New York in fall: the best season, and what to do with it
September through early November is the best time to be in New York — clear, cool, the parks turning colour — and this is the list for it: the forests and cemeteries at their best, the walks that are too hot in July, and the marathon and the parade at the end.
Season: Fall
Ask anyone who lives here and they will tell you: fall. September is summer without the punishment, October is the best month of the year, and the first half of November is still good before the light goes. The air is clear, the parks turn, the crowds thin after Labor Day, and every walk on this site that is hard in July is perfect now.
The foliage is real and it is in the parks, not the streets. The old-growth forest at the Botanical Garden, Prospect Park's Ravine, the Greenbelt on Staten Island, Van Cortlandt and Pelham Bay at the top of the Bronx, and the two great cemeteries — Green-Wood and Woodlawn — which are arboretums with monuments in them. Peak colour is usually the last week of October into the first week of November.
Fall is also the season of the two big public events: the marathon on the first Sunday of November and the Thanksgiving parade at the end of the month, both free to watch, both on their own pages here. Each borough's hub has a fall note in its season strip with the neighborhoods worth walking.
The list
New York Botanical GardenPaid
Bedford Park · The Bronx
The last fifty acres of old-growth forest in the city, in colour — the single best place inside New York to see fall, and twenty minutes from Grand Central on Metro-North. Late October. The Wednesday free grounds hours still apply, and the forest is on the grounds.
Green-Wood CemeteryFree
Greenwood Heights / Sunset Park · Brooklyn
Four hundred and seventy-eight acres of hills, ponds and mature trees that happen to have Victorian monuments among them — in October it is an arboretum, free, with the harbor visible from the high ground and the parrots loud in the trees. The R to 25th Street.
Woodlawn CemeteryFree
Woodlawn · The Bronx
The Bronx's Green-Wood: four hundred acres of Gilded Age mausoleums under trees that were planted to be looked at, and fall is when they are. Free, and the 4 to its last stop puts you at the gate. Duke Ellington is here; so is the best colour in the borough.
The Staten Island GreenbeltFree
Todt Hill / Egbertville · Staten Island
Real forest, thirty-five miles of trails, and fall is the season it was made for — dry underfoot, in colour, and empty on a weekday. The free ferry and the S74. Budget the day; this is the one place in the city that is genuinely hiking.
Prospect ParkFree
Park Slope / Prospect Heights / Flatbush · Brooklyn
Brooklyn's only forest is in the Ravine in the middle of this park, and late October is its week. The Long Meadow and the lake loop are the walk; the Botanic Garden next door has its own fall colour and its off-season free windows start soon after.
Van Cortlandt ParkFree
Riverdale / Norwood · The Bronx
Eleven hundred acres at the top of the 1, with the flat rail-trail through the woods that is the easiest fall walk in the city and the cross-country course that is busiest in this season. Free; the elevated ride up is worth the window seat in October.
The Met CloistersPaid
Washington Heights / Fort Tryon · Manhattan
The medieval museum on its bluff above the Hudson, in Fort Tryon Park, which is one of the best fall walks in Manhattan on its own — and the A to 190th Street drops you in it. Covered by the same-day Met ticket. October, for the park as much as the museum.
The High LineFree
Chelsea / Meatpacking District · Manhattan
The walk that is a queue in July is a pleasure in October: the plantings go to seed and colour, the light is low, and the crowds have thinned. Walk it south from 34th Street in the late afternoon and drop into the Chelsea galleries, whose fall season is the busiest and best.
Central ParkFree
Upper West Side / Upper East Side · Manhattan
The park in October needs no argument. The Ramble and the North Woods are the forest parts; the Mall is the avenue of elms everyone photographs; the reservoir loop has the skyline over the colour. The route on the spot page, any weekday morning of the month.
Arthur AvenueUnder $25
Belmont · The Bronx
Fall is when the Bronx's Italian street is at its best — the market is busy, the bakeries are full, the weather is right for a long lunch and the walk down the Concourse afterwards. Pair it with the Botanical Garden's forest for the definitive Bronx fall day.
Common questions
- When is peak foliage?
In the city's parks, usually the last week of October into the first week of November — a week or two later than upstate, because the city is warmer. The Botanical Garden's forest, Prospect Park's Ravine and the two cemeteries are the places to see it; Central Park's Mall is the famous picture. A wet, windy week can take it all down early, so do not leave it to the last weekend.
- Is fall busy?
September and early October are the sweet spot — summer crowds gone, holiday crowds not yet arrived, and the weather at its best. From late October the city fills up again for the marathon, Halloween and then Thanksgiving, and hotel prices climb toward the holidays. The free things on this site are free regardless; the parks are never too full to walk.
- What should I pack?
Layers. September is warm — shirtsleeves in the day, a light jacket at night; October is the perfect jacket month; by mid-November you want a coat, gloves for the evening and a willingness to be out in it, because the light is good and the crowds are gone. Rain is less of a factor than in spring. Shoes you can walk in, always.
Who should skip this
Nobody, honestly — fall is the season to recommend to anyone; the only people who should come at another time are those who specifically want a beach, which is summer, or the holiday city, which is December.