The NYC Spring Bucket List (From Someone Who Waits for It All Year)

This is non-negotiable. When the cherry blossoms bloom (usually late March through mid-April, but it varies every year), the whole city transforms. The trees along the Reservoir in Central Park turn into a pink tunnel. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden becomes a wonderland. Roosevelt Island’s cherry blossom grove is like walking into a painting.

I have a whole separate guide on where to find cherry blossoms in NYC so I won’t go deep here. But the short version is this. If you’re only going to one spot, go to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden during the peak bloom. It’s the most concentrated and beautiful display in the city. Get there when it opens to avoid the crowds.

The thing I love most about cherry blossom season is that it turns even the most jaded New Yorkers into people who stop on the sidewalk to look up. We don’t do that. We don’t stop walking for anything. But cherry blossoms break the spell. Everyone is looking up and smiling and taking photos and it’s the closest New York gets to a collective moment of softness.

Smorgasburg is the massive open-air food market that runs on weekends in Williamsburg (Saturdays at Marsha P. Johnson State Park) and Prospect Park (Sundays). It usually reopens in April and it is one of my favorite things about warm weather in New York.

There are about 100 food vendors and the variety is staggering. You can get Moroccan lamb over rice, mochi doughnuts, Thai papaya salad, wood-fired pizza, Filipino ice cream sandwiches, and Korean corn dogs all in the same 20-minute walk. I always go hungry and I always leave feeling like I might not need to eat for the next two days.

My strategy is to do a full loop first without buying anything. Scope out what’s there. Then go back for your top three. If you buy the first thing you see, you will inevitably walk past something better five minutes later and feel regret. Learn from my mistakes.

The Williamsburg location is my favorite because you eat right on the waterfront with the Manhattan skyline behind you. The Prospect Park location is great too, especially if you want to turn it into a full park day.

The first warm Saturday where it hits 65 degrees and sunny, Central Park fills up like someone sent out a citywide text message. And I am always there. Always. With a blanket, snacks from Trader Joe’s, a good book, and absolutely no plans to leave for several hours.

My favorite picnic spots. Sheep Meadow is the classic and it is genuinely magical on a spring day. The Great Lawn is bigger and slightly less packed. The North Meadow up around 97th Street is the quiet option where you can actually spread out without being next to strangers.

For the picnic itself, I keep it simple. Good bread, good cheese, some fruit, sparkling water, maybe a bottle of wine (technically not allowed but literally everyone does it, just be discreet and use cups). If I’m feeling fancy I’ll grab a spread from Zabar’s on the Upper West Side. Their smoked salmon and cream cheese situation is unmatched.

There’s something about lying on a blanket in Central Park on a spring day, with the skyline peeking through the trees and people playing guitar nearby and dogs running around, that makes me think “yeah, this is why I live here.” It costs nothing and it feels like everything.

The Brooklyn Flea is an outdoor market with vintage clothing, handmade jewelry, antiques, art, and food. It runs on weekends in DUMBO (at the Archway under the Manhattan Bridge) and it is the kind of place where you go to browse and leave with a vintage leather jacket and three candles you didn’t need.

I love coming here on a spring Saturday and just wandering. The vendors are curated and everything feels like it was selected by someone with good taste. The location under the bridge is photogenic and the surrounding DUMBO neighborhood is great for walking around after.

My tip is to bring cash. Some vendors take cards but many prefer cash and you’ll have better luck negotiating on vintage items if you’re paying in bills.

Starting in late May and running through the summer, several parks in NYC host free outdoor movie screenings. Bryant Park’s film series is the most popular. You show up with a blanket, claim your spot on the lawn, and watch a movie on a huge screen surrounded by Midtown skyscrapers. It is as cinematic as it sounds.

The catch is that the lawn opens at 5 PM for an 8 PM movie and it fills up fast. Get there early if you want a good spot. Bring snacks, bring friends, and bring a jacket because it cools down fast after sunset.

Other outdoor movie spots include Hudson River Park, Brooklyn Bridge Park (Movies With a View, which has the Manhattan skyline as a backdrop and it’s absurd), and Rooftop Films in various locations which shows independent and short films. The full schedules usually come out in April.

Spring is the perfect weather for walking the bridges. The Brooklyn Bridge gets all the attention but the Manhattan Bridge and the Williamsburg Bridge are better walks in my opinion. Less crowded, wider paths, and equal or better views.

My recommendation is to walk the Manhattan Bridge from DUMBO to Chinatown (or the reverse). The south side pedestrian path has unobstructed views of the Brooklyn Bridge and the skyline and you can have the whole path nearly to yourself on a weekday morning. The walk takes about 20 minutes and it’s flat and paved.

The Williamsburg Bridge is my favorite for sunsets. Walk from the Lower East Side to Williamsburg, stop in the middle for photos, and end your walk in Williamsburg for dinner. It’s about a 30-minute walk and the views of the city on both sides are spectacular.