New York in spring: what's actually good in March, April and May
The gardens are the season — cherries in Brooklyn and Queens, the Botanical Garden's orchid show, Wave Hill waking up — and the parks are at their best before the heat: the case for a spring visit, borough by borough.
Season: Spring
Spring in New York is short and arrives late. March is still winter with better light; April is the month the city turns, in about ten days; May is the best month of the year to be here, before the heat and the summer crowds. Plan for April and May. Bring a jacket for the evenings until the middle of May, and expect rain — spring here is wet, and the gardens are the reason.
The gardens are the season. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden's cherry esplanade in April is one of the great sights in the city and the most crowded it ever gets; the Queens Botanical Garden has cherries too and a fraction of the people. The New York Botanical Garden's spring is the old-growth forest leafing out and the orchid show in its glasshouse. Wave Hill on its bluff over the Hudson wakes up in April. Every park is at its best in May, green and not yet hot, and the Smorgasburg and the Night Market open for the year.
This page is the citywide list; each borough's hub has a season strip with that borough's own spring note and the neighborhoods worth walking in it.
The list
Brooklyn Botanic GardenUnder $25
Prospect Heights / Crown Heights · Brooklyn
The cherry esplanade in April is the reason people plan trips around this garden, and it earns the crowd — a few hundred trees along a lawn, in bloom for a week or two. Go on a weekday morning; check the free-admission windows, which do not include peak bloom weekends.
New York Botanical GardenPaid
Bedford Park · The Bronx
The orchid show in the glasshouse runs through spring, and outside it the last old-growth forest in the city leafs out across fifty acres. The free Wednesday grounds hours still apply; Metro-North from Grand Central is the twenty-minute way in.
Queens Botanical GardenUnder $25
Flushing · Queens
The least crowded botanical garden in New York, with cherries in April and the rose garden coming on in May — and free hours on set weekdays. A ten-minute walk from Flushing's food, which makes a spring afternoon of the two. Check the free hours first.
Wave HillUnder $25
Riverdale · The Bronx
The garden on the bluff comes alive in April, and the view across the Hudson at the Palisades greening up is the most composed in the city. Free mornings on a published schedule; Metro-North's Hudson line up the river is the right way to arrive in spring.
Central ParkFree
Upper West Side / Upper East Side · Manhattan
May in Central Park is the park at its best — green, not yet hot, the crowds still manageable on weekday mornings. The route on its page, entered at 72nd Street, is three hours of the best of it. Cherries and magnolias in April along the reservoir and the Conservatory Garden.
The High LineFree
Chelsea / Meatpacking District · Manhattan
The plantings were designed to look like the wild growth that colonised the disused tracks, and spring is when they come up — and the walkway is comfortable in a way it is not in July. Early morning or the last hour of light, walking south.
Prospect ParkFree
Park Slope / Prospect Heights / Flatbush · Brooklyn
Brooklyn's park in May, before the concert season and before the heat: the Long Meadow green, the forest in new leaf, the lake loop empty on a weekday. Free, and next door to the Botanic Garden's cherries for the obvious April pairing.
Governors IslandUnder $25
New York Harbor · Manhattan
The island opens for its season in spring — check the date — and a May weekday on the hills, with the harbor empty and the ferry cheap, is one of the best-value days in the city. Spring is also when it is quiet; by July the weekends are busy.
SmorgasburgUnder $25
Williamsburg / Prospect Park · Brooklyn
The open-air food market returns for the year in spring, weekends on the Williamsburg waterfront and in Prospect Park, and the first weekends are the ones with room to move. A hundred vendors; eat small, eat many.
The Staten Island GreenbeltFree
Todt Hill / Egbertville · Staten Island
Forest hiking inside the city limits, and spring is the season for it: the trails dry out, the woods green up, and there is nobody on them on a weekday. The free ferry and the S74; wear shoes for it.
Common questions
- When are the cherry blossoms?
Usually the second half of April, with the exact week depending on the winter — the Brooklyn Botanic Garden tracks its trees daily on its own site and is the place to check. Bloom lasts a week or two. The Queens Botanical Garden and Central Park's reservoir and Conservatory Garden have cherries on roughly the same schedule and far fewer people.
- What's the weather like?
March is cold and grey with the odd warm day; April is unpredictable — shirtsleeves one day, a coat the next — and wet; May is warm, mostly dry, and the best month of the year. Bring layers and something for rain. The city is outdoor-first in spring, and a wet day is a museum day: the Met, the Brooklyn Museum, MoMA PS1 are all on these pages.
- Is spring cheaper than summer?
A little, in March and early April, before the season starts; by May the hotel prices are at their summer level. What is cheaper is your time — the parks, the High Line and the bridge are less crowded than in July, and the weather is better for walking. The free things on this site are free in every season; spring is when they are most pleasant.
Who should skip this
Anyone who needs reliable weather — spring here is wet and changeable, and a visitor who will not go out in a jacket and a shower should come in May, or in fall.