During “Restaurant Week” in late January, more than 220 of New York’s top restaurants offer three-course lunch menus and fixed-price dinner menus.
Bike Month May, official Bike Month, offers tours along the Hudson River, on Staten Island and through the parks of Queens. A dog-bicycle parade and a bicycle scavenger hunt also make special wishes come true. During the whole event there are free bike repair courses that get your bike back on track and guarantee bike fun. The highlight is the “Five Boro Bike Tour”, an approximately 65 km long tour through all five districts of New York.
“Met in the Park” stands for “Metropolitan Opera in the Park”. Each June, two different Metropolitan Opera performances are performed free of charge in open-air parks in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and New Jersey. This is to give visitors the opportunity to get a taste of an opera performance at the famous Met. In addition, the performances also offer an opportunity to have a nice evening in the park with friends with opera sounds in the background. The closer you sit to the stage, the more attentively the audience listens. The performances start at 8 p.m. each day.
According to localcollegeexplorer, the diversity of the multicultural district takes center stage during Harlem Week in July and August. In addition to culinary highlights, there are music and dance performances.
From October to April, several skating rinks in the city invite you to one or the other slide. Some are even open 24 hours and some are free. One of the most famous ice rinks is the Rockefeller Rink at Rockefeller Plaza. The 18 x 37 meter track is visited by more than half a million skaters every year. The ice rink at the south-east entrance of Central Park, Wollman Rink, is also very popular and also offers a good view of the Manhattan skyline. Other rinks are at Chelsea Piers, Prospect Park and Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens.
Holiday Season in New York City
From the understated elegance at Saks Fifth Avenue to the lavish holiday decor at Macy’s Herald Square. The shop windows of the world-famous department stores alone are worth a stroll through the city in the run-up to Christmas. As soon as they shine in imaginative and creative splendor in November, thousands press their noses against the windows to be enchanted by this typical attraction. The decorations are partly kitschy, but mostly pompous. In addition to moving figures performing ballet dances, characters familiar from Charles Dickens or the Muppets Show appear again and again. Lord & Taylor is known for its extravagant shop window decorations and its enchanting Magic Animation. Bloomingdale’s focuses on urban chic, while Tiffany&Co focuses on its own style. FAO Schwarz is all about toys.
Culture
New York City is known around the world as an art and cultural center. Attractions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MoMA) and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) have permanent exhibitions from their extensive collections, while smaller museums like the Museum of the Moving Image (Museum of the Moving Image) and the International Center for Photography (International Center of Photography), on the other hand, focus on individual exhibitions with changing themes.New York is also worth a visit for the performing arts: the palette ranges from various music and dance performances to theater productions to experimental works.The show greats have graced stages from Broadway to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, from the Metropolitan Opera House to Carnegie Hall. For several years now, New York has once again been considered the US capital of contemporary jazz. And of course you will find the stars of the future right around the corner, because many young talents appear in the countless smaller stages in the city.
The world of theatre, shows and musicals
When you hear the word “theater” you immediately think of “Broadway”. Theaters in the world-famous Times Square neighborhood—between 41st and 53rd streets and 6th and 9th avenues—still put on terrific performances. Since popular plays sell out quickly, tickets should be reserved a few weeks in advance. Tickets for performances range from $60 to $150. If you are keen to experiment, you can spontaneously visit any show. On the day of the screening there are discounted tickets available from TKTS.
In addition to the 30 or so Broadway stages, the 1,500 smaller Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway theaters also have interesting productions that are financed on smaller budgets and often have more sophisticated performances than the commercialized shows.
In the summer there are also open-air theaters. The Delacorte Theater performs Shakespeare in the Park in Central Park. There is no entrance fee, but you still have to get tickets. However, these are sold out very quickly.
Dance
New York is one of the great dance metropolises in the world. Ballet and modern dance are particularly important. The world-renowned New York City Ballet features performances by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Peter Martins and younger choreographers.
The internationally acclaimed dance company from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater presents pieces by Ailey, Judith Jamison and more. The Dance Theater of Harlem – founded by Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook – has presented performances by prominent choreographers for over 30 years. The American Ballet Theater offers classical dance at a high level. The best dancers can be seen at the Met.
