Past Bethesda Terrace, along the Lake, under the elms of the Mall — with a licensed driver who's run this route for years and will tell you what you're looking at.
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Things to do · Attractions
Castles, fountains, bridges, statues, gardens and a 106-acre reservoir — laid out by where they actually are, not in alphabetical order. Filter by part of the park, or start typing.
Acres, 59th to 110th
Named attractions
Bridges & arches, no two alike
To walk in, any hour
Most attraction lists start at Alice in Wonderland and end at Wollman Rink, which is useless when you’re standing at the 59th Street gate with three hours. Central Park runs 2.5 miles north to south and roughly half a mile across, so the only sorting that helps is geography.
Everything below is grouped into three bands — south of 72nd, the middle stretch to 86th, and the quieter north end — and tagged by what it is. Take the walking route first if it’s your first visit. Use the index if you’re hunting something specific.
Seven stops, roughly 3.5 miles, three to four hours with stops. Enter at Grand Army Plaza and finish at the Meer — or turn back at any point and take the subway from Central Park West.
Thirty seconds inside the gate and the traffic noise stops. The stone bridge frames the Plaza Hotel and the skyline behind it — the classic first photograph.
The only straight line Olmsted allowed himself, roofed by the largest stand of American elms left in North America. Statues of Shakespeare and Burns at the southern end.
Angel of the Waters above, and beneath it an arcade with 16,000 Minton tiles overhead. Musicians play there most afternoons because the acoustics are extraordinary.
Cast iron, 1862, and the most photographed structure in the park. Rowboats pass underneath from spring to autumn. Cross it and you’re in the Ramble.
The highest point in the park, built as a folly with no rooms inside. Climb it for the only clean view across 55 acres of lawn to the towers on Fifth.
106 acres of water with a 1.58-mile cinder track around it, and the widest skyline view in Manhattan. Runners go counter-clockwise.
The full index
Bethesda Terrace
Bow Bridge
Belvedere Castle
Strawberry Fields
The Mall
Central Park Zoo
Carousel
Alice in Wonderland
Heckscher Playground
Conservatory Water
Bethesda Arcade
The Dairy
Swedish Cottage
Chess & Checkers House
Belvedere Castle
Hallett Sanctuary
The Loch & Ravine
Wagner Cove
Summit Rock
Blockhouse No. 1
Gapstow Bridge
The Reservoir
Bow Bridge
Conservatory Garden
Cherry Hill
Several attractions are seasonal, and a few are only genuinely worth the walk for a fortnight a year.
Cherry Hill and the Reservoir’s east side flower for about ten days. The North Woods waterfalls run hardest after the spring melt.
Rowboats and the gondola run from the Boathouse, Shakespeare in the Park opens at the Delacorte, and SummerStage takes over.
Colour usually lands in the last week of October and holds a week. The Ramble, the Pool and the Loch turn first; the Mall’s elms go last and go gold.
Wollman Rink opens for the season, the bridges and arches lose their leaf cover, and Gapstow after snowfall is the picture everyone wants.
Every lamppost carries a four-digit plate. The first two or three digits are the nearest cross street, the last is odd for the west side and even for the east. It is the fastest way to work out where you are.
Entry costs nothing and the park is open 6am to 1am. Only the Zoo, the Carousel, Wollman Rink, Victorian Gardens and the marionette theatre charge admission.
There are around twenty across 843 acres. The reliable ones are at the Dairy, Bethesda Terrace, Delacorte Theater, the North Meadow centre and the Dana Discovery Center.
Two hours on foot, on a bike, or in a carriage — with someone who knows which entrance to use and what’s worth stopping for on the day you’re here.
