19 Fun Things to Do With Kids in New York City
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The best things to do in NYC with kids are also some of the best things to do in the New York City—period. No matter how distinguished your age, it's hard to suppress the wonder of spotting African elephants at the Bronx Zoo, or that giddy feeling of the wind whipping through your hair on one of Coney Island's old-school wooden rollercoasters. When traveling with kids to the Big Apple, go back in time through subway history at the New York Transit Museum, behold the American Museum of Natural History's resident Titanosaur (who's also the world's largest dinosaur on display), and don't be afraid to look down from the Empire State Building's observatory. There's certainly no shortage of must-see attractions and must-do activities in the city, and for the more outdoorsy types, New York City is home to some outstanding urban parks that paint the concrete jungle various shades of lush green. Below, we've gathered our picks of the best things to do in NYC with kids, from pizza to parks.
Read our complete New York City travel guide here, which includes:
- The Best Things to Do in New York City
- The Best Restaurants in New York City
- The Best Hotels in New York City
This gallery has been updated with new information since its original publish date.
The Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical GardenStaten Island's Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden
While you could plan a visit to the city with your family booked up for high-octane activities, the pros know to plan for breaks: Hop on the Staten Island ferry, and unlike most of her passengers, don't go back on board immediately. Instead, hit Staten Island's Snug Harbor—a site that was once a home for retired sailors and is now not just simply a garden but a cultural complex that includes a contemporary art museum, a children's museum, and one of the oldest music halls in the city. Its botanical gardens are comprised of nine different gardens (plus a few smaller ones), including a working heritage farm—but the showstopper is the New York Chinese Scholar's Garden. Built in 1999 as the first of only two such gardens in the United States, it was modeled after the Suzhou Couple's Retreat Garden in China. Walk through bamboo fields, watch koi swimming in a pond, see examples of Chinese calligraphy, wander through the eight pavilions, and gaze at Ghongshi scholar's rocks, including a 15-foot-tall formation in the central courtyard. The Botanical Garden at Snug Harbor is open from dawn until dusk, and admission is free.
Sloomoo InstituteSloomoo Institute
Dive in hands-first to this 12,000-square-foot interactive slime experience, which specializes in all things texturally exciting and oddly satisfying. There are rooms dedicated to walking on slime, slingshotting it, and recording your own ASMR. The highlight of this visit is definitely the do-it-yourself bar, which boasts over four million unique combinations of slime bases, scents, bobbles, and beads. Whether you're into cotton candy confetti or a glittery concoction that smells like fresh berries, that's a New York City keepsake a few steps above a, “I Love NY" T-shirt. If the amount of options feels overwhelming, not to fear—Sloomoo's website includes its very own texture glossary to help you navigate your journey through slime-making.
Diane Sooyeon KangrestaurantJoe's Pizza
Having not aged a day since its costarring role in Spiderman 2, Famous Joe’s Pizza is considered NYC’s quintessential slice. In a red-brick building under a red awning, cardboard pizza boxes are stacked all the way up the drop ceilings, a jumble of framed photographs are the timeless decor, and hefty slices are slapped onto paper plates and eaten standing up inside or on a bench across the street. This is the slice shop approved by the friendly neighborhood web-slinger himself, and the perfect lunch on your way to the World Trade Center or the Staten Island Ferry. New Yorkers swoon over slices with an ideal "fold," and Joe’s Pizza embodies the form. Its crust is thin and lightly sauced—with just enough cheese. It's proof that plain really can mean perfect, particularly when its served hot and fast.
GettyactivityCentral Park
A stroll through Central Park is essential for a visit to the city, and watching all the dogs, park goers, and wonderful sorts of weird within the park is enough to brighten even the grumpiest teens. As you step off the crowded sidewalks of 59th Street into a mass of green, what lies before you is 693 acres of man-made gardens, meadows, forests, and hillside; enough to come back to for a lifetime of summer visits. All of the park's pathways combined add up to 58 miles of walking, so be sure to lace up your favorite pair of walking shoes. Along the way, you'll pass sculptures, bridges, and arches, plus 21 playgrounds, a winter ice-skating rink, even a zoo. But you’d hardly notice the four major crosstown thoroughfares, which cleverly disappear into foliage-covered tunnels. Map your park route to stop at classic Central Park landmarks, like the Bethesda Fountain, Bow Bridge, Belvedere Castle, and the Strawberry Fields John Lennon Memorial.
GettyactivityLuna Park
A bit of a trek for those staying in midtown Manhattan, New York City's very own amusement park is a 45 minute train ride to the end of the line. But a day trip to Coney Island is a blast, especially in summer; grab a Nathan’s hot dog on Surf Avenue or fried clams on the boardwalk before getting your thrills on the rides. Older kids will make a beeline for the Cyclone, the historic wooden roller coaster that has been scaring the bejeezus out of children for close to a century 90 years. Its rickety charm doesn't seem to fade though. Luna Park is a compact cacophony of rides, games, buzzers, music, and arcade games. It's relatively flat, but it involves a lot of maneuvering through crowds. This is a destination for anyone of any age who wants that amusement park experience without driving way out past the suburbs to find a Six Flags.
Courtesy The PlazabarEloise in The Palm Court
$$$Sitting under the greenery and domed glass ceiling of The Plaza's elegant Palm Court will likely impress your mini Eloise (12 and under only) into better behavior. Everything here is about the precocious children's book character; even the pink-rimmed teacups and teapot are decorated with her image. The dress code is smart casual, but come prepared for some afternoon fun. Your young sophisticate can choose from a selection of craft soft drinks such as a chamomile ginger ale with fresh muddled ginger and lime juice, or a classic root beer float with sarsaparilla powder. The tea tower comes with classic finger sandwiches like English cucumber, with PB&J to please smaller palates. Sweets include caramel cupcakes, passionfruit s'mores, and a puff of pink cotton candy. This is a special New York City experience that will make for lasting memories.
GettyactivityEllis Island
Crowds board the ferries that sail from Castle Clinton in Manhattan’s Battery Park to Liberty and Ellis Islands, which together make up the Statue of Liberty National Monument in Upper New York Bay. The iconic lady, lifting her lamp beside the golden door, is the best introduction one could have to the island where many Americans’ immigrant ancestors arrived. The massive red-brick building opened in 1900 and 12 million immigrants passed through its halls before the island closed in 1954. In the Great Hall, the pale Guastavino-tiled vaulted ceilings are flooded with daylight. Older kids will love helping research their forebears at the American Family Immigration History Center, where they can search 65 million digitized passenger ship manifests and arrival records from 1820 to 1957.
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Anthony Caccamo/Courtesy New York Transit MuseumactivityNew York Transit Museum
$The New York Transit Museum, a small museum near Brooklyn's Borough Hall, is in a former subway station; to enter you have to descend from the sidewalk, just as you would if you were on your daily commute. It's the perfect spot to spend an hour with kids, who will love running in and out of the cars of a vintage subway train, clambering up into the driver’s seat of a city bus, or pushing their way through a turnstile. The place covers more than a century of New York mass transit history, which will even bring native New Yorkers back to a time when the subway was a more beloved part of life in the city than it is today. Stock up on souvenirs for the NYC-obsessed. From vintage transit token necklaces to Metrocard mugs and baseball caps with your favorite train line embroidered on them, there's something for everyone. If you want a souvenir but can't make it out to Brooklyn, they also have a shop location in Grand Central Terminal.
Max Touhey/Courtesy Gulliver's GateactivityGulliver's Gate
Children love miniatures, from dollhouse furniture to train sets to Legoland. And that's what Gulliver’s Gate in Times Square in each of its 50,000 square feet. It will capture younger visitors imaginations—and yours—from the start with its Lilliputian cityscapes in marvelous, painstaking detail, from the intricately painted ceiling of Grand Central Station to the 0.8-inch high models of real visitors. New York City's most visited places (Times Square, 9/11 Memorial), celebrated architecture (the Guggenheim, Calatrava’s Oculus) and recognizable landmarks (the bull in Bowling Green, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire State Building) are recreated in 1:87 scale here. The streets are filled with tiny figures mid-action and cars that move, but it’s the surprises that are super-fun to spot: Spiderman about to leap from the Brooklyn Bridge or a kickline in front of the Stonewall Inn. The experience also partners with movie studios such as Marvel to create scavenger hunts.
GettyactivityStatue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty is a familiar figure to kids from an early age, so getting to see the real thing up close will thrill even the tweens and teens in your life. Climbing up to the crown of Lady Liberty is an adventure for the whole family, but you do have to be at least 48 inches tall (and the park rangers check) to ascend the 146 steps of the narrow spiral staircase from the pedestal. Be sure to book tickets at least three or four months in advance though, because they do sell out. If that climb isn't in your future, the 16-foot high original torch with its amber glass panes is now on display in the new Statue of Liberty Museum that opened in 2019. Besides the torch, the museum has floor to ceiling views of the Stature herself and the rest of Liberty Island and the accessible roof deck has panoramic views across the harbor and of the city skyline.
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Richard CadanshopFAO Schwarz
After nearly 80 years on Fifth Avenue, the famous toy store closed in 2015, but was brought back to life just a few years later in Rockefeller Center. Kids flocked to the flagship to gaze up at the 28-foot tall clock tower and marvel at the toy soldiers in their bright uniforms; in the '80s and '90s, little ones came in droves to dance on the giant piano, just as Tom Hanks did in that famous scene in "Big." Well the piano is back, as is all the rest, and kids will love the fresh new world of toys. Go interactive; make you own stuffed animal at the Build-A-Bear Workshop or take home a doll from the baby doll adoption center. Or try something a little more educational. The STEM lab has a "professor" who leads fun experiences, and afterwards kids can take home construction and robotics projects.
Daniel LevinactivityDomino Park
Domino Park is a five-acre oasis on the edge of the always-hip neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The playground and water features feel manageable with active kids, and parents can enjoy the views across the East River toward downtown Manhattan. The layout includes plenty of paved surfaces, making it a pleasant place to stroll along the waterfront. The elevated walkway runs from the Gantry Cranes at the north to the platform above Tacocina, the park's popular main restaurant. At sunset, you'd be hard pressed to find better views. Domino Park is for cool kids of all ages. Hipsters flock to it on weekends for fish tacos and great views; local families head straight to the playground. Those who love the overall vibe of Williamsburg will love this as a vibrant addition to the scene. Those looking for a back-to-nature, quiet experience can probably take a pass.
AMNHD/FinninactivityAmerican Museum of Natural History
The museum has 150 years of history and scientific discovery to draw upon and wows kids every day with its terrific 3D experiences, tech-driven exhibits, and of course, its towering T-Rex skeleton and massive blue whale model (longer than a school bus!) hanging in the Hall of Ocean Life. Don't miss the massive 122-foot-long Titanosaur whose neck extends past the threshold to the exhibition hall. For a hands-on experience, visit The Discovery Room (for ages five to 12) to put a dinosaur skeleton together, pull out drawers of specimens, and use a digital seismograph to track earthquakes. Of course, the most memorable experience of all for the entire family is spending the night here. Book “A Night at the Museum” sleepover (check the museum website for dates from May to October) and you can explore the exhibits and halls after hours before bedding down on a cot under the blue whale. Remember to bring a sleeping bag and a flashlight!
GettyactivityEmpire State Building
$$The Empire State Building may be the most recognizable building in the United States. The 102-story skyscraper was the tallest building in the world for 40 years and even though it's been surpassed by dozens of projects on three continents, it remains a New York icon. With more than 4 million visitors a year, there are always long lines to buy tickets, so it’s best to purchase in advance online. Yes, the VIP Express pass is double the price of a standard ticket, but you skip all the lines and go straight up to the 86th Floor Observatory, which might mean the difference between happy kiddos and whiny are-we-there-yet ones. (Kids under six are free.) One of the best views of the Empire State Building is on the corner of 26th Street and Madison Avenue: close enough to see details, but far enough away to get all of it in one frame. Don't miss the Art Deco lobby, with its 24-karat gold-leaf ceiling murals and famous starburst bas relief.
GettyactivityJane's Carousel
$There can’t be many carousels in the world with better views than Jane's, which sits between the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge in Empire-Fulton Ferry Park. Every revolution gives you thrilling snapshots of lower Manhattan, the bridges spanning the river, and the old brick DUMBO warehouses. Built in 1922, the 48-horse wooden carousel is an example of a successful private-public partnership; collectors Jane and David Walentas bought and restored the carousel, donated it to Brooklyn Bridge Park, and commissioned architect Jean Nouvel to build a square plexiglass box to house it. The transparent walls allow views year-round and fold open in warm weather. The carousel is $2 a ride, and children under 42" ride free with a paying adult. Plus, there's all of Brooklyn Bridge Park to explore from here, including Time Out Market, a food hall with 21 restaurants.
Julie Larsen Maher/Bronx ZooactivityBronx Zoo
Welcome to America’s most historic zoo, dating back to 1899. In addition to the animals, it has a 4D theater on campus where viewers are hit with snowflakes and mist, and the Treetop Adventure ropes course that takes you atop the park. The little ones in your family will love spending the day at the largest urban zoo in the country: With the zoo's impressive scale, at 265 acres, the best game plan is to choose the attractions your family wants to see wisely and strategize accordingly. (You can rent single or double strollers if you're worried their short legs may tire out.) Plan on getting there right when it opens, or check the zoo website for special pre-opening programs, like breakfast with penguins or big cats. And speaking of food, everyone can feed the mini Nubian goats, donkeys, and sheep at the Children’s Zoo farmyard.
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AlamyrestaurantSerendipity 3
$$Serendipity 3, an Upper East Side restaurant-cum-soda fountain with marble-topped tables and Tiffany-style lamps, hasn’t changed all that much since it opened in 1954. Maybe the only place you will notice a difference from the '50s is on the check—prices are decidedly 21st-century. It still attracts a mix of neighborhood kids and their families, plus tourists who have heard about the famous frozen hot chocolate. You'll find everything from meatloaf to hamburgers, but it's the desserts that made the place famous. Share an elaborate, oversized sundae, a banana split, or the famed frozen hot chocolate or mochaccino. The staff are pros at handling both small children and tourists. Give the kiddos a Willy Wonka–style treat, perfect in summer after a few hours of sightseeing.
GettyactivityGovernors Island
Head for The Hills—the name of the new 30-acre park on this public island in New York Bay. With scrambles up to 70 feet high—built to protect the island from rising sea levels and climate change—there’s plenty to occupy little adventurers. They won’t be able to resist Slide Hill’s four chutes, including the longest slide in the city at 57 feet. But the island is a playground for the whole family. After hopping off the ferry, rent bikes to see the island on two wheels, tour the 200-year-old Castle Williams or give them the freedom to follow their imagination at The Yard, a 50,000 square-foot adventure playground stocked with bits of lumber, old wheels, and random parts. There's also an outpost of Manhattan’s Children Museum of the Arts that lets kids make art in a hands-on, outdoor workshop and new family-friendly cultural events going on every week.
Liam Marshall/Courtesy Intrepid Sea, Air & Space MuseumactivityIntrepid Sea, Air, & Space Museum
The Intrepid is a floating museum: a WWII aircraft carrier with a storied naval career home to some of the most famous air and spacecraft in the world, plus exciting experiences and exhibits that will thrill your young history and aviation buffs. The Intrepid served in WWII, Vietnam and throughout the Cold War era; after it was decommissioned, it was installed at Pier 86 on the Hudson River. For four months after 9/11, the vessel served as the FBI’s field office. Today it's a National Historic Landmark. The main hangar deck is home to the fully interactive Exploreum, where kids of all ages can climb into the cockpit of a Bell 47 helicopter and slide into a 40-foot submarine. Space nerds (and parents who grew up during NASA's space shuttle era) should make a beeline for the Space Shuttle Pavilion. They can get up close to the Space Shuttle Enterprise and experience virtual microgravity in the International Space Station VR experience.
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