Five days in New York

Five days in New York gives you ample opportunity to get under the city’s skin, peeling away the layers to reveal big-hitters like the Empire State Building, but also allowing time for a few places you might not otherwise get to experience on a shorter visit. So what are you waiting for? Dive into our packed five-day itinerary for a veritable smorgasbord of NYC suggestions, including…

• The Statue of Liberty
• Museum of Modern Art
• Central Park
• Broadway shows
• American Museum of Natural History
• The 9/11 Memorial and Museum
• The High Line
• Chelsea Market
• The Brooklyn Bridge
• Intrepid Museum
• One World Observatory
• … and more!

Heading to NYC for a shorter – or longer – break? We’ve got you covered withour suggested itineraries for one-day trips, four-day breaks and week-long NYC escapes.

Day 1: Central Park and Midtown

Afternoon: Museum of Modern Art

Now, it’s fair to say New York ain’t short of a blistering art museum or six, from the mighty Met on Museum Mile to the Whitney’s superlative selection of American classics and the many, many hip indie galleries of Chelsea. But, for our money, you can’t beat Midtown’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), perhaps the finest repository of 20th-century art on the planet, with landmark pieces by Picasso, Pollock, Dali, Duchamp, Kahlo, Warhol and more. Gaze into van Gogh’s celestial Starry Night and meditate with Monet’s mesmerizing Water Lilies. Bonus: there are a couple of excellent lunch options right inside the museum. Anyone for a can of Campbell’s soup?

Evening: Empire State Building Observatory

Cap your first amazing day in NYC with another bona fide bucket-lister. The Empire State Building needs little introduction. Heck, that graceful Art Deco facade and tapering crown is almost as familiar as your own reflection. Now’s your chance to get inside the iconic skyscraper (once the world’s tallest), ascending 86 floors and more than 1,000 feet for stellar bird’s-eye views of the Manhattan skyline and beyond. Don’t skip the chance to snap a selfie with King Kong while you’re there (yes, really) and to pose with bronze sculptures of Depression-era construction workers.

Check out our complete guide to visiting the Empire State Building here.

Day 2: Brooklyn and Broadway

Afternoon: Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Pedal (or hop the bus) down to pretty Prospect Park, which counts woodlands, a boating lake, a zoo and a botanical garden among its many charms. Brooklyn Botanic Garden spans more than 50 acres at the park’s northern end and is pretty much tailor-made for serene, sunny New York afternoons. And, with more than 14,000 plant species, there’s plenty of eye (and nose) candy on display. Come over all dramatic in the Shakespeare Garden, stop to smell the Cranford Garden’s roses and go full zen mode among the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden’s wooden bridges and spring cherry blossoms.

Evening: The bright lights of Broadway

Times Square is a sensory fiesta at any time of day, but perhaps especially in the evening when the digital billboards light the streets and restaurants bustle with pre-theater diners. Soak it all in, then take your seats for curtain up… the show is about to begin. We’re talking of course about Broadway, the finest theater district in the world, where you can catch anything from hard-hitting plays led by Hollywood legends to globe-straddling musicals like Hamilton and Wicked, plus off-Broadway productions that give you the chance to watch the stars of tomorrow perform in more intimate venues. 

Day 3: Lower Manhattan and beyond

Afternoon: 9/11 Memorial and Museum

Back in Lower Manhattan, the 9/11 Memorial and Museum is a deep and moving journey into New York’s darkest day, and essential for any true understanding of the city’s psyche both before and after the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001. The museum focuses on the bravery and resilience of New Yorkers, with recorded first-hand testimonies and exhibits including surviving sections of wall and staircase, and even a pear tree that miraculously survived the devastation. Two vast reflective pools shimmer in the footprints of the original North and South towers, a tranquil space for quiet remembrance.

Evening: One World Observatory 

Sure, you’ve already been up the Empire State Building, so what does One World Observatory have that the ESB doesn’t? Well, at 1,776 feet it’s the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. So there’s that. Its location in Lower Manhattan also makes for superior close-up views of Lady Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge and Governors Island. And, with an observation deck that’s a whopping 1,250 feet above street level, it’s just about as high as you can get in New York. Oh, and the views north to the Empire State Building and beyond ain’t half bad either.

Day 4: Markets, museums and more

Afternoon: the High Line and Intrepid Museum

Walk it all off (or some of it anyway) on a hike along the High Line to Hudson Yards. Once a freight railway line, this elevated urban greenway is a pleasant saunter of just under a mile-and-a-half, taking in cute little gardens, wildflower meadows and splendid views of the Hudson and Midtown Manhattan along the way. 

On arrival in Hell’s Kitchen, make for Pier 86, where you’d be hard-pressed to miss the Intrepid Museum, a hulking great aircraft carrier that’s permanently moored here on the Hudson. Climb aboard to ogle wartime fighter jets and stealth bombers and to get up close and personal with the Space Shuttle Enterprise. You can also scuttle through the corridors and mess rooms of a Cold War submarine and snatch a selfie with a gleaming British Airways Concorde. Inspirational stuff.

Evening: Edge and Vessel

Backtrack to Hudson Yards where dinner opportunities abound and not one but two more observation platforms await. Jutting out of the 30 Hudson Yards skyscraper, some 100 stories up, Edge is the highest outdoor viewing platform in the Western Hemisphere and comes with angled glass walls and a see-through floor for maximum adrenaline surges. Or, for something a little different, try the comparatively diminutive Vessel. This climbable work of art is an eyecatching copper honeycomb with around 2,500 steps and 80 platforms from which to catch a variety of different NYC perspectives. 

Day 5: Central Park and the Yankees

Afternoon: Central Park sights

The AMNH’s location a little under halfway up the west side means you’re well-placed for several of Central Park’s big-ticket attractions. Mosey over to the boathouse and rent a rowboat to explore the Lake’s placid waters – eyes peeled for resident turtles and ducks as you drift beneath the beautiful Bow Bridge and its ever-present gaggle of selfie-takers. Or go for a ramble in the Ramble, Central Park’s wild woodland wilderness. People-watching on Bethesda Terrace is practically a rite of passage and it would simply be rude not to take a ride on the old-school painted carousel at the southern end of Sheep Meadow while you’re here.

Get more ideas for things to do in Central Park here.

Evening: Yankee Stadium

And so we’ve reached the end of your five-day New York extravaganza. Might as well go out with a bang, right? Right! Off we go then to the Yankee Stadium up in the Bronx for that most American of sporting pastimes: the floodlit baseball game. The stadium is absolutely huge and you can bet the atmosphere on game night will be electric: foam fingers in the air, the smell of hot dogs, wings and root beer carried on the breeze. Just settle into your grandstand level seats and enjoy the show…

Looking for more inspiration for your New York vacay? Get more info on all the best observation decks in town and check out our ideas for things to do in the East Village.

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