Top attractions in New York City featured on new map

There’s no question New York offers a wide variety of exciting things to see and do, but thanks to a study by digital travel booking platform, Musement, a new map featuring top attractions in New York City will help travelers make the most of their next trip to the Big Apple.

New York has it all, from world-class museums to sky-high observation decks, and even the zoo depicted in a favorite animated movie. Musement divided all those attractions into categories, searched each attraction in Google Travel, and then selected the two with the highest number of Google reviews in each category for the new map.

Top Attractions in New York City:

Entertainment

New York is definitely a hot spot when it comes to entertainment, but it’s especially known for Broadway, dubbed the “Great White Way” in the 1920s because of the electric white lights on marquees and billboards in the Times Square/Theatre District area. Today, Times Square — the study’s most popular entertainment attraction — is home to dozens of theaters illuminated with colorful lights and LED screens, perfectly illustrating the well-known “bright lights, big city” motto.

Another popular entertainment attraction in New York is Rockefeller Center which, during the holidays, draws huge crowds to its outdoor ice-skating rink and world-famous Christmas tree.

History

It’s no surprise that visiting the Statue of Liberty is on everyone’s New York “to-do” list. This iconic statue representing the freedom and democracy of the U.S. has been welcoming visitors to New York since 1886.

History buffs will also want to visit St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the spectacular Gothic Revival style church on 5^th Avenue that ranked as the second most popular attraction in the history category.

Museums

The city’s top-ranked museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (also known as “The Met”), houses over two million pieces, including mummies and medieval artworks, but no visit to New York City is complete without a visit to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, where visitors can pay respects to those who lost their lives 20 years ago.

Parks

Travelers can find two perfect retreats from the hustle and bustle of the city right in its center — Bryant Park and  Central Park. These two urban oases provide a welcome contrast to New York’s “concrete jungle” and offer unique opportunities to enjoy the outdoors at skating rinks, boat ponds, and even on a horse-drawn carriage ride.

Zoos & Aquariums

New York is home to the Bronx Zoo — one of the largest zoos in the U.S. — as well as the Central Park Zoo, the inspiration for DreamWorks’ “Madagascar” movies about a group of animals who escape their home at the Manhattan zoo to explore the wilds of the outside world.

Family-Friendly Attractions

The Brooklyn Bridge and the High Line (ranked one and two, respectively) give visitors a chance to see Manhattan from a new perspective.

The hybrid cable-stayed/suspension Brooklyn Bridge constructed in 1883 was the first fixed crossing of the East River and has since become one of the city’s most recognized landmarks, appearing in movies like “Saturday Night Fever” (1977), “Enchanted]” (2007), and “John Wick” (2014). The 1.45-mile-long High Line, a public park (and outdoor art gallery) converted from an old elevated railroad, provides views of the city from a unique perspective mid-way between street level and sky-high.

Observation Towers

There’s nothing as thrilling as seeing the Manhattan from above, which is why it’s practically mandatory to go to the top of a very tall building when visiting the city. Two of these, Top of the Rock in Rockefeller Center and the Empire State Building, have outdoor observation decks that offer 360-degree views of the spectacular skyline day and night.

Top of the Rock offers three decks for various degrees of thrill-seeking: indoors on the 67th floor, outdoors (with glass) on the 69th floor, and outdoors (with no glass) on the 70th floor. The famous Empire State Building (and where the Empire State gets its nickname) offers views from the main observation deck on the 86^th floor as well on the 102nd-floor “top deck.”