New York City Skyline:

Overview:

It’s a hell of a town, the great New York sky­line com­bines the his­to­ry of the cities famed sky­scrap­ers, (the Empire State build­ing and Rock­e­feller cen­tre) with the best of mod­ern archi­tec­ture (Edge and the Free­dom Tow­er) and the icons of New York City (the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty and Times square) to give explores not only incred­i­ble and breath-tak­ing views over this incred­i­ble city but a true taste of the mag­ic of New York city as you mar­vel and explore what is one of the great­est cities on the plan­et and a true won­der of the world.

A mag­i­cal city since its found­ing in 1624, the New York city sky­line as we cur­rent­ly know it began to take true shape in the 1930s, with the open­ing of the Chrysler build­ing (1930), the Rock­e­feller cen­tre (1933) and after just a year and 45 days of work the empire state build­ing, which remains one of the most famous build­ings on the plan­et, with the new­er addi­tions includ­ing One World Trade Cen­tre (2014) and the edge obser­va­tion deck (2020) com­ing togeth­er to per­fect­ly com­pli­ment the beau­ty of this incred­i­ble sky­line.

These sky­scrap­ers also offer incred­i­ble views out over the sky­line, with the famed obser­va­tion decks of the 86th and 102nd floors of the Empire State build­ing giv­ing explor­ers a chance to not only soak in incred­i­ble views of New York, but also views that stretch across six states into the hori­zon, with sim­i­lar views found atop the obser­va­tion decks of New York’s sky­scrap­ers, with the views from the edge obser­va­tion deck, which allows for peo­ple to step out over the city from 1,100 feet above, being par­tic­u­lar­ly spe­cial.

Along­side tak­ing in the incred­i­ble views from the sky­scrap­ers, the New York sky­line and city is blessed with a series of beau­ti­ful and thrilling icons, with the lights and shops of Times Square, to inspir­ing art in the world class muse­ums of Moma and the MET, to high class plays on Broad­way to the lush green­ery and activ­i­ty hub of Cen­tral Park – ensur­ing that not only are the sky­line of New York blessed with an array of unique icons, but that there’s tru­ly some­thing for every­one to explore in New York.

Amongst these icons also stands the great Brook­lyn bridge – a fan­tas­tic spot for a day walk with stun­ning views of the sky­line, and of course the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty, which is view­able both on the Stat­en Island fer­ry (for free !) and from lib­er­ty island, with the stat­ue stand­ing as not only a reminder of the New York val­ues of free­dom and lib­er­ty, but also serv­ing as one of the great places to take in a panoram­ic view of Man­hat­tan, mak­ing it a tru­ly spe­cial place.

A city also of many nick­names – includ­ing the big apple and Gotham, the New York city sky­line was also the sight of New York’s dark­est hours, with the trag­ic 9/11 attacks which bought down the twin tow­ers for­ev­er chang­ing both Amer­i­ca and course of human his­to­ry, yet it is tes­ta­ment to both the resilience and the deter­mi­na­tion of the cities res­i­dent that out of the dark­ness has risen not just the One World Trade Cen­tre, but a renewed sense of togeth­er­ness and spir­it – which is reflect­ed not just in the incred­i­ble views but in the mag­ic as you won­der New York’s great avenues.

Par­tic­u­lar­ly spe­cial at sun­set, where you get the mag­i­cal effect of the Hud­son and east riv­er glow­ing against the cities sky­line and icons, the view of the sky­line have become syn­ony­mous with beau­ty and romance, and there’s not doubt as you take in the incred­i­ble sky­line from either atop one of New York’s many sky­scrap­ers or from one of the icons of the incred­i­ble city, that the new York Sky­line is a tru­ly mag­i­cal place and one of the world’s great­est won­ders.

Where:

The big apple – New York is found in the North-east­ern cor­ner of Amer­i­ca – being the heart of New York State – and sit­ting on the mouth of famed Hud­son Riv­er. Con­ve­nient­ly it also sits close to a series of oth­er Amer­i­can major cities ‑such as Boston and the cap­i­tal Wash­ing­ton DC mak­ing it incred­i­bly acces­si­ble from both across the Unit­ed States and for trav­el­ers across the globe.

Getting there:

As one of the world’s most famous and icon­ic cities – and sit­u­at­ed as in the cen­tre of New York State, New York – and its incred­i­ble icons and sky­line are incred­i­bly easy to get to and nav­i­gate with their being a range of options for explor­ers to get to this incred­i­ble des­ti­na­tion.

By Flight:

First off for those trav­el­ling both inter­na­tion­al­ly and domes­ti­cal­ly with­in the Unites States, the eas­i­est way to reach New York is by flight – with their being three main air­ports – JFK, Newark and LaGuardia – across New York state and all of which offer easy access into the heart of New York, and which are served by more than 90 dif­fer­ent providers – with there being hun­dreds of flights into New York every week.

For those trav­el­ling inter­na­tion­al­ly you can expect to head into JFK or Newark – which are served by flights from across the globe, with the air­port of LaGuardia oper­at­ing as the main domes­tic ter­mi­nal for those fly­ing from with Amer­i­ca. At either of the three air­ports, you’ll find the immi­gra­tion process incred­i­bly smooth – and there’s a range of options also avail­able from get­ting from the air­port to down­town New York – includ­ing taxi / uber – which you can pre-book or flag down, coach or bus or via the Sub­way which pro­vides a cheap, authen­tic and incred­i­bly reli­ably ser­vice for reach­ing New York to begin your adven­ture.

By Train:

For those trav­el­ling with­in the Unit­ed States and who fan­cy a more scenic, cheap­er and eas­i­er route into New York – there’s the option to grab an Amtrak train – which can drop you off in the heart of New York and into two of the most icon­ic and beau­ti­ful sta­tions in the world – either Grand Cen­tral or Penn Sta­tion.

A great way to trav­el – and favoured by those on a bud­get – the Amtrak between east coast stops – includ­ing Boston, Wash­ing­ton, Philadel­phia and Bal­ti­more has a rep­u­ta­tion for being on time and reli­able – and com­ing with free wifi ! – where as for those who want to reach New York on the Amtrak cross coun­try from fur­ther states such as Chica­go or Flori­da or even from Cana­da – you can expect a cou­ple of delays, so be sure to fac­tor an extra cou­ple of hours into your trip when tak­ing these routes.

A com­fort­able and great way to trav­el – with all the mod cons, Amtrak is also a great way to vis­it a neigh­bour­ing state for the day, with trains depart­ing dai­ly for oth­er states from New York’s sta­tion. For those tak­ing an Amtrak into New York we’d advise to book in advance for cheap­er rates and keep an eye on the weath­er – as trains do get can­celled in the events of heavy snow or hur­ri­canes.

By Bus:

Along­side the Amtrak, you can take advan­tage of the great grey­hound bus ser­vice that oper­ates across Amer­i­ca to reach New York – with this being a rec­om­mend­ed mode of trav­el for those who are reach­ing New York from across the States and don’t fan­cy fly­ing whilst also keep­ing an eye on their bud­get.

Drop­ping you off at the Grey­hound ter­mi­nal on 8th avenue, you’ll find bus ser­vices head to New York from across the coun­try (although con­nec­tions may be required) and the bus­es them­selves offer free wifi, com­fort­able reclin­ing seats and reg­u­lar stops offs along the way – with a trip on the grey­hound being a clas­sic Amer­i­can expe­ri­ence and one that lets you expe­ri­ence part of the great Amer­i­can high­way whilst head­ing into the great city of New York.

Getting around:

Help­ful­ly designed in a large grid – and using the Amer­i­can con­ven­tion of num­ber­ing streets and avenues – the streets of New York are incred­i­bly easy to nav­i­gate – and you’ll also find a range of pub­lic and pri­vate trans­ports at hand to help you get around.

Walking:

Start­ing with our favourite and the eas­i­est way to get around New York, with so many of the cities famous icons grouped togeth­er in down­town Man­hat­tan a walk around New York is a great way to explore the city – and one that lets you take in the mag­ic of New York’s streets as well as you explore such high­lights as fifth avenue, times square and the lights and glam­our of Broad­way.

Along­side being the best way as well to explore the high­lights of Cen­tral Park and the Brook­lyn Bridge, you’ll find the streets in New York wide and accom­mo­dat­ing, but also incred­i­bly busy – so we’d advise those who do work and par­tic­u­lar­ly explor­ers to take on a good pace, and be weary of peo­ple bump­ing into you (you’ll find many peo­ple look­ing at their phones whilst walk­ing) and make sure you stay on the right hand side to fol­low Amer­i­can cus­toms.

A great way to explore the city, you’ll find the whole city and routes mapped out on google maps and some of the sky­scrap­ers – such as the empire state build­ing easy to find – so for those who want to tru­ly explore New York and mar­vel at the incred­i­ble streets and sights explor­ing the city on foot comes high­ly rec­om­mend­ed.

Riding the Subway

An icon of New York – and one of the cheap­est and eas­i­est ways to get around, the New York sub­way oper­ates 24/7 and offers a great option to get to the sights and air­ports quick­ly as well as reach some of far-flung cor­ners of New York.

Oper­at­ing on a tick­et basis ($3 for a sin­gle fare of $10 for a Metro­Card) the New York sub­way once held a rep­u­ta­tion for being a crime hotspot in New York and came with a warn­ing to avoid for explor­ers, but thanks to a series of crime reduc­tion ini­tia­tives and the instal­la­tion of mul­ti­ple CCTV’s the New York sub­way is in gen­er­al safe to ride – although we’d still advise to be on your guard for pick­pock­ets and be sure to stand back from the plat­forms edge – with women in par­tic­u­lar­ly advised not to trav­el by them­selves at night on the sub­way.

A great way to get around and cov­er all of New York on a sched­ule – as well as save mon­ey in com­par­isons to the yel­low taxi a trip on the sub­way is a clas­sic New York expe­ri­ence, and so long as you have your wits about you it’s one that can be real­ly enjoy­able and a great way to get around the city.

By ferry

Often over­looked – a ride on the Stat­en Island fer­ry can be one of the high­lights of New York, with this free boat – which runs 24/7 tak­ing explor­ers on a scenic ride across some of the high­lights of New York City and giv­ing you one of the best view of both the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty, the Brook­lyn bridge and the icon­ic sky­line as you sail from Bat­tery Park, Man­hat­tan to Stat­en Island.

Along­side offer­ing incred­i­ble views – the Stat­en Island fer­ry is also a great way to get around New York – par­tic­u­lar­ly for those who wish to vis­it the island or who are based in Stat­en and fan­cy mak­ing the com­mute to down­town New York – and you’ll find the Stat­en Island fer­ry and a trip on the icon­ic orange boats being a pop­u­lar method of trav­el for many New York­ers dur­ing morn­ing and evening rush hour, so for those who choose to get around New York with a jour­ney on the boat – we’d advise avoid­ing these times if pos­si­ble to get the absolute best expe­ri­ence on this great fer­ry.

Taxi

Final­ly, a true icon of New York – the ‘Yel­low Cab’ has been a hall­mark of New York’s streets for gen­er­a­tions – and makes for a great and easy way to get around the city and reach the heart of New York from across the city. Eas­i­ly found and spot­ted – a cab can be booked in advance, hailed from a series of taxi lines found at the cities air­ports or sim­ply flagged down – and you can expect every cab to come with a meter that shows the cost of your jour­ney, with it being advised to utilise cabs as a mode of trav­el out­side of rush hour to avoid large fares and grid­locked traf­fic.

A great way to get around, New York also has a range of pri­vate car options avail­able in the form of Uber of Lyft – who can offer cheap­er prices but also comes with an ele­ment of risk – so we’d advise being care­ful and avoid­ing late night trips on these apps for sin­gle trav­ellers. A true icon of New York, the avail­abil­i­ty of both the yel­low cabs and hire cars make for a great way to get around, and com­bined with walk­ing, the sub­way and the fer­ry give explor­ers an incred­i­ble range of options to explore the great city of New York.

Best time to Visit:

New York is open 24/7 – with it’s rep­u­ta­tion as being the city that nev­er sleeps being well earned – mean­ing there’s tru­ly no bad time to vis­it the city and you’ll always be spoilt for choice with things to do.

There­fore, we’d advise to time a trip to New York based your pref­er­ences on both the weath­er and bud­get front, as well as along­side any events you wish to take part of – such as the incred­i­ble Hal­loween parade and the New Year’s Ball Drop.

For those who want to enjoy New York in the win­ter – where Hal­loween, Thanks­giv­ing, Christ­mas and New Years are tru­ly mag­i­cal, do be warned that between Novem­ber – Jan­u­ary you can expect tem­per­a­tures in New York to drop towards freez­ing, with the parks and roads cov­ered in snow and ice – mak­ing for a mag­i­cal but incred­i­bly cold peri­od in New York. It’s dur­ing this peri­od as well that you can also expect prices to sky­rock­et for hotels as explor­ers from around the globe flock to New York to enjoy the hol­i­day sea­son.

For those who want a warmer cli­mate – then undoubt­ed­ly sum­mer sea­son, where the base­ball sea­son and sun are in full flow then we’d rec­om­mend com­ing dur­ing May-July, where you’ll get the best of the sum­mer heat­wave and see pleas­ant and warm skies through­out the city – just bear in mind that this may coin­cide with the sum­mer hol­i­days, so again expect crowds galore and prices to be at a pre­mi­um.

For those on a bud­get then we’d rec­om­mend vis­it­ing in either Feb­ru­ary or Sep­tem­ber, where the weath­er is cool­er and the crowds from either win­ter or sum­mer have dis­ap­peared – giv­ing you the best of low­er prices and min­i­mal crowds, although dur­ing this time you can also expect a reduc­tion in events and some of the sea­son­al mag­ic of New York to be absent.

So there’s real­ly no bad time to vis­it New York – if you’re com­ing for the mag­ic of the hol­i­days then we’d advise being here for Christ­mas and New Years and brav­ing the cold, if you’re inter­est­ed in a warm expe­ri­ence with the hus­tle and bus­tle of New York at its peak then head here in the sum­mer, and if you’d rather expe­ri­ence New York with few­er crowds and on a bud­get then Sep­tem­ber or Feb­ru­ary is for you.

Explore:

Com­ing for the icon­ic and breath-tak­ing con­crete jun­gle of the New York City Sky­line – and stay­ing to enjoy the sights and won­ders of the Big Apple, New York is tru­ly a hell of a town, that fea­tures some­thing for every­one – with the panoram­ic ele­vat­ed view­points found atop the famed empire state build­ing, One World Trade Cen­tre and at the top of the rock afford­ing panoram­ic views out over one of the most famous, action packed and stun­ning cities on the plan­et.

Com­bined with the expe­ri­ence of explor­ing the icons of New York City – includ­ing the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty, Cen­tral Park, Broad­way and Times Square amongst oth­ers – and pon­der­ing the beau­ty and mean­ing of art at the city’s world class muse­ums and New York is tru­ly a city that dreams are made of.

To help you get the best expe­ri­ence – and enjoy the full flavour of the big apple – we’ve round­ed up not only the best and most icon­ic places to soak in the sky­line of New York and all it’s incred­i­ble icons but also our top picks for the sights to explore and pon­der as you get lost in the true fairy-tale that is New York City.

Skyline Views

Start­ing with the breath-tak­ing views over the city’s icon­ic sky­line and you’ll find incred­i­ble spots all around the city – both ele­vat­ed, from the floor and even on the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and Hud­son Riv­er – from which to soak in New York’s many famed Sky­scrap­ers and with views which on a clear day can stretch over six states into the stun­ning hori­zon.

Par­tic­u­lar­ly spe­cial towards sun­set – where the Man­hat­tan sky glows before New York’s nightlife begins, the best spots in our view lie at the top of some of the best icon­ic – and tallest build­ings in the world, includ­ing the mighty empire state build­ing, the one world obser­va­to­ry and Rockefeller’s Top of the Rock, and while a trip up to the top of one of the obser­va­tion decks on one of these archi­tec­tur­al won­ders will test your fear of heights – the won­der of star­ing out over the city’s immense sky­line is tru­ly one of the great­est expe­ri­ences on the plan­et.

So, in no par­tic­u­lar order, these are our top picks for where to get the best breath-tak­ing views out over the con­crete won­der­land of the New York City sky­line:

One World Observatory

The tallest build­ing in both the Unit­ed States and the West­ern Hemi­sphere, the view from the obser­va­tion deck of the one world trade cen­tre– found atop the 100th 101st and 102nd floors which stand 1776 feet above the city below is tru­ly spe­cial – as you take in panoram­ic views out over the sky­scrap­ers of the city – includ­ing the empire state and Rock­e­feller build­ings, over Cen­tral Park and beyond the Hud­son into the hori­zon.

Stand­ing next to where the Twin Tow­ers once stood and next to the two pooled 9/11 memo­r­i­al – which we’d encour­age any explor­er to vis­it, the One World Trade Cen­tre is also known as the ‘Free­dom Tow­er’ in recog­ni­tion of what stood here before it, with the square base of the one world trade cen­tre con­struct­ed to be the exact same height of the orig­i­nal twin tow­ers.

Con­struct­ed over the course of 7 years, the One World Trade Cen­tre has not only the obser­va­tion deck on it’s upper floors, but also 69 lev­els of offices – and a fine din­ing restau­rant locat­ed on its upper floors, where along­side sam­pling the best of New York Cui­sine you can also enjoy your meal tak­ing in the views over the beau­ti­ful city from more than 1,100 feet high being par­tic­u­lar­ly spe­cial.

A pop­u­lar spot – and one we’d advise buy­ing tick­ets for in advance, the one world trade cen­tre also offers a glimpse through New York’s past, with the ele­va­tor that takes you to the view­ing plat­forms being par­tic­u­lar spe­cial – as when you ascend towards the heav­ens of the view­ing plat­form the high-speed ele­va­tor treats you to a pan­elled show high­light­ing how New York Sky­line has devel­oped into the icon it is today – and help­ing you to appre­ci­ate the true won­der that awaits you as you gaze out over the won­der of New York City.

Edge Observation Deck

Into the Sky and out of the World – the view from the Edge obser­va­tion deck is sim­ply breath-tak­ing and the per­fect spot to cap­ture not only the icon­ic shot of New York’s sky­line, but for those who dare it step out over the city – as you take on either the city climb, or the see-through glass plat­form and look down on the city below for a tru­ly birds eye view.

An archi­tec­tur­al feat – and offi­cial­ly the cur­rent high­est out­door obser­va­tion deck in the West­ern Hemi­sphere, Edge of course comes com­plete with an indoor bar with panoram­ic views of the sky­line, and thanks to the per­fect design of the tow­er and the posi­tion of the view­ing plat­form it’s a per­fect place to come and watch the sun­set over the city below.

A spot where advance tick­ets are rec­om­mend­ed, you can also expect a cou­ple of lay­ers of secu­ri­ty before you enter into the ele­va­tor – but as you ascend up the ele­va­tor and step out onto the unique view­ing plat­form the view is tru­ly spe­cial and you can soak in this incred­i­ble sky­line of New York City for both a spe­cial moment and one of the most icon­ic and mag­i­cal sky­line pho­tographs on the plan­et.

The Empire State Building

An icon and one of the most famous build­ings on the plan­et, the 381-metre-tall Empire State Build­ing has stood since its open­ing in 1931 as one of New York Sky­lines true Jew­els and con­tin­ues to inspire, amaze and delight with not just its his­to­ry and star­ring role in Hol­ly­wood pro­duc­tions but also thanks to the incred­i­ble views you’ll find from both the 86th and 102nd floor Obser­va­to­ries.

Once the tallest build­ing in the world when it was con­struct­ed, the Empire State Build­ing was con­struct­ed in just 20 months – and along­side the famed scaf­fold­ing pho­to of its work­ers enjoy­ing their lunch – the view from the two obser­va­to­ries one on the 86th floor and one on the 102nd Floor are tru­ly mes­meris­ing – afford­ing views out over the city’s sky­line and the icons of New York City, the view from the Empire State is tru­ly spe­cial – with the view on a clear day allow­ing you to see as far as six states (New York, New Jer­sey, Penn­syl­va­nia, Con­necti­cut, Mass­a­chu­setts, and Delaware).

A roman­tic spot – and one syn­ony­mous with pro­pos­als – such is the beau­ty of the view, we’d advise book­ing in advance, and for those who’ve opt­ed to take in the sun­set view over the Sky­line from a dif­fer­ent spot head­ing to the empire state first thing in the morn­ing is well advised if you want to enjoy the incred­i­ble views with­out the crowds.

A true icon and an immense spe­cial place, the incred­i­ble views over the New York City Sky­line from atop the empire state are post­card per­fect, and as you stand atop this famous build­ing and look out over the mar­vel of the New York City Sky­line, there’s no doubt that the stun­ning sweep­ing vista before you is a true won­der of the world.

Top of the Rock Observation Deck

Found in one of the icons of New York – the impos­ing Rock­e­feller Cen­tre – to head to the free floors – some 68, 69 and 70 sto­ries up to the top of rock is a sur­re­al and awe-inspir­ing – with the view­ing plat­forms offer­ing incred­i­ble views out over the Sky­line and the icons of New York – and best of all along­side the indoor view­ing plat­forms – the out­door bal­conies are com­posed entire­ly of glass giv­ing you not only clear views but an great spot to shoot unob­struct­ed views over the entire won­der of the sky­line.

The top of the rock obser­va­tion deck – which you’ll need to buy tick­ets for in advance start­ing from $34 USD – also fea­tures incred­i­ble panoram­ic 360 views over the whole of the city, and is also the place to come to come to see the whole of Cen­tral Park – with the view of the full park laid out before you in what has become an icon­ic view of New York.

Along­side the views from the top – which thanks to the 360 degree views are par­tic­u­lar­ly spe­cial at sun­set, you’ll also find the Rock­e­feller Cen­tre one of the hubs of New York’s Christ­mas activ­i­ty in the win­ter – with the base of the cen­tre com­ing alive in fes­tive cheers with a tow­er­ing Christ­mas tree and a jol­ly ice skat­ing rink – which com­bined with the stun­ning views from the obser­va­tion deck at its peak makes the Rock­e­feller Cen­tre one of New York’s must expe­ri­ence attrac­tions.

The Brooklyn Bridge

Once the longest sus­pen­sion bridge in the world – and now stand­ing tall as one of the most icon­ic and pho­tographed bridges in the world, the Brook­lyn Bridge is not only an incred­i­ble bridge to walk and jour­ney across – as you watch the New York Traf­fic jour­ney on below you – but with views stretch­ing across Low­er Man­hat­tan, the East Riv­er and out over the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty to the New York Sky­line – it’s also one of the best – and free places in new York to soak in the stun­ning sky­line.

Built in 1883, and stretch­ing for some 1,595 feet – a walk or cycle across the Brook­lyn Bridge has become a sta­ple of any explo­ration of New York, and you’ll find a jour­ney across the bridge a thrilling expe­ri­ence as you head out over a wood­en walk­way under­neath the sus­pen­sion cables and arch­ways of this famous mon­u­ment and admire mul­ti­ple stun­ning views laid out before you.

A charm­ing spot – we’d advise tak­ing on the walk either at mid­day – when you’ll find the foot traf­fic and cyclists at a min­i­mum for a leisure­ly stroll across the bridge, or at an hour before sun­set – where if you’re lucky you can admire the beau­ty of not only the Brook­lyn Bridge but also the incred­i­ble spec­ta­cle of the the New York sky­line light­ing up before you – for a tru­ly spe­cial moment.

Brooklyn Heights Promenade

Across the East Riv­er lies the quaint and upscale area of Brook­lyn Heights – whose famed peace­ful prom­e­nade leads you not only along the incred­i­ble riv­er but offers an absolute­ly stun­ning view out over the Man­hat­tan Sky­line, the Brook­lyn Bridge and the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty – for a full-scale panoram­ic view of the incred­i­ble new York Sky­line.

Eas­i­ly reach­able on the sub­way or by jour­ney­ing over the Brook­lyn Bridge from Down­town New York, Brook­lyn Heights is the res­i­den­tial choice of place for the top stars and some of New York’s most famous sons – and for good rea­son with the Heights offer­ing not only stun­ning views over the Sky­line on its prom­e­nade and fea­tur­ing some of the best and his­toric home archi­tec­ture in all of Amer­i­ca.

A beau­ti­ful – and com­plete­ly free – spot to soak in the sky­line, the views are stun­ning in both the day and night, but for a tru­ly extra spe­cial expe­ri­ence we’d advise com­ing here dur­ing the Autumn if pos­si­ble, where you can enjoy the mag­i­cal walk along the prom­e­nade dur­ing the chang­ing of the leaves on the sur­round­ing trees – which pro­vides a per­fect back­drop to take in mag­i­cal views of New York’s fab­u­lous sky­line.

Staten Island Ferry

New York’s best kept secret for tak­ing in stun­ning views of the incred­i­ble sky­line – and com­plete­ly free – the Stat­en Island fer­ry is 24/7 fer­ry ser­vice that takes explor­ers and locals on a jour­ney through the sights – and sounds of New York along the Upper New York Bay from the White­hall Fer­ry Ter­mi­nal in Man­hat­tan to the St. George Fer­ry Ter­mi­nal in Stat­en Island.

Last­ing approx­i­mate­ly 25 min­utes, you can expect a jour­ney on one of the 117 dai­ly trip on the famed big orange boat to give you full panoram­ic views of some of New York’s icons – includ­ing the Brook­lyn bridge, the one world trade cen­tre and a full shot of the sky­line from across the bay itself. But the real high­light of any Stat­en Island boat jour­ney is the view of the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty – as the boat cruis­es past the tow­er­ing lady in all her glo­ry giv­ing you a tru­ly mag­nif­i­cent view of this Amer­i­can icon set against the sky­line of New York city, for an awe-inspir­ing view.

For those tak­ing a ride on the fer­ry, we’d advise mak­ing sure you avoid rush hour – as it is a pop­u­lar choice of trav­el amongst locals, result­ing in packed fer­ries dur­ing rush hour, and be sure to not in any way pay for tick­ets as scam­mers are known to pray on tourists offer­ing to sell them tick­ets. Instead for a more enjoy­able expe­ri­ence we’d rec­om­mend tak­ing in the sights just after 10am dur­ing the day or to enjoy a bit of New York’s mag­ic hop­ping on the fer­ry light at night – where you can wit­ness the stat­ue of Lib­er­ty and the Sky­line light up – just be warned any Fer­ry expe­ri­ence requires you to dis­em­bark and re-board to return to your start­ing point – mean­ing that you get to take in these incred­i­ble sights twice !

See New York By Helicopter

For those who can’t get enough of see­ing New York from the stun­ning obser­va­tion decks – you can go one step fur­ther and get a true birds eye view over the whole of the incred­i­ble sky­line with a range of com­pa­nies offer­ing heli­copter tours out over the whole of the city, the Hud­son, the Brook­lyn bridge and as far as the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty – where you can soak in all of the incred­i­ble van­tage points over the mag­nif­i­cent sky­line for a thrilling expe­ri­ence.

Expect most heli­copter tours to last 30 – 40 min­utes and you’re look­ing at around $200 a tick­et for starters, but the views – which come absent the crowds you’ll expe­ri­ence at oth­er sky­line van­tage points – are tru­ly spe­cial and afford you mul­ti­ple panoram­ic pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties out over not just the icon­ic spots of New York’s famed sky­line – but also take you to across the whole of Man­hat­tan where you can cap­ture the ful­ly beau­ty of the island from above.

We’d encour­age you to do your research on the tour you go with – as some heli­copter tours are known to have cramped pas­sen­ger con­di­tions – as well as a mid­dle seat where unlucky indi­vid­u­als are left with­out a win­dow to look out of, and pay close atten­tion to the weath­er as well before book­ing – as New York weath­er can be unpre­dictable – but for those who dare and get the thrilling and unique expe­ri­ence of fly­ing over and soak­ing in the incred­i­ble New York Sky­line from above, this is tru­ly a spe­cial moment – and one that will afford you the absolute best views of the won­der of New York’s incred­i­ble sky­line.

The Icons of New York

While the stun­ning sky­line of New York is undoubt­ed­ly a won­der of the world –there’s no bet­ter way to tru­ly appre­ci­ate the icons that stand proud on this sky­line than get­ting up close and per­son­al with them and jour­ney­ing across the won­der of New York to explore all the mag­ic and sights that this famed town has to offer.

An oasis of activ­i­ties, sights, and adven­tures – New York has some­thing for every­one dur­ing the day whether pound­ing through 5th avenue look­ing for the lat­est style, explor­ing the best of Art in the many muse­ums or sim­ply strolling through green and won­der of Cen­tral Park, with the evening see­ing the bright lights of Broad­way and Times Square com­ing alive and adding real mag­ic to the night to make one hell of a town.

Com­bine all this of course with the famed 24/7 food – includ­ing the famous Nathans Hot Dogs, high end restau­rants and of course the famous New York Slice – and it’s easy to get lost in the won­der of New York’s streets. So to make sure any trip to New York gets you not just to the peak of the tow­er­ing sky­scrap­ers for the immense views, we’ve picked out our favourite spots that give you a true taste of the big apple:

Central Park

The lungs of this incred­i­ble city – the mighty Cen­tral Park is one of the start attrac­tions of the Big Apple – with the lush green­ery and gar­dens, which occu­py 693 acres of incred­i­ble New York land, being home to man­made hills, forests, lakes, sculp­tures, foun­tains and some of the best hik­ing and walk­ing park expe­ri­ences on the plan­et – with more than 50 miles of stun­ning treks avail­able through the park to help you tru­ly dis­cov­er the calm and qui­et nature won­der­land of Cen­tral Park.

Stretch­ing from the North of 110th street down to 59th street and across from 8th to 5th Avenue, Cen­tral Park has also expand­ed to become not just a lush green par­adise to for­get and relax from the hus­tle and bus­tle of the city – but has also become home to some of New York’s top sights – includ­ing the Cen­tral Park Zoo – where you’ll find a col­lec­tion of curi­ous pen­guins, the Jack­ie Kennedy Onas­sis Reser­voir – which makes for an excel­lent jog­ging spot – and for the Bea­t­les fans the trib­ute to John Lennon in the form of the Straw­ber­ry fields for­ev­er mon­u­ment – which tends to com­plete with local buskers blast­ing out ‘imag­ine’ in 5 minute inter­vals.

The park is open year-round – and while it’s beau­ti­ful in Sum­mer and fall – where there leaves trans­form to park into a kalei­do­scope of brown and red cre­at­ing a spec­tac­u­lar sight, it’s also par­tic­u­lar­ly spe­cial in the win­ter where deep snow cre­ates a fes­tive atmos­phere and the open­ing of the ice rink adds to the Christ­mas joy.

Offi­cial­ly the worlds most filmed loca­tion, Cen­tral Park tru­ly lives up to its rep­u­ta­tion as being one of the world’s great­est parks and is a fan­tas­tic place to come for a walk, run or cycle and pro­vides an incred­i­ble spot of green­ery amongst the con­crete jun­gle of New York that can’t be missed.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral

With its mighty Bronze doors and inspir­ing goth­ic design St Patricks Cathe­dral sits on 5th Avenue and stands as a tow­er­ing mon­u­ment as a sym­bol of New York’s faith, iden­ti­ty and ever evolv­ing his­to­ry.

Con­struct­ed in 1879 – and hav­ing been main­tained and upgrad­ed through the years, the Cathe­dral invokes true spir­i­tu­al­i­ty with its unique mar­ble exte­ri­or and 330-foot spires that ascend into the New York sky being a fas­ci­nat­ing piece of archi­tec­ture — matched only by its inte­ri­or, where the rose win­dows which depict famous saints and sto­ries of Christ lead­ing believ­ers up towards the great organ and the inspi­ra­tional gold­en altar stands as a fit­ting trib­ute to faith.

A place of peace and reflec­tion, the cathe­dral sees mass cel­e­brat­ed sev­en times a dau dur­ing the week (7:00 AM, 7:30, 8:00, 12:00 Noon, 12:30, 1:00 and at 5:30 PM) and three times on a Sat­ur­day (8:00 AM, 12:00 & 5:30 PM) and eight times on a Sun­day (7:00 AM, 8:00, 9:00, 10:15 AM, 12:00, 1:00, 4:00 PM, 5:30 PM) and you can expect a mass to last between 25 min­utes to an hour – with the cathe­dral also host­ing con­fes­sion, bap­tisms, con­fir­ma­tion – and for tru­ly spe­cial occa­sions wed­dings – with the recep­tions and ser­vices being open to all, with the cathe­dral per­fect­ly embody­ing New York’s diverse and mul­ti-cul­tured her­itage and present.

The final rest­ing place of some of New York’s most famous sons, saints and holi­est patrons, the beau­ti­ful archi­tec­ture com­bined with the deep spir­i­tu­al pres­ence felt inside St Patricks Cathe­dral makes it one of the most spe­cial and beau­ti­ful places in this incred­i­ble city.

Grand Central Station

A true des­ti­na­tion in New York – the icon­ic Grand Cen­tral Sta­tion is not only one of the world’s most famous and busiest train sta­tions, but with its Grand Stair­case, speakeasies, whis­per­ing gal­leries, restau­rants and of course its famous Main Con­course it’s an attrac­tion and sight in itself.

Opened in 1913, Grand Cen­tral Sta­tion was once was once the peak of lux­u­ry and New York Wealth – when train trav­el was con­sid­ered an exclu­sive club, and you can see these prin­ci­ples in its unique archi­tec­ture and design, with the exte­ri­or designed in a beau­ti­ful Beaux Arts archi­tec­tur­al style – and the inte­ri­or – with its famed design hav­ing gained a rep­u­ta­tion as being one of the most beau­ti­ful and well-designed of any train sta­tions on the plan­et.

A place to avoid dur­ing the morn­ing and evening rush hour owing to the queues and high vol­ume of com­muters, we’d rec­om­mend mak­ing time to explore the main con­course from atop the giant stair­case – from where you can get a panoram­ic view out over the whole of the con­course and take in the paint­ed restored ceil­ing above you – which is meant to rep­re­sent a series of astrol­o­gy sym­bols – although comes with a view inac­cu­ra­cies!

Found on the cor­ner of park avenue and 42nd Street, grand cen­tral sta­tion also fea­tures a series of shops, restau­rants and a charm­ing speak easy bar known as the Camp­bell, with the small area near the Oys­ter Bar also being home to one of the sta­tions secrets – the intrigu­ing whis­per­ing gallery – where due to a feat of engi­neer­ing you can have a whis­pered con­ver­sa­tion with some­one 30 feet away from you be speak­ing into the wall – it sounds bizarre but it’s great fun !

Undoubt­ed­ly an icon of New York – and the scene of many films – the untouch­ables amongst them, Grand Cen­tral Sta­tion makes for not only a great place to under­take a jour­ney but to explore as one of the jew­els of New York.

9/11 Museum and Memorial

Pay­ing respect to New York’s dark­est day and the vic­tims and heroes of America’s most trag­ic loss of life, the Sep­tem­ber the 11th Memo­r­i­al and Muse­um stands as a fit­ting trib­ute and emo­tion­al and edu­ca­tion­al mark of respect to the almost 3,000 indi­vid­u­als – and the 6 indi­vid­u­als in 1993 who lost who lost their lives at the World Trade Cen­tres.

Start­ing with the Muse­um, which lies on the site of the for­mer twin tow­ers site, you’ll find your­self descend­ing down a ramp and across a bridge – designed to sym­bol­ise the link between New York’s past and future and into a below ground muse­um – where a series of exhi­bi­tions, arti­facts and per­son­al sto­ries that take you through the true sto­ry of events on that fate­ful day.

A con­tem­pla­tive and emo­tion­al expe­ri­ence, that acknowl­edges both the hor­ror and loss of the attacks on the Twin Tow­ers and invites indi­vid­u­als to recall both the events of the day and where they were on that Sep­tem­ber morn­ing, as well as offer­ing hope for the future and serv­ing as a poignant reminder and edu­ca­tion­al expe­ri­ence in the hope that such hor­rors remain in the past.

Out­side the 9/11 muse­um you’ll also find the 9/11 memo­r­i­al – which con­sists of two twin reflect­ing pools and which offers a fit­ting trib­ute to the fall­en. With the two twin pools – which are etched with the names of every indi­vid­ual who lost their life — being the largest man­made water­falls in North Amer­i­ca and with an almost end­less sup­ply of water being a fit­ting trib­ute to ensure the inno­cent peo­ple who lost their lives in the ter­ror attacks are nev­er for­got­ten.

An emo­tion­al place – the reflec­tion pool is par­tic­u­lar­ly spe­cial to vis­it in the evening, where against the back­drop of tall trees and the moon light it lights up and stands as a bea­con of hope out of the ash­es of one of the dark­est days of New York.

Broadway

Feel­ing the mag­ic on Broad­way – a chance to catch a spell-bind­ing per­for­mance of some of the best plays on the plan­ets led by an array of famed and world class actors is one of the true high­lights of New York’s night-time scene – and there’s no bet­ter place to do this than down on Broad­way.

A spot whose rep­u­ta­tion lives up to its billing, you’ll find Broad­way in mid-town Man­hat­tan and off Time Square (between 41st and 54th Street) and along­side the flash­ing lights of New York’s most famous Square you can expect the bill­boards and lights of the plays along Broad­way to beck­on you towards the the­atre for a tru­ly spe­cial per­for­mance.

Fea­tur­ing a range of top qual­i­ty plays – from Har­ry Pot­ter to clas­sics such as to kill a mock­ing­bird, there’s some­thing for every­one at Broad­way to enjoy, just be sure to bring a dig­i­tal copy of your tick­et, and for those want­i­ng to enjoy the more pop­u­lar plays – fea­tur­ing the biggest stars – be sure to book well in advance as tick­et do sell out months before­hand – with the chance to wit­ness the true won­der and enter­tain­ment of a Broad­way play being one of the most spe­cial and mag­i­cal expe­ri­ences in New York – and one not to miss out on.

The MET — The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The MET – New York’s cul­ture and artis­tic home is not only one of the most famed muse­ums on the plan­et, but a tru­ly stun­ning spec­ta­cle that allows explores to won­der at more than 2 mil­lion pieces of awe-inspir­ing art that stretch back across six thou­sand years of his­to­ry for a tru­ly thought pro­vok­ing and inspi­ra­tional expe­ri­ence.

Stretched across three sep­a­rate sites, the hall­mark of the MET is found on 5th avenue – and you’ll find the build­ing itself a stun­ning spec­ta­cle – with the famed goth­ic tiered steps leav­ing you breath­less (in more ways than one) and lead­ing you up towards the three arch­ways and the entrance – that takes you inside the great and gold­en hall of this stun­ning muse­um.

Inside you’ll find exhi­bi­tions and art galore, with the Tem­ple of Den­dur – the more than two thou­sand year old Tem­ple that stand ful­ly com­plete being a par­tic­u­lar high­light as well as the focus on the his­to­ry of Amer­i­ca, includ­ing the evo­lu­tion of arms and armours over the course of America’s bloody past and the move­ment from con­tem­po­rary to mod­ern art – all of which can leave you fas­ci­nat­ed and in awe of the true beau­ty of the MET.

A beau­ti­ful and pop­u­lar place, we’d advise either tak­ing advan­tage of the ear­ly doors VIP tour – which lim­its the atten­dants at the muse­um to 25 or get­ting there at open­ing time (10am) to enjoy the best expe­ri­ence – as you can expect crowds to begin flock­ing in at mid­day – par­tic­u­lar­ly dur­ing the week­end and hol­i­day peri­od, as for us the true beau­ty of this stun­ning art and his­to­ry with­in this mag­nif­i­cent tem­ple can only tru­ly be enjoyed with­out the rush of the crowd.

Fifth Avenue

Millionaire’s Row – and the gate­keep­er of New Yorks most pop­u­lar sights – the grand fifth avenue stretch­es across the whole of Man­hat­tan from North to South and has a well-earned rep­u­ta­tion as being the most pricey and pre­mier shop­ping area in the whole of Amer­i­ca – with the street see­ing top stores from the well known design­ers – includ­ing Bergdorf-Good­man (of invent­ing Anna Fame), Carti­er and Tiffany – offer­ing explor­ers a chance to indulge in lux­u­ry in the heart of the big Apple.

But the flag­ship store – and the one we’d advise pop­ping into if you come to New York for the shop­ping is the flag­ship Apple Store, which sits oppo­site Cen­tral Park and is house in a glass clear dome – a true archi­tec­tur­al feat and which best of all offers free wifi for those explor­ers who need to plan their next stop.

A spe­cial avenue where you can taste the true mag­ic of New York, Fifth Avenue is also a great avenue to walk along and you can expect to see some of New York’s famous icons on any stroll down 5th Avenue, with not only Cen­tral Park, but also New York’s Pub­lic Library, the goth­ic archi­tec­ture of St Patricks cathe­dral, the MET and even the Empire State Build­ing all lying off one of the most famous streets in Amer­i­ca – the mighty fifth avenue.

The MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art )

New York’s oth­er artis­tic mas­ter­piece – the great muse­um of mod­ern art (The MoMA) is a col­lec­tion of five floors of inspir­ing and famed art – fea­tur­ing some of the world’s most well-known and cel­e­brat­ed artists – includ­ing Van Gough, Picas­so and Rem­brandt — as well as thought pro­vok­ing and inspir­ing mod­ern and abstract art and a series of con­tem­po­rary exhi­bi­tions – all of which com­bines to form one of the most beau­ti­ful col­lec­tions of Art on the plan­et.

Found in the heart of Mid­town Man­hat­tan off the cor­ner of 49th street, you’ll need to have tick­ets booked well in advance – and we’d advise head­ing straight to the 5th floor – where some of the most famous art awaits, with Van Gough’s Star­ry Night, Monet’s water lil­ly, Picasso’s Les Demoi­selles d’Av­i­gnon and even Dalai’s melt­ing clocks all on dis­play here – giv­ing you a chance to mar­vel at some of the most famed and inspir­ing pieces on the plan­et.

Along­side the mas­ter­pieces on the 5th floor, you’ll find sculp­tures, films and exhi­bi­tions spread out across the rest of the three floors – with the expres­sion­ist arts on the 3rd floor and the films on the sec­ond always a real treat – as you case and won­der at the more than 200,00 pieces of art from across the cen­turies in this true palace of expres­sion­ism.

Com­plete with a gift shop and café, to be aware of Moma’s strange pol­i­cy of only allow­ing peo­ple to wear bags on their front before you arrive – some­thing that is rig­or­ous­ly enforced across the 5 floors of the muse­um – and we’d also advise com­ing on a week­day ear­ly in the morn­ing to give you the head start on the crowds and to allow you enough time and peace to enjoy the tru­ly spe­cial works of art that sit with­in the MoMA.

New York Public library

Even the libraries in New York are Spe­cial – with the New York Pub­lic library and specif­i­cal­ly the 5th avenue branch hav­ing been home for the last cen­tu­ry to more than 54 Mil­lion unique items, includ­ing mil­lions of books, a trea­sure trove of maps and some of the great­est read­ing halls and study­ing rooms in any library.

Best reached on fifth avenue where you’ll ascend a mar­ble stair­case and pass two lion stat­ues, before enter­ing into the famed Astor Hall – whose tow­er­ing ceil­ing and spa­cious lay­out makes for a great place to relax and read – with the books in the library being free to read and bor­row for any­one who has a book card at the library and you’re of course wel­come to bring your own.

For those want­i­ng to take in the beau­ty of the library – you can qui­et­ly move into the Dewitt Wal­lace Peri­od­i­cal Room with it’s quaint and beau­ti­ful murals and ceil­ing as well in tak­ing in the vis­i­tor the­atre – where exhi­bi­tions and videos explor­ing the his­to­ry and rev­er­ence of the library are on con­stant dis­play – before ascend­ing up a fur­ther series of mar­ble steps to the sec­ond floor.

Up on the sec­ond floor you can take in the Jill Kupin Rose Gallery – where key arti­facts about the library await you and make your way to our favourite spot in the library the McGraw Rotun­da room – whose stun­ning ceil­ing is a tru­ly beau­ti­ful spot to be hold and pho­to­graph, and encom­pass­es all that’s great about this incred­i­ble library – before head­ing to the rose main read­ing room ‑where you can either set­tle down with a good book or sim­ply admire the beau­ty of the library before – just be sure to do so in silence.

A true icon of New York – and one that has fea­tured con­sis­tent­ly in Hol­ly­wood, with star­ring roles in Ghost­busters, sex and the city and the Day after Tomor­row bond film among oth­ers, the New York Pub­lic library is a pop­u­lar place, but for those who wish to come here to enjoy a read or sim­ple reflect on both this beau­ti­ful build­ing and them­selves you are free to do so – with the Library, like New York, being for every­one and being one of the tru­ly spe­cial spots in this incred­i­ble city.

The Statue of Liberty & Visit Ellis Island

The bea­con of hope, promise and Amer­i­can democ­ra­cy, Lady Lib­er­ty stands proud on Lib­er­ty Island look­ing and watch­ing over the beau­ti­ful city of New York and stand­ing as one of America’s – and the worlds — most famous Icon and the worlds most endur­ing sym­bol of Free­dom.

Con­struct­ed in 1886, the stat­ue was designed by Frédéric Barthol­di and Gus­tave Eif­fel and stands on Lib­er­ty Island at 151 feet tall perched on a pedestal – with the stat­ue, which was a gift from the French Peo­ple to Amer­i­ca, hold­ing a tablet inscribed with the date of America’s inde­pen­dence in roman numer­als in her left hand and of course hold­ing the torch and flame of Free­dom in her right – as a true bas­tion of free­dom.

Eas­i­ly reach­able from New York Har­bour on a boat – explor­ers have the chance to not only take in stun­ning views of the Stat­ue from the Brook­lyn Bridge, the Stat­en Island Fer­ry and from across New York but also explore Lib­er­ty Island and the stat­ue up close – with explor­ers able to trav­el from Bat­tery Park in down­town Man­hat­tan to the island to take in up close views of both the Stat­ue and views of down­town Man­hat­tan from the Island – with explor­ers also able to ascend the 215 steps to the pedestal or even the fur­ther 162 steps from the pedestal to the crown of the Stat­ue for stun­ning views out over the island and into Man­hat­tan.

While at the stat­ue we’d also advise mak­ing time to vis­it Ellis Island – which is includ­ed in all tick­ets to the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty — with Ellis island hav­ing once been the first port of call for immi­grants com­ing to Amer­i­can to make this land their home, and now being a fas­ci­nat­ing muse­um full of inter­ac­tive exhi­bi­tions which allow explor­ers to trace their fam­i­ly routes across gen­er­a­tions and to the arrival halls and pro­cess­ing cen­tre on Ellis Island, for an immer­sive look back through time.

For those head­ing to the stat­ue and Ellis Island, we’d real­ly advise book­ing well in advance and if pos­si­ble tim­ing your adven­ture for a week­day ear­ly in the morn­ing, as you can expect crowds to form, espe­cial­ly dur­ing week­ends and pub­lic hol­i­days, but for those who get the chance to vis­it these true icons, you can expect the val­ues of Amer­i­ca – and Lady Lib­er­ty to be dis­played in all their glo­ry.

Times Square (Including New Year’s Eve)

The daz­zling lights of New York – and one of the main rea­sons the city earns its rep­u­ta­tion as being a city that nev­er sleeps, Times Square stands in con­trast from the day to the night – with the day­time offer­ing explor­ers the chance to won­der around the many shops (includ­ing the M & M store, Dis­ney Store and many sou­venir stores) and snack at the many restau­rants in the square (includ­ing Bub­ba Gump, the Hard Rock Café and of course the many fast food out­lets) – before the night takes over, where you can tru­ly enjoy the famed Neon Signs that stand at each end of the square, go to a tap­ing of the dai­ly enter­tain­ment shows, take in a Broad­way play or sim­ply mar­vel at the elec­tric and mag­ic atmos­phere in this incred­i­ble square.

A true place that cap­tures the famed hus­tle and bus­tle of New York – not least because of the seem­ing­ly end­less traf­fic jams and yel­low cabs you’ll find on the square’s roads – Times Square is also the home of one of the most enjoy­able and famed fes­ti­vals in the world, with the icon­ic New Years eve cel­e­bra­tion being cel­e­brat­ed here ever year. A fan­tas­tic way to ring in the New Years, you can expect not only to see the descend­ing of Times Square’s famed crys­tal ball over the square, a col­lec­tion of musi­cal acts, the famous dick Clark rock an eve cel­e­bra­tion – and of course con­fet­ti and fire­works galore – for a tru­ly spe­cial occa­sion in one of the most spe­cial places on the plan­et.

Along­side the shops, restau­rants, and mag­i­cal atmos­phere in the square, for those who want to soak in this incred­i­ble square and of course snap an icon­ic pho­to – you’ll find perched and ele­vat­ed plat­forms across the square, where you can admire the view – and the traf­fic that has remained con­stant since the squares incep­tion in 1904 and which along with the many events, char­ac­ters and of course peo­ple who flock to this famous square make it one of the most icon­ic and mag­i­cal spots in New York.

Indulge in New York’s best Flavours

The taste of New York is a true treat, from grab­bing a clas­sic New York slice to eat­ing out at some of the best restau­rants on the plan­et – New York tru­ly has it all, and no trip to this incred­i­ble city would be com­plete with­out indulging and sam­pling some of the city’s most famous flavours.

Start­ing with the icon­ic, grab­bing a slice of a New York Piz­za should be on everyone’s list (and lips) dur­ing any trip to New York – and you’ll be spoilt for choice both in terms of flavours and where to pick up a slice, with Lombardi’s – believed to be America’s first pizze­ria restau­rant and Patsy’s which is a pre-world war II pizze­ria both offer­ing the clas­sic flavour, while Roberta’s, Prince Street Piz­za and Paulie Gee’s all offer up a deli­cious slice and are well wroth a vis­it.

Along­side grab­bing a slice, we’d advise mak­ing time to vis­it or order a take­away from Katz’s Del­i­catessen, which is found on Hous­ton St and along­side being a clas­sic New York Jew­ish Deli, this small but cosy deli fea­tures some of the best cuts of meat on the plan­et, with the pas­tra­mi on Rye sand­wich hav­ing a well-earned rep­u­ta­tion as one of the best sand­wich­es in New York and is some­thing we’d rec­om­mend every explor­er try when vis­it­ing New York.

Along­side the oth­er clas­sics – includ­ing grab­bing a pret­zel from Aun­tie Anne’s, dumplings from Chi­na­town, and ice cream from the Brook­lyn Ice Cream Fac­to­ry, we’d also advise mak­ing time to vis­it the home of the orig­i­nal Nathan’s hot dog – found in the coney island neigh­bour­hood – and from where you can enjoy this clas­sic New York snack while gaz­ing out over the beau­ty of Man­hat­tan and the true won­der of the world that is the sky­line of New York City.

How long to stay

The city that nev­er sleeps – New York is a true oasis of activ­i­ty and enter­tain­ment – and has some­thing for all inter­ests and ages – whether that’s dis­cov­er­ing dinosaurs and explor­ing the next chap­ter of Har­ry pot­ter for young­sters, to tak­ing in the best of the art world and din­ing at high end restau­rants to part­ing the night away and get­ting your kicks at top class enter­tain­ment and sports events – not to men­tion the cul­tur­al icons – there is tru­ly some­thing for every­one in New York.

For this rea­son the length of a stay in New York is tru­ly up to the trav­eller and your bud­get and time – how­ev­er as a min­i­mum regard­less of bud­get we’d rec­om­mend putting aside at least 2 days to take in at least one incred­i­ble sun­set over the sky­line and to give your­self enough time to explore a cou­ple of the great icons of New York.

For those with more time the opti­mal stay in New York is in our book 3–4 days which gives you enough time to take in all the sights and expe­ri­ence mul­ti­ple views of the incred­i­ble sky­line – although for those who stay longer you’ll find no short­age of adven­tures, sights and tru­ly amaz­ing expe­ri­ences in the great city of New York.

Top Tip

With a range of options – and as a major and famed city – a trip to New York can seem over­whelm­ing, espe­cial­ly as it may require care­ful plan­ning in terms of both sched­ules and bud­gets. So, to make this as easy as pos­si­ble and to make sure you get the absolute best out of any trip to New York while keep­ing safe, we’ve round up our top tips to explore the icon­ic city of New York and the won­der of its incred­i­ble sky­line:

- To start off – with any trip to New York like­ly tak­ing place over an action packed 3–4 days, which gives you the right bal­ance to see the sights whilst not stay­ing too long to have the city lose its mag­ic, we’d advise mak­ing sure you’ve planned well in advance as to which sights you want to see and when – bear­ing in mind that the more pop­u­lar spots (Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty and Empire State for exam­ple) are like­ly to be more crowd­ed and busy dur­ing the week­ends and pub­lic hol­i­days.

- For those tak­ing on the paid sights do note that tick­ets are often required to be pur­chased in advance (we’d advise two weeks in advance for attrac­tions and months in advance for major sport­ing events / con­certs) and you’ll like­ly have to pick a times­lot – so be sure to go either ear­ly morn­ing if pos­si­ble – to reduce the like­li­hood of crowds or make sure you reserve a sun­set time well in advance if head­ing up one of New York’s main sky­scrap­ers for the incred­i­ble views.

- We’d also advise mak­ing sure you take in the city sky­line from a range of views – whether that’s from the free views across the Stat­en Island Fer­ry and Brook­lyn Heights prom­e­nade or from the paid and clas­sis views from atop the Empire State Build­ing or One World Obser­va­tion Deck – the New York sky­line looks dif­fer­ent and has mag­ic in it from every per­spec­tive – so be sure to expe­ri­ence this won­der of the world from as many dif­fer­ent spots as pos­si­ble. !

- Also be advised when bud­get­ing for your trip that Amer­i­ca does not include all tax­es in adver­tised prices – so you can expect to pay in most instances at least an extra 5% on any adver­tised hotel or food costs. Also be aware of the cul­ture of tip­ping which is a sta­ple of New York ser­vices – with the stan­dard tip being 20% for cab rides, restau­rant ser­vice and hotel assis­tance, with explor­ers who opt not to tip like­ly to see the lev­el of their ser­vices drop or be giv­en a reminder of this pol­i­cy.

- While New York is a tru­ly beau­ti­ful and mag­i­cal place – do be warned that crime lev­els have risen in the past years, with a range of pick­pock­ets, scams and vio­lent attacks not­ed to take place against tourists. For this rea­son, we’d advise any­one vis­it­ing New York to be always wary of their pos­ses­sions – espe­cial­ly their wal­let and pass­port – and ensure that any tick­ets are pur­chased through authen­ti­cat­ed ven­dors at stan­dard and rea­son­able prices.

- We’d also advise to be care­ful in the evenings as well – mak­ing sure to stay in the tourist hotspots and avoid­ing back alleys or areas out­side of the main Man­hat­tan area to ensure you keep your­self safe when vis­it­ing New York, with females in par­tic­u­lar advised to be care­ful if going out alone.

- Final­ly, we’d advise to make sure any trip to New York is action packed and enjoyed to the max­i­mum, the city is tru­ly spe­cial and while it will be a peri­od of days that may well leave you exhaust­ed, there’s no doubt that a trip to New York will be one of the most spe­cial and enjoy­able expe­ri­ences of your life.

Cost:

New York can be pricey – there’s no doubt about it, espe­cial­ly if you want to cov­er all the icons and enjoy an extend­ed stay in the heart of the city – how­ev­er for those on a bud­get if you take a lit­tle bit of care and fol­low a cou­ple of bud­get tips there’s no rea­son why you can’t enjoy the best of New York.

Start­ing with those with a com­fort­able bud­get – and for a week­long stay we’d advise bud­get­ing $2000 per per­son (or $285 per day), this will give you enough mon­ey for a decent hotel in the city cen­tre – which usu­al­ly comes in at between $200 — $250 a night, as well as enough mon­ey to dine out at some of New York’s most ele­gant restau­rants and take in the view from some of the rooftop bars – as well as tak­ing in some of the icons such as the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty, the views from the top of the Empire State Build­ing and catch­ing a Broad­way play.

While this may seem expen­sive for New York, do bear in mind that some of the high­lights – such as Times Square, Cen­tral Park and the Brook­lyn Bridge are com­plete­ly free, mean­ing that for those with a relaxed bud­get you can afford not only a good hotel, but also enjoy a cou­ple of rides in a yel­low cab to get around.

For those who are con­scious of their bud­get, it’s pos­si­ble in our book to do New York from any­where between $500 Usd to $1000 Usd. To fit with­in this bud­get, we’d rec­om­mend sav­ing on accom­mo­da­tion as much as you can – either by tak­ing on a hos­tel room – which should be no more than $50 Usd a day or stay­ing out­side the down­town area and using the sub­way ‑which should cost $10 for a pass to get into the heart of New York.

You can also save a lit­tle bit of mon­ey by cen­tring your activ­i­ties around the free attrac­tions, not just those of Cen­tral Park and Times Square – but swap­ping a tour of the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty for a boat ride on the Stat­en Island Fer­ry, spend­ing time in the New York Pub­lic Library and swap­ping the views from the Empire State Build­ing for a cheap cock­tail atop a roof or for a stroll along both the Brook­lyn Heights Prom­e­nade and the Brook­lyn Bridge – both of which can give you incred­i­ble views of the amaz­ing New York city sky­line.

For those oper­at­ing on a tight bud­get – we’d also advise if pos­si­ble, to take advan­tage of some of the cheap­er options to get to New York from across the Unit­ed States if you’re already based there – with both the Grey­hound and Amtrak pro­vid­ing much cheap­er options – if you plan ahead – then fly­ing direct into one of New York’s air­ports.

With food bud­gets to suit all explor­ers – includ­ing grab­bing a $3 hot dog or slice from one of the many ven­dors – or sam­pling Amer­i­can clas­sic chains such as McDon­alds, bub­ba Gump and chic-fil‑a in Times Square – or some of the worlds finest Gourmet in Soho, you’ll find the New York eatery scene lends itself to explor­ers from all back­grounds.

Bud­get­ing around $600 Usd round trip to fly into the USA from across the world – or between $25 — $200 Usd from across the USA on pub­lic trans­port – we’d advise set­ting aside $2500 Usd for a trip from abroad into New York for a mod­er­ate bud­get or between $500 Usd to $1000 Usd for those on a less flex­i­ble bud­get – giv­ing trav­ellers a range of bud­get options to explore the great city of New York.

Fun Fact:

While New York is undoubt­ed­ly a city of mag­ic and icons, it’s also a city with a sto­ried and fas­ci­nat­ing past and one lay­ered in urban myths, leg­ends, and fun facts.

Chief among these fun facts are the var­i­ous names for this incred­i­ble city, from the big apple – which is a throw­back to apples pre­sent­ed to win­ning hors­es in the ear­ly 20th cen­tu­ry horse

races held in the city, to the city that nev­er sleeps to even the now famed Gotham city, but our favourite fun fact name for the city is that it was orig­i­nal­ly known as New Ams­ter­dam – not the now icon­ic New York – with the city being renamed in 1663 by the invad­ing Eng­lish who renamed it to hon­our the Duke of York – with the name, which in our view is more catchy, stay­ing with the city through to the present day.

Along­side the estab­lish­ment of the cities name, New York is also home to anoth­er – if dis­put­ed piece of Amer­i­can his­to­ry – being the city that is home to the first and still run­ning offi­cial pizze­ria – with a slice at Lombardi’s being as deli­cious as it was when first set up 1897 – giv­ing you a chance to sam­ple a taste not only of New York’s cul­tur­al icon but a piece of New York’s his­to­ry.

Among the oth­er incred­i­ble facts is one that has giv­en New York its well deserved place in Hol­ly­wood – and helped ele­vate the City to true block­buster sta­tus, with the great Cen­tral Park being not only an incred­i­ble beau­ti­ful escape from the hus­tle and bus­tle of the city – but being the most filmed loca­tion (when it comes to Hol­ly­wood) in the world – hav­ing racked up more than 600 loca­tion film­ing cred­its includ­ing Home Alone, Ghost­busters and even the Avengers – with New York pro­vid­ing a mag­i­cal and fit­ting set­ting for some of the great­est sto­ries ever told.

Best photo spot:

A tru­ly inspi­ra­tional sky­line – and one of the most famed and beau­ti­ful on the plan­et, the com­bi­na­tion of the tow­er­ing sky­scrap­ers of New York, com­bined with the icons of the stat­ue of lib­er­ty, the Brook­lyn bridge and the beau­ty and green­ery of Cen­tral Park and the deep waters of the Hud­son – make for a tru­ly impres­sive land­scape and one that can offer one of the great­est and most sen­sa­tion­al pho­tos in the world.

Giv­ing you a chance to cap­ture the true mag­ic of the Big Apple, you’ll find no short­age of pho­to spots to take in the incred­i­ble sky­line across New York, from the clas­sic view from the Empire State Building’s 102nd floor to the sun­set par­adise atop the Edge obser­va­tion deck, bask­ing in the glow and pow­er of New York’s incred­i­ble sky­line is undoubt­ed­ly one of top expe­ri­ences in the city and for keen pho­tog­ra­phers a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to cap­ture this unique won­der of the world from all angles and van­tage points.

Par­tic­u­lar­ly spe­cial at sun­set – where on the right day the descend­ing New York sun lights up the sky­line in deep orange – the below are our top picks for the best pho­to spots to cap­ture the best of the New York sky­line:

Edge Observation Deck

Start­ing with the obser­va­tion deck, that in our view offers the most com­plete and spe­cial pho­tos out over the Sky­line in New York, the Edge Obser­va­tion deck – thanks to its see-through glass pan­el plat­form and a feat of engi­neer­ing which sees the build­ing stand at a unique curve angle – allow pho­tog­ra­phers to cap­ture the full beau­ty and panoram­ic land­scape of the New York sky­line – from the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty, to Cen­tral Park to the Empire State Build­ing, mak­ing for one of the best spots in New York to cap­ture the full beau­ty of the incred­i­ble sky line.

Par­tic­u­lar­ly spe­cial at sun­set – where you get the glow­ing effect of the descend­ing sun light­ing up the sky­line before you for an extra spe­cial shot, the edge obser­va­tion deck sees explor­ers trav­el to the 101st floor of this mighty build­ing, which at more than 1,100-feet above the streets of New York gives you a per­fect view over the full breadth of the city below you.

Com­plete with a bar and restau­rant perched on the 100th floor below the obser­va­tion deck – which makes for an alter­na­tive to cap­ture the view with­out brav­ing the out­door obser­va­tion deck above you – we’d advise book­ing tick­ets in advance for Edge, par­tic­u­lar­ly for those who want to take on the sun­set view, but for those who brave the view­ing plat­form on this tow­er­ing build­ing you can expect not only sen­sa­tion­al views – but a birds eye view out over this incred­i­ble city for one of the best pho­to shots of the incred­i­ble New York Sky­line.

One World Observatory

Mix­ing New York’s his­to­ry, and undoubt­ed­ly its dark­est hour, with a chance to take in sweep­ing views of the incred­i­ble sky­line, the One World Obser­va­to­ry stands next to the site where New York’s Twin Tow­ers once stood, with the One World Tow­er – or Free­dom Tow­er hav­ing been con­struct­ed over the course of sev­en years since the events of 9/11 as both an endur­ing trib­ute to the vic­tims of that day and a reminder of the pow­er and per­se­ver­ance of the peo­ple and city of New York.

The tallest build­ing in the Unites States and the west­ern hemi­sphere, the One World Tow­er is con­struct­ed with its base being the same dimen­sions as the pre­vi­ous twin tow­ers, with the tow­er extend­ed to stretch to 1776 feet tall – and com­plete with three obser­va­tion decks on the 100th 101st and 102nd floors – from where you can take in 360 degree views out over the New York City sky­line stretch­ing past the Hud­son Riv­er and over the hori­zon of this great city.

A great spot to feel the his­to­ry and mag­ic of New York, the views from the obser­va­tion decks of the one world tow­er, which are reached through a spe­cial inter­ac­tive ele­va­tor, are tru­ly breath-tak­ing – and along­side learn­ing more about New York’s deep his­to­ry on your jour­ney through the One World Tow­er you can look for­ward to expe­ri­enc­ing a birds eye view of New York’s most famous icons form the top – which makes for one of the most spe­cial pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties of the incred­i­ble sky­line of this mag­ic city.

Top of the Rock Observation Deck

Stand­ing atop the rock you’ll find one of the great and icon­ic views out over New York’s immense Sky­line, with the views from the 68, 69th and 70th sto­ries of the great Rock­e­feller cen­tre offer­ing sweep­ing 360 degree views out over some of New York’s most trea­sured icons and a chance to cap­ture and snap the sky­line in all its glo­ry.

Anoth­er great spot for the sun­set pho­to – par­tic­u­lar­ly when you can cap­ture the sun glow­ing against the Empire State build­ing and off the stat­ue of lib­er­ty in the dis­tance which makes for a great pho­to, the Rock­e­feller cen­tre has both an out­door obser­va­tion deck – which is com­posed com­plete­ly of glass and an indoor glass obser­va­tion deck, giv­ing you arguably the

best and clear views over the sky­line, which in com­par­i­son to some of the oth­er sky­scrap­ers in the city can make for clear­er and unin­ter­rupt­ed pho­tographs.

Thanks to its stun­ning views you’ll find the Rock­e­feller cen­tre a pop­u­lar spot – par­tic­u­lar­ly in win­ter where the base of the cen­tre is home to the tra­di­tion­al ice rink and Christ­mas tree – so we’d rec­om­mend book­ing tick­ets well in advance to ensure your trip to the top is both guar­an­teed and as smooth as pos­si­ble – but once atop the rock you can expect unin­ter­rupt­ed views stretch­ing out over the New York City Sky­line for a tru­ly great pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty of this unique won­der.

The Brooklyn Bridge

From tak­ing in a ground view of the New York Sky­line, there’s no bet­ter place than from one of New York’s icons, with a jour­ney across the Brook­lyn Bridge — itself one of the high­lights of any trip to New York – offer­ing stun­ning views over Low­er Man­hat­tan, the east riv­er and out to the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty, where you can expe­ri­ence the beau­ty of New York’s sky­line form all angles.

A route that has been tram­pled since the Brook­lyn Bridge’s con­struc­tion in 1883, the 1,595 foot jour­ney across the bridge which we’d real­ly rec­om­mend doing on foot is par­tic­u­lar­ly spe­cial at sun­set when approached trekked from the Brook­lyn Heights Prom­e­nade, where you can get the full effect of the glow­ing sun­set against the traf­fic on the bridge below cre­at­ing for a tru­ly spe­cial pho­to shot.

Fur­ther along­side the Prom­e­nade, a trek across the Brook­lyn Bridge not only gives you panoram­ic angle of New York’s sky­line but in com­par­i­son to get­ting a chop­per for views or even in com­par­i­son to the sky­scrap­ers, you’ll find tak­ing in the views along the bridge much more relaxed as your jour­ney over the bridge with­out con­sid­er­a­tion of times­lots, book­ing in advance or time lim­its – mak­ing for a much more enjoy­able expe­ri­ence and giv­ing you that extra time to grab those incred­i­ble shots of New York’s amaz­ing sky­line.

Brooklyn Heights Promenade

At the south end of the Brook­lyn Bridge – or eas­i­ly reached by Sub­way lies the upscale vil­lage of Brook­lyn Height or the “Heights” whose rep­u­ta­tion as being one of the trendi­est and beau­ti­ful spots of New York is well earned – thanks in large to the incred­i­ble prom­e­nade that leads not only the waters of the east riv­er but offers a breath-tak­ing view out over the Man­hat­tan Sky­line – for one of the best free shots of the incred­i­ble scenery of New York.

Par­tic­u­lar­ly spe­cial at fall – where the trees along the prom­e­nade cre­ate an amaz­ing back­drop to snap the sky­line, the heights are also one of the best spots to snap a full panoram­ic shot of the sky­line at night – where you can cap­ture the mag­ic of New York’s sky­line in a safe and after-hours envi­ron­ment – mak­ing the Brook­lyn Height Prom­e­nade one of the most spe­cial and must vis­it loca­tion to snap incred­i­ble pho­tos of New York’s amaz­ing sky­line.

Staten Island Ferry

Offer­ing a scenic jour­ney over the east riv­er and giv­ing you both close up pho­tos of some of New York’s most famous icons – includ­ing the stat­ue of lib­er­ty and the Brook­lyn bridge – a ride on the Stat­en Island Fer­ry is not only a 25 minute jour­ney through the heart of New York – but one of the most unique and best kept secrets to get­ting stun­ning pho­tos of the Man­hat­tan Sky­line, as the famed orange boat takes out passed the stat­ue of lib­er­ty towards the shores of Stat­en Island – where you can cap­ture the New York Sky­line in all its glo­ry.

A com­plete­ly free ser­vice – and one that runs 24/7 – with almost 120 trips a day, the Stat­en Island fer­ry is best board­ed out­side of rush hours – either dur­ing the mid­dle of the day or late at night for the best expe­ri­ence and to ensure you get a win­dow seat, and you can expect to expe­ri­ence a range of panoram­ic views – as well as the sounds – of New York with the view from the fer­ry on the way from the St. George Fer­ry Ter­mi­nal towards the White­hall Fer­ry Ter­mi­nal as you approach the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty and catch the full view of the Man­hat­tan Sky­line in full shot being a par­tic­u­lar­ly great pho­to­graph – and one we’d real­ly rec­om­mend snap­ping on your jour­ney through New York.

Statue of Liberty

Along­side being the icon of New York and the promise of America’s val­ues and free­doms, the view from Lib­er­ty Island and the pedestal and crown of the stat­ue out over towards the Sky­line of Man­hat­tan is tru­ly impres­sive one of the best places to cap­ture a full panoram­ic shot of the New York Sky­line.

A place to come for the day­time shot (as the stat­ue is closed at night so the clos­est you can get is the Stat­en island fer­ry) you can reach lib­er­ty island from Bat­tery Park and we’d advise head­ing there ear­ly in the morn­ing on a week­day if you’re not keen on crowds and want an unin­ter­rupt­ed shot – as well as tak­ing the climb of 215 steps up to the pedestal for 360 degree views from the base of the stat­ue which includes an ele­vat­ed view over­look­ing the New York City Sky­line — and then tak­ing the fur­ther 162 steps up to the top of the 151 foot crown of the stat­ue. From where you can get a tru­ly birds eye view of the new York city sky­line and snap an incred­i­ble pho­to from atop one of New York’s and America’s most famous icon.

Also offer­ing views out over the Man­hat­tan sky­line from a small jet­ty found around the base of the Stat­ue, you can expect tick­ets for the Stat­ue – and the views to come in at $23.50 – and you’ll need to book at least a week in advance if you want to secure a spot to vis­it this incred­i­ble icon and jour­ney to lib­er­ty island to enjoy one of the most spec­tac­u­lar views – and pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties of the Man­hat­tan Sky­line that lies as an incred­i­ble back­ground against the sym­bol of hope that is the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty.

The Skyline by Helicopter

For the ulti­mate panoram­ic views over all of Man­hat­tan and the incred­i­ble New York sky­line, we’d rec­om­mend indulging in a 30-minute heli­copter flight – which will see you saw over the whole of the incred­i­ble city – and give you the chance to absolute post­card per­fect image of the incred­i­ble sky­line.

Start­ing at around $200 Usd and only real­ly an option on sum­mer days, you can expect a heli­copter tour to take you past all the icons of New York – from the stat­ue of Lib­er­ty to the Brook­lyn Bridge and out over the Hud­son where from your view in the sky the heli­copter will gen­tly rotate to give you a full panoram­ic view over the incred­i­ble New York Sky­line for one of the great­est shots of this unique won­der.

A true buck­et list expe­ri­ence, we’d encour­age you to do your own research before decid­ing on which heli­copter com­pa­ny to go with – (be sure to avoid one’s who have mid­dle seats as you risk hav­ing a tour with no view) but if you get a clear day or even a sun­set view and a win­dow seat on a heli­copter tour over New York you can expect to expe­ri­ence not only the thrilling and unique expe­ri­ence of fly­ing over the mag­i­cal city of New York, but a range of stun­ning views and unique pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties over the won­der of New York’s sky­line.

Rooftop bars

Along­side the bars and restau­rants found at the Edge, the top of the rock and the Empire State Build­ing, you’ll also find a series of tra­di­tion­al rooftop bars dot­ted along Down­town New York – which offer some incred­i­ble views over the Sky­line and make for a tru­ly spe­cial place to toast the beau­ti­ful city of New York.

Although — as with all things in New York when it comes to win­ing and din­ing – you’ll be spoilt for choice as to which rooftop bar to enjoy a tip­ple upon, we’ve picked and briefly sum­marised out top 5 rooftop bars for incred­i­ble and unique views of New York’s immense sky­line – which offer both a per­fect moment and the best pho­to of this incred­i­ble won­der:

1.) Sky­lark

Per­haps the most famed of New York’s rooftop bars – and for good rea­son the views from the Sky­lark are sim­ply pic­ture per­fect, with the views from the 30th floor giv­ing pho­tog­ra­phers and explor­ers views over down­town Man­hat­tan, Times Square and on a clear day out over the Hud­son and East Riv­er – for a sim­ply stun­ning shot.

Along­side the immense views, you’ll find clas­sic New York style at the Sky­lark – with the inside of the Bar dec­o­rat­ed with ele­gant art and fea­tur­ing pan­elled win­dows – allow­ing for the view to be enjoyed inside. Com­bine all of this with a vast array of food and drink on offer and a night­ly DJ and you’ve got one not only one of the best bars in New York – but one of the best places to come to enjoy the stun­ning views of New York’s Sky­line.

2.) Bar 54

Sat in the heart of Times Square – at the Hyatt Cen­tric – Bar 54 is the bar to head to for Times Square views – and is one of the most sought-after spots in New York’s Bar and rooftop scene, with the ter­race igloos – which offer a great pri­vate expe­ri­ence with incred­i­ble views being one of the most unique and fun ways to enjoy a drink while tak­ing in the stun­ning views below.

Along­side views of Times Square – you can expect views also of some of down­town New York and oth­er New York icons (includ­ing the Empire State and Rock­e­feller Cen­tre) from Bar 54, as well as a deli­cious menu of food and drinks – which although pricey are worth it as you gaze out and toast the incred­i­ble views of the heart of New York below for a stun­ning expe­ri­ence.

3.) Panora­ma Room

Found on Roo­sevelt Island – the small island that sits with­in the East Riv­er, the Panora­ma Room rooftop bar is one of the newest bars to open with­in New York – and thanks to its unique posi­tion on the island the 360 degree views through clear glass planes from this bar which sits on the 18th floor of the Grad­u­ate hotel are sim­ply stun­ning – and allow you to take in all of the icons of New York in one sit­ting (or over one drink) mak­ing for a tru­ly spe­cial place to kick back and enjoy all of the sights of the incred­i­ble New York sky­line and snap some tru­ly spe­cial pho­tographs.

4.) Press Lounge

Found in the heart of Hells Kitchen, the Press Lounge is a cock­tail bar that fea­tures incred­i­ble views out over the icons of the Man­hat­tan Sky­line across the Hud­son Riv­er and beyond. Requir­ing smart cloth­ing – and owing to its cosy size a reser­va­tion in advance, the views from the press lounge are tru­ly impres­sive, thanks in part to its lush out­door patio – that offers a view to rival that found atop the sky­scrap­ers – and which is par­tic­u­lar­ly spe­cial at sun­set, where you can enjoy a deli­cious cock­tail while tak­ing in breath-tak­ing views of the New York City Sky­line.

5.) 230 Fifth Rooftop Bar

Con­sid­ered the largest indoor and out­door bar in New York, 230 Fifth (named unsur­pris­ing­ly for its loca­tion) offers great views over the tow­er­ing sky­scrap­ers of New York (includ­ing Chrysler, Rock­e­feller and the Empire State Build­ing) – and with its unique indoor “Pent­house” and out­door Gar­den — that fea­tures warm igloos in the win­ter months – mak­ing this great bar one of the most enjoy­able and scenic spots from which to enjoy a drink while pho­tograph­ing the icons of New York before you.

Dou­bling up as an events venue, 230 Fifth is also a fan­tas­tic place to come for brunch on the week­ends – with the menu on offer being incred­i­bly tasty and fea­tur­ing a selec­tion of New York’s favourite snacks which you can enjoy while soak­ing in the incred­i­ble views of New York’s majes­tic sky­line.

The Empire State Building

An icon of New York – and offer­ing the clas­sic and tra­di­tion­al view out over the famous Sky­line, the view from the top of the Empire State Build­ing retains all of its awe-inspir­ing and breath-tak­ing beau­ty as it has done since 1931 – with the obser­va­to­ries and obser­va­tion decks on the 86th and 102nd floors offer­ing a full panoram­ic 360 degree view our over the icons of New York, the Hud­son and East riv­er and across six states into the hori­zon – mak­ing for one of the most spe­cial views and best pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties of the incred­i­ble sky­line.

A spot that requires book­ing in advance, the views at sun­set are par­tic­u­lar­ly spe­cial from the Empire State build­ing – and have become syn­ony­mous with both roman­tic moments and crowds – so for those who care for nei­ther we’d advise tim­ing your vis­it on a week­day first thing in the morn­ing – or risk hav­ing your expe­ri­ence and views from the top both crowd­ed and over­shad­owed by oth­ers.

Although get­ting the right pho­to will be tricky – thanks to the com­bi­na­tion of both the crowds at the top and the pro­tec­tive fences that line the obser­va­tion decks, if you head to the top of the Empire State on a clear day and get your angles and cam­era set­tings just right – you can take what is undoubt­ed­ly one of the most spe­cial pho­tographs across the whole of the New York sky­line cap­tur­ing all of the icons and the true beau­ty of New York – and as you stand atop this glob­al and New York icon mar­vel at the true won­der of the world that is the New York City sky­line.