Temperatures are slowly dropping, and you’re thinking about what to do now when all the fun is over. Don’t worry! In a city like New York, the fun never stops. Indoor activities can safely compete with outdoor since there are loads of ways to enjoy NYC even when it rains.
Bar games, cooking classes, museums, cinemas, spas, and botanical gardens are just a few indoor activities you can relish during winter in the Big Apple. You can even play tennis or participate in indoor golf events in NYC if you wish. The possibilities are endless, it’s up to you to choose.
Visit the Botanic Gardens
Is there anything more wonderful than soaking yourself in the beautiful greenery? Forest bathing isn’t the best alternative when temperatures start to drop while clouds decide it’s time for a shower.
However, indoor gardens are ideal places to enjoy nature even when trees outside are naked. Head to one of NYC’s many indoor gardens, and you won’t regret it! You can find quite a few of them in public atriums around town.
The indoor conservatory at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden hosts an aquatic house, a bonsai museum, and pavilions with plants that thrive in the desert, tropical, and hot climate conditions.
The New York Botanic Garden is another indoor conservatory where you can find a collection of tropical plants, palm trees, cacti, as well as some aquatic and carnivorous plants.
Escape the Room
Escaping your room just to find yourself in another may sound funny, but actually, it’s diverting! Escape the room is an off-beat game that will take you not just outside of your room, but also outside of the box.
Players, usually a group of friends, have an hour to solve various puzzles and riddles in hopes of escaping from a locked, themed room. These games are pretty hard and complex, so most people stay locked in there forever. Just kidding, they let you out when the time is up. Even though the way out is complicated, it’s still a fun adventure!
Escape the Room has events in Midtown and on the LES, and you need to make a reservation.
Visit Indoor Golf Club
If you love sports activities where you can perfect your skills, it’s high time you visited an indoor golf club. There are quite a few of them in New York, and they are becoming quite popular these days.
Try out one of the high-tech golf simulators and compete with your crowd while sipping on tap beer and eating pizza.
Play Bar Games at Break Bar and Billiards
You can catch a few games on several big screens behind the bar, but Break is more than just a place to watch sports. This Astoria bar includes many ping-pong and pool tables ripe for competition.
At Break Bar and Billiards, you can enjoy several fun games including ping-pong, pool, air hockey, hoops game, and arcade games. An hour of ping-pong or pool for two costs $14, but during happy hour (daily until 8 p.m.), you can get a free game with a drink purchase. The bar also offers table games like Jenga and Cards Against Humanity, as well as a selection of craft beers and cheeseburgers to enjoy while you wait for a pool table. If you’re playing air hockey, be sure to ask the staff about the air hockey puck size they use, as it can vary and affect gameplay.
Let’s not forget over a dozen craft beers and cheeseburgers you can savor while you wait for a pool table to open up on crowded weekend nights.
Listen to All That Jazz and Play Games at Cellar Dog
Formerly known as Fat Cat, Cellar Dog is an ideal underground bar and games spot to relish on rainy evenings. No wonder you can kill many hours here by playing pool, ping-pong, and shuffleboard. Not just that, you can also have fun by playing foosball or practice your strategic skills by playing chess.
When you aren’t in the mood for games, you can simply enjoy that night’s jazz band on one of the cozy restored couches, sipping on wine. Isn’t that lovely?
Relax at Great Jones Spa
If you’re more into treating yourself with some wellness experience, then you’ll be astonished by the Great Jones Spa! This marvelous spa is equipped with a popular water lounge that boasts subterranean pools, steam rooms, saunas, and nothing less than a waterfall.
Getting a manicure and massage will certainly cost over $100, but you’ll have free access to the water lounge since it’s free of charge with services over $100. If you just want to enjoy the lounge, a three-hour pass is available for $55.
Visit The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Next on the list is the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This place deserves to be on your list of places to visit whatever the weather!
The ground floor’s north wing features the collection of Egyptian art and the glass-walled atrium housing the Temple of Dendur, overlooking a reflective pool. It’s completely breathtaking! Two halls in the southern wing house Roman and Greek art.
If you turn west, you’ll find the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and Americas collection. What’s more, in the American wing you will see the Charles Engelhard Court. There’s also an interior garden that features large-scale 19th-century works of art in marble and bronze.
Your eyes will be glad if you visit this marvelous museum.
Final Thoughts
It’s fair to say that indoor activities in NYC can be as entertaining as outdoor, if not more! There are many beautiful places to visit and fun spots to entertain yourself, from botanic gardens to bars with games and all in between.
This is just a shortlist of the best indoor activities in NYC. There’s so much more! New York is a city that never sleeps, and fun is lurking from every corner. You just have to go for it.
Autors bio
Ellie Northcott is a long-time marketer, currently working as a freelancer in Miami, Florida.
Editor at Digital Strategy One.
She is also a passionate writer and loves to explore new, innovative and digital news.
In her spare time, she is an eco-activist.
