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Updated by Jacinta O’Halloran
The Upper West Side is one of the city’s quieter, more residential neighborhoods, with wide sidewalks and a (relatively) slower pace. The Cloisters, in Inwood, has the Metropolitan Museum’s medieval collection.
Making the Most of Your Time
Broadway is one of the most walkable and interesting thoroughfares on the Upper West Side because of its broad sidewalks and aggressive mix of retail stores, restaurants, and apartment buildings. If you head north from the Lincoln Center area (around 65th Street) to about 81st Street (about 1 mile), you’ll get a feel for the neighborhood’s local color, particularly above 72nd Street. Up here you’ll encounter residents of every conceivable age and ethnicity either shambling or sprinting, street vendors hawking used and newish books, and such beloved landmarks as the 72nd Street subway station, the Beacon Theatre, the produce mecca Fairway (the cause of perhaps the most perpetually congested block), and Zabar’s (a food spot that launches a memorable assault on all five of your senses—and your wallet). The Upper West Side’s other two main avenues—Columbus and Amsterdam—are more residential but also have myriad restaurants and shops.
If you’re intrigued by having the city’s only Ivy League school close at hand, hop the 1 train to 116th Street and emerge on the east side of the street, which puts you smack in front of Columbia University and its Graduate School of Journalism. Pass through the gates and up the walk for a look at a cluster of buildings so elegant you’ll understand why it’s an iconic NYC setting.
Getting Here
The A, B, C, D, and 1 subway lines take you to Columbus Circle. From there, the B and C lines run along Central Park. The 1 train runs up Broadway, making local stops. The 2 and 3 are express trains that also go along Broadway.
The tree-lined side streets of the Upper West Side are lovely, with high stoops leading up to stately brownstones. Central Park, of course, is one of the main attractions here, no matter the season or time of day, though locals know that Riverside Park, along the Hudson River, can be even more appealing, with smaller crowds.
The Upper West Side also has its share of cultural institutions, from the 16-acre Lincoln Center complex, to the impressive and quirky collection at the New-York Historical Society, to Columbus Circle’s Museum of Arts and Design and the much-loved, soon-to-be-expanded American Museum of Natural History.
Most people think the area north of 106th Street and south of 125th Street on the West Side is just an extension of the Upper West Side. Technically it’s Morningside Heights, largely dominated by Columbia University along with a cluster of academic, religious, and medical institutions, including Barnard College and the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine.
Top Experiences
Strolling through Riverside Park past the boat basin
Exploring Central Park
Standing below the gigantic blue whale at the American Museum of Natural History
Taking in the views, gardens, and medieval masterpieces at the Cloisters Museum and Gardens
Coffee and Quick Bites
Bouchon Bakery.
In Columbus Circle’s busy Time Warner shopping center, this take-out bakery outpost of the sit-down restaurant serves excellent sandwiches, quiches, pastries, and coffee. There are a few seats. | 10 Columbus Circle, 3rd fl.
,
Upper West Side
| 212/823–9366
|
www.thomaskeller.com
| Station:
1, A, B, C, D to 59th St.–Columbus Circle
.
Hungarian Pastry Shop.
Linger over a danish and bottomless cups of coffee with the Columbia kids and professors at this old-world (cash only) café and bakery. | 1030 Amsterdam Ave., at 111th St.
,
Upper West Side
| 212/866–4230
| Station:
1 to Cathedral Pkwy.–110th St.
Zabar’s Cafe.
Fast-track the Zabar’s experience with a gourmet coffee and sandwich, pickled lox, or slice of cheesecake. | 2245 Broadway, at 80th St.
,
Upper West Side
| 212/787–2000
|
www.zabars.com
| Station:
1 to 79th St.
Top Attractions
Fodor’s Choice |
American Museum of Natural History.
The largest natural history museum in the world is also one of the most impressive sights in New York. Four city blocks make up its 45 exhibition halls, which hold more than 30 million artifacts from the land, sea, and outer space. With so many wonders, you can’t see everything on a single visit, but you can easily hit the highlights in half a day. Most visitors begin with the iconic and amazing assembly of dinosaur and mammal
fossils
taking up the entire fourth floor. Highlights include a T. Rex, an Apatosaurus (formerly called a Brontosaurus), and the Titanosaur, a recently discovered species that is so long at 122 feet, it can’t even fit all the way inside its exhibit hall (its head sticks out the door to greet you). The specimens are not in chronological order, but put together based on their shared characteristics. The Rose Center for Earth and
Space
is another must-see. Dark
Universe,
in the Hayden Planetarium, puts Hollywood effects to shame as it explores the cosmos and just how little we really know about it. Head for the third floor to check out the Komodo dragon lizards and a 23-foot-long python in Reptiles and Amphibians
; a brief but interesting comparison between apes, monkeys, and humans in the Primates Hall
; and the upper gallery of the famed Akeley Hall of African Mammals
.
The small Hall of Biodiversity includes a shady replica of a Central African Republic rain forest. Within a few yards are 160 species of flora and fauna—and also evidence of the forest’s destruction. The Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, designed to emit an underwater glow, is home to another museum icon—the 94-foot model of a blue whale, suspended from the ceiling. The hall focuses on the vast array of life in the ocean that covers our planet. The AMNH offers various programs and special exhibits throughout the year that allow for a more interactive experience. Between October and May, don’t miss the warm, plant-filled Butterfly Conservatory, where blue morphos, monarchs, and other butterflies flit and feed. Ten minutes is probably enough time to enjoy it. Also in October, the AMNH hosts the Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival, the longest-running premiere showcase for international documentaries in the United States. Tickets are made available one month prior to the festival, and online at www.amnh.org/mead . The Rose Center’s monthly One Step Beyond series is the perfect place to bust out your moonwalk and enjoy a few “cosmicpolitans”; the event features live bands, DJs, VJs, cocktails, and dynamic visuals. If you just don’t want to go home, the museum also offers a hugely popular Night-at-the-Museum sleepover program for kids age 6–13 as well as a separate sleepover program for adults. Learn more about special programs at amnh.org/plan-your-visit .
If you’re hungry, there are several options in the museum, including a cafeteria ($) on the ground floor that serves sandwiches and burgers. The Petrie Court Café, at the back of the first-floor European Sculpture Court, has waiter service. The Roof Garden (open May–Oct.) has contemporary sculpture exhibits, but most people take the elevator here to have a drink or snack while checking out the views of Central Park and the skyline. | Central Park W at W. 79th St. , Upper West Side | 212/769–5100 | www.amnh.org | $22 suggested donation, includes admission to Rose Center for Earth and Space; $27 includes an IMAX or space show | Daily 10–5:45 | Station: B, C to 81st St./Museum of Natural History .
Movies That Have Been Filmed at AMNH
Does the inside of AMNH look familiar? It should. The museum is a popular location for movies filming in New York. In Spider-Man 2 (2004), Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) has yet another bad day wrestling with his secret identity while in the Rose Center. Larry (Ben Stiller) is chased through the halls by a T. Rex and outsmarts a monkey in the Hall of African Mammals while working as a night security guard in Night at the Museum (2006). AMNH plays a roll in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009) and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014), too. In the coming-of-age film The Squid & the Whale (2005), Walt Berkman (Jesse Eisenberg) comes to a revelation that he is the squid and his father is the whale in front of the Hall of Ocean Life’s famous diorama. And then there’s The Devil Wears Prada (2006) where Andrea (Anne Hathaway) wins over Miranda (Meryl Streep) by remembering the names of high-society guests while attending a benefit here.
Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine.
The largest Gothic-style cathedral in the world, even with its towers and transepts still unfinished, this divine behemoth comfortably asserts its bulk in the country’s most vertical city. The seat of the Episcopal diocese in New York, it acts as a sanctuary for all, giving special services that include a celebration of New York’s gay and lesbian community as well as the annual Blessing of the Bikes (mid-April), when cyclists of all faiths bring their wheels for a holy-water benediction. Built in two long spurts starting in 1892, the cathedral remains only two-thirds complete. What began as a Romanesque Byzantine–style structure under the original architects, George Heins and Christopher Grant Lafarge, shifted upon Heins’s death in 1911 to French Gothic under the direction of Gothic Revival purist Ralph Adams Cram. You can spot the juxtaposition of the two medieval styles by comparing the finished Gothic arches, which are pointed, with the still-uncovered arches, which are rounded in the Byzantine style.
To get the full effect of the cathedral’s size, approach it from Broadway along 112th Street (all the while doing your best to avoid the sight of the two unholy 15-story rental towers cozying up to—and obscuring—the 113th Street side of the cathedral). Above the 3-ton central bronze doors is the intricately carved Portal of Paradise, which depicts St. John witnessing the Transfiguration of Jesus, and 32 biblical characters. Step inside to the cavernous nave: more than 600 feet long, it holds some 5,000 worshippers, and the 162-foot-tall dome crossing could comfortably contain the Statue of Liberty (minus its pedestal). The Great Rose Window is the largest stained-glass window in the United States; it’s made from more than 10,000 pieces of colored glass.
At the end of the nave, surrounding the altar, are seven chapels expressing the cathedral’s interfaith tradition and international mission—with menorahs, Shinto vases, and dedications to various ethnic groups. The Saint Saviour Chapel contains a three-panel bronze altar in white gold leaf with religious scenes by artist Keith Haring (his last work before he died in 1990). Outside in the cathedral’s south grounds is the eye-catching Peace Fountain. It depicts the struggle of good and evil in the form of the archangel Michael decapitating Satan, whose head hangs from one side. Encircling it are whimsical animals cast in bronze from pieces sculpted by children.
On the first Sunday of October, in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals, the church holds its usual Sunday service with a twist: the service is attended by men, women, children, dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, and the occasional horse, sheep, or ant farm. In past years upward of 3,500 New Yorkers have shown up to have their pets blessed. A procession is led by such guest animals as elephants, camels, llamas, and golden eagles. Sunday services are at 8, 9, 11, and 4. “Highlight Tours” and “Vertical Tours” are offered throughout the week; check the website for details and to reserve. | 1047 Amsterdam Ave., at 112th St. , Upper West Side | 212/316–7540 , 866/811–4111 for tour reservations | www.stjohndivine.org | $10 suggested donation; tours $12–$20 | Daily 7:30–6; visitor center daily 9–5; tours Mon. at 11 and 2, Tues.–Sat. at 11 and 1, Sun. at 1 | Station: 1 to Cathedral Pkwy.–110th St.
Fodor’s Choice |
New-York Historical Society.
Manhattan’s oldest (and perhaps most under-the-radar) museum, founded in 1804, boasts one of the city’s finest research libraries in addition to a contemporary glass facade, sleek interactive technology, a children’s museum, restaurant, and inventive exhibitions that showcase the museum’s eclectic collections and unique voice. While the permanent collection of more than 6 million pieces of art, literature, and memorabilia sheds light on America’s history, art, and architecture, the special exhibitions showcase the museum’s fresh—and often surprising—insight on all things New York. The Henry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture (due to reopen by 2017) on the fourth floor of the museum will include a new Center for the Study of Women’s History, with permanent and rotating exhibits that examine and celebrate New York’s central role in women’s history, especially for New Yorkers like Eleanor Roosevelt, Zora Neale Hurston, and Margaret Sanger. The DiMenna Children’s History Museum
on the lower level invites children to become “history detectives” and explore New York’s past through interactive displays, hands-on activities, and the stories of iconic New York children through the centuries. The Historical Viewfinder allows kids to see how certain New York sites have changed over time. Unlike most other children’s museums, this museum is geared to mature elementary and middle schoolers, not toddlers. Caffé Storico, the light-filled restaurant on the first floor (with a separate entrance), serves upscale Italian food at lunch and dinner and is open for weekend brunch. | 170 Central Park W
,
Upper West Side
| 212/873–3400
|
www.nyhistory.org
| $20 (pay-as-you-wish Fri. 6–8 pm)
| Tues.–Thurs. and Sat. 10–6, Fri. 10–8, Sun. 11–5
| Station:
B, C to 81st St.–Museum of Natural History
.
Worth Noting
American Folk Art Museum.
After a near-death, or rather, near- debt
experience in late 2011, the American Folk Art Museum left its home of 10 years on 53rd Street (since razed and taken over by MoMA) and returned to its humble rental near Lincoln Center. Here, the focus returns to its incredible collection of contemporary self-taught artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, including the single largest collection of reclusive Chicago artist Henry Darger, known for his painstakingly detailed collage paintings of fantasy worlds. Past exhibitions have included “Art Brut in America: The Incursion of Jean Dubuffet,” which featured 200 works of art and explored the introduction of art brut (art created completely outside the boundaries of the art world and culture, often by children or the mentally ill) to America. The gift shop has an impressive collection of handcrafted items. | 2 Lincoln Sq., Columbus Ave. at 66th St.
,
Upper West Side
| 212/595–9533
|
www.folkartmuseum.org
| Free
| Mon.–Thurs. and Sat. 11:30–7, Fri. noon–7:30, Sun. noon–6
| Station:
1 to 66th St.–Lincoln Center; A, B, C, D to 59th St.–Columbus Circle
.
Children’s Museum of Manhattan.
In this five-story exploratorium, children ages one–seven are invited to paint their own masterpieces, float boats down a “stream” (weather permitting), rescue animals with Dora and Diego (in an exhibition created in collaboration with Nickelodeon), and walk through giant interactive human organs to explore the connections between food, sleep, and play. Special exhibits are thoughtfully put together and fun. Seasonal programs include a Grinch Holiday workshop. Art workshops, science programs, and storytelling sessions are held daily. TIP
Admission is free 5–8 pm on the first Friday of every month.
| 212 W. 83rd St., between Broadway and Amsterdam Ave.
,
Upper West Side
| 212/721–1223
|
www.cmom.org
| $12
| Tues.–Fri. and Sun. 10–5, Sat. 10–7
| Station:
1 to 79th St.
Columbus Circle.
This busy traffic circle at Central Park’s southwest corner anchors the Upper West Side and makes a good starting place for exploring the neighborhood if you’re coming from south of 59th Street. The central 700-ton granite monument (capped by a marble statue of Christopher Columbus) serves as a popular meeting place. To some people, Columbus Circle is synonymous with the Time Warner Center
building (212/823–6300;
www.theshopsatcolumbuscircle.com
) and its several floors of shops and restaurants, including takeout-friendly Bouchon Bakery and Whole Foods—both perfect places to pick up picnic fixings to take to Central Park. It’s also home to the Rose Hall performing arts complex, part of Jazz at Lincoln Center. | Broadway at 58th St. to 60th St.
,
Upper West Side
| Station:
1, A, B, C, D to 59 St.–Columbus Circle
.
The Dakota.
One of the first residences built on the Upper West Side, the château-style Dakota (1884) remains an architectural fixture with its lovely gables, gaslights, copper turrets, and central courtyard. Celebrity residents have included Boris Karloff, Rudolf Nureyev, José Ferrer, Rosemary Clooney, Lauren Bacall, Leonard Bernstein, Gilda Radner, and Connie Chung, but none more famous than John Lennon, who in 1980 was shot and killed at the Dakota’s gate by a deranged fan. Visitors are not welcome in the lobby and there are no tours of the building. Fortunately, the elaborate exterior is best admired from across the street. | 1 W. 72nd St., at Central Park W
,
Upper West Side
| Station:
B, C to 72nd St.
Grant’s Tomb
(General Grant National Memorial
).
Walk through upper Riverside Park and you’re sure to notice this towering granite mausoleum (1897), the final resting place of Civil War general and two-term president Ulysses S. Grant and his wife, Julia Dent Grant. As the old joke goes, who’s buried here? Nobody—they’re entombed
in a crypt beneath a domed rotunda, surrounded by photographs and Grant memorabilia. Once a more popular sight than the Statue of Liberty, this pillared Classical Revival edifice feels more like a relic of yesteryear, but it remains a moving tribute. The words engraved on the tomb, “Let Us Have Peace,” recall Grant’s speech to the Republican convention upon his presidential nomination. Surrounding the memorial are the so-called “rolling benches,” which are swoopy and covered with colorful mosaic tiles that bring to mind the works of architect Antoni Gaudí’s Park Güell, in Barcelona. Made in the 1970s as a public art project, they are now as beloved as they are incongruous with the grand memorial they surround. TIP
Free public talks are available in the visitor center (across the street from the tomb), Wednesday through Monday at 11:15, 1:15, and 3:15.
| Riverside Dr. at 122nd St.
,
Upper West Side
| 212/666–1640
|
www.nps.gov/gegr
| Free
| Wed.–Sun. 9–5
| Station:
1 to 116th St. St.
Museum of Arts and Design
(MAD
).
In a funky-looking white building across from the Time Warner Center, the Museum of Arts and Design celebrates joyful quirkiness and personal, sometimes even obsessive, artistic visions. The art is human scale here, much of it neatly housed in display cases rather than hanging on the walls, with a strong focus on contemporary jewelry, glass, ceramic, fiber, wood, and mixed-media works. Thursday evening is pay-what-you-wish. | 2 Columbus Circle, 59th St. at 8th Ave.
,
Upper West Side
| 212/299–7777
|
www.madmuseum.org
| $16
| Tues., Wed., and weekends 10–6, Thurs. and Fri. 10–9
| Station:
1, A, B, C, D to 59th St.–Columbus Circle
.
Nicholas Roerich Museum.
An 1898 Upper West Side town house contains this small, eccentric museum dedicated to the work of Russian artist Nicholas Roerich, who immigrated to New York in the 1920s and quickly developed an ardent following. Some 200 of his paintings hang here—notably some vast canvases of the Himalayas. Free chamber music concerts are held most Sunday afternoons at 5, except in summer. | 319 W. 107th St., between Broadway and Riverside Dr.
,
Upper West Side
| 212/864–7752
|
www.roerich.org
| By donation
| Tues.–Fri. noon–5, weekends 2–5
| Station:
1 to 110th St./Cathedral Pkwy.
Riverside Park.
Surrounded by concrete and skyscrapers in Manhattan, you might not realize that there is an expansive green space running along the water just blocks away. Riverside Park—which, along with the Riverside Park South extension, runs along the Hudson from 58th to 156th Streets—dishes out a dose of tranquillity. The original sections of Riverside Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux of Central Park fame and laid out between 1873 and 1888, have a waterfront bike and walking paths. There are several access points to the park, including one at West 72nd Street and Riverside Drive (look for the statue of Eleanor Roosevelt), where you reach the waterfront path by an underpass beneath the West Side Highway. You can then head north along the Hudson River, past the 79th Street Boat Basin, where a flotilla of houseboats bobs in the water. Above it, a ramp leads to the Rotunda, home in summer to the Boat Basin Café, a dog-friendly open-air café that serves lunch and dinner in the warmer months (from March-ish through October). The 91st Street Garden, planted by community gardeners, explodes with flowers in most seasons and is a level up from the water: leave the riverside path near 92nd Street by taking another underpass and then heading up the path on the right. | From 58th to 156th St., between Riverside Dr. and the Hudson River
,
Upper West Side
|
www.nycgovparks.org/parks/riversidepark
| Station:
1, 2, 3 to 72nd St.
The San Remo.
You’re likely to notice its twin towers rising above the trees in Central Park, looking like the fairy-tale spires of some urban palace, which it more or less is. Rita Hayworth, Paul Simon, Demi Moore, Glenn Close, Tiger Woods, Steve Jobs, and Steven Spielberg are among the celebrities who’ve resided in the 1930 building’s giant apartments. At their peaks, the towers recede into circular columned Greek temples (modeled after the cathedral in Seville, Spain). They make a useful “compass” if you get disoriented in Central Park and want to know which way is west. | 145 Central Park W, between W. 74th and W. 75th Sts.
,
Upper West Side
| Station:
B, C to 72nd St.