Image via vimbly.com
After a miserable winter that forced millions of New Yorkers into entering a serious, deeply committed relationship with their winter coats, the temperatures are slowly rising and the best time of the year – summer! – is finally upon us. With warmer weather comes the opportunity to seize the longer days and make the most of a life that doesn’t place you at constant risk of your shoes being filled with ice water and mimicking Frosty The Snowman’s lifestyle choices. With that in mind, here’s a list of the various activities you can do in NYC to make the most of your summer. Yes, some days will be humid beyond belief, but trust me, it’s still better than getting into a fight with black ice on the sidewalk and losing–every single time.
Corona Extra is not affiliated with any of the events or locations referenced in the following article.
Smorgasburg
Neighborhood: Williamsburg
Address: 50 Kent Ave.
Website: smorgasburg.com
The Sunday Flea features 150 vendors selling everything from furniture and antiques to food—and like, lots and lots of food. As in you’ll find everything from buttermilk brined fried chicken in a General Tso’s glaze to Uruguayan sausage sandwiches made from scratch down to seafood and desserts galore. And if you can’t make it to Williamsburg, you can hit the Fort Greene Flea or try the Park Slope location all weekend long. Go forth and embrace your inner chub-chub.
SummerStage
Neighborhood: Upper East Side/Upper West Side
Address: Central Park
Website: cityparksfoundation.org
Like many of you, I plan on giving numerous of my favorite artists all of my money during the summer touring season, but I’ll also be planning to catch as many free shows at possible. And if there’s any free concert series in NYC worth attending, it’s SummerStage. The 2014 series kicks off on June 3 with Ty Dolla $ign at Red Hook Park in Brooklyn and will close August 24 with the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival in Manhattan’s Tompkins Square Park. Most of the events, though, will be at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park. So bring your love for 1990s R&B when Sisqó performs on June 11, your affinity for old school with Mobb Deep on July 17, and tell your auntie and uncle and them about Joe performing on August 12.
Brooklyn Bridge Movies With a View
Neighborhood: Brooklyn Heights
Address: Brooklyn Bridge Park
Website: brooklynbridgepark.org
Throughout the summer, you’ll be able to catch flicks like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and cinematic masterpieces like Beetlejuice with a view of the Brooklyn Bridge at the popular park. Music for each airing will start at 6 p.m. while the movies will kick off at sundown (around 8 or so). Bring bug spray, water, and whatever snacks you deem appropriate. Yes, your bags will be subjected to search. Remember: Don’t start none, won’t be none, ya dig?
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Neighborhood: Upper East Side
Address: 1000 Fifth Ave.
Website: metmuseum.org
So here’s the thing about summer: As great as it’s going to be to walk around in shorts and tanks, we all know it’s going to be ridiculous hot on some days, so you might as well take advantage of places like the MET that are technically only require you to pay a “donation” for admittance. To that end, enjoy that air conditioning and get yourself (and those you bring along) some culture. In fact, take a date to the see the Lost Kingdoms exhibit, which looks at Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia, 5th to 8th Century. You can have your date go, “Bae, you’re so worldly!” and you can be all, “Uh huh,” in response.
Coney Island
Neighborhood: Coney Island
Address: 1208 Surf Ave.
Website: coneyisland.com
There’s a beach, an amusement park, and a boardwalk. In other words, everything you need to have a perfect summer day. More than likely, once you get down there, your friends are going to force you to pretend that you’re in the “XO” video at some point during the trip. That is, if they’re about that life. Don’t fight it. Just give in. Beyoncé would want you to.
Harlem Week
Neighborhood: Harlem
Address: Frederick Douglass Blvd. at 155th St.
Website: harlemweek.com
It’s summer so you can grab your passport and head Uptown. Starting on July 27 and lasting until August 23, the nearly month-long festival numerous concerts, auto shows, cultural events at the Studio Museum, tours and an outdoor film festival. There’s also the basketball games at Rucker Park where Kevin Durant has been spotted at before.
Restaurant Week
Neighborhood: Various
Address: Various
Website: nycgo.com
Nearly 200 eaters will serve three-courses lunches for $25 and dinners for $38. This includes restaurants like Nobu, which means you can eat like a Kardashian with the budget of a extremely less successful reality star.
Riverside Park
Neighborhood: Upper West Side
Address: Riverside Dr. to Hudson River, W. 72 St. to St Clair Pl.
Website: nycgovparks.org
Riverside Park, hailed as the city’s premiere waterfront park, stretches four miles from 72nd Street to 158th Street. The facilities include sport courts, a skate park, bike paths, and a public marina at 79th Street. And apparently, if you’re really, really into Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, you’ll recall that at the promenade at 91st Street, that’s where the two revealed their identities in You’ve Got Mail. Hey, maybe you can settle your own Catfish debacle there, too.
The NYC Downtown Boathouse
Neighborhood: Downtown
Address: Hudson River Greenway
Website: downtownboathouse.org
If you’re into water, the Downtown Boathouse provides free public access to the harbor in NYC via public kayaking programs. There are free sit-on-top kayaks for public use at each of their four locations throughout the cities. If I didn’t have this huge fear of water, I’d totally be into it. But like, you should totally go and do it for me. Respect.
New York Botanical Garden
Neighborhood: The Bronx
Address: 2900 Southern Blvd.
Website: nybg.org
For those of you who don’t know anything about The Bronx besides Jennifer Lopez and Yankee Stadium, perhaps you can take some time this summer exploring the outer boroughs. One nice, natural-like way of doing so is taking a trip to the New York Botanical Garden. You can look at you know, the gardens, and more importantly, chill and lay in the shade. Doesn’t that sound great? Yes, the answer is yes. Look at a flower. It’s fine.
