Best things to do in spring in NYC

Cherry blossoms bloom in NYC based on each year's weather, but they usually begin in earnest by late March. With the warm winter in 2023, we're already seeing some cherry blossoms start to arrive in early March.

Starting April 15 through May, the New York Restoration Project—a local non-profit that plants trees, renovates gardens and takes care of green spaces around town—is giving out 3,500 free trees to New Yorkers across all five boroughs.

To get your hands on one of the free trees, register in advance on this website, where you'll also get to browse through the current list of distribution dates, times and locations.

St. Patrick's Day in NYC is shaping up to be quite a celebration this year! Epic parties and events promising live music and Irish fare will be back, bringing Irish pride to the streets of New York. 

One of the biggest is the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which marches along Fifth Avenue and passes by venerable New York attractions, including St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Central Park. From pipe and drum bands to dancers and performers in regalia, midtown Manhattan transforms into a big party with a sea of green revelers every year on March 17.

NYC offers a bevy of ways you can show solidarity for your sisters during Women’s History Month. New York ladies are getting in formation by hosting a series of cool events, from comedy shows to workshops and more.

The Orchid Show at The New York Botanical Garden this year explores the healing power of the natural world through dynamic designs by landscape artist Lily Kwong.

Your ticket will get you daytime access to The Orchid Show, plus all the rest of NYBG's outdoor gardens and collections. If you want to visit after dark, check out Orchid Nights where you can admire the flowers under the twinkling lights of the conservatory with music in the background and a cocktail in hand.

NYBG’s Orchid show runs through April 23, 2023.

Revel in forthcoming warm weather at the annual Macy’s Flower Show 2023. NYC will be budding with blooms all over, but nothing beats roaming the sweet-smelling foliage that suddenly appears at one of the city’s best department stores: Macy’s Herald Square.

This year's show runs from Sunday, March 26 through Sunday, April 10.

It’s hard to get good food on the cheap, but for seven years, Queens Night Market has prided itself on offering the city’s best eats for just $5-6.

The foodie festival will return on April 15 and runs on Saturday nights through the summer at the New York Hall of Science in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

Lizzo, ODESZA and Kendrick Lamar will headline the 2023 Governors Ball Music Festival, which will be held in a new location this year at Flushing Meadows Corona Park.  

After two years at Citi Field, the show is heading to Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The new location will offer multiple transit options, including the 7 train and the LIRR. Music lovers can hang out under shady trees and dance in grassy fields for this weekend of music. 

The beloved Queens Night Market will bring a host of Night Market favorites to the 2023 festival as vendors, offering a true taste of Queens. Young local musicians will perform at the festival to put future stars in the spotlight. Plus, local nonprofits will also be involved in the festival, with more details to be announced.

To untimely rip and paraphrase a line from Macbeth: Our eyes are made the fools of the other senses, or else worth all the rest. A multitude of searing sights crowd the spectator's gaze at the bedazzling and uncanny theater installation Sleep No More.

Your sense of space and depth—already compromised by the half mask that audience members must don—is further blurred as you wend through more than 90 discrete spaces, ranging from a cloistral chapel to a vast ballroom floor. The show is a true astonishment, turning six warehouse floors and approximately 100,000 square feet into a purgatorial maze that blends images from the Scottish play with ones derived from Hitchcock movies—all liberally doused in a distinctly Stanley Kubrick eau de dislocated menace.

Photographer Berenice Abbott captured New York in small, black-and-white images, 266 of which will be showcased in a fascinating exhibit at The Met this spring. The museum describes it as a "kind of photographic sketchbook" of her adventures throughout the city documenting skyscrapers, bridges, elevated trains and neighborhood life.

"It's one of the unique treasures of The Met. It has never been fully exhibited, not been fully conserved, or published in its entirety—until now," Met Director Max Hollein said. 

The photographer had intended on making just a short trip to New York City, but when she arrived, she was entranced. Abbott is quoted as saying, "When I saw New York again, and stood in the dirty slush, I felt that here was the thing I had been wanting to do all my life."

"Berenice Abbott’s New York Album, 1929" will be on view from March 2-September 4, 2023.

On a typical tour of Manhattan, the big tourist attractions—Times Square, the Empire State Building, Central Park—get all the attention. But on these new walking tours by a local author, you'll see fascinating historical sites that you won't find in a typical guidebook. 

K. Krombie's Purefinder tours, "Death in New York," "The Psychiatric History of New York" and "Hell Gate," explore the city's darker side through meticulously researched and theatrically presented historical narratives.

Each tour covers about 2.5 miles in about two-and-a-half hours. “Death in New York” and “The Psychiatric History of New York” are offered weekly, while “Hell Gate” is offered twice per month. Tours cost $32-$34 per person; you can book one here.

The Rockaway Hotel in Queens just debuted a retro-looking, heavy-on-the-pink new Roller Rink inside its event space, complete with food and drink offerings, theme nights, live DJs and more. 

You can book your session right here, where you'll also be able to browse through the various highlighted themes (think country skate, disco skate and throwback skate, among others).