New York in winter: the museums, the free skating and the empty parks
Cold, short days, and the cheapest, emptiest version of the city: the museums you finally have time for, free skating in Bryant Park, the gardens' off-season free admission, the ferry at dusk, and the walks that are better without anyone on them.
Season: Winter
Winter in New York is cold — genuinely, from mid-December through February, with wind that comes down the avenues — and the days are short. It is also the cheapest time to be here after the holidays, the emptiest, and the season when the city's indoor strengths come into their own. The museums are the winter plan, and this site has more than a dozen of them across all five boroughs. The gardens switch to off-season free admission. Bryant Park puts a free skating rink in Midtown. And the ferry at dusk, with the skyline lit at half past four, is the same free thing it always is, in clearer air.
December is its own season — the tree, the windows, the markets, the crowds and the prices — and if that is what you want, the city does it well; this page is more about January and February, when nobody comes and the city is yours. Dress for it: a real coat, a hat, gloves, and shoes that can take slush. The subway is warm; the platforms are not.
Each borough's hub has a winter note in its season strip, with the neighborhoods that work in the cold.
The list
The Metropolitan Museum of ArtPaid
Upper East Side · Manhattan
The museum for a winter day: two million objects, heated, and in January the galleries that were full in July have room to stand in. Arrive at opening, pick three wings, and leave when the light goes. The same ticket covers the Cloisters the same day, if you have the daylight for the trip north.
The Tenement MuseumPaid
Lower East Side · Manhattan
Guided tours through two preserved Lower East Side tenements, indoors, an hour and a half, and the kind of thing you finally book when it is too cold to wander — which is why it needs booking: tours sell out in every season. The F to Delancey Street; Chinatown's hot food is five minutes south.
Brooklyn MuseumUnder $25
Prospect Heights · Brooklyn
The second-largest art museum in the city with a fraction of the Met's crowd even in summer, and in winter it is calm. The Egyptian collection and The Dinner Party; a long afternoon. The Botanic Garden next door is in its free off-season — check the windows.
The Bronx Museum of the ArtsFree
Concourse · The Bronx
Free, always, on the Grand Concourse, and an hour of serious contemporary art that makes a winter trip to the Bronx worth the ride on its own. The B or D to 167th Street. First Fridays are free evenings and are a good warm thing to do after dark.
Bryant ParkFree
Midtown · Manhattan
Free ice skating in the middle of Midtown, if you bring your own skates — skate hire charges — and the holiday market through December. The one outdoor thing on this page that is better in winter, and the place in Midtown to warm up with something hot between two other stops.
New York Botanical GardenPaid
Bedford Park · The Bronx
The one garden that is a winter destination: the glasshouse is heated and the holiday train show inside it runs from late November into January — the best-loved indoor thing in the Bronx. The free Wednesday grounds hours still apply, and Metro-North from Grand Central is twenty minutes.
FlushingUnder $25
Flushing · Queens
Winter is the season for this neighborhood: hand-pulled noodles, soup dumplings, hot pot, a dozen regional kitchens in a warm basement food court, and Lunar New Year in late January or February with a parade and the best crowd of the year. The end of the 7.
Grand Central TerminalFree
Midtown East · Manhattan
One of the great interiors in the world, heated, free, and at its best in the short winter days when the light through the high windows is low and gold at three in the afternoon. Twenty minutes; the market downstairs for something hot.
The Staten Island FerryFree
St. George / Whitehall · Staten Island
Free, warm inside, and the skyline lights up before five in the afternoon in December — the dusk ride back is the best free thing in the city in any season, and in winter you can do it before dinner. Stand inside at the windows; the deck is for the brave.
Museum of the Moving ImageUnder $25
Astoria · Queens
A museum about how film and television are made, in Astoria, hands-on and warm — a winter afternoon for anyone who has done the art museums, and a good one with children. The M or R to Steinway Street; Astoria's Greek and Egyptian food for dinner afterwards.
Common questions
- How cold is it?
January and February average around freezing — highs in the upper thirties Fahrenheit, a few degrees above zero Celsius, lows below — with wind that makes the avenues feel colder and occasional snow that turns to slush within a day. December is milder and busier. A real coat, a hat, gloves and waterproof shoes are not optional. The subway and every building are heated; the trick is not to stand still outside.
- Is winter cheaper?
January and February, yes — the cheapest hotel months of the year, the shortest queues, and the museums at their emptiest. December is the opposite: the holiday city is expensive and crowded, and that is the season people come for on purpose. The free things on this site are free in any month; in winter the gardens add their off-season free windows to the list.
- What about the outdoor things?
The parks are empty and good for a brisk hour — Central Park and Prospect Park in snow are worth the cold — but the beaches, the concerts, the markets and most of the long walks on this site are not winter things. The High Line and the Brooklyn Bridge are open, cold and clear; do them at midday. The ferry is the outdoor thing that works best, because you can be inside it.
Who should skip this
Anyone who wants the outdoor New York — the beaches, the High Line at its best, the parks in leaf — or who does not own a proper coat; that visitor should come in May, or in fall.