The Most Romantic Day in Central Park, No Carriage Needed

Enter near 66th Street and start at the Literary Walk, where Shakespeare and Robert Burns keep watch from their pedestals. The Mall is the only deliberately straight line in the whole park: a quarter-mile promenade roofed by American elms planted in the 1850s, now among the largest surviving stands of them anywhere. In fall the canopy turns the color of honey.

Walk it south to north. Olmsted and Vaux aimed it at one thing, and they wanted you to arrive there slowly.

The Mall delivers you to the top of a double staircase, and below it is the park's grand heart: Bethesda Fountain, with the Angel of the Waters rising over it and the Lake just beyond. The bronze is Emma Stebbins's, from 1873, the park's first major public artwork by a woman.

Before you go out to the water, step into the arcade under the terrace. Its ceiling is nearly 16,000 patterned Minton tiles, the only place in the world they were ever installed overhead. Stand in the middle and hum; the vault hums back.

Walk east along the shore to the Loeb Boathouse and rent a rowboat: $25 an hour Monday to Thursday and $30 Friday to Sunday, per boat, so about $15 each for two. Boats go out daily from 10 a.m. while the season lasts, weather permitting, and the last one leaves an hour before dusk. It's first come, first served, and cashless.

Take turns at the oars. Row under Bow Bridge, drift toward the Ramble's shore, and let the San Remo's twin towers rise over the trees to the west. It is the best hour in the park, and the most romantic thing you can buy in New York for under $40.

Back on land, cross Bow Bridge: sixty feet of cast iron drawn in one low arc across the Lake, built in 1862 and one of the oldest cast-iron bridges in America. It's also the park's most proposed-on spot, for good reason. Stop at mid-span for the view west, with the towers in the water and the boats stitching wakes below.

For the classic photo of the bridge itself, don't take it from the bridge. Use the small lakeshore path on the east side, just north of Bethesda Terrace.

From the bridge, wander up through the Ramble's paths toward Vista Rock, and come in by the Shakespeare Garden on the slope to the southwest, the prettiest approach. At the top is Belvedere Castle, a Victorian folly Calvert Vaux built in 1869 for one purpose: the view. Turtle Pond lies below and the Great Lawn spreads out beyond it.

Late afternoon is the hour, when the light comes across the lawn and the castle's terraces glow.

If you have time before dusk, keep going north to 105th Street and Fifth Avenue, through the wrought-iron Vanderbilt Gate, made in Paris in 1894. Inside is Central Park's only formal garden: six quiet acres in three styles, Italian, French and English. In fall the tulips give way to Korean chrysanthemums, and because it's a designated quiet zone, it may be the most peaceful place in Manhattan.

Climb the steps to the wisteria pergola and look back east through the gate. Most people never do, and it is the garden's most beautiful view.

Central Park is generally open from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m., and everything here is free except the rowboat. The Conservatory Garden keeps shorter hours, generally 8 a.m. to dusk. Check centralparknyc.org before you go, since sections occasionally close for restoration.

Want it as a single route on a map? Follow our Lovely Central Park Walk, which ends with dinner at Café Luxembourg.