New York City (Fodor's, 2012) - Fodor's [6]
American Museum of Natural History. The hands-down favorite for both visiting and local kids, this museum’s many exhibits could entertain most children for a week. The dinosaurs alone are worth the trip, as is the live Butterfly Conservatory that runs each year from October through May. You’ll also find an IMAX theater, ancient-culture displays, and wildlife dioramas with taxidermied creatures that hit the right mix of fascinating and creepy.
Bronx Zoo. The country’s largest metropolitan wildlife park is home to more than 4,000 animals, including endangered and threatened species. Plan to spend a whole day here, so your kids don’t have to choose between Congo Gorilla Forest and the Siberian cats at Tiger Mountain. Be sure to check out the World of Darkness, a black-lighted indoor exhibit of nocturnal creatures. Special tours with a docent for children can be arranged year-round.
Central Park Zoo. Three climatic regions—Rain Forest, Temperate Territory, and Polar Circle—are represented at this bite-size zoo. The rain-forest frogs, red pandas, and performing sea lions are all nifty—but the winner is the underwater viewing window into the polar bear pool.
Children’s Museum of Manhattan. Interactive exhibits in this five-floor museum change frequently—but they’re always fun. As well as visiting with TV friends like Dora the Explorer, your little ones can build castles in the sand laboratory, and—in warm weather—race boats on a zigzagging outdoor watercourse.
New York Aquarium. Alongside the creaky amusements of Coney Island, this aquarium is home to more than 10,000 marine species, including walrus, giant sea turtles, sand-tiger sharks, and sea otters.
New York Botanical Garden. Fifty gardens and plant collections fill this gorgeous 250-acre space; there are flowering rose and water-lily gardens in the warm months, and hothouses full of tropical flowers in winter. Don’t miss the Children’s Adventure Garden and its boulder maze.
Rose Center for Earth and Space. The appropriately space-age design of the new Hayden Planetarium (and its accompanying cosmos museum) has made waves among architects—but the thrilling daily space shows inside are a big bang with kids. The complex is part of the American Museum of Natural History, though planetarium tickets are sold separately.
Sony Wonder Technology Lab. The line to get into this futuristic fantasy world might be long (as well as having great interactive exhibits, the museum has free entry). But don’t worry—a slightly freaky talking robot will keep your kids entertained while they wait. Inside, there are more robots and image and sound labs where kids can record their own digital music, movies, and games.
South Street Seaport Museum. The fleet of historic square-riggers with looming masts might be the first thing to catch your children’s eyes—but there’s much more going on here, including weekend concerts, performances by storytellers and chantey singers, and special guided tours for families.
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The phrase “in a New York minute” is clichéd for a reason: in this wonderful, frenetic, and overwhelming city, things really do change in a flash. Even for those of us who live here, keeping up with the latest trends in fashion, art, music, food, and nightlife can be exhausting.
Thankfully, there are a few tricks to navigating this city—unspoken, hard-won bits of knowledge that help us locals get the most out of our hometown without driving ourselves crazy. And at the risk of compromising our New York credibility (after all, we consider ourselves members of an exclusive club and guard our secrets accordingly), we’ve decided to share those tricks here. Just don’t tell anyone we told you.
GETTING AROUND LIKE A LOCAL
First, when distance is involved, take the subway. Skip the horse-drawn carriages, called hansom cabs, that