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Union Square during early spring.
Photograph: By Sean Pavone / Shutterstock

Things to do in NYC today

The best things to do in NYC today involves free and cheap activities, awesome concerts and more.

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It’s rare to be in the greatest city on earth and not have plans, but if you’re stumped for things to do in NYC today, consider us your entertainment saviors. Daily, there are awesome events to stream and new attractions to see, but if you’re searching for something really specific like new happenings at the city’s top destinations or something low-budget—like free things to do—we have everything you need listed right here.

RECOMMENDED: Full NYC events calendar

Things to do in NYC today

  • Theater

Broadway shows are practically synonymous with New York City, and the word Broadway is often used as shorthand for theater itself. Visiting the Great White Way means attending one of 41 large theaters concentrated in the vicinity of Times Square, most of which seat more than 1,000 people. 

The most popular Broadway shows tend to be musicals, from long-running favorites like The Lion King and Hamilton to more recent hits like Hadestown and Moulin Rouge!—but new plays and revivals also represent an important part of the Broadway experience. There’s a wide variety of Broadway shows out there, as our complete A–Z listing attests.

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  • Art
  • Contemporary art

New York City is full of free outdoor art that you don't even have to go to a museum to see. Sculptures, murals and photographs can be found in its parks, sidewalks and on its buildings! Locations such as the High Line, Central Park, the Metropolitan Museum Of Art, Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn, Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens and other NYC locales all have a wide variety of pieces awaiting you, from massive sculptures to eye-popping murals and graffiti.

We rounded up the best outdoor art you can go see right now.

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  • Things to do
  • Events & Festivals

For more than 30 years, the Tenement Museum shared stories about the people who once lived in the building it now owns. But that meant that some groups—particularly Black New Yorkers—were excluded, as there's no record of a Black family living in the apartment building at 97 Orchard Street. 

Now, with an aim to explore the full breadth of immigrant and migrant experiences, the Lower East Side museum is highlighting the stories of a Black family for the first time with a new tour titled "A Union of Hope: 1869." The exhibition tells the story of the Moore family who lived in Soho during and after the Civil War. Reserve tickets here for $30/person.

  • Theater
  • Theater & Performance

From amazing costumes to Broadway history to fun photo opps, this long-awaited new museum is a must-see for theater buffs.  

You can expect the new museum to highlight over 500 individual productions from the 1700s all the way to the present. 

Among the standout offerings will also be a special exhibit dubbed "The Making of a Broadway Show," which honors the on- and off-stage community that helps bring plays and musicals to life multiple times a week. 

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  • Things to do
  • Weird & Wonderful

Visit Budgie Landing, a new immersive experience that lets you commune with 1,000 boisterous birds known as budgerigars or “budgies” at the Bronx Zoo. The experience, which is part of zoo admission, surrounds you by these small, talkative parrots that get to fly freely through the exhibit. Inside, you can feed seeds to the birds from a handheld stick. The budgies that accept your offering will no doubt be an unforgettable up-close interaction, the zoo says.

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  • Things to do
  • City Life

A major exhibit by the Museum of the City of New York titled "This Is New York: 100 Years of the City in Art and Pop Culture" explores the love-hate relationship with NYC through the lenses of visual art, television, film, music, theater, literature and fashion. 

As the museum celebrates 100 years, it's exploring several threads through This Is New York: The city's mighty cultural energy in 1923; the five boroughs as a constant inspiration for creatives; and New Yorkers' complicated relationship with the city of grit, grime and glamour.

"There’s this kind of love and hate around New York City. There’s that saying that it’s the most American city and the least American city. This is warts and all," Lilly Tuttle, curator at the Museum of the City of New York, told Time Out. "It’s the idea that the city is this engine that generates this reflection and this creative interpretation—full of contradictions."

  • Things to do
  • Events & Festivals

After nearly a decade of planning, designing and building, the massive new wing at the American Museum of Natural History is now open. The architecturally stunning, 230,000-square-foot Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education and Innovation is a sight to behold.

Scientific wonders—including a butterfly vivarium, an insectarium and a 360-degree immersive experience—fill every inch of the space.

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  • Things to do
  • Weird & Wonderful

Part visual splendor, part olfactory wonder and part ooey-gooey sensory fun, Sloomoo Institute’s slime museum is now open again after a renovation. This captivating playground welcomes all ages to its home in SoHo—or “SooHoo,” in Sloomoo parlance (see what they did there?).

Here are five things not to miss at Sloomoo, including a chance to get slimed and a DIY slime making activity.

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  • Things to do
  • City Life

The luxurious Italian wellness spa QC NY (by QC Terme Spas and Resorts) brings the elegance and rejuvenation of a European spa to Governors Island, but with New York City flavor.

When you check in, you're given everything you'll need—a bag containing flip flops, a towel, a robe and a key for your locker—and a chance to sign up for a 25-, 50-, or 75-minute massage ($100-$250). Then, you are set free to roam the spa, which is full of relaxation rooms (each with its own meticulously curated personality, scent, and music), themed saunas, Vichy showers, infrared beds, foot baths, hydro jets, steam baths and other amazingly lush experiences.  

It's a treat no matter the season.

  • Art
  • Art

Every day, thousands of people walk through Times Square, rushing to catch the subway, heading to work, meandering through shops—many of them unaware that they're stepping over a revolutionary art project that's been a part of the city for decades. 

Purposely unmarked, it's easy to miss this piece of auditory art because truly experiencing it requires tuning into a specific frequency in the most cacophonous place in America. The late artist Max Neuhaus's installation called "Times Square" sounds like the echo of a bell ringing. It's hard to place this droning tone among all the other noises there, especially because the sound emanates from a typical grate right beneath your feet. 

Here's the backstory — and the intel on how to find it.

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  • Travel

Imagine waking up to the sound of gently swaying trees and chirping birds, sun peeking into your window which looks out across a canopy of golden leaves. It's an experience that is totally attainable, thanks to Airbnb.

There are plenty of gorgeous treehouse rentals near NYC just waiting for you to visit, and they range from low-fi elevated cabins to more luxurious options with hot tubs and extensive vinyl selections to play at your leisure.

  • Art
  • Art

The New York Public Library dug through its expansive and centuries-spanning archive to stage an impressive free exhibition filled with cultural artifacts. "The Polonsky Exhibition of New York Public Library’s Treasures" spans 4,000 years of history and includes a wide range of history-making pieces, including the only surviving letter from Christoper Columbus announcing his “discovery” of the Americas to King Ferdinand’s court and the first Gutenberg Bible brought over to the Americas.

New treasures rotate into the exhibit regulary, so it's worth visiting more than once.

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  • Art
  • Art

The vibrant, ornate stained glass windows inside Manhattan's historic churches always create a dazzling spectacle. But now, a new long-term art display inspired by those rich colors has unfurled inside the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Morningside Heights—the world's largest Gothic cathedral

Titled "Divine Pathways," the monumental art installation is made up of more than 1,100 lengths of blue, red and gold fabric. Each ribbon measures 75 feet in length (approximately seven stories high). Combined, they are almost 16 miles long—that's longer than the island of Manhattan!  

St. John the Divine is open daily for self-guided sightseeing tours with a $15/adult admission fee; timed tickets are recommended

  • Things to do
  • Chelsea

The Rubin Museum is offering a unique exhibit that delves into the power of difficult emotions and how to turn them into positive ones—something many of us would benefit from these days.

On the third floor of the museum, the Mandala Lab uses fun and interactive tools to explore jealousy/envy, attachment, pride, anger and ignorance and shows visitors how to turn them into wisdom of accomplishment, discernment, equanimity, mirror-like wisdom and all-accommodating wisdom, respectively.

The gong orchestra is a fun and beautiful way to get your frustrations out—by taking a mallet and hitting one of eight gongs, you can express anger and then watch it dissipate by submerging the gong into a pool of water. The gongs themselves were designed by musicians like Billy Cobham, Sheila E., Peter Gabriel, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Sarah Hennies, Huang Ruo, Shivamani and Bora Yoon.

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  • Restaurants
  • Drinking

New York's Roaring '20s 2.0 are back on with the first whiskey distillery to open (legally) in Manhattan since Prohibition. Designed with the decadence of the era in mind, Great Jones Distilling Co. is Manhattan's first and only legal whiskey distillery in over 100 years. 

The 28,000 square foot venue features a fully functioning distillery, a tasting room, fascinating tours and several drinking and dining venues, including an underground speakeasy and full restaurant.

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