Completed in 1873, Central Park is among the world’s great urban innovations. Bound by 5th and 8th avenues on the east and west respectively, and from 59th Street on the south, 110th Street on the north, these 843 acres encompass a lot to see and do.

With two skating rinks, horseback riding, and skating and bicycle trails, the athletic won’t want for anything that suits their taste. For those who enjoy a more leisurely pace, the many sculptures, lakes and bird species provide ample opportunities for just gazing.

Largely grass dotted with trees and shrubs, there are nonetheless sidewalks all around and through the park for strolls and people watching. Plenty of that can be had, since the park is visited by some 25 million annually. Even so, the once fearsome crime rate has dropped to at or below every other urban park in the world.

Winding through the park is a 6mi (10km) road along which travel cars as well as the occasional horse-drawn cart. The romantic ride is still a favorite activity more than a hundred years after the service began. It makes for an especially relaxing treat during the Fall when the leaves turn to red and gold.

Several other roads cut through the middle of the park, though with restricted hours, to make cross-town car travel more convenient. Beware the zooming taxis!

The Central Park Zoo is modest cost and houses Tamarin monkeys, large cats and a wide variety of other animals, not the least of which is Gus the Polar Bear. Long one of the lesser zoos in the US, it enjoyed a renaissance in the 1990s and now joins Prospect Park Zoo in Brooklyn and Queens Zoo in Queens as one of the city’s major attractions.

Along the edges of the park there are several museums, including one of the world’s great storehouses of art: The Metropolitan Museum of Art at Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street. Low-cost and varied, art lovers should be prepared to spend a day or two if they wish to see the entire 6,000 year collection.

The Natural History Museum is sited on the west side of the park at 79th Street and Central Park West. Here the collection is, ahem, somewhat older than 6,000 years with artifacts dating back, in some cases, millions.

In between these two jewels are several other sites and activities to interest the culture-lover. During the summer, Shakespeare in the Park attracts thousands of devotees of the bard, and the Metropolitan Opera puts on two concerts per year, as well. The New York Philharmonic often gets into the act, traveling a block from Lincoln Center to put on an open-air concert.

Before the concert, a glass of wine or a fine meal can be had at the renowned Tavern on the Green restaurant. Be sure to make reservations several months in advance, though.

While you’re at the park, looking at things new and old, don’t miss seeing the ancient Egyptian Obelisk. It isn’t often you see centuries old sculptures in the middle of the world’s most modern cities.

Enjoy!

The Empire State Building in mid-town Manhattan has justifiably been called the eighth wonder of the world. No longer the tallest building in the world, it remains one of the largest office buildings and is currently the tallest in New York at 102 stories.

This engineering marvel was built in record time at the depths of the Depression between 1930 and 1931, when it was completed in May. In some periods, more than two floors per week were being added at a time before many modern construction techniques.

It occupies a city block at 5th Avenue between 33rd and 34th Street, but can be seen from several blocks away (or several miles, at higher elevations). Art Deco in style, the building houses a visitor’s museum in the lobby and a viewing platform near the top. Security is strict and prices are relatively steep, but a great bargain for a two-hour tour and a stunning view.

In the lobby museum a visitor can learn all about the history of the building, and the New York of the period generally. Also there are displays of interesting visuals discussing the ancient wonders of the world with which it’s often compared.

The lobby itself is something of a museum, too, with its large Art Deco golden wall friezes and lovely polished stone. Old-movie buffs will particularly appreciate the ambiance, which makes it easy to imagine living in the period.

The long elevator ride to the viewing platform is a good time to think about the accident in 1945 when a B-52 crashed into the middle of the building. Causing relatively minor damage, the fire was extinguished in less than an hour. However, the crash caused the elevator to fall. Not to worry, the elevator operator survived a 75-floor drop without a bruise. Thank you Mr. Otis, master elevator designer.

At the 86th floor, on one of the frequent clear days, a visitor can stand on the outdoor platform over 1,000 feet above the street. From there he or she can see the Statue of Liberty off the southern tip of the island, or all the way up to the top of Central Park at 110th Street.

The panoramic view also includes the shining aluminum-and-green-glass Citicorp, the post-modern AT&T, the steel-gargoyle-topped Chrysler, and several other prominent landmark buildings.

If you get hungry, there are two restaurants and a sushi bar, as well as three coffee shops. Security rules forbid bringing in bottles, so make use of these instead.

And, in case you decide you never want to leave, you can rent one of the many offices and build a shower in the bathroom. You can use the Post Office or one of the two banks when you just can’t do business electronically. There’s even a drug store, for those days you got rained on using the viewing platform.

Once back down on street level again, be sure to stand across the street looking up. Imagine the many iron-workers who stood in the high winds and cold weather tossing red-hot rivets across the uncompleted floors. Then marvel at the completed work, both a feat of engineering and masterpiece of art.

The center of Manhattan in a dozen ways, Fifth Avenue bisects the city from below 23rd Street to the north end of Central Park and beyond.

Home to some of the most expensive real estate on earth (over $600 per square foot in some cases), the street featured in dozens of films deserves its acclaim. Whether south to the Flatiron Building at 23rd Street (the first cast iron ’skyscraper’) or up to midtown to north of 88th, there’s more to see and do here alone than in all of most cities.

Take a tour of the New York Public Library at 42nd street and say ‘Hello’ to the stone lions outside, Patience and Fortitude. Enjoy the park in the rear, where outdoor markets are held. Walk through the hallowed halls inside and take in one of the world’s great libraries.

Wander up to midtown to the ‘city within the city’: Rockefeller Center. A dozen high rise buildings, a skating rink and dozens of shops and restaurants compete for attention.

Only a few blocks up from this 52nd Street marvel is 57th where the visitor can take in Tiffany’s. Upstairs is where they keep the really good stuff. Bergdorf Goodman’s is right next door if you simply must have one of the world’s most expensive raincoats. Cartier’s is not far away.

And don’t forget to take a photo by the huge red ‘9′ at 9 West 57th, in front of the spectacular curved glass building there. Former headquarters of Avon, from the cafeteria on the 33rd floor you can see all the way up Central Park and downtown to the former World Trade Center site.

Nearby, at 59th Street, is the world renowned Plaza Hotel across the street from the bottom of Central Park. Have a drink in the bar and imagine Cary Grant - who used to have a suite at the hotel - walking through and sitting down.

Sit on the steps and look at the fountain and the white stone tower of GM Plaza. Stop in at FAO Schwarz, the world’s most interesting toy store.

Board one of the horse-drawn carts and take a trip up 5th Avenue alongside or through the park. Or, if you’re in a hurry, hail a cab and zoom up to 82nd Street and the Metropolitan Museum. Here’s a treasure trove of 6,000 years of art in a 19th century setting inside and out.

After your tour, sit outside on the steps and have a hot dog while you people watch. Through these Greek columned doors pass thousands from all over the world, often in fascinating native dress.

And for poetry lovers, just up and across the street is the Goethe Institute, dedicated to the 19th century dramatist and poet. Here you can rest and see films, hear small concerts and lectures, and enjoy the ambiance.

Just up the street is the famous Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Guggenheim. A work of modern art itself, the spiral layer-cake building houses late 20th century works along the walls of a spectacular atrium.

On your way back down, catch The Frick Collection at 70th Street. One of the world’s great small museums. A medium-sized mansion, but every room is itself a work of art and the collection rivals that of any in New York or Paris.

Enjoy the street that was famous long before Fred Astaire sang and danced on it. When you’re done, you’ll be dancing too.

 

Few museum buildings can justifiably claim to be works of art in their own right. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Solomon R. Guggenheim museum of modern art is in that sparsely populated class.

Built between 1956 and 1959, the museum still serves its original purpose - the display of works from the 20th century, primarily painting and sculpture.

The unusual spiral design has been controversial since before the first stone was laid. In part, because there were no stones to lay. The building is a continuous concrete pour in the shape of a sand-colored ribbon that winds from bottom to top, widening as it goes. The net effect is organic, but unlike any analogy one could draw. It’s simply sui generis.

This makes for lack of window light around the exterior, but this is partly made up for by the large, open cylindrical atrium that runs through the center. From every angle, this skylight-fed area illuminates the walls within, though the works are somewhat shadowed by the continuous walkway ramp that curves around the interior.

Despite Lloyd’s original intention, in which a visitor would take an elevator to the top and walk leisurely down the ramp to view the displays, most visitors walk UP the ramp. Something about the design makes the effort more than worthwhile.

Along the walls can be found examples of most of the famous names of the 20th century: Picasso and Pissaro, Giacometti and Kandinsky. Even a Lichtenstein or two. Both sculpture and paintings compete for flat wall space - most of the surfaces follow the gentle curve of the building.

As a result of the lack of level floors and flat wall space, complaints about the difficulty of proper display have been frequent since the building’s birth. Several years ago a partial solution was reached when a 10-story tower was erected behind the original, once free standing, building. The conventional tower now holds many of the paintings with more of the sculpture finding a home in the original museum.

The building itself is best viewed from across the street on the west side of 5th Avenue. From this vantage point, the visitor can get a variety of views of the architectural crowning point of Wright’s career.

There are fewer of Wright’s more typical structures in this example, but there are some moderate-sized cantilevers that betray the work of the master. Not least is the large one several feet above eye level that runs the length of the site. And inside, standing in the center of the atrium at the bottom or top, one can clearly see hints of the equally well-known Johnson Wax Building completed many years earlier.

Located a few blocks north of the Metropolitan, the 88th Street location is easily accessible by cab up Fifth Avenue, or from the Lexington Avenue subway station at 86th Street.