United States · New York
Plan your New York City trip
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01Your itinerary
02Where to stay
Lower Manhattan
Best for first-timers who want to walk everywhereThe oldest, most walkable end of the island — cobbled Tribeca and Soho, the Financial District's canyons, the waterfront, and quick subway lines everywhere. Quieter at night than midtown, close to the ferries and the bridges to Brooklyn.
A design hotel in Tribeca
Base yourself among the cast-iron warehouses and you get downtown cool, great restaurants, and easy trains uptown without the midtown chaos.
$$$$A modern hotel in the Financial District
Rates soften on weekends when the bankers clear out, and you are steps from the Staten Island Ferry and the World Trade Center transit hub.
$$$Midtown
Best for theater lovers and first-time sightseersThe postcard New York — Times Square, Broadway theaters, the great department stores, and every subway line converging. Loud and touristy, but unbeatable for reaching everything and stumbling home from a show.
A classic hotel near Bryant Park
Edge east or south of Times Square proper for a calmer block that still puts the theaters and Grand Central within a short walk.
$$$A tower hotel with skyline views
Midtown is where the high-floor rooms and rooftop bars cluster; book high up for the view that sells the whole city.
$$$$A value hotel in the west 30s
Around Herald Square and Koreatown the rates drop and the late-night Korean barbecue and karaoke are a bonus.
$$The West Village
Best for a romantic, quieter baseThe most charming residential quarter in Manhattan — crooked tree-lined streets that break the grid, brownstones, tiny restaurants, and jazz clubs. It costs more, but you are buying the loveliest evening stroll in the city on your doorstep.
A boutique hotel in Greenwich Village
Small design-led hotels tuck into the side streets here; expect charm, intimacy, and a price that reflects the address.
$$$$A townhouse-style inn near the Hudson
Toward the river the blocks go residential and calm, with the High Line and the Meatpacking District a short walk north.
$$$Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Best for repeat visitors and night owlsYounger, looser, and better priced than most of Manhattan, with waterfront warehouses turned into breweries, boutiques, and music rooms — plus the best skyline views in the city looking back across the East River. One quick subway stop or a ferry to downtown.
A rooftop hotel on the Williamsburg waterfront
The newer hotels here trade midtown convenience for Manhattan skyline views, buzzy bars, and a genuinely local neighborhood scene.
$$$A converted-loft hotel near Bedford Avenue
Stay near the L train's first Brooklyn stop for fast access to Manhattan and the best of Williamsburg's shopping and eating on foot.
$$Harlem
Best for better value and real neighborhood lifeThe deepest cultural roots in the city — brownstone blocks, live gospel and jazz, the Apollo, and a food scene worth the ride, all at rates well below downtown. Further uptown, but express trains put midtown fifteen minutes away.
A brownstone guesthouse in central Harlem
Staying in a restored townhouse near 125th Street puts you in the middle of the neighborhood's music, history, and Sunday-morning energy.
$$A boutique hotel near Morningside
Toward Columbia University the blocks are leafy and calm, with the A, B, C, and D trains for a fast run downtown.
$$Affiliate notePostcardRoute is reader-supported. Some links to Booking.com (stays, flights, car hire, tickets and tours, airport transfers) are affiliate links, tracked through CJ Affiliate: if you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend places we would send a friend.
03Tickets & tours
Central Park
The 843-acre green lung that keeps Manhattan sane — meadows, a ramble of woods, boat ponds, and a reservoir loop, all landscaped to feel wild in the…
Tip Enter at the north end around Harlem Meer and walk south; the top third is far quieter and just as beautiful as the tourist-clogged lower loop.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
One of the great encyclopedic museums on earth, from Egyptian temples to Rooftop sculpture, so vast that trying to see it all in a day is a rookie…
Tip Pick two wings and skip the rest, and time it for a weekday morning; the suggested admission for out-of-state visitors buys three consecutive days if you want to return.
The High Line
An old elevated freight rail line on the West Side reborn as a narrow linear park, threading past galleries, wildflowers, and cutaway views of the…
Tip Walk it early morning or at dusk to dodge the midday crush, and exit at the north end into the sprawling Hudson Yards or south into the Chelsea galleries.
Brooklyn Bridge
The 19th-century gothic-arched icon strung with steel cable, still one of the great urban walks anywhere, with the Manhattan skyline unspooling…
Tip Walk from the Brooklyn side toward Manhattan at sunrise for the skyline in front of you and almost nobody else on the wooden promenade.
The Tenement Museum
A restored Lower East Side tenement telling the story of the immigrants who packed into these rooms, told through guided tours of actual apartments…
Tip Book a tour in advance online — you can only see the apartments with a guide, and the popular ones sell out days ahead.
Grand Central Terminal
Not just a station but a Beaux-Arts cathedral of transit, its main concourse capped by a turquoise ceiling painted with a backwards constellation,…
Tip Stand in diagonally opposite corners of the vaulted arch outside the Oyster Bar and murmur into the tile — your companion hears it clear across the space.
The Museum of Modern Art
MoMA holds the canon of modern art in walkable, digestible form — Van Gogh's Starry Night, Monet's water lilies, Warhol's soup cans, all in a…
Tip Go Friday evening when admission is free from 4pm; arrive right at opening to beat the line that forms for it.
Smorgasburg
The sprawling open-air food market that defines a certain kind of Brooklyn weekend, dozens of vendors slinging everything from ramen burgers to…
Tip Come hungry and early on a Saturday in Williamsburg or Sunday in Prospect Park; graze in small bites across many stalls rather than filling up at one.
Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island
The 1886 gift from France that most people picture before they picture anything else about New York, standing on her own island in the harbor with…
Tip Book crown or pedestal tickets weeks ahead if you want to climb; the standard ferry-and-grounds ticket needs no advance planning and still gets you the view everyone…
Day trips from New York City
The Rockaways
A real ocean beach at the end of the A train and a summer ferry — surfers, boardwalk tacos, and a laid-back seaside afternoon barely an hour from…
Day tripStorm King Art Center
A 500-acre sculpture park an hour up the Hudson, where monumental works by Calder, Serra, and Goldsworthy sit in rolling fields.
Day tripThe Hudson Valley
Metro-North trains follow the river north to Cold Spring and Beacon — hiking at Breakneck Ridge, the Dia:Beacon art museum in an old factory, and…
Day tripEverything to do in New York City
Skip-the-line tickets, guided tours and day trips, all in one place on Booking.com.
04Getting there & around
Getting around
The subway is the whole game, and it runs 24 hours a day, which almost no other system on earth does. It is not pretty and it is not always on time, but it is fast, cheap, and it reaches everywhere you actually want to go.
Flights
Compare fares into New York City and pick dates that suit the days you planned.
Airport transfers
Book a private or shared ride from the airport so the first evening starts at your door, not at a ticket queue.
Car hire from New York City
Only worth it for day trips beyond the city — in town, the plan above works on foot and public transport.
Affiliate notePostcardRoute is reader-supported. Some links to Booking.com (stays, flights, car hire, tickets and tours, airport transfers) are affiliate links, tracked through CJ Affiliate: if you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend places we would send a friend.