Fall is the perfect time for festive outings or day
trips to enjoy the weather. But often these fun
activities can also be costly. So joining me now
to help us enjoy the season without falling into debt
is the EVP of global communications for tourism. Alya
Sid great to have you on the show. Thanks
for having us work. Excited to be here.
Ok, great. So let's get started. People
, of course, trying to take advantage of people
and I would be one of them. What parts
do you recommend for that? We recommend? Prospect
Park and Central Park. Prospect Park is in Brooklyn
and Central Park in Manhattan. They're both incredible massive
green spaces created or designed by Frederick Law said in
the 1800. So in addition to the amazing nature
, there's also some incredible architecture and also outside of
those parks, we have 1700 public parks across the
five boroughs. So no matter where you're staying or
where you live, there's plenty of spaces to leave
people. Is there a perfect weekend or time where
people can get peak leaf peeping? It's actually right
around this weekend, that peak is happening in New
York. But you will also see it for the
next few weekends in November too. So we recommend
getting out as soon as possible. I say over
the next three weeks and then the leaves will start
to fall as winter approaches. Yeah. What about
museums for some of those colder days? Right.
Can viewers take advantage of those? Yes, actually
, there's some great, we have wonderful museums across
the boroughs, but some of them offer free days
, which is great to know. So the Met
the Museum of Modern Art offer free First Fridays to
New York City residents with a reservation. So that's
a great time to go visit those ones. And
then uh the Brooklyn Museum offers for Saturdays for New
York City residents and for visitors. So that's a
great time to go visit that museum. And then
there's other museums across the boroughs like the American Folk
Art Museum in Lincoln Square, they offer free admission
always as well as the Bronx Museum of the Arts
. I know concert tickets have gotten really expensive,
right? Probably of all sorts as certainly of late
with inflation. But if someone wants to enjoy a
concert maybe and save some money, what would you
recommend? There are ways to do that? The
Barge Music Series that takes place under the Brooklyn bridge
is a great concert series of symphony and classical music
with a beautiful background. And then Pioneer works in
Red Hook. Brooklyn offers second Sundays which offers free
live music and food. And the next one of
those will take place on November 12th, I believe
. And Lincoln Center also offers free events and concert
series throughout the fall and winter season. So we
recommend checking their website for that as well. Amazing
walking tours are those popular these days still they are
and we always recommend them. It really is a
great way to experience the neighborhood and some of them
that we work with are actually free. There's a
free tours by foot. I believe the company is
called and they offer pay as you wish tours through
Brooklyn and Manhattan. And then there is also big
Apple greeters, which is a volunteer based organization that
connects visitors to locals who will share their favorite neighborhoods
and take them on unscripted tours. So you learn
a lot of really interesting things from New Yorkers who
have been here their whole lives. I like it
. So let's say someone's coming into the city,
they just have one day to experience the fall on
a budget which they do. There's so much to
do. But one of my favorite things is Snug
Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden in Staten Island.
It's a beautiful green space and it's easy to get
to on the Staten Island ferry. Um You could
take a bus from there or a quick Uber ride
and once you're there, it's the gardens are free
and beautiful to explore and then they have a Chinese
Scholars Garden. It's one of only two authentic Chinese
Scholars Gardens here in the US. So it's a
really special experience and that's just$5. I've never
heard of that, but that sounds amazing. It's
incredible. Ok, great. Um Art galleries,
we gotta ask about art galleries too. We discuss
museums. But what about galleries? There are a
lot of galleries too. Um I know the Great
Gray art gallery has some things going on this fall
. Uh And then actually, we just launched a
page on our website NYC tourism dot com that showcases
all of the ways that you can experience are on
a budget this fall. So we recommend visiting that
as well. Ok. Any other outdoor recommendations for
the fall before it gets too cold. Although this
is somewhat of feels like a winter activity. It's
fun to do before it gets too cold. A
lot of the ice skating rinks are now open.
The woman rink, for example, in Central Park
is opening this Saturday and it's$15 for admission.
So a pretty affordable way to experience outdoors in Central
Park. I've never done that in New York City
, but it's definitely on top of my list,
everything to do. It's fun and there's a lot
of ice skating rinks across the borough. So,
yeah, we'll send you a list to check out
. Ok, I love that. Um Any other
indoor activities, if it does get too cold,
indoor museums are great uh, there's some exciting pop
ups. Uh, there's a balloon and Infinity Mirror
exhibit that's now opening, I believe on the east
side. Uh, the observation decks are always a
really fun way to see the city as well,
I think, kind of, especially this time of
year, I guess, maybe before it gets too
dark, too early. Right. Yes. When
it comes to the observations, even though of course
, the night twinkle is nice. Um If people
want more information, where should they go? NYC
tourism dot com, we have that arts guide that
I mentioned earlier and then we also have a page
that shows you when all the free museum days happen
. So that's a great resource as well. All
right, Alyssa Schmidt. Uh Thank you so much
, great insight as always and hope everyone can enjoy
their fall. Uh leave peeping and include it.
We appreciate it.