anything else in the five boroughs. Some parts look like the rest of southern Queens,…
2.34 MILES
Surfboards on the subway? A discordant sight no doubt, but it's only a 75-minute ride on the A train from Midtown, or a 57-minute ferry ride from Wall St,…
4.24 MILES
All the way at the bottom of the city, to the West of the quaint Rockaways, are Riis Beach and Fort Tilden, where New Yorkers of all stripes come to let…
5.37 MILES
Built in 1652, Pieter Claesen Wyckoff House is New York City’s oldest building and one of the oldest in the US. A working farm until 1901, this Dutch…
6.58 MILES
In 1838 a former enslaved man by the name of James Weeks purchased a tract of land on the fringes of Brooklyn’s settled areas to build a free African…
6. Brooklyn Children’s Museum
7.42 MILES
A bright-yellow, L-shaped structure houses this hands-on kids' favorite, founded in 1899 as the first children's museum in the US. The collection contains…
7.47 MILES
In this tranquil neighborhood, tree-lined side streets boast bourgeois timber houses built in the early 1900s in an eclectic mix of Colonial Revival, arts…
7.99 MILES
Inside Prospect Park, this 18th-century Dutch farmhouse has period rooms festooned with farm implements, bouquets of herbs and antique ceramics, with a…