8:40 AMCharging Bull
Activities4.4
Two minutes from the ferry line at Bowling Green — grab the photo before the tour buses land, then walk straight onto the dock.
Like this trip? Make it yours — change anything, add your own places.
Planning board
Est. budget ~$305 / person1
Day 1 · Fri, Dec 4
8 stops9.5 km9h 15m planned~124 min walk
8:40 AM
9:00 AMStatue of Liberty
Activities4.7
Take the first ferry from Battery Park — security lines double by 10. Pedestal access sells out weeks ahead, the crown months.
12:30 PM9/11 Memorial & Museum
Activities4.8
The pools are free and hit hard. The museum underneath needs two hours and a timed ticket — book online.
2:30 PMThe Oculus
Activities4.7
Calatrava's white ribcage over the PATH station. Ten minutes, mostly spent looking up.
3:00 PMEataly Downtown
Food & Drink4.2
Counter pasta inside the WTC complex — the quick, late lunch this marathon day allows. The ferry ate the morning; this is the honest cost.
4:00 PMBrooklyn Bridge
Activities4.8
Walk Manhattan to Brooklyn so the skyline is behind you the whole way. Stay out of the bike lane.
5:15 PMWashington Street
Activities
The Manhattan Bridge framed dead-center between brick warehouses — the DUMBO shot. It's a live street; watch for cars.
6:15 PMJuliana’s
Food & Drink4.6
Patsy Grimaldi came out of retirement to open this, next door to the shop that still bears his name. Coal-oven margherita.
2
Day 2 · Sat, Dec 5
10 stops4.7 km11h 45m planned~61 min walk~$135
8:30 AMEss-a-Bagel
Food & Drink4.1$
Hand-rolled, still warm. Everything bagel, scallion cream cheese, no toasting.
9:30 AMGrand Central
Activities4.7
Look up at the ceiling, then find the whispering gallery outside the Oyster Bar.
10:30 AMRockefeller Center
Activities4.7
In December this is ground zero: the tree, the rink, the angels. You're here anyway — Top of the Rock is upstairs.
11:00 AMTop of The Rock
Activities4.7
The deck that looks AT the Empire State — that's why it beat it into the plan. Timed entry; late morning is the thinnest crowd.
12:30 PMBurger Joint
Food & Drink4.3
A greasy-perfect burger counter hidden behind a curtain in a fancy hotel lobby, three blocks from MoMA. Cash-friendly, fast.
1:30 PMThe Museum of Modern Art
Activities4.6
Fifth floor first — Starry Night and Les Demoiselles are both up there before the crowd builds.
3:45 PMBryant Park Winter Village
Activities4.7
Holiday market stalls and a free-entry rink under the skyscrapers. A hot-cider lap between MoMA and dinner.
5:15 PMKeens Steakhouse
Food & Drink4.6$$$$
Mutton chop under 50,000 clay pipes. Eat early — you have a curtain to make.
7:00 PMA Broadway Show
Other
The seats you grabbed at TKTS this afternoon. Doors thirty minutes early; Keens has you fed and two blocks away.
9:45 PMTimes Square
Activities4.7
Step out of the theater into the full neon barrage — this is the right dose of Times Square, and it's on the way to the train anyway.
3
Day 3 · Sun, Dec 6
8 stops7.4 km9h 15m planned~96 min walk~$35
9:30 AMChelsea Market
Food & Drink4.6
Breakfast at Los Tacos No. 1, then you're standing at the foot of the High Line.
10:45 AMThe High Line
Activities4.7
Freight rail turned garden walkway. Walk it south to north from Gansevoort and it drops you at Hudson Yards.
12:00 PMVessel
Activities4.6
The copper honeycomb of staircases. Climbing needs a timed ticket; Edge is next door. Lunch downstairs at Mercado Little Spain before heading back downtown.
1:00 PMMercado Little Spain
Food & Drink4.4
José Andrés' Spanish food hall under Hudson Yards — the lunch stop the Vessel description promised. Gambas and a caña, then downtown.
2:15 PMWashington Square Park
Activities4.6
Chess hustlers, buskers, the arch. Sit for twenty minutes and watch.
3:15 PMSoHo
Activities
Cast-iron facades and every store you've heard of. Broadway for the brands, the cobbled side streets for the good stuff.
5:00 PMKatz's Delicatessen
Food & Drink4.5$$
Take a ticket, order at the counter, tip the carver. Do not lose the ticket.
8:00 PMBlue Note
Activities4.2
Two sets a night. The late one is cheaper and looser — book the late one.
4
Day 4 · Mon, Dec 7
8 stops6.6 km10h 35m planned~86 min walk~$135
9:00 AMBarney Greengrass
Food & Drink4.4
The Sturgeon King since 1908 — eggs with nova on the Upper West Side. The real breakfast before the cookie.
10:15 AMLevain Bakery
Food & Drink4.7$
Dessert masquerading as a second breakfast. Chocolate chip walnut, warm, to go — eat it in the park.
11:00 AMCentral Park
Activities4.8
Enter at 72nd, walk the Mall to Bethesda Terrace, out at the Met. That's the highlight reel.
12:30 PMThe Metropolitan Museum of Art
Activities4.8
Pick two wings and skip the rest. Egyptian and European Paintings if it's your first time.
3:50 PMCafé Sabarsky
Food & Drink4.3
Viennese kaffeehaus in the Neue Galerie, ten blocks from the Met. Linzer torte and a melange — the civilized bridge to Bemelmans.
5:00 PMBemelmans Bar
Other4.3$$$$
Murals by the Madeline illustrator, live piano, proper martinis. Go early to avoid the cover.
7:00 PMFifth Avenue Holiday Windows
Activities4.4
Saks' light show and Bergdorf's windows in full December fever. Walk the avenue after your martini — the crowds thin by nine.
8:15 PMGrand Central Oyster Bar
Food & Drink4.2
Oyster pan roast under the tiled vaults since 1913. The last-night dinner, and you already know the way to Grand Central.