And yet. I want to make the case for New York in winter, because I genuinely love it, and because the version of the city you get in January and February is a different one than the tourist brochure version, and it is honestly better in a lot of ways.
The Honest Case for Winter
Let me start with the obvious. It is cold. Really cold. Not a light jacket cold. Not even a heavy coat cold in the way you are imagining. We are talking about a cold that enters through your collar and reminds you that you have extremities you had forgotten about. The wind chill is the enemy.
That said, here is what winter gives you in return.
The museums have no lines. The Met in February is a completely different experience than the Met in July. You can actually stand in front of a painting and look at it for a minute without someone’s backpack connecting with your elbow. MoMA, the Natural History Museum, the Whitney – all of them become genuinely usable between January and March in a way they simply are not in the summer.
Hotel prices drop significantly. You can find rooms in neighborhoods where summer rates would make you laugh, and they are the same rooms. January and February are the cheapest months to visit. This is not a small thing when New York hotel prices are what they are.
Restaurants are easier to get into. Not all of them, not the truly impossible ones, but the places that book out four weeks in advance in September will often have a table available on a Tuesday in January. I have gotten into restaurants in winter that I had been trying to visit for a year.
nyc-1003857-684x1024.jpgBooth Theatre · Theater District
The Magic of the First Snow
Spoiler alert. If you happen to be in the city during the first real snowstorm of the season, it is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in this city, and I have seen a lot of things in this city.
Central Park under snow is extraordinary. The sounds of the city go quiet in a way they do not at any other time. The park turns into something from a different century. People who have lived here for twenty years come outside and take pictures like tourists, because some things are just worth photographing every single time.
Snow-In-Central-Park-2024-01557-683x1024.jpgGapstow Bridge · Central Park
DUMBO under snow is similarly beautiful. The Manhattan Bridge disappears into the grey above the white rooftops and the whole neighborhood turns into a movie set for a few hours before the slush sets in. Get there early on a snow day. Before noon, before the sidewalks get grimy.
DUMBO-Snow-1007540-684x1024.jpgDUMBO
What to Actually Do in Winter
Ice Skating
Wollman Rink in Central Park is the one I always recommend. It is larger than the Rockefeller Center rink, less crowded, and significantly cheaper. The views from the ice are the skyline of Central Park South, which is a skyline worth looking at. Rentals are available if you do not have skates.
Bryant Park’s rink is free to skate (skate rental has a fee), which makes it remarkable value for Manhattan. The surrounding market that operates through early January is worth a walk even if you do not skate. The mulled wine situation there is not something I would ask you to skip.
Wollman-Rink-NYC-02617-1024x683.jpgWollman Rink · Central Park
Bumper-Cars-Bryant-Park-00848-2-683x1024.jpgBryant Park Winter Village · Midtown Manhattan
The Indoor Things That Are Actually Good
The New York Public Library main branch on 42nd Street is one of the most beautiful buildings in the city and almost no one treats it like a destination. Go inside. Walk through the Rose Main Reading Room upstairs. The painted ceiling and the long tables and the people actually reading things will make you feel briefly optimistic about humanity.
The food halls are better in winter because everyone is actually inside. The Oculus in the Financial District, Chelsea Market, the Grand Central food hall – these are all much more pleasant when you are warming up inside them rather than passing through on the way to something else.
Make no mistake, winter is also the best time for the city’s cozy bars. The Dead Poet on the Upper West Side is one of my favorites, a long narrow bar with books on the walls and the kind of lighting that makes everyone look like they are having a good time. In winter this place is perfect.
Dead-Poet-1002493-684x1024.jpgThe Dead Poet · Upper West Side
Holiday Season Specifically (November Through January)
December is the most crowded month of the winter season by a significant margin. Midtown becomes genuinely difficult to navigate around Rockefeller Center and the big department stores. This is not a reason to avoid December, but it is a reason to plan around midtown between the hours of noon and 7pm if you can.
The window displays on Fifth Avenue are worth seeing once, quickly, from across the street. Saks, Bergdorf, Bloomingdale’s – they do elaborate animated windows that are genuinely impressive for about four minutes and then you are ready to leave because the sidewalk density is extraordinary.
The Dyker Heights light displays in Brooklyn are something I recommend every year to visitors who are interested in Christmas decorations on a scale that suggests certain households have a separate electric bill for December. Take the D or N train to 86th Street in Brooklyn. Walk the blocks between 83rd and 86th from 11th to 13th Avenue starting around 6pm. It is free, it is bizarre, and it is very New York in its own way.
nyc-1003888-2-684x1024.jpgGrand Central Terminal · Midtown East
What to Pack
I am going to be direct with you because I have watched people suffer unnecessarily. You need a real coat. Not a fashionable coat, a warm coat. You need a hat that covers your ears. You need gloves. You need warm socks. You need waterproof boots that can handle slush.
The slush situation is the thing that gets people. A snowstorm in the city is beautiful for approximately eighteen hours and then the sidewalks become a grey-brown lake of ice water and road salt. Shoes that cannot handle this will not survive. I have learned this multiple times.
Layers are more effective than one very thick thing. The subway is frequently very hot. Restaurants are frequently very hot. You will be moving between extremes all day, and the ability to add and remove layers is more valuable than any single heavy item.
The Verdict
Is New York worth visiting in winter? Yes, genuinely yes, with the understanding that you are signing up for a different city than the summer version. You are signing up for a city that moves a little faster and hunches against the wind and saves its warmth for the indoors, where it turns out most of the best things are anyway.
The summer version of New York is for the parks and the rooftops and the ferry at sunset. The winter version is for the museums and the bookshops and the bars and the restaurants and the first morning after a snowstorm when the city is briefly, improbably quiet. Both versions are worth it. I happen to love the winter one.