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50 things to do in New York City on a Sunday 2012

Close out the weekend in style with these Sunday musts.

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RECOMMENDED: The most up-to-date 150 weekend activities in NYC

Find the perfect brunch
  • Restaurants

Looking for the best brunch options in New York? We've got you covered, no matter where you are in the city. Whether you're dining with a group or rolling solo, we've found the finest places to quell your Sunday-morning hunger pangs (and/or hangover). Click through for our complete guide.

Practice yoga in a tranquil garden
  • Attractions
  • Parks and gardens
  • The Bronx
  • price 1 of 4

Spend some time getting reacquainted with the green stuff (that's grass and trees, in case you've forgotten) at an outdoor yoga class on the bucolic grounds of Wave Hill. Each session is taught by Neem Dewji, who is certified in both hatha and therapeutic yoga by the Integral Yoga Institute. Once you've made it through a few sun salutations, wander around the grounds of the 28-acre garden, which was once a private estate. Look for spring wildflowers, such as Virginia bluebells or celandine poppies, or simply take in the views of the Hudson River from the comfort of an Adirondack chair.

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Draw semiclad models at Dr. Sketchy's

Draw semiclad models at Dr. Sketchy's

“Dr. Sketchy’s is what happens when cabaret meets art school,” says founder and artist Molly Crabapple. A boozy good time is what happens when you and your ticket ($12 advance, $15 at the door) meet free cupcakes, booze and prizes, say us.

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Enjoy Sunday music at The Frick Collection
  • Museums
  • Art and design
  • Lenox Hill
  • price 2 of 4

Few experiences in New York City can compare with taking in a lieder concert, piano recital or chamber-music performance in this stately old mansion’s elegant music room, where scores of prominent musicians have made their first local appearances.

Capture that elusive hole in one
  • Attractions
  • Parks and gardens
  • Chelsea

At the southern end of Hudson River Park, you'll find glorious views of the river, the Jersey City waterfront and an 18-hole professional-grade miniature-golf course. Decked out with a cave, two waterfalls, footbridges and a pond, it's a great place to perfect your putt while taking in the splendid vista.

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  • Sports and fitness
  • Long Island

Corral your crew and head to the races for a day of equine-inspired revelry at Belmont Park. In planning your race-day wardrobe, keep in mind that there is a "tradition of elegance" at the track. You don't have to dress to the nines, but an ascot never hurt anyone.

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Join a queer book club at the LGBT Center
  • Things to do
  • Cultural centers
  • West Village
  • price 1 of 4

Every third Sunday of the month, the LGBT Center in Chelsea hosts a book club for lesbians only. Call the Center at 212-620-7310 to find out what’s on the syllabus, and then all you have to do is read and show up. The group, originally part of Slope Activities for Lesbians, has been meeting for ten years, and the selections tend to be distinctly female-focused (duh).

Watch free film screenings at the Brooklyn Public Library
  • Attractions
  • Libraries, archives and foundations
  • Park Slope

The borough’s flagship library branch presents a free monthly silent film series on Sunday afternoons. Typical offerings include the slapstick antics of Laurel and Hardy and the swashbuckling of Douglas Fairbanks, which is made even more enjoyable by the stirring music of MoMA’s silent-film accompanist, Stuart Oderman. All films are archival quality, projected onto a six-by-eight-foot screen.

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  • Attractions
  • Parks and gardens
  • Queens

Thrill seekers should head to this jewel in the Parks Department‘s crown, a series of obstacles designed for team building and scaring the crap out of you. Live out your Indiana Jones fantasy by scaling a bouldering wall, whizzing down the zip line, balancing on a high wire and getting catapulted from the “Human Swing Shot,” a device that lifts you 45 feet in the air before sending you into free fall.

Visit BLDG 92
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Museums
  • Special interest
  • Fort Greene
  • price 1 of 4

In November 2011, the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation opened a new visitors’ center at the former shipbuilding complex, offering information on the facility and its connection to the surrounding neighborhoods. The location includes a café, weekend bus tours ($18–$30) and an 8,000-square-foot exhibition space that features the permanent “Brooklyn Navy Yard: Past, Present and Future” exhibit, as well as rotating offerings. A free weekend shuttle departs from Jay St at Willoughby St every 15–20 minutes.

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Shop and eat your way through Brooklyn Flea

We're stoked this market has two outdoor locations featuring an eclectic mix of antique, vintage and food vendors. Keep an eye out for Today’s Vintage hatpins and hairsticks ($10–$25) and Anodyne quirky flying-dinosaur necklaces ($125). Stop by Saraz Closet's table to nab a ’90s Betsey Johnson swing skirt ($88) and an ’80s Pucci cropped silk jacket ($220). Foodies, take note: Both locations feature a dizzying array of edibles, from Fine and Raw coconut chunky bonbons ($7) to Porchetta chicory salad with garlic dressing ($6).

Visit The 9/11 Memorial
  • Attractions
  • Monuments and memorials
  • Financial District

Years of planning went into this monument, which opened on the tenth anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks. Called “Reflecting Absence,” the design by architect Michael Arad features two reflecting pools that sit within the footprint of each of the Twin Towers.

Take the Brooklyn Food and Tasting Tour

Take a bite out of Brooklyn on this culinary bus tour, offering kosher deli fare in Williamsburg, chocolate from Jacques Torres in DUMBO, and a Cuban-sandwich picnic lunch in Sunset Park. Sun, Mon, Fri 11am; $95, children under 12 $75.

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Eat a home-cooked meal without the work

The stove-top-impaired can find solace in Sunday Suppers, the dinner party/cooking class hybrid from photographer and culinary enthusiast Karen Mordechai. A few times a month, guests gather at her airy Brooklyn loft; each person tackles a different job to create the seasonal menu. The unique charm of the resulting meal is in the details: custom-designed menus, elaborate floral arrangements and enticing parting gifts, such as homemade preserves, plus a stack of recipe cards for the next time the urge strikes to tie one on (an apron, that is). To make reservations, e-mail info@sunday-suppers.com or visit sunday-suppers.com. $85 and up.

Tour a historic Brooklyn 'hood
Photograph: C Garrrison

Tour a historic Brooklyn 'hood

You’ll need your sneakers for this one: Mauricio Lorence leads a three-hour excursion through some of the borough’s oldest and most charming neighborhoods, including Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and Brooklyn Heights, with a focus on historic sites, ethnic enclaves and municipal institutions. .

A house-music happy hour with beats positioned closer to cool jazz than to fist-pump on the aural spectrum, Smoother Sunday Sessions features DJ Trevor Ricci holding it down in the heart of Williamsburg every Sunday evening.

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Sample the city's best pizza

Sample the city's best pizza

Can you endure riding with tourists for the chance to sample some seriously good pies? Brooklyn’s best pizzerias are revealed on the four-hour bus tour A Slice of Brooklyn, along with some of the borough’s most famous movie locations and other landmarks.

Sing $1 karaoke
  • Bars
  • Dive bars
  • Greenwich Village

Wicked Willy’s ($1 per song) is not a proper karaoke bar—there are no private rooms—but it does host amateur performers Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at around 8pm. Performers also get a free drink with the first song they sing—presumably to help steady those nerves. Should the caterwauling overwhelm your fancy ears, there is a large projection screen in the back for taking in the Yankees game.

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