New York has its share of bad weather. Rain, snow, or heat, here’s how to keep yourself entertained.
If you’re in denial about the weather
The Butterfly Conservatory
Sure, it’s disgusting outside, but if it’s between September and May, you can still find yourself in a garden surrounded by butterflies.
The Ford Foundation Atrium
It’s a lush garden in an office building.
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden
The grounds may be soggy or scorched, but the greenhouses are still lovely.
The NYC Transit Museum
Ignore the outdoors and go back in time on one of the vintage subway cars.
If you’re looking for culture
The MET
It’s cliche for a reason. The MET is giant and has a cafe, so you can stay in the building from open to close. Or longer, if you want to re-enact the adventures of Claudia Kincaid.
The Brooklyn Museum
Yes, it’s smaller than the MET. In fact, it’s only a quarter of its originally intended size. But it’s still huge and awesome and can easily fill a whole day. Plus, it’s not as stuffy as the MET.
Paley Center
The Paley Center for Media is a treasure trove of television shows, radio shows, and commercials.
Go to the movies
Obviously, but not just some chain theatre. Go to the Angelika, Landmark Sunshine Cinema, or BAM.
Find a good book
Barnes and Noble might be closer to the subway, but it’s worth a dash through bad weather to get to The Strand, Taschen, Kinokuniya, and Rizzoli. RIP Van Alan.
If you can’t sit still
Royal Palms
Play some shuffleboard, drink some beer, hit the food trucks, and pretend you’re on a cruise.
Chelsea Piers
Golf, rock climbing, ice skating, bowling — there are lots of things that don’t require a membership. I didn’t even know indoor sand volleyball was a thing.
Fat Cat
Board games, ping pong, and jazz seem like a weird combination to me, but everyone’s obsessed with it. I guess beer brings it all together.
If you want to live it up
Video games, but social
Get your drink on at Barcade and play all the arcade games you want.
Go shopping
Yes, there are lots of flagship department stores in New York, but there’s only one Bergdorf Goodman.
Live in Chelsea
Chelsea Market is the closest thing New York has to those self contained Sim City towers. It doesn’t hurt that it’s practically owned by Google and attached to the High Line.
Go to tea
The Ritz Carlton has a good afternoon tea, as do plenty of other places in Manhattan.
If you’re looking for New York
Loiter in a diner
Find the cheapest diner, grab a booth, and enjoy the show as it unfolds around you.
Times Square
Sure, no New Yorker would be caught dead in Times Square, but there’s something magical about the deserted, slightly post-apocalyptic experience of Times Square in the rain.
Ride the subway
The subway in bad weather is somehow quintessentially New York. It floods, it’s got extreme temperatures, and everyone’s ornery. Take the N to the end of the line, get drinks at Coney Island, then take the B back to Manhattan. Take the 7 out to Flushing. Watch the sunset from the M on your way over the Williamsburg Bridge.
Get to known Penn Station
Everyone else is enjoying the grandeur of Grand Central, but it’s Penn Station that’s really worth exploring. Pretend you’re on Survivor and see how many hours you can wander around Penn Station before you snap.
Ignore the weather
Just embrace that it’s gross outside. Don’t let it stop you. You do you.
Netflix and chill
If you want to be totally authentic, hole up in your hotel room, order takeout, and see what’s next in your Netflix queue.
I spent only one weekend in NYC and fell in love! I have bookmarked your guide in case I visit NYC again 🙂
Seriously this is easily going to be one of my favorite guides! I love NYC (even as a Bostonian shhhhh :P) and one of the things I look most forward too is returning there after three years of being abroad. I am hitting up the Strand aka my favorite bookstore in the world! Do you know of that travel bookstore near the Strand?
Wow, I haven’t been to New York City yet, but this has long been penned on my bucket list. As expected there are so much activities to do there and would love to visit their museums and Parks as well. Thank you so much for sharing!
I can only imagine how disappointed one may get to come to NYC during rainy days!
Thank you for wonderful tips about NYC!
Happy New Year!
We were lucky to have beautiful blue skies and not too frigid weather when we visited in the middle of the winter so we spent most of our time outside walking the Manhattan streets and enjoying the views. However, I’d love to go back and visit the botanic gardens and the MET and some of these other indoor activities. So much to see and do in NYC!
Hahaha this is such a great post. Made me laugh a few times — especially your Netflix and chill suggestion 😛
What a great post!! Its so useful !! I love New York City 🙂 Thanks for sharing with us ! Happy New Year
We have been discussing the possibility of visiting NYC for a while now. I think for us whilst we know that snow causes no end of problems we would love to visit during the wintry period just because we don’t get much snow here in the UK anymore. Having said that, not matter what the weather is, it never stops us getting out there and exploring.
Oh, the famous New York looks so ugly on bad weather. I’ve never been there but if you say there are so many things to do indoor, well maybe some day I’ll travel from Romania to America.
HAHA, yes I do not go to NYC to be outside! On the rare days it is nice out, I will sneak out to Central Park before it gets to crowded. Otherwise, as you mention, NYC has so many great museums and activities to keep me busy.