City Island
A mile-and-a-half-long fishing village at the top of the Bronx that looks and behaves like coastal New England, reachable on a subway ride and a bus, and built almost entirely around seafood.
- What it costs
- Free to visit and walk. Seafood restaurants range from paper-plate fried-clam counters to full sit-down places.
- Best in
- Summer, Fall, Spring
- Where
- City Island Avenue, Bronx, NY 10464
- Official site
- nycgovparks.org
What it is
One and a half miles long, a few blocks wide, and separated from the rest of the Bronx by a bridge — which is why it never became like the rest of the Bronx. Clapboard houses, boatyards, yacht clubs, tackle shops, a nautical museum in an old school.
It built America's Cup yachts for decades. Now it mostly builds a good afternoon.
Eating
This is the reason people come. Two modes:
- The big waterfront seafood halls at the southern tip — fried seafood on paper plates, eaten at outdoor tables looking at the water. Loud, casual, cash-friendly, and the classic version.
- The smaller sit-down places along the avenue, several family-run for generations, doing Italian-American seafood properly.
Summer weekends have real queues at the famous places. Go on a weekday, or in September when it's still warm and the crowds have gone.
The walk
Take the bus to the southern end and walk back north up City Island Avenue. It takes about forty minutes at a browsing pace and passes the antique shops, the boatyards and the nautical museum.
Side streets run down to the water on both sides — turn down a few. The views across to Hart Island and Long Island Sound are the point.
Pair it with the beach
Orchard Beach is a short bus ride away on the same trip, and the standard local day is beach first, City Island for dinner afterwards.
Pelham Bay Park's Hunter Island trails are between the two if you want a walk in the middle.
Getting there
The 6 to Pelham Bay Park, then the Bx29 bus across the bridge onto the island. Roughly an hour from Midtown all in.
The bus runs the length of City Island Avenue, so you can ride to the far end and walk back — which is the right way to do it, because the good views are at the southern tip.
Driving is straightforward but the single bridge on and off gets slow on summer weekends.
Getting around once you're there
City Island Avenue is flat with sidewalks the whole way. Some of the older restaurants and shops have a step at the door. Pelham Bay Park station has stairs only.