US
What to see in New York on foot
38 sights worth the detour, all walkable, all offline.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk New York offline.
New York is a city made for walking. This self-guided guide maps 38 of its sights worth the detour — landmarks, historic sites, viewpoints, museums and galleries and parks and gardens — the places locals point to and the tour buses skip, close enough to string into a single day on foot. Download the New York pack in Voyage GO before you go and the whole route works offline: no roaming, no dead battery from a live map. Every monument, viewpoint and park you pass quietly fills your travel passport.
Landmarks26
- 1Statue of LibertyFrance's gift to the U.S.: a crowned, robed woman raising a torch over New York Harbor, long read as a welcome to immigrants arriving by sea.
- 2Wall StreetUnder 2,000 feet of pavement that stands in for all of American finance — named for a wall that hasn't existed since 1699.
- 3Brooklyn BridgeCross the East River on the bridge that was the world's longest suspension span when it opened in 1883 — on a promenade raised 18 feet above the traffic.
- 4Chrysler BuildingFor 11 months after its 1930 completion, this was the tallest building in the world — and the first supertall skyscraper ever built.
- 5One World Trade CenterThe building rises exactly 1,776 feet, a number pointing straight to the year the Declaration of Independence was signed.
- 6Times SquareA bowtie-shaped plaza where about 330,000 people pass daily beneath nonstop digital billboards.
- 7BroadwayNew York's oldest north–south road started as the Wickquasgeck trail, walked by Native Americans through swamp and rock before Europeans arrived.
- 8Madison Square GardenAn arena built on top of a working train station—every game and concert happens directly above Penn Station's platforms.
- 9Grand Central TerminalA working commuter terminal whose Main Concourse doubles as the city's meeting place — and draws 21.6 million visitors a year who never board a train.
- 10Fifth AvenueManhattan's grand spine, running from Harlem down to Greenwich Village — and in the 50s, one of the priciest shopping streets on Earth.
- 11United Nations HeadquartersA patch of Midtown that, by treaty, isn't legally the United States.
- 12Carnegie HallSlated for the wrecking ball in the 1950s, saved by a public campaign Isaac Stern led.
- 13George Washington BridgeCross the Hudson on foot, 212 feet above the water, over the world's busiest vehicle bridge.
- 14MetLife StadiumTwo NFL rivals share one $1.6-billion field that glows blue for the Giants and green for the Jets.
- 15Flatiron BuildingA 22-story wedge as thin as a clothes iron: 87 feet across its back, tapering to a knife-edge peak where Fifth Avenue meets Broadway.
- 16Trump TowerA gold-glass skyscraper that houses both the developer's penthouse residence and his company's headquarters.
- 17Rockefeller CenterA 22-acre stretch of Midtown built straight through the Great Depression — 19 buildings you can walk in one loop.
- 187 World Trade CenterThe tower that collapsed on September 11, 2001 — rebuilt, and the first building of the new World Trade Center to be finished.
- 19The New York Times BuildingRenzo Piano's first New York building, a glass tower sheathed in ceramic rods and home to the Times newsroom.
- 20Woolworth BuildingThe world's tallest building for 16 years — a five-and-dime fortune built as a Gothic cathedral.
- 21Manhattan BridgeThe first suspension bridge ever built with a Warren truss, still carrying four subway tracks over the East River.
- 22Bank of America Tower (1 Bryant Park)A 1,200-foot glass tower that earned LEED Platinum green certification, then blew past the city's emissions limits by the early 2020s.
- 23St. Patrick's CathedralA marble Gothic cathedral that fills a whole Midtown block, staring straight across at Rockefeller Center.
- 24The Rockefeller FoundationStandard Oil money turned into the world's largest philanthropy — and the model the World Health Organization was built on.
- 2540 Wall Street (The Trump Building)For one month in 1930 this was the tallest building on Earth, until the Chrysler Building took the crown.
- 26Lincoln CenterFive million people a year pass through 16.3 acres where the Met Opera, the Philharmonic, City Ballet, and Juilliard all sit in one complex.
Historic Sites3
- 27World Trade Center & 9/11 MemorialTwo reflecting pools now sit in the exact footprints where the Twin Towers stood until September 11, 2001.
- 28Ellis IslandAbout 12 million immigrants were processed here from 1892 to 1954 — by one estimate, two-fifths of Americans descend from them.
- 29New Amsterdam (Lower Manhattan)The Dutch fur-trading town that became New York — its northern edge is the street we now call Wall Street.
Viewpoints2
- 30Empire State BuildingRide up to the 86th- or 102nd-floor deck and look straight down on Midtown Manhattan.
- 3130 Rockefeller Plaza (30 Rock)The 850-foot Art Deco slab that gave the NBC sitcom "30 Rock" its name.
Museums & Galleries5
- 32The Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art)1.5 million works under one roof, from Sumerian stone to modern American rooms — a day here barely scratches it.
- 33Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)It opened on November 7, 1929, nine days after the Wall Street Crash, as America's premier museum devoted exclusively to modern art.
- 34The GuggenheimThe only museum Frank Lloyd Wright ever designed — you take in the art spiraling down a ramp, not room to room.
- 35American Museum of Natural HistoryAbout 32 million specimens live here, and you'll see only a sliver of them.
- 36Brooklyn MuseumNew York City's second-largest museum sits on the Brooklyn side, half a million objects behind a McKim, Mead & White facade.
Parks & Gardens2
- 37Central ParkThe most visited urban park in the US — an estimated 42 million visits a year — built by hand on the razed land of a Black settlement, Seneca Village.
- 38Bronx Zoo265 acres split by a real river — the largest metropolitan zoo in the US, open since 1899.