Car-free, glamp-ready and laced with paths for strolling and cycling, Governors Island might be a five-minute ferry ride from Manhattan’s southern tip, but energetically it’s worlds away. Choose your own adventure on this 172-acre pleasure pad, shaped like an ice-cream cone and sprinkled with activities to please all palates.
Changing Landscapes
Governors Island has seen tremendous transformations since the indigenous Lenape fished here in the 1500s. It’s now 100 acres larger, bulked up in 1912 with debris from the Lexington Avenue subway excavation and decorated with architectural remnants from its two centuries as a military stronghold. Fort Jay and Castle Williams, completed in the early 19th century, are the most impressive structures, both of which served as prisons for Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. (Visit on weekends to tour the facilities.) In 2023, one of the island’s last parcels of undeveloped land went to Stony Brook University, which plans to build a campus focused on researching climate change solutions, expected to open in 2028.
Choose Your Adventure
Art enthusiasts can spend an afternoon admiring mammoth outdoor sculptures, like the antique indigenous fruit trees populating Open Orchard, a living earthwork. Kids can get a thrill zooming down the city’s longest slide, a 57ft screamer found on the aptly named Slide Hill. If you want to catch some rays, head to Hammock Grove and kick back in one of the area’s 50 namesake swings. When hunger calls, you’ll find an answer at Liggett Terrace’s food trucks or a waterfront restaurant with New York Harbor views.
If you’re willing to drop some dough, this people’s park can become a glamorous getaway. Seasonal glamping tents by Collective Retreats (starting at $215 per night) make for unique New York slumber parties, and QC NY Spa Roman-style spa (starting at $98) has a series of saunas, steam rooms and a heated infinity pool where you can soak up city views.
Bike the Island’s Perimeter
While walking through this public park is excellent, biking is an easier way to fit in all the sights. Cyclists can pedal around 7 miles of trails for panoramas of Lower Manhattan’s skyline, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, and a Lady Liberty close-up. Rent wheels from Blazing Saddles ($30 per day) or use one of three Citi Bike stations around the island.
