New York City, USA

The everything city. Autumn is golden; December is lights and ice rinks; August is a sauna.

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Best time to visit

Month	High	Low	Rain	Season
Jan	4°	-4°	88 mm
Feb	5°	-3°	79 mm
Mar	10°	0°	105 mm
Apr	16°	6°	96 mm	prime
May	21°	11°	89 mm	prime
Jun	26°	17°	102 mm
Jul	29°	20°	110 mm
Aug	28°	20°	103 mm
Sep	24°	16°	104 mm	prime
Oct	18°	10°	110 mm	prime
Nov	12°	4°	75 mm	prime
Dec	7°	0°	103 mm	prime

30-year averages (1995–2024) from ERA5 reanalysis via Open-Meteo. Rain is the monthly total.

Serves travellers at Backpacker→Ultra-luxury level. Typically around $300 a day on the ground.

Ranges are typical costs, not quotes. Check the real price before you book.

August is humid and airless and the city itself leaves. The week between Christmas and New Year makes Midtown functionally impassable.
when not to go · editorial
Cards and phones work everywhere, including subway turnstiles. Tipping in restaurants, bars and taxis is expected rather than optional.
money · editorial
Listed prices exclude sales tax, and the tip goes on after that, so the number quoted is never the number paid. Distances between avenues are much longer than between streets, which flatters every map.
know before · editorial
Midtown for transport and little else. The Village, Lower East Side and Chelsea for walkable evenings. Brooklyn, from Williamsburg to Brooklyn Heights to Park Slope, for more room and a subway ride in. The Upper West and Upper East Sides for quiet, the park and the museums.
where to stay · editorial
The subway, which runs all night, and walking. A car is worse than useless here: parking is an ordeal and the traffic is the traffic.
getting around · editorial
JFK and Newark take the long-haul flights, LaGuardia the domestic ones. From JFK the AirTrain into the subway or the LIRR is the reliable route; a taxi takes anywhere between an hour and three depending on when you land.
getting there · editorial

Central Park
Go in at Bethesda Terrace and come out wherever you like. It is three and a half kilometres north to south.
Brooklyn Bridge
On foot, from Brooklyn into Manhattan. In that direction the city grows in front of you.
Times Square
Ugly, loud, and compulsory once.
Empire State Building
The 1931 one. It is still the shape people draw when they draw New York.
The Statue of Liberty
The Staten Island ferry goes past for free and does the job.
Grand Central
The ceiling of constellations is back to front, and nobody ever fixed it.
High Line
An elevated railway turned garden, from the Meatpacking District up to 34th.
Washington Square
The arch, the street piano and the chess in the south-west corner.

Eat a bagel with lox on a Saturday morning
Eat a slice of pizza folded, standing on the pavement
Folded. That is not an opinion, it is engineering.
Have a bagel for breakfast early in the morning
Before eight, when the queue is people on their way to work.

Walk Brooklyn Bridge towards Manhattan at dusk
Take the subway after two in the morning
It never stops. That is the whole city in one carriage.
Cross a bridge on foot at dawn, with nothing in your ears
A city waking up makes a sound of its own.
Run the full loop of Central Park
Ten kilometres, with two real climbs at the north end.