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New York, New York FREEBIES Author: Barbara Hayo www.TrustedTours.com |
City Wide
See New York City with a Big Apple Greeter. See neighborhoods of interest in the city with Big Apple Greeters, friendly volunteer residents who will enthusiastically show you “their” New York. The experience brings the city to a human scale…and it’s free.
Attend summertime performances in city parks. In the summer, enjoy music, dance, opera and theater performance al fresco in city parks. Central Park Summerstage and Shakespeare in the Park are big name, much anticipated summer events.
Visit a museum on a “Pay As You Wish” day and time. At various times and on various days, museums around the city offer free or “pay as you wish” entry. Call the museum of your choice to see if they have “pay as you wish” days and times.
Expand your museum experience with a lecture, curator tours or evening events. Held on specific dates and times, and often open to the public with the purchase of a ticket to the museum, this is a wonderful, intimate perk to a museum visit. Inquire at a museum of interest to see if they offer such programs.
Downtown
Enjoy a concert in St. Paul’s Chapel on Mondays at 1 pm. Manhattan’s oldest church, built in 1766 on Broadway, between Vessey and Fulton streets, offers a free concert, but a $2.00 donation is appropriate.
Ride theStaten Island Ferry. Commuters ride it during rush hours, but the hour-long round trip also provides great views of the busy harbor, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Governor’s Island …and it’s free. Operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week all year, it departs from Whitehall Terminal at Whitehall and South Street.
Stroll through South Street Seaport to enjoy the waterfront, stores, the cobblestone historic district, and over 100 restaurants.
Discover the charming, serpentine Greenwich Village streets and interesting alleys, lined with bookstores, bars, coffeehouses, restaurants, eclectic shops and eccentric houses. Admire the Greek Revival 1830s townhouses in Washington Square North. Walk down Washington Mews and MacDougal Alley, quiet cobblestone lanes of stables transformed to houses at the turn of the 20th century where famous writers lived and wrote. Find the narrowest house, 9 ½ ft wide at 75 ½ Bedford, once home to Edna St. Vincent Millay. Wander through the campus of New York University, surrounding Washington Square; enjoy the eclectic shops of Bleecker; retreat into Bookleaves, an old-fashioned bookstore on Bank; discover an old collectible record at House of Oldies, on Carmine; find one of a kind and vintage clothes at Darling on Horatio; get caught up in a chess game at Chess Forum or the Chess Shop on Thompson.
Explore the galleries of West Chelsea, over 200 of them. See several shows in one afternoon, look at the art in the lobby of the Chelsea Hotel. Sample fresh fruit and homemade goodies at Union Square Greenmarket. Treasure hunt at the Annex Antique Fair and Flea Market on 6th Avenue from 24th to 27th streets, for antiques, vintage jewelry and clothing, and just kitschy things.
Midtown
Visit the magnificent New York Public Library. Admire the beautiful interior, take in the free changing exhibits, read in the fabulous reading rooms. An access card may be required to read in the reading rooms. Inquire as you enter.
Gaze at the stars in Grand Central Station. The glittering constellation painted on the ceiling is just one of the things to see in this truly grand structure, where you can do more than catch a train. Shop in specialty shops, have cocktails, dine, or grab a quick snack.
Take in the blazing billboards along the Great White Way and Times Square. A 24-hour a day glowing spectacle of motion, activity and crowds, it has real showtime energy. It’s neon billboards in constant motion, MTV extravaganzas, Good Morning America live broadcasts, and Broadway theatre marquees lined in a row.
Browse through the Diamond District on 47th Street, between 5th and 6th avenues, for sparkles of another kind.
Try your hoop skills at the NBA Store on Fifth Avenue at 52nd Street; interact in the high tech wonderland of Sony Wonder Technology Lab at 56th and Madison Avenue.
Uptown: 
Visit Strawberry Fields & Imagine Mosaic in Central Park, the beautifully landscaped knoll on the west side of the park near 72nd Street, a living memorial to Beatle, John Lennon.
On Sundays, join Upper West Siders at the Greenflea Market, held on the grounds of a neighborhood school on 77th Street and Columbus Avenue. Booths packed tightly together offer vintage clothing, memorabilia, jewelry, crafts, and more.
Spend time in two magnificent churches – St. John the Divine and Riverside Church. Appreciate the details: Gothic architecture, stained-glass windows, carved stoned, manicured gardens. The impressive and exquisite, still incomplete Cathedral Church of St. Johnthe Divine, the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, is being built by master craftsmen using traditional Gothic engineering. Be sure to see the various chapels dedicated to victims of the world’s atrocities, including the spontaneous tribute to the firefighters who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. Lovely Riverside Church, financed by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in 1930, with flying buttresses, tower, and brilliant stained-glass windows was designed after the famous Chartres cathedral in France.
Trust us, we've been there!
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