For travellers
New York City, New York · United States
The city you have already seen a thousand times, which is somehow still surprising in person. Walk more than you plan to.
New York rewards walking and punishes over-scheduling. Three or four things a day is a full day; the rest happens between them — the block you turn down, the slice you eat standing up, the bridge at the wrong hour that turns out to be the right one. Pick a couple of neighbourhoods rather than a checklist, and let the subway do the long hops.
6 things worth building a day around in New York City.
Photo: Wikimedia1The wooden promenade, the cables, and Manhattan appearing behind you. At 7am it is nearly empty; by noon it is a crowd.
Local tip: Walk Brooklyn to Manhattan so the skyline is in front of you, then breakfast in Dumbo.
40 minutes · free
Photo: Wikimedia2843 acres with a ramble, a reservoir, a castle and boats. It stops being a lawn between towers about ten minutes in.
Local tip: Enter at the north end, which almost nobody does, and walk south through the Ravine and the Great Lawn.
Half a day · free
Photo: Wikimedia3A disused elevated railway replanted as a mile-and-a-half garden, running above the West Side and ending at a food hall.
Local tip: Go early or an hour before sunset. Midday in summer it is a slow-moving queue with plants.
1–2 hours · free
Photo: Wikimedia4The Met, MoMA, the Natural History Museum, the Whitney. Two hours in one beats forty minutes in three.
Local tip: The Met is pay-what-you-wish for New York State residents; everyone else pays admission. Book timed entry for MoMA.
2–3 hours · $25–30
Photo: Wikimedia5Even if theatre is not your thing — the craft in the room is worth the ticket once.
Local tip: TKTS booths sell same-day seats at a discount, and digital lotteries open the day before for the big shows.
Evening · $70–250
The most linguistically diverse place on earth, and the best-value eating in the city. Take the 7 train and get off somewhere.
Local tip: Flushing for Chinese regional food, Jackson Heights for South Asian and Himalayan, Astoria for Greek and Egyptian.
An afternoon · $15–30
The dishes and places that make New York City taste like itself.
The city's actual staple. Two or three dollars, eaten standing at the counter, no topping required.
Tip: If the slice is reheated to order rather than sitting under a lamp, you are in the right place.
Boiled then baked, sliced at an appetising counter that has been open since before your grandparents. Do not ask for it toasted.
Manhattan's Chinatown for the classic version, Flushing for the deeper one.
Which part of New York City suits the trip you are taking.
Shopping, dining, iconic streets
Best for: First-timers, walkability
Trendy, food and music, skyline views
Best for: Younger travellers, longer stays
Classic, leafy, near Central Park
Best for: Families, quieter stays
Diverse food, residential, transit-rich
Best for: Value seekers, foodies
1624
The Dutch found New Amsterdam at the tip of Manhattan; the English take it in 1664 and rename it for the Duke of York.
1811
The Commissioners' Plan lays the street grid over most of Manhattan — the reason everything above Houston Street is numbered.
1886
The Statue of Liberty is dedicated; Ellis Island opens six years later and processes twelve million arrivals.
1904
The first subway line opens, and the city spreads into the boroughs it had only recently absorbed.
1930s
The Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building go up in a two-year race, in the middle of the Depression.
2001–now
September 11th, the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan, and a city that keeps being declared finished and is not.
More than 200 languages are spoken in New York, and Queens is the most linguistically diverse urban area on the planet.
The subway runs 24 hours a day, every day — one of very few systems in the world that never closes.
Central Park is entirely artificial: every hill, lake and outcrop arrangement was designed and built in the 1850s–60s.
There are around 1,700 parks and a quarter of the city's area is green space, which is not the reputation.
Grand Central's main concourse ceiling shows the zodiac backwards — reportedly painted from a medieval manuscript's God's-eye view.
Not a schedule — a shape for the days, clustered so you are not crossing New York City twice.
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
The subway is fast, cheap and runs all night. Tap a contactless card or phone at the turnstile — no ticket needed — and the fare caps after twelve rides in a week. Walk anything under twenty blocks; it is usually quicker than waiting.
Late April to June and September to early December are the best weather. July and August are hot and humid; January and February are cold and cheap. The two weeks before Christmas are magnificent and completely full.
Sales tax and a customary 18–20% tip are added on top of restaurant menu prices. Museums are $25–30, shows $70 and up, and a slice is still under $5.
The subway — fast, cheap and running 24/7. Tap your phone or contactless card at the turnstile (OMNY). Walk short hops; use rideshare late at night in outer neighbourhoods.
Four is the minimum for a first visit and you will still leave things undone. Two or three neighbourhoods done properly beats a list of landmarks photographed from the pavement.
Most visited neighbourhoods are busy and comfortable late. Stay on well-lit main streets, keep your phone in your pocket on the subway platform, and use the same judgement you would in any large city.
Top of the Rock puts the Empire State Building in your photograph, which is the argument for it. Edge and Summit are newer and glassier. All sell timed tickets and the sunset slots go first.
Tours, tickets and day trips with real prices, durations and cancellation terms.
NYC is the hardest major market in America. This guide is honest about what is actually legal — and what hosts do here instead.
Los Angeles
Eighty neighbourhoods pretending to be a city, with mountains at one end and the Pacific at the other. Pick two a day, maximum.
Savannah
Twenty-two garden squares under live oaks and Spanish moss, all of it walkable, most of it haunted according to somebody.
London
Two thousand years of city, most of the best museums free, and a park always within ten minutes' walk.
Your host's guest page answers everything on this page and the ones only they know — instantly, in your language, from a link or a QR code by the door.
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