Empire State Building

350 Fifth Ave at 34th St | 8:30am-2am, last elevator up at 1:15am

Featured prominently in almost a hundred Hollywood films over the years, the Empire State Building – actually a very glorified office building – is the most famous member of the New York skyline. It’s a limestone classic built in just 410 days (using seven million hours of labor) during the Great Depression, at the astounding cost of $41 million. Located on the site of the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, the 102-story, 1472ft-high (to the top of the antenna) Empire State Building opened in 1931 after the laying of 10 million bricks, installation of 6400 windows and setting of 328,000 sq ft of marble. The famous antenna was originally meant to be a mooring mast for zeppelins, but the Hindenberg disaster slammed the brakes on that plan. Later an aircraft did (accidentally) meet up with the building: a B-25 bomber crashed into the 79th floor on a foggy day in 1945, killing 14 people.

The view of the vast city from the Empire State Building is just exquisite, but be prepared – the lines to get to the observation decks, found on the 86th and 102nd floors, are notorious. And the basement area where you must buy tickets and queue up for the elevator ride is a shabby, poorly ventilated waiting pen, especially in summer. Getting here very early or very late will help you avoid delays – as will buying your tickets ahead of time, online, where an extra $2 purchase charge is well worth the hassle it will save you. Sunset is one of the most magical times to be up here because you can see the city don its nighttime cloak in dusk’s afterglow. Once up here, you can stay as long as you like. Coin-operated telescopes offer an up-close glimpse of the city, and diagrams map out the major sights. You can even smoke up top, to the great dismay of many non-Europeans.

Since 1976, the building’s top 30 floors have been floodlit in seasonal and holiday colors: green for St Patrick’s Day in March, black for World AIDS Day on December 1, red and green for Christmas, lavender for Gay Pride weekend in June, etc – visit the website for each day’s lighting scheme and meaning. This tradition has now been copied by many other skyscrapers, notably the Metropolitan Life Tower at Madison Square Park and the Con Edison Tower near Union Sq, lending elegance to the night sky.

Museum of Modern Art

11 W 53rd St | 10:30am-5:30pm Sat-Mon, Wed & Thu, to 8pm Fri

Founded in 1929, MoMA is one of NYC’s most popular museums, home to more than 100,000 pieces of modern artwork, most by heavy hitters – Matisse, Picasso, Cezanne, Rothko, Pollock and many others. It’s dedicated to showcasing artwork based on the emerging creative ideas of the late 19th century through to those that dominate today. It’s easy to get lost in the vast collection for an entire day; if you want to maximize your time and create a plan of attack ahead of time, download the museum’s floor plan and visitor guide (available in several languages) from the website beforehand. Recent special exhibitions inside the high-ceilinged galleries have included ‘Monet’s Water Lilies’ and ‘The Erotic Object: Surrealist Sculpture from the Collection.’ Also, the museum’s cinema hosts a rich film program, with rotating screenings from its collection of more than 19,000 films, including the works of the Maysles Brothers and every Pixar animation film ever produced.

Since its grand reopening in 2004 following the most extensive renovation project in its 75-year history, the Museum of Modern Art has been widely hailed for its physical design, with a central, five-story atrium housing peaceful, airy galleries with works in areas such as painting, sculpture, architecture and design, drawings, prints, illustrated books, and film and media. The reconstruction, by architect Yoshio Taniguchi, doubled the museum’s capacity and restored the museum’s tranquil sculpture garden to the original, larger vision of Philip Johnson’s 1950s design. You can look over this area as you dine in high style at the Modern, a much-lauded foodie paradise of French-American cuisine courtesy of head chef Gabriel Kreuther (though you’ll find more affordable cafes onsite, too). An even bigger project, though, is underway as controversial plans for an 82-story tower designed by architect Jean Nouvel – to include a hotel, residential apartments and additional exhibition space for the museum – were approved by the city in late 2009.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Fifth Ave at 82nd St | 9:30am-5:30pm Tue-Thu & Sun, to 9pm Fri & Sat

With more than five million visitors per year, the Met is New York’s most popular single-site tourist attraction, with one of the richest coffers in the arts world. The Met is a self-contained cultural city-state, with two million individual objects in its collection and an annual budget of over $120 million. Since completing a multimillion­-dollar remodeling project that brought works out of storage, renovated the halls of 19th- and early 20th-century paintings and sculptures, expanded the Ancient Hellenistic and Roman areas and sparklingly remade the American Wing, the place is looking more divine than ever – despite operating in the midst of a financial crisis that has led to major payroll cuts, a shrinking endowment and a donations slump. Charged with seeing this behemoth through the hard times is new director Thomas Campbell, a British tapestries expert who was appointed to the position following the much-publicized retirement of the larger-than-life Philippe de Montebello, who reigned over the institution for three decades.

Despite the big changes, though, the Met’s ability to thrill, confound, inspire and exhaust has not been altered, as its massive list of curatorial departments includes something for just about everyone – from American Decorative Arts and Ancient Near Eastern Art to Greek and Roman Art, Medieval Art, Modern Art, Photography, Musical Instruments and the Costume Institute. To get organized once you arrive inside the Great Hall, pick up a floor plan and head to the ticket booths, where you’ll find a list of any exhibitions closed that day, along with a lineup of special museum talks. The Met presents more than 30 special exhibitions and installations each year and it’s best to target exactly what you want to see on the floor plan and head there first, before museum fatigue sets in. Then you can put the plan away and get lost trying to get back to the main entrance. It’s a virtual certainty that you’ll stumble across something interesting along the way.

Central Park

| 06:00-01:00

Like the city’s subway system, the vast and majestic Central Park, an 843-acre rectangle of open space in the middle of Manhattan, is a great class leveler – which is exactly what it was envisioned to be. Created in the 1860s and ’70s by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux on the marshy northern fringe of the city, the immense park was designed as a leisure space for all New Yorkers, regardless of color, class or creed. And it’s an oasis from the insanity: the lush lawns, cool forests, flowering gardens, glassy bodies of water and meandering, wooded paths providing the dose of serene nature that New Yorkers crave. Olmsted and Vaux (who also created Prospect Park in Brooklyn) were determined to keep foot and road traffic separate and cleverly designed the crosstown transverses under elevated roads to do so. That such a large expanse of prime real estate has survived intact for so long again proves that nothing eclipses the heart, soul and pride that forms the foundation of New York City’s greatness. Today, this ‘people’s park’ is still one of the city’s most popular attractions, beckoning throngs of New Yorkers with free outdoor concerts at the Great Lawn, precious animals at the Central Park Wildlife Center and top-notch drama at the annual Shakespeare in the Park productions, held each summer at the open-air Delacorte Theater. Some other recommended stops include the ornate Bethesda Fountain, which edges the Lake and its Loeb Boathouse, where you can rent rowboats or enjoy lunch at an outdoor cafe; the Shakespeare Garden (west side btwn 79th & 80th Sts), which has lush plantings and excellent skyline views; and the Ramble (mid-park from 73rd to 79th Sts), a wooded thicket that’s popular with bird-watchers. While parts of the park swarm with joggers, in-line skaters, musicians and tourists on warm weekends, it’s quieter on weekday afternoons – but especially in less well-trodden spots above 72nd St such as the Harlem Meer and the North Meadow (north of 97th St). Folks flock to the park even in winter, when snowstorms can inspire cross-country skiing and sledding or a simple stroll through the white wonderland, and crowds turn out every New Year’s Eve for a midnight run. The Central Park Conservancy offers ever-changing guided tours of the park, including those that focus on public art, wildlife and places of interest to kids.

Gramercy Tavern

42 E 20th St | lunch & dinner

Though superstar chef Tom Colicchio (who put this legendary spot on the foodie map) recently passed the torch, Michael Anthony was the capable guy who grabbed it. And so the country-chic restaurant, aglow with copper sconces, bright murals and dramatic floral arrangements, is still in the spotlight – perhaps more than ever. That’s thanks to the lighter fish-and-vegetable menu that has replaced what was meat-heavy and hearty. Smoked lobster, Spanish mackerel, blackfish and tuna-and-beet tartare are packed with punches, as are the heavenly desserts and heavy-hitting wine options.

Ouest

2315 Broadway at 84th St | dinner

The destination dining room from chef-owner Tom Valenti is the place that sparked the latest neighborhood revival. Behind the deco facade you’ll find sumptuous red leather banquettes, huge mirrors and low lighting that casts a romantic amber glow. But it’s the heavy-hitting, expertly prepared classics – shellfish ragout, grilled rack of lamb, pan-roasted squab, seared tuna – that people trudge here for. Another, newer Valenti outpost in the ’hood is West Branch (212-777-6764; 2178 Broadway at 77th St), a slightly more casual (there’s a bar with a flat-screen TV) but no less handsome spot, where the focus is still French – witness the steak tartare and duck-leg confit – with some more accessible (and wholly delicious) burgers, salads and fish and chips tossed in there, too.

Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre

307 W 26th St |

Pros of comedy sketches and outrageous improvisations reign at this popular 74-seat venue, which gets drop-ins from casting directors. Getting in is cheap ($5 to $8) – so is the beer (from $2 a can) – and you may recognize pranksters on stage from late-night comedy shows ; it’s free Wednesdays after 11pm, when newbies take the reins. Check the website for popular classes on sketch and improv, now spilling over to an annex location on W 30th St.