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Itineraries · All five boroughs

Three days in New York beyond Manhattan

A day in Brooklyn, a day in Queens, a day in the Bronx — each built around the borough's own best cluster and a single subway line, with Manhattan as the place you sleep and the skyline you look back at.

Four of the five boroughs are not Manhattan, and most three-day visits never find that out. This plan assumes you have already done, or will do, the postcard — the park, a museum, the bridge — and gives the three days to the rest of the city. Each day is one borough, one subway line for most of it, and one dense cluster of things worth the trip. None of them is far: twenty minutes to Brooklyn, ten to Long Island City, twenty to the Bronx.

The days below are the short form of three full itineraries on this site — the Brooklyn day, the Queens food crawl and the Bronx day — and each of those pages has the stop-by-stop version with the walking and the bus numbers. Read this page to decide; read those to go.

It is also a cheap three days. The Brooklyn and Queens days have no admission charges at all unless you choose the museum; the Bronx day has one, for the zoo or the garden. Everything else is a subway fare and lunch. Stay anywhere with a subway line; you are never more than forty minutes from any of it.

Day one — Brooklyn: the bridge and the park

  1. Walking the Brooklyn BridgeFree

    Early, from the Manhattan side, so the skyline is behind you and Brooklyn ahead. Thirty minutes, free, and the best hour in the city if you beat the crowd.

  2. Down through DUMBO on foot.

    Brooklyn Bridge ParkFree

    The waterfront under the bridges through the late morning — the piers, the lawns, the pebble beach, the view back across the river at the bridge you just walked.

  3. The 2 or 3 from Clark Street to Eastern Parkway–Brooklyn Museum, fifteen minutes.

    Brooklyn MuseumUnder $25

    The museum, the Botanic Garden next door, and Prospect Park behind them for the rest of the day. The full version is the one-day Brooklyn plan.

Day two — Queens: the 7 train and everything on it

  1. Gantry Plaza State ParkFree

    Breakfast on the piers facing the Midtown skyline, ten minutes from Grand Central on the 7 — the cheapest great view in the city, and the right way to start a Queens day.

  2. The 7 outbound to 74th Street–Broadway.

    Jackson HeightsUnder $25

    Lunch in three small meals across two blocks — momos and South Asian bakeries on 37th Avenue, tacos and chicken-and-rice on Roosevelt Avenue. Eat small; Flushing is next.

  3. The 7 to the end of the line at Flushing–Main Street.

    FlushingUnder $25

    The food courts in the afternoon, and on a summer Saturday the Night Market in Flushing Meadows in the evening. The full version is the Queens food crawl.

Day three — the Bronx: the park, the avenue and the boulevard

  1. Bronx ZooPaid

    The zoo or the Botanical Garden — pick one, they do not combine — from opening until lunch. Both are free or reduced on Wednesdays, with conditions spelled out on their spot pages.

  2. A fifteen-minute walk west along Fordham Road, or the Bx12.

    Arthur AvenueUnder $25

    The Italian lunch the rest of the city tells you to come here for: the indoor market for something quick and cheap, or a sit-down place on the avenue if you have the afternoon.

  3. Walk west to the boulevard, or the B or D from Fordham Road.

    The Grand ConcourseFree

    Walk south along the Art Deco boulevard, the free museum at 165th Street, and the three-line station at Yankee Stadium to take you back. The full version is the one-day Bronx plan.

Common questions

Where is Staten Island in this?

It is a fourth day, not a third. The ferry is free and takes twenty-five minutes, but everything worth seeing on the far side is a long bus ride from the terminal, so it is a whole day or it is just the boat. If you only have three days, ride the ferry in the evening after any of these — it runs all night, it is free, and the skyline on the way back is the best thing in the city after dark.

Which day should I drop if I only have two?

Keep Brooklyn and Queens, reluctantly drop the Bronx — not because it is worse, but because the zoo and garden are the kind of thing you might already have an equivalent of at home, and the Queens food day has no equivalent anywhere. If you have children, reverse that: keep the Bronx and Brooklyn and give up the food crawl.

Should I stay in Manhattan or in one of the boroughs?

For this plan, anywhere on a line that reaches Midtown in under thirty minutes, which includes much of Long Island City, Astoria, Williamsburg and downtown Brooklyn — often at a lower price than Manhattan. What matters is the subway, not the address. Avoid anywhere that needs a transfer before you reach a trunk line; the days are long enough.

Who should skip this

First-time visitors who have not seen Manhattan yet — do the postcard first, you will want to have done it; this plan is for the visit after that, or the second half of a longer one.

Every stop on this plan

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