New York City is bursting with hundreds of no-cost and low-cost pleasures such as concerts, plays, museums, TV show tapings, and tours throughout the five boroughs. Free offerings and exceptional deals are available everywhere - if you know where to look.

Visitor Services
NYC's Official Visitor Information Center has hundreds of free brochures and discount coupons for theater, museums, attractions, and more; expert, multilingual guidance on all things New York; and a MetroCard vending machine for travel passes on subways and buses. You may order a free copy of the Official NYC Guide, filled with coupons to save you money on hotels, restaurants, sightseeing, and shopping, by clicking on the name of the guide (above) or by calling 800/NYC-VISIT or 212/397-8222.

Get a feel for New York as a real New Yorker sees it with a guided tour by a Big Apple Greeter. These experienced, local volunteers will happily share the secrets of their favorite neighborhoods at no charge. Send in your request as soon as you have your hotel reservation!

Tours & More
Please confirm details with the organizations leading the tours.

Alliance for Downtown New Yorkleads a free 90-minute walking tour that includes stops at Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange every Thursday and Saturday at noon. Meet at the front steps of the National Museum of the American Indian; no reservations are necessary. For information on the tours, call 212/606-4064.

The Brooklyn Tourism Council operates a free weekend trolley from noon to 5pm that stops at different locations (including the Zoo) in Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. A free connecting trolley will take you to the Brooklyn Children's Museum.

Central Park Conservancy Tours allow visitors to discover the park's history, ecology, and design on free, volunteer-led walking tours that have themes such as "Waterways and Vistas" and "Statues and Monuments."

Grand Central Partnership leads a tour year round of the Grand Central area, exploring architecture and social history, on Fridays at 12:30pm. Meet at the Philip Morris Building, the southwest corner of 42nd Street and Park Avenue. Reservations are not necessary. The Partnership also has a free lunchtime summer concert series.

Tours of Grand Central Terminal care of its management company, Jones Lang LaSalle are given on summer Saturdays and Sundays at 11am. The one-hour historical free walking tour of the building meets at the clock at Grand Central's round information booth. No reservations are necessary; the tour is limited to the first 50 people.

The Municipal Art Society offers a free tour of the magnificent Beaux-Arts Grand Central Terminal Wednesdays at 12:30pm. Tours depart from Grand Central Terminal''s information booth.

The New York Road Runners Club leads free walks through Central Park for people 60 and over every Tuesday and Thursday at 10am. Tours depart from the NYRRC information booth inside Central Park at East 90th Street and 5th Avenue.

The Queens Artlink (212/708-9750), is a free weekend shuttle to cultural attractions in Queens. The first bus runs between the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan (but MoMA will be represented only in Queens at MoMA QNS while MoMA's Manhattan location undergoes construction summer 2002-2005) and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City, Queens. The second bus travels in a circuit from P.S.1 to the Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum, Socrates Sculpture Park, and the American Museum of the Moving Image, all nearby in Queens.

Take a free tour of the 34th Street area Thursdays at 12:30 (meet at the Empire State Building), care of the 34th Street Partnership and the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation. In summer, Bryant Park garden tours are also offered.

The Queens Borough Public Library hosts many free events including tours, lectures, and concerts.

Village Alliance offers free tours of 8th Street and St. Mark's Place in the East Village Saturdays at 11:30am. The Times Square Business Improvement District leads a one-and-a-half hour tour of Times Square Fridays at noon. Meet at the Times Square Visitor Information Center: 1560 Broadway between 46th and 47th streets.

Museums/Cultural Institutions
Enjoy toy boats and soldiers, presidential papers, paintings, Fabergé eggs, objets d'art, and more at the Forbes Magazine Galleries (62 Fifth Ave., 212/206-5548). The galleries are open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday 10am-4pm.

The Hispanic Society of America is a beautiful, free museum and reference library that focuses on the art, literature, and culture of Spain, Portugal, the Philippines, and Latin America. Works on display include those by Goya, El Greco, and Velasquez. Visitors may also peruse sculpture, cosmetic arts, textiles, and archaeological artifacts.

Learn the history of New York City's famous transportation system at the New York Transit Museum Gallery Annex in Grand Central Terminal.

New York Unearthed is the only museum dedicated to New York's archaeological heritage. Visitors can view 5000 years of New York history in as little as 15 minutes. View dioramas and the archaeological artifacts that inspired and informed them. Touch a three-dimensional cross-section of an archaeological site. Watch archaeologists and conservators at work in a glass-enclosed lab. 17 State Street (Battery Park), 212/ 748-8628. Open Monday–Friday, 12 noon–5 pm

Visit any of NYC's 19 fascinating Historic House Museums at no charge.

Explore the largest collection in the world devoted to Native American history and culture at the National Museum of the American Indian.

The monumental Beaux Arts New York Public Library has varied special exhibitions.

Enjoy folk paintings, furniture, pottery, quilts, and other decorative arts from the 18th century to the present at The Museum of American Folk Art.

The free Queens Botanical Garden has 39 acres in the northeast part of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

An outdoor museum on the East River in Long Island City, Queens, the Socrates Sculpture Park has giant sculptures and a waterfront view of Manhattan.

Insider's Hour tours are special, no-charge-with-admission, one-hour highlights tours at scores of New York's great cultural institutions. Experience behind-the-scenes visits and unique curator presentations at museums, zoos, gardens, theaters, and historical sites in summer and winter. Entrance fees, programs, days, and times vary.

Many museums have tours of their exhibits, live music, movies, and lectures that are free with museum admission. Contact the museums directly for updated schedules. A sampling: Part of the American Museum of Natural History, the stunning new Rose Center for Earth and Space has live jazz, tapas, and drinks on Fridays, 5:45 to 8:15pm. Catch WorldBeat Jazz Fridays and Saturdays May-August 5-8pm at the Guggenheim Museum. The Metropolitan Museum of Art offers many gallery talks and films that are free with Museum admission. The Museum of Modern Art regularly shows interesting and popular films.

The New York Stock Exchange Tour is a fascinating glimpse inside the world of the financial markets. In addition to a view from a booth high above the trading floor, visitors see exhibits and films. Free tickets are distributed daily near the entrance to the Exchange. Due to heightened security, the tour was suspended; please check for updates.

Watch millions of dollars worth of commodities change hands at the boisterous New York Mercantile Exchange. Monday to Friday, trading at the Comex Division is 8:30am-2:30pm; trading at the Nymex Division, 9:30am-3:30pm; museum 9am--5pm.

The 6,200-square-foot SoHo Scholastic Store features Scholastic brands and licensed products such as Harry Potter™ and Clifford the Big Red Dog™ in an interactive, multimedia environment featuring a learning laboratory with books, toys, puzzles, CD-ROMs, 23 computer stations, three age-specific children's neighborhoods, and more.

The world’s only NBA Store, located on Fifth Avenue and 52^nd Street, offers numerous free, live events year-round including NBA & WNBA player appearances, the NBA Store Concert Series featuring artists such as Destiny’s Child, Michelle Branch and Run DMC, and regularly scheduled hoop skills contests. The NBA Store also features a half-court with regulation size basketball hoop where fans of all ages can test out their basketball shooting skills at any time.

Catapult into the future at the Sony Wonder Technology Lab, where high-tech interactive exhibits thrill kids of all ages. New York City has many of the world's most recognizable buildings and some of the world's most celebrated architecture. Some notable buildings to seek out: Chrysler Building (405 Lexington Ave.), Citigroup Center (153 E. 53rd St.), Lipstick Building (885 Third Avenue), Empire State Building (350 Fifth Ave., 212/736-3100), Grand Central Terminal (42nd St. and Park Ave., 212/340-2210), Rockefeller Center (47th--52nd Sts. and 5th--6th Aves., 212/332-6868), Seagram Building (375 Park Ave.), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (1071 Fifth Ave., 212/423-3500), Sony Building (550 Madison Ave.).

The city also has many magnificent places of worship that are architectural marvels themselves. Explore the biblical garden and children's sculpture garden, as well as the church itself, at uptown's Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. When completed, it will be the world's largest Gothic church. Also uptown, the enormous Riverside Church has the world's highest (400 feet) carillion tower. Construction was finished on the Gothic St. Patrick's Cathedral (Fifth Ave. and 50th St.) in 1879.

Events

Many free events happen outside in warm weather, particularly in the parks (and seeing that NYC is America's greenest city based on percentage of total land consisting of parkland, there's plenty of space in which to lay down a lawn chair and soak in some culture along with some sun).

Revel in the best classical music, jazz, drama, opera, and dance that New York has to offer at free warm-weather performances in the city parks by the New York Philharmonic, City Opera, Shakespeare in the Park, and many more (City of New York Parks and Recreation Special Events Phone Line, 888/NYPARKS). Central Park Summerstage (212/360-2777) holds wonderful performances of all kinds in Central Park June through August.

Looking for inexpensive weekend entertainment? You can see live blues for free every Friday and Saturday starting at 9pm at Lucille's Grill, a restaurant inside BB King Blues Club & Grill in Times Square. Reservations are not required.

Can't decide which Broadway show to see? Attend Broadway on Broadway (888/BROADWAY, 212/302-4111), a free concert in the beginning of September featuring musical numbers from nearly all of the current Broadway shows as well as previews of upcoming shows courtesy of the Times Square Business Improvement District.

Bryant Park, behind the New York Public Library on 42nd Street, hosts free concerts, outdoor movies, and other special events in warm weather, care of the 34th Street Partnership.

The Museum Mile Festival, during which museums on this stretch - including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Slomon R. Guggenheim Museum -- are open free 6 to 9pm, takes place the second Tuesday in June along Fifth Avenue from 82nd to 104th Street. These blocks on Fifth Avenue are closed to traffic so that musical performers and other entertainers may take over.

The South Street Seaport hosts many free events, including outdoor concerts.

The Snug Harbor Cultural Center (Staten Island; 718/448-2500, press 5 for events schedule), a nationally landmarked historic district of Greek Revival architecture, has a full schedule of events. Spanning 83 acres on Staten Island, the grounds include the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Arts, the Staten Island Botanical Garden, and the Staten Island Children's Museum.

Thousands of special indoors and out events take place Downtown, south of Chambers Street, throughout the year; many are free. From concerts to exhibits, tours to film screenings, the Downtown Alliance is a great source for downtown events and information. River to River: New York Celebrates Downtown encompasses all cultural happenings from May through September 2002.

Walk across the footpath on the famous Brooklyn Bridge for a fantastic view of the Manhattan skyline and Brooklyn, and then walk along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.

Take a cruise on the free Staten Island Ferry, which goes between Manhattan and Staten Island, and see the lower Manhattan skyline, harbor, and Statue of Liberty.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's seasonal roof sculpture garden (the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden) affords lovely views of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline. Beverages, sandwiches, and seating are available.

In the shadow of the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge, the South Street Seaport encompasses a cobblestoned historic district, a museum, harbor sails aboard 19th-century schooners, and more than 100 shops, cafes, and restaurants.