Free Things to Do in New York

Some of the best of New York costs nothing at all. The Staten Island Ferry still crosses the harbor for free, past the Statue of Liberty; there are free tours of City Hall, Federal Hall and the great reading room of the public library; and the city's wilder edges, from Jamaica Bay to the Staten Island Greenbelt, ask only for a MetroCard and good shoes.

Everything below is free to enter or to do, checked against the official source. A few, like Shakespeare in the Park, are free but ticketed by lottery or line, and some seasonal ones only run part of the year, so check each page before you go.