The best things to do in NYC this weekend

If you’ve ever wished New York would hit the mute button on traffic for a few hours, you're in luck. Summer Streets is back, turning more than 20 miles of roads across all five boroughs into giant, car-free playgrounds where walkers, runners, cyclists and roller skaters can take over. This year’s edition has been unfolding over five Saturdays between July 25 and August 22, with free activities, live performances, fitness classes, art installations and plenty of room to simply wander down the middle of the avenue.

On August 8 and 15, participants can travel through the heart of Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge all the way north to Dyckman Street, following Lafayette Street, Park Avenue, East 110th Street, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Broadway. Streets will be open from 7am to 3pm, giving early risers eight uninterrupted hours to explore. The series wraps up on August 22, when Brooklyn’s Eastern Parkway (from Grand Army Plaza to Buffalo Avenue) and the Bronx’s Grand Concourse (from East Tremont Avenue to Mosholu Parkway) become pedestrian-first corridors from 9am to 5pm.

On August 8, Brooklyn will host the inaugural Jamaica Rising Day Parade, celebrating Jamaican heritage and the generations of Jamaican Americans who have helped shape the city with a day of music, culture and community pride. The parade steps off Church and Flatbush avenues at 10am, with beats from DJ Danglez turning the route into a full-on island celebration. You can watch the parade for free, but those who like their festivities with a side of exclusivity can opt for an 8 to 10:30am VIP breakfast ($108) where you can mingle with elected officials, community leaders and other distinguished guests. The celebration wraps up with a block party at Dr. Ronald McNair Park along Eastern Parkway from 3 to 6pm, where participants can enjoy food, more music and the best of vibes.

Channel your inner Andy Sachs or practice your best Miranda Priestly glare at the Museum of Arts and Design. The Columbus Circle spot has turned part of its galleries into “Welcome to the Runway: An Immersive Experience,” a free-with-admission pop-up celebrating the release of The Devil Wears Prada 2’s streaming debut on Disney+ and Hulu. Running through August 9, the interactive installation invites fans to step into some of the sequel's most recognizable fashion moments, complete with plenty of photo ops worthy of your Instagram grid. Original costumes worn by the film's stars are on display.

Guests can bookend their visit with personalized styling consultations and learn how to perfect a runway walk before strutting down a sleek white catwalk while cameras capture the moment on video.

The songs of Québécois nightingale Celine Dion are the stately vessel—or are they the iceberg?—in this campy spoof of James Cameron's 1997 romantic disaster film, written by Marla Mindelle (Sister Act) and Constantine Rousouli (Cruel Intentions) with director Tye Blue. After more than 1,000 performances Off Broadway, the ship sails onto the Main Stem this spring; original stars Mindelle, Rousouli and Frankie Grande are newly flanked by Jim Parsons (!) as meddling mother Ruth Dewitt Bukater and Deborah Cox as the ever-unsinkable Molly Brown. Time Out readers can enjoy a discount of up to 50% on select tickets thru 8/31 by using this link with code TONY26

New York Liberty fans, your game day center is here.  

Time Out Market New York, Union Square, is screening all of the women's basketball games—and you know who we'll be rooting for. Catch the games on all eight of our TVs across our Market, including the massive dropdown screen. Cheer on your favorite team while enjoying killer cocktails and pitchers of beers alongside incredible game-day bites from each of our kitchens. 

Here's the current list of matchups:

August 8: New York Liberty vs. Las Vegas Aces | 12:30 PM

August 13: New York Liberty vs. Los Angeles Sparks | 8:00 PM

August 15: New York Liberty vs. Connecticut Sun | 1:00 PM

August 22: New York Liberty vs. Indiana Fever | 7:00 PM

August 28: New York Liberty vs. Golden State Valkyries | 8:00 PM

A small group show titled "Elsewhere" is on view at the VillageOneArt gallery in Chelsea, and it looks as brain-tickling as it sounds. Artists Hannah Levin, Gwynna Dille, Hanna Jennings, Natsumi Goldfish and Chandra Fang display their work, which comes together as a collective, introspective observation of the world around us.

For those who love a still life or imaginative scenework, check out Fang and Goldfish, respectively.

Vivienne Yang founded the women-led contemporary art gallery in 2018 to feature work by a wide array of artists who are based both locally and internationally. VillageOneArt is free to the public and open Wednesday to Saturday.

Korean and Chinese flavors get a New York makeover at GUI Steakhouse & Prime Rib, where Chef Sungchul Shim welcomes Seoul chef Jung Ji-sun of Tian Mi Mi for a one-night-only collaboration dinner on August 8. Known as the “Queen of Dim Sum” and a Culinary Class Wars White Spoon chef, Jung will bring her signature dim sum and bold mala and yu-xiang flavors, while Shim adds wood-fired seafood, 72-hour prime rib, hand-cut jajang noodles and more. The dinner costs $200 per person, plus tax and gratuity, so this isn't a casual night out, but treat yourself!

One of New York's hottest dance parties made its much-awaited return last month, and with a seriously impressive lineup to boot. The MoMA PS1 Warm Up series turns the museum's courtyard into a dancefloor with DJ sets and live performances on six Friday evenings in July and August—and if you missed the first few, August 7, 14, 21 and 28 are still to come.

The 2026 lineup spotlights innovators in electronic music hailing from here in New York City and around the world: think post-rave hardcore techno, jungle-house DJs, Detroit machine funk outfits, experimental electro tunes and much more.

Long Island City residents with proof of residency in ZIP codes 11101, 11106 or 11109 snag one complimentary ticket per event on a first-come, first-served basis. A limited number of tickets are reserved for local residents at each Warm Up event. 

If you’ve ever wanted to dive headfirst into a giant pile of pastel beads without having to clean it up, your time has come. Salon 94 Design (3 E. 89th St.) and artist CJ Hendry team up for Pastel, a technicolor playground running from August 6 through August 16, where visitors can plunge into a massive bead pit and build their own bracelet, necklace or charm. Hendry’s signature characters, flowers and smiley faces join drawings, editions and plenty of branded swag, making this the rare exhibition where you’re actively encouraged to take a piece of the experience home.

New York City Restaurant Week is among the five boroughs’ best food holidays. Traditionally, New Yorkers (and a few lucky tourists) clear their dining schedules and make reservations at the city’s best special occasion spots, high-profile newcomers and all-time favorite restaurants for deals unseen the rest of the year. Hundreds of destinations participate citywide, with menu prices below their typical tabs. 

Diners can find prix fixe selections for brunch, lunch, dinner and sometimes all three. Saturdays are formally excluded and Sundays are discretionary, so expect regular menu prices at those times unless otherwise stated. 

The summer 2026 campaign runs from July 20 to August 16.

Olivia Wilde is single-handedly bringing erotic comedy back to the box office this year. First there was the four-way dinner party delight of The Invite, and now she dons a lot of (or very little) PVC for the long-awaited return of Gregg Araki with the deliciously silly I Want Your Sex. The film is in theaters now.

Animation existed in movies long before Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse. This summer, MoMA is celebrating the whole wonderfully weird history with It’s Alive!, an exhibit that brings together more than 200 works spanning 1908 to 2020, from Gertie the Dinosaur to experimental artists, Sesame Street and those gloriously bizarre MTV-era music spots. With more than 35 artists represented, the exhibit also features a special focus on the genre's NYC roots. 

Before Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma hits theaters August 7, the Museum of the Moving Image is inviting horror fans to check into its fictional summer camp. Opened July 30, Reframing the Slasher pairs props from Jane Schoenbrun’s meta slasher—including VHS tapes, posters and costumes—with classic films that shaped the genre, from Psycho to Sleepaway Camp. It’s a free exhibition for anyone who likes their nostalgia bloody, complicated and displayed behind glass.

Broadway may be built on revivals these days, but the Broadway Bound Theatre Festival is betting on something riskier (and dare we say more interesting?): new ideas. From July 23 through August 16, AMT Theater (354 W. 45th St.) hosts 12 world premieres—10 plays and two musicals—giving emerging and established playwrights a chance to test-drive tomorrow's theater. Tickets start at $30, with post-show talkbacks offering the opportunity to hear artists discuss a work before anyone starts arguing about whether it belongs at the Tonys.

If you've ever wondered what it would feel like to wander through a BTS album, Arte Museum X BTS THE CITY ARIRANG has an answer. From July 24 through August 14, the immersive Chelsea Piers attraction layers the superstar pop group's music onto dazzling digital landscapes filled with light, sound and movement. The multisensory spectacle is worth the trip—even if you know nothing about the group ahead of time.

Rosie O'Donnell is coming home, and she has a lot to talk about. The comedian, actor and former daytime-TV powerhouse is bringing her new solo show, Rosie O'Donnell: Common Knowledge, to Off Broadway's Daryl Roth Theatre for a limited 12-performance run that began July 22 and ends August 8. The engagement follows sold-out runs at Dublin's Olympia Theatre and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where the deeply personal show earned enthusiastic audiences and strong word-of-mouth.

For New Yorkers, the hour-long production marks O'Donnell's first new stage show in nearly a decade. It also arrives at a particularly eventful moment in the Emmy winner's life. Written after her move to Ireland, Common Knowledge finds O'Donnell reflecting on everything from her Long Island childhood and the death of her mother to parenthood, politics and the realities of starting over in a new country.

Catch Tom Holland and Zendaya in the newest chapter of their marvelous fictional—and real life—love story. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is Marvel's entry into this abundant season of cinema. 

The film entered theaters worldwide on July 31.

Labubu mania is officially entering its museum era. Pop Mart is bringing “The Monster 10th Anniversary World Tour” to New York City this summer for the exhibition’s first U.S. stop after appearances in Shanghai, Taipei, Hong Kong, Paris and Tokyo. The show opened Friday, July 17, at 423 W. 14th St. in Manhattan and will run through August 31.

The 6,000-square-foot exhibition is devoted to The Monsters, the wildly popular character universe created by artist Kasing Lung. Yes, that includes Labubu, the snaggle-toothed little gremlin doll once attached to every bag in the city. Inside, fans will move through nine galleries tracing the series from early sketches to its current collectible-world domination, with appearances from characters including Labubu, Zimomo and Tycoco.

Naturally, there will also be a gift shop stocked with 10th anniversary collectibles and accessories.

Get ready to journey through the cosmos, right here in New York City. The highly-anticipated "Space Explorers: The ISS Experience" has officially opened at Eclipso New York at 55 West 57th Street for a strictly limited engagement. Based on the Primetime Emmy Award-winning immersive series by Felix & Paul Studios, this groundbreaking exhibit gives you the rare chance to step into the boots of an astronaut and experience life aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

While fewer than 300 people have actually traveled to the ISS over the past two decades, this ambitious free-roaming virtual reality experience opens the hatches to everyone.

At the core of the exhibit is the largest cinematic production ever filmed in space. Utilizing cutting-edge 3D 360-degree VR technology, you'll be transported nearly 250 miles above Earth. You're free to roam the virtual environment, where you'll walk alongside real astronauts, witness thrilling spacewalks and listen to interviews about life in zero gravity.

Few summer traditions are as quintessentially New York as watching a movie beneath the stars with the Manhattan skyline glowing in the background. Brooklyn Bridge Park’s beloved Movies With A View series returns for its 26th season, bringing free outdoor screenings to Pier 1’s Harbor View Lawn on Thursday nights throughout July and August, plus a special family movie night in September. Left on this year’s lineup is Jurassic Park (August 6), Do the Right Thing (August 13), Bridesmaids (August 20), a public choice screening (August 27) and How to Train Your Dragon (September 18). Bring a blanket, arrive early and settle in for one of the city’s most scenic movie nights.

"The Black Mirror Experience," a new immersive attraction inspired by Charlie Brooker's hit dystopian anthology series, made its U.S. debut at The Shed on June 20. Running through September 6, the limited-engagement experience promises to place visitors directly inside an original story set within the Black Mirror universe—complete with artificial intelligence, virtual reality and the creeping sense that something has gone terribly wrong. That is, of course, a universe distinct from the dystopian one in which we currently reside.

The 60-minute experience combines physical sets with free-roaming virtual reality technology, allowing groups of up to six participants to move through the story together as its central characters. No prior knowledge of Black Mirror is required, though longtime fans will recognize the show's signature blend of technological optimism and existential dread.

Brooklyn Army Terminal once more transforms its Sunset Park waterfront into one of the city’s busiest summer gathering spots with Summer at the Terminal, a months-long lineup of free cultural programming. Presented by NYCEDC and local partners, the series includes outdoor film screenings, waterfront food festivals, salsa nights, wellness events, makers markets and celebrations of Latin, Asian and Hispanic cultures. Highlights include Rooftop Films screenings, Ferry Food Fest and an end-of-summer bash to close out the season.

Fashion may be ephemeral, but the images it leaves behind can become immortal. That's the idea behind Yves Saint Laurent and Photography, a major new exhibition at the International Center of Photography that explores the legendary designer's four-decade relationship with the camera. Featuring nearly 300 photographs and archival objects drawn from the collections of the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris, visitors will encounter images by some of the 20th century's greatest photographers, including Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Annie Leibovitz, Helmut Newton and Andy Warhol, alongside contact sheets, magazines, campaign materials and personal photographs. 

Summer in Midtown officially kicks off as Bryant Park Picnic Performances returns on May 28 with its biggest season yet. The beloved free series transforms the lawn into an open-air stage for almost four months of music, dance, opera and more, with highlights from New York City Opera and Carnegie Hall. With skyline views and a come-one-come-all vibe, it’s one of the city’s most democratic cultural pleasures: no tickets, no fuss, just world-class performance under the stars and subways conveniently nearby.

Psychedelia comes to the New York Botanical Garden with Flower Power, a groovy, garden-wide takeover celebrating blooms as symbols of peace, love and counterculture cool. Running May 23 through October 18, the exhibition mixes vibrant botanical displays with ’60s-era art, plus trippy installations, live music and after-hours light shows. Wander through technicolor plantings, spot photo ops and lean into the feel-good nostalgia—it’s part flower show, part time warp. And honestly, we could all use a little nature (and time travel) these days.

QC Spa New York is home to a lot of things, a new Italian-leaning restaurant and whimsical wellness rooms that include waterbeds and saunas across its 15,000-square-foot sprawl. But its location is part of what makes this spa so serene, as it gazes upon the beautiful skyline of Lower Manhattan. The best times to drink in the sights? Definitely at sunset to watch the fleeting orange and red sky fall over the city. Adding to the view, the Italian-born spa is setting the tone with a little DJ session. 

Starting on May 8, QC Spa New York is launching Sunset Sessions. The first of an ongoing DJ series, Sunset Sessions will bring a relaxed beach vibe to the spa. DJ Elektra will be playing sets at the spa's outdoor garden, making it easy to enjoy the music among the blooming florals or while soaking in one of the property's infinity pools. Guests can also take a complimentary scented paper fan, handcrafted and shipped from Italy, as a keepsake.

Sunset Sessions will be held from now until September 8. DJ sets start at 6pm; no ticket needed. Reserve your spot here. 

After a long winter of wistfully eyeing empty courts, pickleball is officially making its return to Central Park. From April 21, the iconic Wollman Rink once again swaps skates for paddles as CityPickle rolls back in for its fourth season, turning the space into a sprawling, 14-court pickleball hub right in the heart of the park.

The setup runs daily from 8 am to 9 pm through early fall, with programming that includes open play, clinics and private lessons for every level.

The courts can host hundreds of players each day and reservations open on a rolling basis one week in advance, meaning you’ll need to plan ahead if you’re hoping to snag a prime-time slot. One of the biggest draws remains the $5 community play sessions, which run for several hours each day and include complimentary paddle rentals, making it one of the more affordable ways to spend an afternoon in Central Park.

New York’s American Museum of Natural History is getting a serious dose of championship energy this spring. “For The Win: Objects of Sports Excellence” brings more than 70 glittering symbols of athletic glory—from Olympic medals to Super Bowl hardware—into the museum’s Melissa and Keith Meister Gallery, set inside the Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals.

Among other items, that means the Vince Lombardi Trophy itself will be on view. The sterling silver prize, which has been handcrafted by Tiffany & Co. since 1967 and awarded annually to the Super Bowl champions, anchors an exhibition that spans more than 15 sports and nearly 150 years of competition. The show aims to trace how trophies, rings and medals evolved alongside modern sports culture.

If you’ve ever wondered what haute couture might look like at the bottom of the ocean, inside a mushroom spore or on a distant alien planet, the Brooklyn Museum has an answer—and it involves bioluminescent algae, laser-cut dresses and a whole lot of 3D printing.

Through December 6, “Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses” marks the North American debut of the Dutch designer’s sprawling retrospective, bringing more than 140 of her couture creations to Brooklyn along with contemporary art, scientific specimens, fossils, sound installations and immersive video works.

After more than a decade of drawing crowds to Brooklyn waterfronts and Prospect Park’s lawns, Smorgasburg is heading to upper Manhattan. Starting May 14, the city’s best-known open-air food market is setting up shop at Columbus Circle on the southwest corner of Central Park until September 19.

The new outpost will feature more than 25 vendors—though the exact lineup hasn’t dropped yet, expect the usual Smorgasburg formula: plenty of newcomers, cult-favorite regulars and dishes engineered to go viral. The Central Park edition runs Thursday through Saturday from 12 to 8pm, turning what used to be a once-a-week pilgrimage into an office-lunch-break option. Entry is free as you pay per bite, and you can take your haul straight into the park to eat.

Sex and mortality share the spotlight (as usual) at Manhattan's Museum of Sex with The Life Force: Portraits from the Amparo & Manuel Foundation, running through November 30. The Mexico City–based Amparo & Manuel Foundation makes its U.S. debut with 45 works spanning painting, sculpture and photography, exploring desire, vulnerability and resilience. Expect big names (pieces by Tracey Emin, Lisa Yuskavage, Hernan Bas, Oh de Laval and Sarah Lucas will be on view, among others) as well as intimate moments and bodies under pressure in a show that insists intimacy is its own form of resistance.

MoMA PS1 just opened "Greater New York 2026," its sprawling, building-wide exhibition that doubles as a snapshot of what artists across the city are actually making right now. Running through August 17, the show features 53 artists and collectives working across pretty much every medium you can think of.

This isn’t the type of show you can power through in 45 minutes, though. It takes over the entire museum with more than 150 works, including large-scale installations, new commissions, performances and pieces that, in many cases, have never been shown publicly before. There’s painting next to animation next to scenography next to something you’re not entirely sure how to categorize and that’s entirely the point.

Artists included in the show range from emerging names to more established figures, with a noticeable emphasis on early- and mid-career voices. Many have direct ties to Queens and the surrounding area, connecting the show to neighborhoods just outside the museum’s doors.

The exhibition loosely tracks the pressures shaping life in New York today—everything from surveillance and rapidly evolving tech to infrastructure strain and collective resistance.

Step back in time at Before New York: A Traveling Pop-Up Exhibition at the New York Botanical Garden, where the city’s original landscape becomes the focus. This immersive display from ecologist Dr. Eric W. Sanderson and colleagues reconstructs the area as it was on September 12, 1609, just before Henry Hudson landed. Before New York explores the region’s original ecosystems and Indigenous histories, inviting visitors to imagine Manhattan as it once was: lush, wild and teeming with life. It’s a fascinating, thought-provoking complement to the Garden’s living collections and environmental mission.

For the first time in five decades, a retrospective spotlighting the radical modern works and revolutionary readymades of Marcel Duchamp is coming to North America and, more specifically, New York’s Museum of Modern Art. On view from April 12 to August 22 in partnership with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Marcel Duchamp will feature nearly 300 pieces spanning six decades and all mediums, from his Cubist masterpiece Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2) to his “portable museum,” The Box in a Valise. 

Rooftop Cinema Club has returned to midtown with a lineup focused on crowd-pleasers and date-night classics with just enough nostalgia. The concept is simple but effective: open-air (well, technically enclosed and heated for spring), skyline views, wireless headphones and a rotating schedule of films.

Timed to the United States’ 250th anniversary, the American Folk Art Museum's Folk Nation: Crafting Patriotism in the United States exhibition explores how vernacular art has shaped national identity. Using the museum’s collection, the show delves into the meanings of “folk,” “nation” and “patriotism” at the 2 Lincoln Square gallery. It offers a thought-provoking look at who is represented in American stories and how those stories change. The show runs April 10–September 13, then reopens October 8 and runs through February 28, 2027.

What does American art look like right now? According to the 2026 Whitney Biennial: complicated. On view at the Whitney Museum of American Art through August 23, the exhibition gathers 56 artists navigating everything from AI belief systems to climate grief and geopolitical power.

Co-organized by Marcela Guerrero and Drew Sawyer, the exhibition spans most of the museum’s galleries and extends into performance and public programming. The curators resisted the urge to build the show around a tidy thesis. “Rather than coming to our research for the Biennial with a preconceived container, Marcela and I let our conversations with artists guide us,” Sawyer said during an official preview. 

The participant list reflects that breadth. In addition to artists working across 25 states, the Biennial includes artists from Afghanistan, Chile, Iraq, Okinawa, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Vietnam—“places marked by the reach of U.S. power,” as the museum noted. The definition of “American art” here feels elastic and deliberately complicated.

Two of Mexico's most beloved artistic and cultural icons—Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera—will be rightfully celebrated in a new MoMA exhibition presented in conjunction with the Metropolitan Opera and its production of El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego (May 14–June 5, 2026). On view from March 21 through September 12, 2026, the exhibit will showcase five paintings and a drawing by Kahlo and over a dozen works by Rivera pulled from MoMA's collection, in an elaborate installation designed by Jon Bausor, the set and co-costume designer of the opera.  Photographic portraits of the artists by the likes of Lola Álvarez Bravo and Leo Matiz will also be on view.

Open to the public as of February 12, “He Built This City: Joe Macken’s Model” brings a sprawling, handmade replica of New York City to the Museum of the City of New York, just steps from Central Park. The exhibition marks the first time the viral model, famously constructed by Queens-born truck driver Joe Macken, has been presented in New York City itself.

Macken began the project in 2004 and stuck with it for the next 21 years, quietly recreating the five boroughs by hand in his upstate New York home. Built from everyday materials like balsa wood, cardboard and glue, the finished model measures roughly 50 by 27 feet and is made up of more than 300 individual sections. It captures the city’s skyline, neighborhoods and landmarks with obsessive detail, from Midtown towers to outer-borough blocks.

The New York Transit Museum is giving the time-honored subway swipe a proper sendoff with a new exhibit called "FAREwell, MetroCard" (see what they did there?) in Brooklyn.

The exhibit covers the full journey of the little yellow card that changed how the city moved. When the item launched in 1994, the goal was simple: retire the cumbersome token for something more fitting for the modern era. The show explores how that idea grew from clunky magnetic stripe prototypes into the systemwide rollout that reshaped the daily commute. Through early pilot brochures, SubTalk ads and photos of the first activated turnstiles, you'll realize how much work went into convincing riders to trust the new system.

When Studio Museum opened in 1968, it was the first Black fine arts museum in the country, and it remains the place to go for historical insight into African American art and the art of the African diaspora. The museum reopened in 2025 after a seven-year closure for construction. The new space, located on the same footprint along 125th Street, doubled space for the groundbreaking exhibitions the museum is known for. 

The abstract, towering building is centered around a sleek stone staircase, which stretches throughout the building like a spine. At the bottom, there's a community hangout area called the stoop. At the top, a lush garden with skyline views will no doubt become a popular space in warmer weather. Throughout, exhibitions fill each floor, drawing pieces from the museum's collection of 9,000 pieces and highlighting works by artists-in-residence over the years.  

Grand Bazaar is one of NYC's oldest and largest marketplaces where you can buy vintage treasures, antiques, clothing and more goodies from more than 150 local merchants. Photographers, jewelers and furniture designers sell their best on Sundays between 10am and 5pm on the Upper West Side (77th Street at Columbus Avenue), rain or shine.

Each week offers a different theme, from featuring women-owned businesses to focusing on handmade items to spotlighting international wares. The market runs both indoors and outdoors each week all year long.

As a testament to the beloved Grand Bazaar's staying power, the market is celebrating 40 years in 2025. Grand Bazaar also has a mission to give back with 100% of its profits from booth rentals supporting four local public schools, helping with everything from school supplies through teaching assistants.

City Climb—which is the highest external building climb in the world on the Western Hemisphere's tallest observation deck, Edge—tethers brave thrillseekers to a secure trolly along the outside of the building and open, edged platforms and stairways. Two cables will keep you secure on a path that leads up 32 steps to “The Cliff,” an outlook 1,190 feet in the sky and to “The Stair,” which consists of 151 steps on a 45-degree incline. “The Apex” is where they can lean out and hang over the platform at 1,271 feet. Are your knees buckling yet? Here’s what it was like to climb it. It all finishes with a victory lap on Edge's outdoor viewing area on the 100th floor (and a celebratory medal for inaugural guests).

What does it mean to be American? That's the question a new immersive art exhibition in Manhattan seeks to answer. 

Called "Path of Liberty: That Which Unites US," this installation takes over six acres in Midtown East through September 20 with massive screens sharing the voices of 50 Americans from across the nation. You'll hear their thoughts on democracy, liberty, freedom and unity. Path of Liberty is free to visit with reservations available here. The exhibition opens as America approaches the 250th anniversary of its founding, which will be celebrated in 2026.  

Find "Path of Liberty: That Which Unites US" on Manhattan’s East Side from 38th to 41st Street along First Avenue. It's open free of charge every Thursday through Saturday from 8-11pm.

It's hard to imagine now in our globalized world, but many of the young American soldiers who headed onto massive ships like the USS Intrepid during World War II had never even seen the ocean before. They’d soon be navigating the Pacific, launching planes off of aircraft carriers and battling Axis enemies. 

Now, the stories of those military members are on display in a new permanent exhibit at the Intrepid Museum, the historic aircraft carrier docked along the Hudson River in Hell’s Kitchen, which served from 1943 to 1974. The new 10,000-square-foot exhibit includes 50 never-before-seen artifacts, crew member oral histories, videos and photos showcasing the ship's history.

Plus, you’ll get to see the museum’s newest WWII aircraft acquisition, a legendary fighter-bomber called the FG-1D Corsair. Planes just like it often flew off of Intrepid’s flight deck during the war.

Tucked away on Bridge Street in an old factory basement, this two-story playscape for kids and adults contains ample room for fun, including laser tag, mini-bowling and arcade games.

Laser tag games are comprised of three 10-15-minute matches, where you bob and weave around rustic columns and obstacles Area 53 has set up. Across an hour-and-a-half, you and your friends will be giggling and screaming as you "shoot" each other's guns to gain points. It's not for the faint of heart—running to avoid lasers is a workout, but a super fun one. We'd recommend checking out its "After Dark" laser tag and mini-bowling for those 18+ on Thursday nights.

Area 53's mini-bowling allows for up to six people to knock down pins across 25 minutes and its arcade has traditional games, from basketball shooting games to racing games and claw machines. 

If space is looking pretty good to you right now, there’s a chance to escape to the wide expanse even if only for an hour. INTER, the experiential, multi-sensory museum in Soho, has been reimagined to be an immersive intergalactic adventure.

From the creative minds behind the Museum of Ice Cream and photography center Fotografiska, INTER, inside the old First National City Bank of New York, first opened in a beta version in November 2022 but officially opened in May 2023, with abstract digital art of images evoking natural phenomena like earth, fire and water, its own floral tunnel, an infinity room and a water installation.

But now, it has more than 10 immersive exhibits using light, sound and digital projection to transport you to another galaxy.

As the Revolutionary War came to a close, British Loyalists and soldiers evacuated the colonies in droves. But the evacuation was more complicated for Black Loyalists, some of whom joined the British cause in response to offers of freedom. 

In 1783, the new government formed a special committee to review the eligibility of some Black Loyalists to evacuate with the British Army, and that committee met at Fraunces Tavern in Lower Manhattan. A new permanent exhibit at the Fraunces Tavern Museum explores this important moment in history. 

The exhibition first opened last year, and officials are now moving it to a larger permanent gallery within the museum. The new space will offer a chance to include recent new discoveries of significant information concerning the identities of individuals participating in the Birch Trials and their inclusion in the Book of Negroes.

This sprawling 16,000-square-foot space in Bushwick, designed to double as a concert venue and nightclub for up to 1,200 people, is the city’s first new wooden roller skating rink in over a decade.

Xanadu is decorated with a giant black-and-white photo of a group of young Black skaters taken over 40 years ago, a model for the energy in the room today. There’s also a rinkside bar, serving drinks with names like Skaterade and Purple Rain with direct sightlines of all the action on the wood. And in the bathroom, a surprise DJ spins a soundtrack for patrons to dance to as they wash their hands, a cheeky setup Kataria calls, “Club Flush.”

Need a laugh? The Second City—the renowned comedy club with locations in Chicago and Toronto—just opened in Brooklyn, and you will definitely laugh out loud there. The New York City venue, which opened on the legendary club’s 65th anniversary, offers hilarious live comedy every single night of the week.

The club has debuted "The Second City Presents The Mainstage Revue 1: Ruthless Acts of Kindness," a completely original NYC revue, which has been created in conversation with the audience over the last ten-weeks.

Some of the funniest names in comedy got their start at Second City. Just a few Second City alumni include: Bill Murray, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Amber Ruffin, Keegan-Michael Key, Chris Farley, Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, and Aidy Bryant. You might just see the next comedy star on this stage.

The venue offers sketch shows and improv performances, along with a great restaurant and no drink minimums in a beautiful venue. Tickets start at $39.

Puttery is an adults-only mini-golf and nightlife destination that just opened at 446 West 14th Street by Washington Street in the Meatpacking District and is backed by, among others, Irish professional golfer Rory McIlroy.

The first location of its kind in New York, Puttery spans 24,000 square feet over five levels that feature an underground lounge and a total of three bars, including a rooftop one that will be open year-round (yes, there will be heat lamps on site). 

Beautiful, buoyant, beguiling bubbles are back at the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) in Queens. The beloved bubbles exhibit, which had been closed for five years, has returned bigger, better and bubblier than ever.

The Big Bubble Experiment encourages kids of all ages to experiment and discover through the joy of playing with bubbles. That includes blowing, stretching, popping and looking closely to see what happens at each move. 

The exhibit features 10 stations, each one with different tools and methods for exploring bubble solution.

Wild Captives, the nation’s first female- and LGBTQ-owned archery studio, is now open. It's a place where everyone can "be their own superhero." The studio in Brooklyn’s Industry City offers empowering and fun hour-long introduction to archery classes every weekend for $45/person. 

Each intro class includes a chance to learn about different parts of the bow and safety requirements. After the lesson, each participant gets a chance to shoot the bow trying to pop a balloon pinned onto the bullseye. Intro-to-archery classes are available each Friday, Saturday and Sunday, bookable online for anyone over age 12.

On a typical visit to the Museum of Modern Art, crowds surround the most precious paintings, and it can be tough to squeeze your way in for a photo, let alone to admire the artwork’s brushstrokes. But now, thanks to these new exclusive tours by GetYourGuide, you can get in before the museum opens for a guided tour of amazing artwork. 

The new MoMA Before Hours Tour with Art Expert is available now; tickets are on sale here for $99/person. Few New York City experiences compare to the absolute thrill of gazing at famed works of art uninterrupted for as long as you like.  

With a full restaurant, craft cocktails, comfy reclining seats and even more bells and whistles, this new movie theater in Hell's Kitchen elevates the movie-going experience. LOOK Dine-in Cinemas is now open in VIA 57 West, the pyramid-shaped building located at West 57th Street and 11th Avenue. 

With a 15-year lease, LOOK's operating in a 25,000-square-foot venue that used to house Landmark cinema until it closed in 2020. This is the company's first New York City location. At this fancy theater, you can relax in a heated seat while ordering dinner directly to your seat in the theater. 

Find your latest read at The Free Black Women’s Library, a new free library in Brooklyn's Bed-Stuy neighborhood, which also serves as a social art project, a reading room, a co-working space and a community gathering center. The library "celebrates the brilliance, diversity and imagination of Black women and Black non-binary authors." All 5,000 books in the library's collection are written by Black women and non-binary authors.

Here's how it works: Anybody can visit the space to read, work or hang out. If you want to take a book home, simply bring a book written by a Black woman or Black non-binary author, and you can trade. Whether you decide to bring the book back after you're done reading or keep it for your collection is up to you.

The library is currently open four days per week (Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday) at 226 Marcus Garvey Boulevard. In addition to offering a space to read or work, the library has also hosts a book club, art shows and workshops on topics like writing, drawing, poetry, painting and sewing. All are welcome. 

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.

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. 

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 are often added, including a signed, first edition copy of "Passing" by Nella Larsen, a selection of manuscript pages from "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot, and a miniature early 19th-century Qur’an, produced in Turkey.

Part visual splendor, part olfactory wonder and part ooey-gooey sensory fun, Sloomoo Institute’s slime museum is worth a visit for kids of all ages. 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.

A bucolic 1920s English country golf club is on its way to NYC's concrete jungle! But with a twist. Swingers NoMad, a "crazy mini-golf course" and entertainment complex straight from London brought with it three nine-hole golf courses across 23,000 square feet under 20-foot-high ceilings.

"Crazy golf" is a British spin on mini-golf, but it's for a 21-and-over audience since craft cocktails are served by caddies on the course. Plus, there are plenty of food options to pair with your drinks.

Every Saturday night, two piano men battle it out to prove who is truly the master of all 88 keys, with a playlist decided entirely by the audience. Whether you’re in the mood for Billy Joel, Christina Aguilera or current chart toppers, these pianists are up for the challenge. But they expect you to do your part by singing along, but from home. Grab a ticket and request songs in advance.

Every day, our staffers are eating, drinking, partying, gigging and generally appreciating their way throughout this fair town of ours. Which makes pinning down the most essential New York activities kinda…tough. We need to include the classics, naturally—art museums in NYC, stellar New York attractions, killer bars and restaurants in NYC—but also spotlight the more recent or little-known gems that we truly love. Consider the below your NYC Bible.