Five days, the icons done properly
Empire State Building, Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge at sunrise and one very good Broadway night — sequenced so you are not crossing the city twice a day.
The independent guide to New York City
New York, without the tourist traps.
Five boroughs, 8.5 million neighbours and about a thousand ways to get it wrong. We live here. These are the itineraries, neighbourhoods and small practical details that make a New York trip feel effortless.
Start here
What kind of New York are you after?
Every trip has a different shape. Pick the plan that matches your time and appetite, then steal the parts you like.
Three days, zero wasted hours
For a first flying visit: one skyline morning, one neighbourhood afternoon, one night out. Works with a Friday-to-Sunday schedule.
Seven days, beyond Midtown
Queens food crawls, the Bronx, Staten Island by ferry and the parts of Manhattan that locals actually use. Give the city the whole week.
Who we are
We are not a booking site. That is the point.
NYCTrove is written by people who live in and around New York, for people who want to understand it — not just tick it off.
There is no secret layer to New York that only insiders can access. There is only knowing which entrance to use, which hour to visit, which ticket is a genuinely bad deal and which neighbourhood rewards a second stop. That is what we write about.
When we recommend a pass, a tour or a restaurant, we say why — and we say what it is not good for. If we ever earn a commission from a link, it never decides the ranking.
5boroughs covered
472subway stations
24hcity that never stops
Curated itineraries
Plans you can actually follow
Real days, with travel time and opening hours built in. No ten-stop marathons, no restaurant recommendations that closed in 2019.
Short break
3 days in NYC
The essential first taste: skyline, park, one neighbourhood and a show.
Most popular
5 days in NYC
The full first-timer itinerary, with a morning in Brooklyn and a proper museum day.
Deep dive
7 days in NYC
Seven days means outer boroughs, real neighbourhoods and room to wander.
Five boroughs, five different cities
New York is not Manhattan
Manhattan gets the postcards. But Queens is the most linguistically diverse place on earth, Brooklyn has the best food, and the Bronx is rewriting its own story. Start with the right borough for your interests.
Manhattan
The icon factory — and the neighbourhoods behind it
Brooklyn
Waterfront, brownstones, and the city's best kitchens
Queens
The most diverse food scene in the United States
The Bronx
Yankee Stadium, the zoo, Arthur Avenue and real history
Staten Island
A free ferry, green space and the city at its calmest
Food & drink
Bagels, pizza, pastrami and where to find them
The practical stuff
The details that decide your trip
Tickets, transit, money and timing. Get these right and you spend your holiday in New York instead of in a queue.
Subway, airports & OMNY
Fares, the AirTrain, which airport transfer is worth it, and how to pay without a MetroCard.
Which NYC pass is worth it
CityPASS, Go City and New York Pass compared — with the maths for a 3, 5 and 7 day trip.
What a trip really costs
Hotel, food, transport and attraction budgets for three travel styles, updated for 2026.
When to come to New York
Month-by-month weather, crowds, prices and the events worth planning a trip around.
Passes, honestly
Do not buy a sightseeing pass before you read this.
The big three passes are not interchangeable. CityPASS suits a short first trip. Go City's Explorer Pass wins when you want three or four big-ticket sights. The all-inclusive passes only pay off if you genuinely want to be out sightseeing every day.
Our comparison breaks down real 2026 prices, what is actually included, and the break-even point for each pass — plus a calculator that tells you which one wins for your trip.
The journal
Long reads from the city
Neighbourhood deep dives, food maps and the arguments we have about the best way to see New York.
Free NYC
Twelve genuinely free things to do in New York
The Staten Island Ferry, museum free windows and the parks that cost nothing — with the practical catch for each.
Food
The five foods you need to eat in New York
A bagel, a slice, pastrami, a dosa in Queens, and one Italian-American classic. Where to go for each.
Boroughs
A perfect Sunday in Brooklyn, morning to evening
Promenade, DUMBO, Prospect Park and dinner in Park Slope — the borough at its most local.
Start with a plan
Pick a length. We will do the sequencing.
Three budgets, three trip lengths, and one rule: you should come home having seen a neighbourhood, not just an observation deck.