Levain Bakery
Levain Bakery Amsterdam 351 Amsterdam at West 77th Street, New York, NYEverything is baked on-site throughout the day at this legendary bakery, from an array of rustic breads to the world-famous, super-gooey, six-ounce cookies in five flavors: Two Chip Chocolate Chip, Walnut Chocolate Chip, Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip, Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip & Oatmeal Raisin (plus a gluten-free chocolate chip option). Other options include sour…
Conservatory Gardens
Conservatory Garden Fifth Avenue between 104th & 105th Streets Upper East Side, New York, New YorkEnter the magnificent 1894 Vanderbilt Gate to Central Park’s only formal garden, a six-acre oasis within an oasis with European charm. Climb onto the wisteria pergola in the Italianate Center Garden overlooking a yew hedges-bordered large lawn and 12-foot jet fountain. To the north, the French-style garden offers spectacular seasonal displays of tulips and Korean…
Alice’s Tea Cup
Alice’s Tea Cup 102 West 73rd Street at Columbus Avenue, New York, NYEnjoy scones in rotating flavors as magical as the decor, sandwiches, salads and treats with optional fairy wings and glitter at a whimsical tea house inspired by Alice in Wonderland. Choose from hundreds of teas served in charming mismatching pots and cups. Gets crowded on weekends; reservations recommended. Go early to beat the crowds (or…
Serendipity 3
Serendipity 3 225 E 60th St, New York, NYGet the famous Frrrozen Hot Chocolate, a creamy secret blend of 14 exotic cocoas, and other decadent, over-sized desserts at this legendary restaurant and store with whimsical antique-store-meets-ice-cream-parlor decor. Heraty burgers, foot long hot dogs, mac ‘n’ cheese variations, salads and sandwiches are also available. A favorite of actors, artists and tourists for the last…
Museum of the City of New York
Museum of the City of New York 1220 Fifth Avenue at 105th Street, New York, NYExplore the greatest city in the world at this small museum with a big collection of theater artifacts, furniture, toys, paintings, sculpture and photos arranged into exhibits that entertain and educate all ages. HIGHLIGHTS: ✨ Dangling light installation above the spiral staircase 🌆 Multimedia New York at Its Core 🪧 Inspiring Activist New York…
Hippo Playground
Hippo Playground, Riverside Park Riverside & 91st Street, New York, NYFrolic and splash with beloved hippo statues in this well maintained playground in lovely Riverside Park featuring swings, wooden and metal play equipment, slides, a spray shower, picnic tables, benches, sand pit, a drinking fountain, bathrooms and summer weekday art projects.
Bel Ami
Bel Ami 30 East 68th Street at Madison, New York, NYThis small, authentic French café and patisserie tucked away off Madison Avenue serves delicious, not-too-bitter hot chocolate, plus delicious pastries, sandwiches, macarons, hot chocolate and more. Limited seating among cute decor in a pretty historic district
Billy Johnson Playground
Billy Johnson Playground, Central Park East 67th Street & Fifth Avenue Upper East SIde, New York, NYThis rustic playground hosts an amazing 45-foot granite slide nestled into a rocky hill, bucket and tire swings, and an amphitheater and miniature stone bridge made of natural materials like plants, stone, and wood at a child’s scale.
Hex & Co Board Game Cafe
Hex & Co 2871 Broadway at West 112th Street, New York, NYPlay over 1000+ games, including a big kids section. Discover Star Trek Risk, Golden Girls Clue and so much more. Make new friends, watch Dungeon & Dragon tournaments and shop for new family favorites. Range of food options available including gourmet pretzels and ice cream sandwiches.
Belvedere Castle
Central Park, Belvedere Castle Mid park around 79th Street Upper West Side, New York, NYOne of the most iconic features in Central Park, this miniature castle is located atop the huge rock outcrop known as Vista Rock, the second highest natural point in Central Park. The whimsical structure, designed by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted in 1869, provides the highest and best views of the Park and the…
Cathedral of St. John the Divine & Peace Fountain
Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine 1047 Amsterdam Avenue at West 112th Street Upper West Side, New York, New YorkThe largest Cathedral in the world, built in 1892, is open for visitors Monday-Friday 9:30 am–3 pm and Saturday–Sunday 9:30 am-5 pm. Timed tickets strongly encouraged. Explore rotating art exhibitions that span centuries, celebrating the creativity of 17th century weavers to modern painters and everything in between. 48 relief panels on the giant bronze…
Hex & Co Board Game Cafe UES
Hex & Co UES 1462 First Avenue at East 76th Street, New York, NYThis new outpost of the Morningside Heights mainstay Play over 1000+ games, including a big kids section. Discover Star Trek Risk, Golden Girls Clue and so much more. Make new friends, watch Dungeon & Dragon tournaments and shop for new family favorites. This location has a full kitchen (and bar) with frilled gourmet pizzas, chicken…
Storico
Caffe Storico 170 Central Park West at 77th Street, New York, NYFeast on antipasti, artisanal pastas, paninis and other Italian-inspired inventive, ingredient-driven dishes, plus mac & cheese and grilled cheese - at a classy yet kid-friendly eatery within the engaging New-York Historical Society (museum admission not required). Indoor and outdoor seating available. Look for special menu items related to current exhibits.
Sharks
American Museum of Natural History West 81st Street & Central Park West, New York, NYGet up close with dozens of life-sized models of spectacular, surprising, and often misunderstood sharks. Go inside the jaw of an megalodon, see fossils, touch models of teeth, hunt like a hammerhead and more in touch-free interactive displays. Take a photo inside a giant jawbone and turn yourself into a shark on augmented reality screens.…
American Folk Art Museum
American Folk Art Museum 2 Lincoln Square (Columbus Avenue at W 66th Street), New York, NYThis cozy museum hosts rotating exhibits featuring Americana art that often includes engaging colors, patterns and animals. See works by self-taught artists in a variety of genres including sculptures, quilts, wood carvings and weathervanes. CURRENT EXHIBITS: 🧵 Lively paintings & fancy slippers in Morris Hirshfield Rediscovered 🖼 Collection highlights in Pushing Boundaries: 60 Years…
Central Park Zoo
Central Park Zoo Fifth Avenue at 60th Street Upper East Side, New York, New YorkVisit sea lions, snow monkeys, red pandas, turtles, bears and other animals at the cozy Central Park Zoo. * Watch crowds of penguins and puffins swim and waddle in the indoor Polar circle. * Warm up with colorful birds and playful monkeys in an indoor rain forest. * Look for snow leopards, cute red pandas,…
Roosevelt Island Tramway
The Roosevelt Island Tramway E 60 St & 2 Ave, New York, NYCross the East River in the most modern aerial tramway in the world, running every 7-15 minutes from 60th Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan to Tramway Plaza on Roosevelt Island. Passengers must exit the tram at each stop (either Manhattan bound or Roosevelt Island bound) and pay again to return to the other side.…
The Met
Metropolitan Museum Of Art 1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street, New York, NYExplore a vast collection that spans millennia and continents. You might get lost searching for iconic favorites in the grand halls, and you’ll definitely discover fascinating art that appeals to all ages. HIGHLIGHTS: 🏺 Gorgeous Greek and Roman Galleries 🎨 Must-see Van Goghs, Monets and Degas ballerinas in 19th- And Early 20th-Century European Paintings And…
Children’s Museum of Manhattan (CMOM)
Children's Museum of Manhattan (CMOM) 212 West 83rd Street between Broadway & Amsterdam, New York, NYExplore interactive, educational, well-designed exhibits for babies to pre-teens. HIGHLIGHTS: 🎨 Immersive Inside Art: Create, Climb, Collaborate 🐒 Spacious Adventures with Dora and Diego 🇺🇸 Right to Vote (with a Presidential desk) ⚡️ Comic-book inspired Superpowered Metropolis. ⭐️ Tons of educator-led experiences and special guest artist including weekly themed art…
Chroma: Ancient Sculpture in Color
Metropolitan Museum Of Art 1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street, New York, NYDid you know Ancient Greek and Roman sculpture was once colorful? Learn the colorful backstory of polychromy ("many colors" in Greek) in an exhibit highlighting cutting-edge scientific methods used to identify ancient color and examining how color helped convey meaning in antiquity. Presented alongside original Greek and Roman works representing similar subjects are reconstructions…
Cooper Hewitt Design Museum
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum 2 East 91st Street, New York, NYExplore innovative design through the centuries, play designer on high resolution touchscreen tables with very cool electronic 'pens,' in a stunning 19th-century mansion turned into a high-tech, interactive dream for all ages. HIGLIGHTS: 🎨 Create and go inside digital wallpaper in the Immersion Room 🌀 Rock around in the Spun chairs in the basement CURRENT EXHIBITS:…
Guggenheim
Guggenheim 1071 5th Avenue at 89th Street, New York, NYSee exciting, well-designed exhibits in the striking Frank Lloyd Wright–designed landmark modern museum with an iconic spiral. HIGHLIGHTS: 🖼 Impressionist & Modern masterpieces by Degas, Gauguin, Picasso, Kadinsky & more. CURRENT EXHIBITS: ꩜ New Yorker cut-outs in Alex Katz: Gathering 🧵 Elaborate installations and textile works in Nick Cave: Forothermore ⭐️ Pick up…
The Jewish Museum
The Jewish Museum 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street, New York, NYExplore the global Jewish experience through works of fine art, Judaica, antiquities, folk art, ceremonial objects, and broadcast media intelligently organized in gorgeous galleries. HIGHLIGHTS: ✡️ Centuries spanning, thematically grouped Scenes From the Collection CURRENT EXHIBITS: 🏙 Pop-art & groovy fashion in New York: 1962-1964(closes Jan 8) ⭐️ Pick up Kids Gallery…
American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History West 81st Street & Central Park West, New York, NYThis giant (45 fascinating halls) treasure trove of wonders delights lovers of animal & nature of all ages. HIGHLIGHTS: 🪐 Rose Center for Earth and Space 🐋 94-foot-long blue whale in the Hall of Ocean Life 💎 Sparkly Halls of Gems and Minerals,🦖dinosaur fossils galore CURRENT EXHIBITS: 🦈 Interactive Sharks ☄️ Planetarium Show
New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society 70 Central Park West at 77th Street, New York, NY
Ancestor
Doris C. Freedman Plaza Fifth Avenue at 59th Street, New York, NYArtist Bharti Kher connects New Delhi and New York City with this nearly eighteen-foot-tall bronze universal mother figure, an enlargement of a miniature assembled by recomposing broken clay figurines. This colossal sculpture reflects Kher’s cross-cultural identity and her appreciation for India’s rich material culture. Every meaning-laden detail and distressed surface of the original hand-crafted object…
Food in New York: Bigger Than the Plate
Museum of the City of New York 1220 Fifth Avenue at 105th Street, New York, NYExplore NYC's raucous restaurant scene; its ubiquitous street food; the current activist efforts to source food locally; the world's largest food market in Hunts Point; and the artists, thinkers, and designers who are imagining new sustainable ways to relate to food. Anchored around issues of sustainability, labor justice, and equitable access to food, the show…
Morris Hirshfield Rediscovered
American Folk Art Museum 2 Lincoln Square (Columbus Avenue at W 66th Street), New York, NYCelebrate the American Folk Art Museum’s 60th anniversary with two comprehensive, colorful installations In Morris Hirshfield Rediscovered, see over 40 of a self-taught artist’s wildly stylized paintings of female figures adorned with lively colors and patterned clothing, recalling the artist’s earlier work as a tailor and footwear designer (note there is also some stylized full…
Wake Up, Daisy!
Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre Central Park, West 79th Street & West Drive, New York, NYThe historic, cozy Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre is back in action with modern take on Sleeping Beauty. Marionettes and music tells the story of Daisy, a lively little girl living in the heart of New York City in an apartment overlooking Central Park. At Daisy’s much-anticipated birthday party, she encounters three special guests, known as…
Immersion Room
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum 2 East 91st Street, New York, NYGo inside your design in the kid-favorite Immersion Room (formerly Margaret Carnegie’s bedroom). Create digital wallpaper – or chose from an amazing assortment in the museum’s collection covering hundreds of years and a range of styles – and project them onto the wall from floor to ceiling—for a vibrant, impactful, immersive experience. Experiment with scaling,…
Boundless: 10 Years of Seeding Black Comic Futures
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture 515 Malcolm X Boulevard Harlem/Upper Manhattan, New York, New YorkCelebrate the tenth anniversary of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture’s Black Comic Book Festival with photographs, memorabilia, creator highlights, comic book reading stations, and clips from past festival programs. Drawn from the Schomburg Center’s archival collections, this exhibition illuminates the long history of Black comics and sequential art creators and their motivations…
Alex Katz: Gathering
Guggenheim 1071 5th Avenue at 89th Street, New York, NYStaged in the city where 95-year-old artist Alex Katz has lived and worked his entire life, and prepared with the close collaboration of the artist, this retrospective fills the museum’s stunning Frank Lloyd Wright rotunda. Encounter works fusing the energy of Abstract Expressionist canvases with the American vernaculars of the magazine, billboard, and movie screen.…
Wollman Rink
Wollman Rink Central Park East 63rd Street & Sixth Avenue, New York, NYSkate in the middle of magical Central Park at this spacious rink, back under new management. One of the bigger rinks in the city with an incomparable view of tress & skyscrapers. * Lockers available for $7/day in the newly renovated Clubhouse. Group and private lessons available. 🎟 Adult admission is $9 less on Monday-Thursday…
“I’ll Have What She’s Having”: The Jewish Deli
New-York Historical Society 70 Central Park West at 77th Street, New York, NYExamine how Jewish immigrants, mostly from Central and Eastern Europe, imported and adapted traditions to create a uniquely American restaurant in an interactive, immersive exhibit - and pose with cut-outs of favorite foods. Explore the food of immigration, the heyday of the deli in the interwar period, delis and Broadway, stories of Holocaust survivors and…
Nick Cave: Forothermore
Guggenheim 1071 5th Avenue at 89th Street, New York, NYExplore the career of Nick Cave, internationally celebrated for his elaborate installations and textile works, including his iconic Soundsuits, which blend sculpture, costume design, and instrument-making. See sculpture, installation, video, and rarely seen early works. The title is a neologism, a new word that reflects the artist’s lifelong commitment to creating space for those who…
Holiday Express: Toys and Trains from the Jerni Collection
New-York Historical Society 70 Central Park West at 77th Street, New York, NYSee historic toy trains, figurines, and miniature models from the renowned Jerni Collection. Look for fun details in a variety of toy train stations dating from the turn of the 19th century to the WWII era, plus toy rides including a miniature Ferris wheel, carousel, blimp ride, and roller coaster. Giant screens display animations and…
Reynier Leyva Novo: Methuselah & DOMESTICANX
El Museo Del Barrio 1230 Fifth Avenue at E 105th St, New York, NYButterfly fans can virtually follow the transnational migratory journey of a single monarch butterfly in Reynier Leyva Novo: Methuselah, a digital artwork by the Cuban-born and Houston based artist Reynier Levya Novo. Tracking its travel from southern Canada across the United States to Mexico Find familiar items like beds, flowers and portraits in the paintings,…
World of Marzell’s Big Apple, Musical Tree & Music Box
Dante Park Broadway & 63rd Street Upper West Side, New York, New YorkDante Park hosts three interactive installations by DIX au carré and urban art designer Felix Marzell. Take a break inside the Big Apple. Crank the handle and sing along to some all-time festive classics karaoke-style with The Music Box. Take center stage, follow the notes, and play Jingle Bells for all to hear at a…
El Museo Del Barrio
El Museo Del Barrio 1230 Fifth Avenue at E 105th St, New York, NYThis lively museum focuses on the art and culture of Puerto Ricans and all Latin Americans in the United States. Small and friendly with great family programming and interesting artworks in a range of genres. HIGHLIGHTS: 🖼 Vibrant Latino art organized into six thematic sections: Urban Experiences, Expanded Graphics, African and Indigenous Heritages, Craft Intersection,…
Deconstructing Power: W. E. B. Du Bois at the 1900 World’s Fair
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum 2 East 91st Street, New York, NYSee innovative data visualizations that W. E. B. Du Bois created for the 1900 Paris World’s Fair alongside decorative arts from Cooper Hewitt’s permanent collection. For the Exhibit of American Negroes, Du Bois and his Atlanta University students made 63 hand-drawn diagrams that used shape, line, and color to showcase the success Black Americans had achieved…