Your First Trip to New York: A 3-Day Itinerary That Actually Works

Day 1: Lower Manhattan, Lady Liberty and the 9/11 Memorial

Morning: out into the harbor

Start early at Battery Park, where the official ferries leave for Liberty Island and Ellis Island. Every passenger goes through airport-style security before boarding, and lines grow quickly after mid-morning, so aim for one of the first departures. Seeing both islands properly takes most of a morning, and often into early afternoon.

On Liberty Island, walk the full loop around the statue for the classic views back toward the skyline. On Ellis Island, the restored Great Hall is where roughly 12 million immigrants were processed between 1892 and 1954. Many visitors find it the most moving stop of the whole trip. Pedestal and crown access are limited and sell out well ahead, so book early if you want to go inside the statue.

Want the backstory without the guesswork? Our Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Tour handles the tickets and adds a guide who brings both islands to life.

Day 2: Midtown, Rockefeller Center and Broadway

Morning: Grand Central to Fifth Avenue

Start inside Grand Central Terminal, opened in 1913 and still one of the most beautiful public spaces in the country. Look up at the celestial ceiling in the Main Concourse: the constellations are painted in reverse, as if seen from outside the sky looking in. Then walk two blocks west to the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue, where the marble lions Patience and Fortitude guard the steps, and relax for a few minutes in Bryant Park behind it.

Head north up Fifth Avenue past the flagship stores to St. Patrick's Cathedral, the neo-Gothic landmark that faces Rockefeller Center across the avenue.

Evening: Times Square and a Broadway show

Spend the afternoon however you like (Central Park's southern end is a 10-minute walk north), then save your energy for the Theater District. Most Broadway theaters sit on the side streets between roughly 41st and 54th Streets, not on Broadway itself. Eat before the show on Restaurant Row (West 46th Street), and step into Times Square after dark when the screens are at their most dazzling. For the stories behind the marquees with a guide all to yourselves, book our Private Broadway and Times Square Inside Tour.

Day 3: The High Line, the Village and SoHo

Morning: the High Line and Chelsea Market

The High Line is a park built on an elevated freight railway from the 1930s that had been abandoned for decades. Its first section opened in 2009, and today it runs about 1.45 miles from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District to Hudson Yards. Walk it in the morning, before the crowds, then drop down to Chelsea Market, housed in the former Nabisco factory where the Oreo cookie was first made in 1912. The Whitney Museum of American Art sits at the southern end if you want a dose of art.

Read more in our guide to walking the High Line, or book a Private High Line and Chelsea Walking Tour for the history of the railway and the neighborhood it transformed.

Afternoon and evening: Greenwich Village, SoHo and Chinatown

From the southern end of the High Line, you're a few minutes from the West Village. Wander the crooked streets around Bedford and Grove, see Stonewall and Washington Square Park, and grab coffee on MacDougal Street. Our guide to Greenwich Village secrets has the stops worth finding.

Then continue south and east into SoHo's cast-iron streets, through Little Italy for a cannoli, and end with dinner in Chinatown. Our block-by-block food guide maps the route, and our SoHo, Little Italy and Chinatown Walking Tour tells the stories along the way.