17 Best Sights in New York City, New York

This sweeping feat of green urban renewal stretches from the Manhattan Bridge in DUMBO to the Brooklyn Bridge and south all the way to Pier 6, carpeting old industrial sites along the waterfront with scenic esplanades and lush meadows. The park has playgrounds, sports fields, food concessions, the wonderfully restored Jane's Carousel, and lots of grass for lounging. In the summer, there are outdoor movies on the Harbor View Lawn. There are pickleball courts on Pier 2. You can access the park at various points; just head down the hill toward the East River and you can't miss it.

Brooklyn residents are passionate about Prospect Park, and with good reason: lush green spaces, gently curved walkways, summer concerts, vivid foliage in autumn, and an all-season skating rink make it a year-round getaway. In 1859, the New York Legislature decided to develop plans for a park in the fast-growing city of Brooklyn. After landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux completed the park in the late 1880s, Olmsted remarked that he was prouder of it than any of his other works—including Manhattan's Central Park—and many critics agree. On weekends, those not jogging the 3.35-mile loop gravitate to the rolling hills of the Long Meadow to picnic, fly kites, or play cricket, flag football, or Frisbee. On summer Sundays, foodies flock to Breeze Hill, site of outdoor food market Smorgasburg's second Brooklyn location. The park's north entrance is at Grand Army Plaza, where the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch (patterned on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris) honors Civil War veterans. On Saturday, year-round, a greenmarket at the plaza throngs with shoppers. 

A good way to experience the park is to walk the Long Meadow—or stop in for the occasional free yoga class—and then head to the eastern side and south toward the lake. Along the way, you'll encounter attractions including Brooklyn's last remaining forest, including the Lefferts Historic House (now closed for renovations), Prospect Park Audubon Center, and the LeFrak Center. The Prospect Park Carousel, built in 1912, still thrills the kids. The Boathouse, dating from 1905, is a stunning example of Beaux-Arts architecture. The annual Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival takes place at the Prospect Park Bandshell from early June through mid-August. 

Built in 1923, just one year before legendary Totonno's Pizzeria opened its doors on nearby Neptune Avenue, this famous wood-planked walkway is better known as the Coney Island Boardwalk, and in summer it seems like all of Brooklyn is out strolling along the 2½-mile stretch. The quintessential walk starts at the end of the pier in Coney Island, opposite the Parachute Jump, where you can see the shoreline stretched out before you, where the waves of the Atlantic Ocean meet the Big Apple. From here to Brighton Beach is a little over a mile and should take about a half hour at a leisurely amble. Admire the modernistic, rectangular structures perched over the beach, housing bathrooms and lifeguard stations.

This expansive green space runs alongside the Hudson River—hence its name—and offers a welcome dose of tranquility from 72nd to 158th Street, as does the park's south extension, from about 59th to 72nd Street. Walking and biking paths dot the entire park, among them the broad Promenade between 83rd and 96th Streets. The park's original sections were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux of Central Park fame and laid out between 1873 and 1888. Riverside Park also includes the soaring white marble Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument (at 89th Street), dedicated to New Yorkers who served in the Civil War, and the Warsaw Ghetto Memorial Plaza (at 80th Street), dedicated in 1947. The 79th Street Marina, with its café, visiting yachts and permanently moored houseboats, is closed for renovations to make the marina climate resilient and expand access for boaters. 

Bushwick is well known for its street art, as the Brooklyn graffiti scene endures with colorful, larger-than-life murals. It's all encouraged, supported, and curated by this urban art collective, under the helm of Joseph Ficalora. The outdoor street art gallery is omnipresent as you walk Troutman Street and the adjacent blocks of St. Nicholas Avenue and Wyckoff Avenue, the area's main drag. Fans of global street art will recognize featured artists, including Carlitos Skills, Ruben Ubiera, and Mr. Blob.   Every summer, the Collective throws a block party that's a mix of DJ music, food trucks, and local makers selling their wares. Check their website for details.

This leafy park is a favorite spot, year-round, for the neighborhood locals who lunch on the benches, picnic in the central green spaces, and put on impromptu jazz concerts. There's a year-round farmers' market by the southwest corner on Sunday, and an annual Halloween dog-costume event. It wasn't always so rosy in the park, though: in 1988, police followed then-mayor Ed Koch's orders to evict the many homeless people who had set up makeshift shelters here, and homeless rights and antigentrification activists fought back with sticks and bottles. The park was reclaimed and reopened in 1992 with a midnight curfew, still in effect today.

A park, farmers' market, meeting place, and the site of rallies and demonstrations, this pocket of green space and surrounding public square sit in the center of a bustling residential and commercial neighborhood. The name "Union" originally signified that two main roads—Broadway and 4th Avenue—crossed here. It took on a different meaning in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the square became a rallying spot for labor protests; many unions, as well as fringe political parties, moved their headquarters nearby.

Union Square is at its best on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday (8–6), when the largest of the city's greenmarkets draws farmers and food purveyors from the tristate area selling fruit and vegetables, plants, fresh-baked pies and breads, cheeses, cider, fish, and meat. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, artisans sell gift items and food at the large Union Square Holiday Market ( www.urbanspacenyc.com).

New York University dormitories, theaters, and cavernous commercial spaces occupy the restored 19th-century commercial buildings that surround the park, along with some chain stores and restaurants. Statues in the park include those of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi (often wreathed in flowers), and the Marquis de Lafayette (sculpted by Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, designer of the Statue of Liberty).

Just steps from the subway, this stretch of golden sand is the showpiece of Brooklyn's oceanside playground. Families set up beach blankets, umbrellas, and coolers, and pickup games of beach volleyball and football add to the excitement. Calm surf, a lively boardwalk, and a handful of restaurants for shade and refreshments complete the package. That spit of land in the distance is the Rockaway Peninsula, in Queens. Amenities: toilets. Best for: people-watching, sunsets, Russian food.

Join New Yorkers cyling, strolling, playing tennis, picnicking, and in summer, partying in droves on the lively and scenic stretch of park that runs from West 155th Street alongside the Hudson River under the George Washington Bridge (G.W.B.) and up to Dyckman Street in Inwood. The park offers unique views of Manhattan, and spectacular views of the bridge and the tree-filled cliffs of New Jersey Palisades across the way. The Little Red Lighthouse, a beloved local icon (and popular photo op) made famous in a children's storybook—The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge, written by Hildegarde Swift and Lynd Ward in 1942—is the island of Manhattan's last remaining lighthouse.  If you don't want to walk along the river from 155th Street and just want to visit the lighthouse and linger in the park under the G.W.B., enter the park at 181st Street. You can also grab a CitiBike on 181st Street.

The highlight of this 26-acre space in Prospect Park is the pair of all-season open-air rinks—for ice skating when it's frigid, and roller skating otherwise. Walkways, an lakeside esplanade, and the Music Island nature reserve—all part of the original Olmsted and Vaux plans—contribute to this area of the park that's a pleasant place for a stroll or skating lesson, or to grab a bite to eat at its Bluestone Cafe (open year-round). In the summer, kids can cool off at the splash pad in the summer by day, while DJs spin at theme roller-skating nights on weekends by night.