Central Park

Central Park is probably the most famous park in the world. Surrounded by housing, from high end to low income as you make your way uptown, Central Park offers everyone a retreat from the hustle and bustle of the city. Wonderfully landscaped with flora and fauna, and mature trees, Central Park is a haven for runners, cyclists, walkers, offer workers out on a lunch, tourists seeking shade from the sun, and taxi cab drivers trying to cut across town. Its zoo, carousel, and lake are prized and many people come to NYC just for those. I often go to the Museum of Natural History myself which is on the upper east side just outside the park. Vendors abound offering all types of food and wares, and if you have enough energy you can walk the length of it (from 59th St Columbus circle all the way up into upper Harlem). The park is expansive, but offers New Yorkers miles of grass, something that doesn't exist in much quantity in the city. Festivals about in the summer at the band stand such as the Shakespearean festival. Be sure to wear comfortable walking shoes. Once you go in, it will take you a bit to come out the other side (if you are going across town). Tourists will love the street performers.

The area surrounding Central Park is some of the world’s most expensive real estate – and there’s a reason. While the rest of us have views of…well, each other really, being cramped building-to-building with a window that leads either to our neighbor’s or the street, those who have settled around the park have a very rare New York view of lush trees, sprawling fields and even lakes and castle-like structures.

Central Park is overwhelmingly large, which can be the best thing or the worst thing depending on what your day involves. If you’re on the Upper East Side and you need to be on the Upper West Side in half an hour, it’s the worst. With no subways cutting across the park, you’re left with a could-be-dreadful cross-town bus, could-be-astronomically-expensive cab, or a could-be-insanely-inconvenient subway transfer. But if you’ve got a day to while away pretending you’ve taken a vacation to the countryside, the park’s size will not disappoint. To be accurate, it will leave you with too much to do in just a day. Indulge your Beatles-mania at Strawberry Fields. Take in the views from the high-up look-out points of the beautiful Belvedere Castle, and during the summer, catch a Shakespeare play for free at the nearby Delacorte Theater. Geek out with history at the Blockhouse, a fort from the War of 1812. Embrace your inner child or take your own children to the Central Park Zoo, the Cherry Hill Carousel, or to any of the park’s numerous playgrounds. Sail toy boats near the Loeb Boathouse – or enjoy a delicious meal there. Take a break near the Bethesda Fountain, used over and over again as a backdrop in movies. Spot swimming turtles at Turtle Pond, or stroll beautiful gardens like the Shakespeare Gardens or the Victorian Gardens. If it’s activity more than attraction you want, rent bicycles to get around faster, hike the trails, swim at the public pool or take it easy with a book on Sheep Meadow. There’s literally something for everyone, and all you have to do to end your vacation is step back out onto Fifth Avenue or Central Park West.

How amazing is it that in the middle of the most expensive real estate in the world there is 770 acres reserved exclusively for a park?

Central Park is free for everyone. No matter who you are you can enjoy the fields, pathways, benches, sights, and sounds. If you want to eat something you'll have to pay, or if you want to take a row boat out on the pond (highly recommended), but there's no entrance fee. In other words, you have no excuse to miss this amazing piece of woodland scenery in the center of Manhattan.

My wife and I take our dog here every weekend with a blanket and a couple of magazines. We grab a patch of grass somewhere (you can always find a spot somewhere) and camp out.

When spring hits after a long winter, Sheep's Meadow (the largest clearing in the lower side of the park) is full of beautiful people in bathing suits getting sun for the first time in months. Picnics, frisbee, sunbathing...it's a pretty amazing sight.

The Bethesda Fountain and Bethesda Terrace are no longer under renovation are can now be enjoyed in their full glory.

There’s nothing like Central Park. It’s buzzing with energy and one of the few places in the city where everyone seems to get along.

On a bright midsummer afternoon, it can feel like all of New York City has chosen to come out and play in the leafy expanses of Central Park. While other parks, such as Riverside Drive or Carl Schurz, have their own neighborhood clientele, Central Park - given its convenient location - is by far the largest and most populated in Manhattan, frequented by tourists and locals alike. But, unlike many parks, Central Park offers more than just green lawns and bucolic charm. Nature-lovers can learn about the park's flora and fauna at Belvedere Castle; families can picnic on Sheep Meadow or rent boats (remote controlled or row-boats) at the lake. With "literary walks," plenty of playgrounds (including the Ancient Playground, located next to and inspired by the Metropolitan Museum, and one of the best kids' haunts in the city, and the stunning rocky wilderness around Hector Playground further south), and even an ice skating rink in the winter, Central Park has it all. That said, there's a few drawbacks to the place: with the exception of street-vendor hot dogs and pretzels, filling food is a rarity in the park, and only the pricey Boathouse offers sit-down fare. But the restaurants off Fifth and Central Park West tend to be generally of a high standard, and if all else fails, the park is always a perfect place for a picnic.

While the park is generally safe, it's worth avoiding at night, where the darkness and seclusion of the area make it a target for criminal activity, as well as some gay cruising in the Bramble area.

There are many parts of Central Park that are unpleasant. Yes, I’m thinking about the southern parts with the clomping horses giving rides to tired tourists. It just smells awful and it’s not at all a relaxing experience for me.

But other parts of the part are truly wonderful. I think the northern section of the park, right by Harlem, is one of the least appreciated areas of the entire city. Much of the natural rock remains in this section of the park. It’s also less busy than other sections. In the autumn the trees change and fall on all the paths. It just more beautiful than I can say. And it’s so unexpected to look out the bus window at building after building after building and then, all of a sudden, see this gorgeous area of trees and grass.

The exercise trails are great for runner or joggers or walkers. Or Rollerbladers or cyclists. There are miles to walk in paths that, unlike the rest of the city, are not straight. The public statues are fun and informative, if you’re in the mood for that.

But the thing I love most about Central Park is that if you get far enough inside, you can barely hear the city anymore. It’s amazing how a few layers of trees can really dampen noise from subway cars and buses and electric fans and people and everything else. It’s a wonderful retreat.

Central Park is New York City’s iconic patch of green which is located in the heart of Manhattan. This green lung extends from 59th Street to 110th Street from Eighth Avenue to Fifth Avenue. The park has several entrances at Columbus Circle, at East59th Street, at East 79th Street etc. The Park also has traverse roads at 65th, 79th, 86th and 96th streets which connect the West Side to the East Side and vice-versa.

The real estate that surrounds Central Park constitutes some of the most, exclusive and expensive real estate in Manhattan. On the East side towards the south end of the park, the neighborhood is littered with luxurious hotels like the Plaza and the Pierre both of which offer expensive residences as well as hotel accommodation. Also located within the neighborhood are some of the bastions of high end retail in Manhattan like the Bergdorf Goodman store, The FAO Schwartz Children’s store and the glass cube which contains one NYC’s most famous and heavily tourist trafficked Apple stores. As you head along the park on the East side ,the Park is bordered by elegant co-op buildings which have spacious apartments that house some of the city’s most prominent and moneyed residents like ex-NY state governor Eliot Spitzer.

Also located within this neighborhood are some of NYC’s world renowned museums, The Museum of Metropolitan Art (the Met), The Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, The Frick Collection, El Museo del Bario, The Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Museum of the City of New York etc. Many of these museums are concentrated along a stretch of Fifth Avenue which stretches from 82nd Street to 105th which is commonly referred to as Museum Mile.
The stretch of Fifth Avenue which borders the park is well served by the city’s public buses like the M1, M2, M3 and the cross town buses like the M66, M72, M79, M96 and M106.

On the west side of the Park on 59th Street lies Columbus Circle which is home to mixed use Time Warner Center which has within in upscale retail, dining ( the renowned Per Se restaurant) and accommodation options( high end condominiums and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel). North of Columbus Circle is area known as Central Park West. This highly coveted neighborhood has the American Museum of Natural History located within it as well as some of New York City’s most high profile real estate in the form of buildings like the Dakota which was home to the Beatle John Lennon, 15 Central Park West which is home to Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and the stately Beresford building which houses Vikram Pandit the current CEO of the Citigroup.

"Central" in more ways than one, Central Park is the green heart of the busy metropolis that is New York City, a place that brings the social strata and vastly diversified enclaves of New York City together as a community. Expect to find Upper East Side moms, perfectly coiffed, playing with children in the numerous playgrounds that dot the green landscape, teenagers-in-love necking on the meadows of the Great Lawn, dog-lovers running to keep up with their German Shepherds, joggers, cyclists, picnicers, and more. Unlike Riverside Drive, Carl Schurz Park, or other city parks, Central Park lacks a single "neighborhood" feel - rather, it's a truly democratic venue: a place for everyone.

At its best in the winter, when snow covers the landscape (the path from the zoo to Central Park South, in particular, comes to resemble a Victorian winter wonderland), or in the heat of the summer, when sunbathers transform the grass into a sea of increasingly pink bodies and the park gains a nightlife of its own with free events like SummerStage and the ever-worthy Shakespeare in the Park, Central Park is nevertheless a year-round attraction. Places to go include the Central Park Zoo, with its seals and penguins (and adjacent petting zoo for the more domestically minded), the enormous Alice in Wonderland Statue by the model boat rental stand, and the nature conservation paradise Belvedere Castle. The back mezzanine of the Metropolitan Museum also looks out over the Park, creating a perfect place for a picnic!

The Central Park neighborhood is truly for everyone. This area bustles with joggers, families, and business professionals; not to mention tourists from all over the world. The Park itself is the most visited park in the United States, and home to many more attractions than the countless walking paths and large ponds. Central Park is home to Central Park Zoo, the Central Park Conservatory Garden, Shakespeare in the Park, ice skating rinks, and much more.

You won’t find bars or nightclubs in the park, but you will find some classic night spots along the border, including Mickey Mantle’s and Harry’s New York Bar. Tavern on the Green is Central Park’s most notarized restaurant and for something a little more romantic, try the Boathouse Café overlooking Central Park Lake.

Several supermarkets and pharmacies are also in the area, as well as three post offices. Central Park has all the amenities of urban life with more of a suburban feel. Have a picnic, go for a jog, rent a rowboat, or just park yourself on a bench and people watch - Central Park will bring that serenity you need in a very busy world.