Times Square to Central Park (Self Guided), New York

Long before Manhattan’s tidy street plan straightened everything out, Broadway, unlike other streets in New York, followed an older native pathway, wandering freely up the island. This is why it slices across Seventh Avenue and 42nd Street, forming two triangular pockets, like a bow tie. The southern one is called Times Square, while the northern, Duffy Square, is named for World War I chaplain Father Francis P. Duffy, whose statue now watches over the crowds with admirable patience.

The stretch of Broadway from 41st to 53rd Streets goes by a different name: the Great White Way. That nickname wasn’t poetic exaggeration—those glowing billboards, marquees, and oversized posters once made the area one of the brightest electrified spots on Earth. Today, it’s still blazing away with advertisements for Broadway’s latest musicals and plays, pulling in nearly 50 million visitors a year. That’s roughly 330,000 people a day, all weaving through the lights, noise, and spectacle in search of something unforgettable.

Before it was Times Square, this chaotic crossroads answered to the far calmer name of Longacre Square. Everything changed in 1904, when New York Times publisher Adolph S. Ochs moved his newspaper into the brand-new Times Building—now known as One Times Square—and happily lent his name to the neighborhood. The Times moved out within a decade, but not before launching a little tradition in 1907: the New Year’s Eve Ball Drop. A century later, the glittering descent still draws over a million people every year, along with countless viewers around the world.

Today, Times Square is a fluorescent buffet of attractions—ABC’s Times Square Studios, Planet Hollywood, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, and whichever character impersonator is bravest that day. The towering illuminated signs, nicknamed “spectaculars” or “jumbotrons,” compete with the neon bravado of Las Vegas and often win.

Amid all that glow, shoppers duck into stores like Gap, Old Navy, Forever 21, Levi’s, the Disney Store, Hershey’s Chocolate World, and M&M’s World—each one flashing its own brand of temptation. Whether you’re hunting for a souvenir, a show, or just a moment to stand still and stare, this Midtown crossroads remains New York at its most unfiltered and unmistakable.

Back in 1801, a New York physician named David Hosack bought 22 acres of empty land from the city with an aim to establish America’s first botanical garden. And for the next ten years, the Elgin Botanic Garden really did bloom—until funding wilted, the plants went wild, and Columbia University had to step in to take over the property in 1823.

Fast-forward a century to 1926, when the Metropolitan Opera went searching for a grand new home. Columbia leased the land to its generous patron, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., setting the stage for a glittering cultural palace. Then the stock market crashed in 1929, the opera backed out, and Rockefeller found himself with prime New York real estate and no tenant. So, he pivoted—and decided to build a mass-media powerhouse instead.

In 1930, after months of negotiations involving Radio Corporation of America, National Broadcasting Company, and Radio-Keith-Orpheum, the plan was set: an entertainment complex of unprecedented scale. To make room, 228 buildings were cleared and 4,000 tenants relocated. Early name ideas included “Radio City,” “Rockefeller City,” and the dramatic “Metropolitan Square,” before the now-famous title finally stuck.

Today, Rockefeller Center stretches across all of Doctor Hosack’s original 22 acres—though the botanicals have long been replaced with 14 Art Deco buildings, a standalone tower along 51st Street, and four more rising on the west side of Sixth Avenue. There are rooftop gardens, but you’ll have to crane your neck to see anything green.

On the west side sits Radio City Music Hall, still flashing its neon glamour. And at the heart of it all lies the sunken Lower Plaza, praised by Chinese-American architect Ieoh Ming Pei as “the most successful open space in the United States, perhaps in the world.” Most visitors simply know it as “the place with the ice rink,” which has been delighting skaters since 1936.

Then there’s the view. “Top of the Rock” offers three levels of indoor and outdoor decks with clear, cinematic vistas of the New York skyline. Back on the ground, the shops spread out in every direction—big names, small designers, and everything in between. It’s the kind of place where you realize: shopping isn’t just about what you buy; it’s about where you buy it...

In case you wonder why New York has two Saint Patrick’s Cathedrals, it’s not because the city has twice as many saints—it’s because the first one simply couldn’t keep up. The Old Cathedral from 1815 did its best, but by the mid-1800s, the Archdiocese had outgrown it. So, in 1858, construction began on a new spiritual heavyweight: the towering Gothic Revival cathedral that now occupies the block between 50th and 51st Streets on Madison Avenue. Designed by James Renwick Jr. and formally opened in 1879, it rises directly across from Rockefeller Center, as if keeping an eye on the skating rink...

From the outside, the building is a full Gothic drama. Marble everywhere, pointed arches stacked like architectural exclamation marks, and stained-glass windows glowing in neat vertical ranks. The whole structure stretches 332 feet in length, with transepts spanning 174 feet. But the true attention-grabbers are the twin spires—330 feet of pure, sky-seeking ambition—framing the bronze entrance doors.

Step inside, and the scale refuses to let up. A broad central aisle is flanked by two narrower ones, separated by 32 marble columns that seem determined to out-pose each other. Look up, and you’ll see ribbed Gothic vaults meeting in elegant bosses overhead. Along the sides, twelve chapels create quieter pockets of devotion, while seating for 2,400 fills the nave with long lines of wooden pews.

Even the high altar has a story. The original version was shipped off to Fordham University Church in the Bronx, making room for the current altar carved from grey-white Italian marble and crowned by a bronze baldachin. It rises beneath a statue of Christ the King, complete with angels and decorative pinnacles.

Today, the “new” Saint Patrick’s Cathedral is firmly established as one of Manhattan’s defining landmarks, recognized both as a New York City designated landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places—a cathedral built to impress, and one that still succeeds brilliantly!

The Saint Thomas Church is an Episcopal parish church located in the heart of New York City. It is one of the few churches where the old Anglican choral tradition is still preserved.

Previously, the congregation of Saint Thomas's worshiped in three other locations before the present one was built. Designed by architects Ralph Adams Cram and Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue in High Gothic style, featuring plain limestone exterior and sandstone interior, the current church was built between 1911 and 1916 looking absolutely fantastic among the towering skyscrapers. The intricate stonework on the reredos – white carved screens behind the altar and interesting carvings on the choir stalls showing “modern” inventions like the radio and telephone – was done be sculptor Lee Laurie, while the fine stained glass windows were created by English artist, James Hunphries Hogan, of Powell and Sons (Whitefriars) Ltd. of London.

Music is an important part of worship and liturgy at Saint Thomas's, in large part thanks to the design offering excellent acoustics, as well as the three old and one new incredible Dobson pipe organ (worth $11 million) added in 2008. There are free organ recitals most Sundays, the sound of which is profoundly moving. The church's choir performs traditional Anglican Evensong, a 45 minute service of music by young boys aged between 8 and 13. This choir is supported by the Saint Thomas choir school that was founded by the parish in 1919 and is one of four remaining choir schools in the world.

While everyone goes to check out Saint Patrick's, and quite rightly so, you still might be cheating yourself if you don’t visit Saint Thomas's, which is just a few blocks away. Its beautiful altar area, stained glass and ceiling are absolutely worth a look, and will leave you in awe. Highly recommended!

November 1929: the stock market has just fallen through the floor, and most of New York is clutching its wallet. Meanwhile, Abby Rockefeller and her two art-loving co-conspirators, Lillie Bliss and Mary Quinn Sullivan, take one look at the chaos and think, “Perfect time to open a museum...” And so, inside the Heckscher Building at 750 Fifth Avenue, the Museum of Modern Art (or MoMA, for short) threw open its doors—America’s first institution devoted entirely to Modern Art and European Modernism.

Bold? Absolutely. Sensible? Hmm, debatable. Visionary? Without question. Within a decade, the museum hopped addresses three times before finally settling down.

By 1939, MoMA staked its permanent home on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, where it built its reputation as one of the most influential modern art museums on the planet. From the start, it championed the art of its time, collecting the bold, the experimental, and the occasionally eyebrow-raising.

Today, MoMA’s holdings stretch across architecture, design, painting, sculpture, prints, photography, film, and just about every creative medium you can plug in, flip through, or hang on a wall. Its library alone boasts more than 300,000 books, over 1,000 periodicals, and 40,000 pieces of ephemera—essentially everything artists have ever scribbled, mailed, stapled, or hastily tossed into history.

The museum organizes all this creative energy into six major departments: Architecture and Design, Drawings and Prints, Film, Media and Performance, Painting and Sculpture, and Photography. In total, MoMA oversees more than 150,000 works, 22,000 films, and pieces by more than 13,000 artists. And yes, the roster reads like the ultimate art-world roll call: Matisse, Picasso, Duchamp, Magritte, O’Keeffe, Hopper, Pollock, Warhol, Lichtenstein, and many more.

The building itself is a sleek modernist landmark. Step through the lobby, and you’ll spot the beloved Sculpture Garden—a serene pocket of trees, reflecting pools, and thought-provoking shapes. Above, staircases and elevators carry you into a maze of galleries. When you need a pause, there are cafés; when you want a film, there’s a theater rolling screenings most days.

MoMA is open daily, but here’s the city’s favorite pro tip: admission is free on Fridays after 5:30 p.m. To take advantage of it, just follow the crowds of excited New Yorkers who suddenly “remembered” they love modern art...

One of the first landmarks to discover after entering Central Park's southeast corner, the robust Gapstow Bridge just so happens to be among the best spots for photography within the Park as well, along with Bethesda Fountain and the Belvedere Castle. Although not far off from several similar bridges, this one wins for the commanding and breathtaking views it offers, with natural scenery on one side and Manhattan's skyline on the other.

Originally wooden and cast-iron, though for the last hundred-plus years made of stone, the bridge itself may not be an architectural marvel but has a beautiful aesthetic presence to it. It's apparently also quite popular with locals, who come to watch the ducks in the pond and relax after work.

Featured in many Hollywood movies and TV shows, the Bethesda Terrace is one of the most easily recognizable landmarks of Central Park. It is a perfect place to unwind, watch street performers, enjoy music, or simply hang out and pass the time.

With its beautiful arcaded structure and carved limestone decorations, it stands as a fine example of 19th-century architecture, treating visitors to a lower and upper terrace surrounded by three staircases. This is all further highlighted by an attractive, large-scale fountain with the famous "Angel of the Water" statue on top and a beautifully tiled underpass, both of which are worth many pictures.

The "Angel of the Water" statue refers to "Healing the Paralytic", a story from the Gospel of John about an angel blessing the Pool of Bethesda, giving it healing powers.

In the end, it's a neat area to spend some time during visits to Central Park, particularly when the fountains are turned on and the trees in the area are in bloom or heavy with foliage. More often than not, you'll find people sitting on stone benches in the lower level to watch boats on the lake and get a glimpse of the high-rise buildings beyond.