A Long Weekend in New York City

The first thing New York does is make noise at you. I came up out of the subway at 34th Street on a Thursday afternoon in October, my bag bumping behind me, and a delivery bike, a street preacher and a city bus all spoke at once. After a summer of national parks and quiet trailheads, I stood on the corner grinning like a tourist, which, to be fair, I was.

New York is the trip I keep coming back to between the big ones. It’s an easy nonstop from Denver, a city I can do entirely without a car, and a place where a long weekend feels like a week if you plan it right. This was my fourth visit, and the first time I tried to get beyond Manhattan on purpose: four days, five boroughs (sort of, and I’ll explain the “sort of”), and a very long list of bagels.

Here’s how I spent it, what I would change, and what it all cost.

In this story8 sections

1. One big thing a day, and nothing else booked
2. Day one: Lower Manhattan and the free boat
3. Day two: Brooklyn at walking pace
4. Day three: the Met, the park and Arthur Avenue
5. Day four: Queens, and the great bagel ranking
6. My four days, day by day
7. Getting around, sleeping and spending
8. New York City

One big thing a day, and nothing else booked

My rule for New York is simple: one anchor per day, booked ahead, and everything around it left loose. The city has more than enough to fill the gaps, and the moments I remember from earlier trips were almost never on the list. A pastry on a stoop. A conversation with a retired teacher on a bench in Washington Square Park who told me, very seriously, which bagel shops to avoid.

The anchors that genuinely need booking are fewer than you’d think. Statue of Liberty pedestal and crown tickets are sold through the official concessionaire and the crown can sell out months ahead. Observation decks use timed entry, and sunset slots cost more and go first. Broadway is the wild card: I skipped the full-price box office and used the same-day discount booth in Times Square and a couple of digital lotteries, and ended up in the mezzanine of a musical for about $90.

Day one: Lower Manhattan and the free boat

I started at the southern tip of the island, in Battery Park, with coffee and a bagel I’ll rank later. From there it’s a short walk to the Staten Island Ferry terminal, still the best free thing in the city. The orange boats run around the clock, the crossing takes about 25 minutes, and the starboard rail on the way out gives you a long, slow look at the Statue of Liberty without a ticket or a security line.

This is the “sort of.” I rode to St. George, walked along the waterfront for twenty minutes, bought a second coffee, and rode back. Does that count as visiting Staten Island? Locals would say no. My passport stamp collection of the mind says yes.

The afternoon went to the 9/11 Memorial, where the two reflecting pools sit in the footprints of the towers. Entry to the plaza is free, and I’d suggest giving it unhurried time rather than squeezing it between other stops. Then I rode one stop into Brooklyn and walked the Brooklyn Bridge back toward Manhattan as the sun went down. Walking it in that direction keeps the skyline in front of you the whole way, a little over a mile of timber planks and steel cables, and it is worth every elbow you’ll share it with.

Day two: Brooklyn at walking pace

Brooklyn deserves a full day, and it rewards a slow one. I took the subway out to Prospect Park in the morning and joined the joggers, dog walkers and stroller brigades on the loop road. Next door, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden was in its fall color stretch, and the Japanese garden there was the quietest place I found all weekend.

Lunch was a slice from a corner pizzeria in Park Slope, folded in half the way everyone else was eating it, for about $4. In the afternoon I worked north through Fort Greene and into DUMBO, where the cobblestone streets under the Manhattan Bridge are a photo cliché for a reason. I sat in Brooklyn Bridge Park until the ferry lights came on and the skyline across the East River turned from gold to blue.

Dinner was the one splurge of the trip: a small neighborhood restaurant with a short handwritten menu and a long wine list. With tip, it came to about $85, and I’d happily pay it again.

Day three: the Met, the park and Arthur Avenue

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is my one non-negotiable on every New York trip. Admission for out-of-state adults is $30 and the ticket is good for the day, so I go at opening, pick two or three galleries, and leave before my feet give out. This time it was the Temple of Dendur, the arms and armor hall, and the American Wing’s period rooms. Trying to “see the Met” in one visit is like trying to see the Atlantic.

From the museum I walked south through Central Park to Bethesda Terrace and the Bow Bridge, about two miles of curving paths with a busker on nearly every bend. Then I did something new: I rode the subway up to the Bronx for dinner on Arthur Avenue in Belmont, the neighborhood a lot of New Yorkers call the real Little Italy. Bakeries, pork stores, fresh mozzarella still warm from the water. I ate a plate of pasta at a family-run place where the waiter called me “sweetheart” seven times, and carried a box of cannoli back on the train.

New York rewards the people who walk one more block than they meant to.

Maya Collins

Day four: Queens, and the great bagel ranking

My flight home left from JFK in the evening, so Queens made sense for the last day. I took the 7 train out to Flushing, where the food halls around Main Street are a world tour in a few blocks. Hand-pulled noodles, pork buns, soup dumplings: I ate an entire lunch for under $15 and still had room for a bubble tea. On the way back I hopped off in Long Island City to see the skyline from Gantry Plaza State Park, then rode out to the airport with a bagel in my bag for the plane.

Now, the list. I ate eight bagels in four days, all from independent neighborhood shops, and I’m keeping the shop names to myself so nobody can argue with me. Here’s what I learned instead:

• Best overall: a hand-rolled everything bagel, still warm, with scallion cream cheese. About $5.
• Best surprise: a pumpernickel with lox, capers and red onion, about $16 and worth it.
• Best value: a plain bagel with butter from a deli counter for under $3.
• Skip: anything toasted. A good fresh bagel doesn’t need it, and a shop that toasts by default is telling you something.

Getting around, sleeping and spending

Getting in. From JFK, the AirTrain to the subway costs $8.50 plus a regular $2.90 fare and gets you to Midtown in roughly an hour. From LaGuardia, the free Q70 bus links to the subway in Queens. Taxis and rideshares are faster on paper and slower in traffic, and fares now include a congestion charge for driving into lower Manhattan.

Getting around. The subway, full stop. Each ride is $2.90 with a tap of your card or phone, and the tap system caps your spending: after twelve paid rides in seven days, the rest of the week is free. I hit the cap on day three.

Where I stayed. Manhattan hotel rooms on fall weekends easily run $300 to $450 a night before taxes. I stayed in Long Island City in Queens instead, one or two subway stops from Midtown, in a clean, small, modern hotel for about $230 a night with a view of the skyline from the elevator lobby. Budget roughly 15 percent in hotel taxes plus a few dollars per night in fees on top of the quoted rate.

When to go. Late September through early November is my favorite window: mild days in the 60s °F (around 16–20 °C), clear light and fall color in the parks. December is magical and very crowded. Late January and February are cold and gray, and the hotel prices drop to match.

Four days is not enough for New York, and that’s exactly why I like it as a long weekend. You leave with a list for next time and a sore pair of feet. Mine already has a borough on it that I owe a real visit, a ferry ride I didn’t get off, and a bagel shop in Queens that a stranger on a bench swore was the best in the city. I’ll let you know.