Welcome in the winter season during the Lincoln Square annual celebration with wandering street musicians, jugglers and performers entertaining visitors throughout the Upper West Side. Held along Broadway from the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle to 68th Street and Columbus Avenue, the festival features a neighborhood tree lighting, free entertainment, food samples, shopping and activities for children and adults.
Celebrate New Year's Eve during a special party cruise or enjoy a family-friendly sightseeing tour any day of the week. The famous cruise line offers three-hour, two-hour and 75-minute cruises all year long. Passengers can see the scenic NYC skyline from the deck of the ship or enjoy the views from within a warm and protected enclosure.
Museums and galleries are open year-round, but you can avoid long lines and crowds by taking advantage of the slow tourist season during the first few months of the year. In the middle of winter you can stay out of the cold and enjoy free admission at the Rose Museum at Carnegie Hall, the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, the Guggenheim Museum Soho and the Whitney Museum at Philip Morris. Although there may be a fee for special exhibitions or a suggested donation amount, explore new exhibitions or rediscover your favorite gallery among the hundreds of museums and art galleries located in Manhattan and its surrounding boroughs.
One of the most popular winter activities in New York is ice skating. The opening dates vary, but the majority of outdoor rinks open for the season sometime between mid-October and early November and remain open until mid-March. All the facilities offer skate rentals in a wide variety of sizes and also feature snack facilities. The most popular rinks are Wollman Rink, located just off of 63rd Street in Central Park, the Sky Rink at Chelsea Piers, the Pond at Bryant Park and the iconic Rockefeller Center rink.
In between the holiday festivities and spring break, January and February are traditionally slow months for NYC tourism. As a result, these can be the best time to buy tickets to the most popular NYC theater productions. Many Broadway and off-Broadway productions offer discounts during the slow tourist season and a good selection of seats are usually available, particularly for weekday performances.
