Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island: The country’s most famous statue stands 151 feet tall, with a 3-foot mouth and 25-foot waist. Between 1882 and 1924, 12 million immigrants beheld the sight of the statue while passing through the red-and-white Byzantine-style castle at Ellis Island.

Chinatown’s Mott Street: The bustling heart of Chinatown is lined with restaurants, bakeries, tiny food stores, and cheery souvenir shops.

SoHo Walking Tour: Wander down the main shopping drags of Broadway, West Broadway, Prince, and Spring, where you’ll find everything from street vendors to chic boutiques.

Empire State Building: The quintessential skyscraper was erected during the Depression in an astonishing 14 months.

Times Square: This iconic square in the heart of the Theater District is a neon-splashed spectacle, best taken in after the sun goes down.

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA): Newly renovated, with twice the exhibition space, the MoMA is one of the world’s foremost museums of modern art.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: The largest museum in the Western Hemisphere houses nearly three million works of art from all over the world.

Central Park: The 843-acre “lungs of New York” is entirely human-constructed, with every bush, tree, and rock planted by someone.

Coney Island: With a boardwalk, amusement rides, and carnival-like snack stands, Coney Island is quintessential old-time New York.

The Bronx Zoo and New York Botanical Garden: One of the world’s largest and most important zoos, housing over 4,000 animals, many of which roam relatively freely in large landscaped habitats, sits alongside the well-tended gardens full of roses, orchids, ferns, waterlillies, and more.