Best of Manhattan 2025 - Recreation / Wellness

Best Car or Train Getaway

Kingston, NY

Though long considered a lesser, fading cousin to its more bucolic neighbors across the Hudson River in Dutchess County, Kingston, the county seat of Ulster County, has come far since its population tailspin bottomed out in the 1990s. Now with more than 24,000 people, city is increasingly an attraction itself, not just as the home of that longtime rail fan favorite The Trolley Museum of New York. For music, Tubby’s has become a venue of regional renown, and while many might prefer to winter in Kingston, Jamaica, this Kingston has some excellent Jamaican food at Top Taste Restaurant. That sense of unexpected cosmopolitanism extends to the fact the city has a road named Flatbush. This isn’t Brooklyn North, of course, but our shared Dutch heritage is jolting when you don’t expect it. Speaking of the Dutch, Kingston’s Stockade District dates from the days when the old Peg Leg himself, Peter Stuyvesant, roamed the Hudson Valley. Kingston later got the Rondout District and Manhattan got StuyTown; partisans still argue over which was the better deal. Lastly, anyone visiting the region from Manhattan must read longtime Kingston resident Lucy Sante’s book, Nineteen Reservoirs, about how upstate water, including that of Ulster County, made us.

Princeton, NJ

Whether one drives—in part through “The Sopranos” territory—or takes an NJ Transit train to Princeton Junction, both the town of Princeton and its famed University have much to offer visitors of all ages. While one could immerse themselves in the town without visiting the campus, this isn’t recommended. The Princeton University Art Museum, myriad music and theater programs, and gorgeous campus and its hills, paths, and fields are themselves worth exploring. On the campus’s perimeter is the Delaware & Raritan Canal path, a must for walkers, runners, and bicyclists and, in season, kayaking (rentals are available). If you have a suitable, running-type stroller, the D&R is great for little kids too. Revolutionary War students won’t want to miss Princeton Battlefield State Park. In town, the quality and range of stores and restaurants exceeds expectations, starting with world-renowned Princeton Record Exchange, Small World Coffee, Labyrinth Books, and the Princeton Public Library, which has its own cafe and used bookstore inside.

Philadelphia, Pa.

Once demeaned by hipsters as “the sixth borough” for the number of musicians and artists who decamped to Philly in the 2010s as even Brooklyn rents became burdensome, Philadelphia is, of course, an extraordinary city of its own. For a warm-up glimpse to pre-Revolutionary Philly, read Thomas Pynchon’s 1997 novel, Mason & Dixon, and then jump back to Theodore Dreiser’s The Financier from 1911, still the greatest all-Philadelphia novel ever. Swing forward to Yusef Lateef’s live-in-Philly 1964 album, Live at Pep’s; Elton John’s 1975 smash “Philadelphia Freedom,” and the American Bicentennial-year gift of the first Rocky movie, and chances are strong one will be frothing for . Philly!! before they even get to Jersey. Bus, train, or car, the choice is yours, but most people will want to stay in Center City, where four-star hotel deals are often available. There are reasons to stay elsewhere, like Old City or Society Hill, but Center City offers the widest variety of walkable food and shopping options, including Philly Chinatown, Long in the Tooth Records, and the great Schuykill River Trail. Foodwise, don’t miss the Reading Terminal Market, Federal Donuts & Chicken, and any of the CookNSolo team’s other great Israeli-themed restaurants: Goldies, Zahav, and Dizengoff, whose hummus alone is to plotz for.

Best Physical Therapy

UWS

Integrative Spine & Sports

240 W. 73rd St.

www.integrativespineandsports.com

212-362-4742

Though strongly recommended by runners, dancers, and the like, Integrative Spine & Sports isn’t just for people who came to physical therapy from too many miles or joint-straining leaps. That IS&S—co-founded by regenerative medicine guru Dr. Sonali Lal, MD, and sports chiropractor Dr. David S. Williams—has that expertise is significant however, for if they can get those people moving well again, they can likely do the same for you. Their methods are varied, with chiropractic, physiatry, physical therapy, and podiatry services all on the table. For those who are properly apprehensive of some commonly offered surgical solutions, IS&S seeks to find noninvasive techniques and technologies that address the root causes of pain and injury. Neck, back, shoulder, hand and wrist, ankle and foot, knee, hip: Pain be gone! Besides Lal and Williams, IS&S staff at present include multiple doctors of physical therapy, two chiropractors, a podiatrist, one nurse practitioner, and two physician assistants.

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Clutch Physical Therapy

1690 Second Ave.

www.clutchpt.com

212-203-6802

Nobody wants to go to physical therapy, but if you have to go—or even think you should go—go to the best, which is someone with a true passion for healing you, specifically. Though Clutch bills itself as “Physical therapy for athletes* who hate physical therapy”—it’s that asterisk that makes them welcoming to all: “If you truly have the desire to get back to pursuing what you love and move your body as efficiently as possible—YOU ARE AN ATHLETE.” Clutch goes further, however, and in the manner of a great coach asks, “Been to physical therapy before and it didn’t work? We get it. There are a lot of watered-down practitioners in big-box chain clinics phoning it in, beholden to insurance companies. That’s not what physical therapy should be, and it’s absolutely not who we are.” Clutch also pays special attention to pregnant and post-partum women, and offers small group training classes that will increase the likelihood you won’t need them for PT again. Now that’s caring

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Warrior NYC

20 W. 23rd St.

www.warrior.nyc

646-908-0923

Founded in 2017, Warrior may have the best logo of any physical rehabilitation outfit in town. It’s a Roman centurion helmet, but instead of metal and feathers running along the crown, it has vertebrae. Warrior is the brainchild of chiropractor Dr. Johnny Alexander, whose own personal journal to his profession is reason enough to visit (as a young man, he was rear-ended in a car accident and suffered lingering painful side-effects traditional physical therapists failed to address). Among his staff are three other chiropractors—one with physical therapy privileges—and an acupuncturist, Bianca Perez, who found her vocation after a 60-pound weight loss in her early 20s. For those who haven’t been to a chiropractor or acupuncturist before, these aren’t just incredible stories but encouraging ones, and there’s nothing more important in rehab than encouragement.

Best Pickleball / Padel / Tennis

UWS

Marlene Meyerson Jewish Community Center

334 Amsterdam Ave.

www.mmjccm.org/pickleball

646-505-4444

It’s the sport that some people love, and others hate: It’s pickleball! One can’t even use the phrase “love to hate” here because the antagonism, when adult pickleballers impose their convenience on the recreational needs of others, especially children—some of whom have been kicked out of their own public school playgrounds because the Department of Education “permitted” it to pickleball “bros”—is too real. wonderful folks at the Marlene Meyerson Jewish Community Center (formerly Manhattan JCC), as part of their general concern for physical as well as intellectual and spiritual wellness, found a way bring pickleball people in rather than kicking anyone out. Celebrate Sabbath, play Mah jongg, learn about Israel, take art classes, swim—at Marlene Meyerson JCC, you can do it all, including the thwack-thwack-thwack of pickleball. It’s all kosher, picklers!

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Reserve Padel

1113 York Ave.

www.reservepadel.com/61ststreet

917-227-5902

Padel might seem the latest rage in paddle games, but it actually dates to 1960s Mexico, and was popular there and in Europe, especially Spain, before getting a boost in the wake of the pickleball craze. Some people liken it to a cross between tennis and squash, though in some ways it also resembles platform tennis. Exactly how one places it in their own taxonomy of paddle sports, it should also include paddle ball, which is played, for free, on the abundance of outdoor Parks Department handball courts. As for handball itself, it’s great, it’s arguably New York’s most egalitarian people’s sport besides running, but it doesn’t use a racquet. Also, though it’s been popular for nearly a century, it’s never been trendy. Padel is the opposite: It’s hot, its promotion is pretty upscale, and there aren’t many places to play it in Manhattan. Reserve, a members-only padel emporium, is an exception, with two locations, one in Hudson Yards, the other on the East Side at 1113 York Ave., in the shadow on the 59th Street Bridge, across the street from Andrew Haswell Green Park.

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Court 16

28 Liberty St.

www.court16.com/manhattan-fidi

718-875-5550

Forget all the brouhaha and tsuris (Yiddish for troubles or aggravation) over pickleball, it’s a wonderful game and anything that gets people more physically active is to be praised. It’s where they play that’s the problem, and one that downtown pickle emporium Court 16 adroitly solves in a building called One Chase Manhattan Plaza, on the northeast corner of Liberty and William streets. Indeed, architecturally, Court 16 might better be described as a pickle palace for its home is an 813-foot-tall skyscraper designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and completed in 1961. Conveniently located near many trains, Court 16 offers pickleball and tennis programs to players of all levels and ages; though with lower ceilings than a traditional indoor tennis dome, high lobs are off limits. Must see no matter your game: the Isamu Noguchi-designed “Sunken Garden” in the building’s south plaza, which includes seven natural stones transplanted from the Uji River in Japan.

Best Spa and Massage

UWS

Upper West Spa

189a Amsterdam Ave.

www.upperwestspa.com

212-787-1696

Founded in 2018, Upper West Spa and its effervescent Polish-émigré owner, Joanna Kaminska, project such warmth, skill, and empathy, her business does the neighborhood proud and then some with its naming. Kaminska is no Upper West Side neophyte; far from it, she brought three decades of experience and local knowledge to her venture with the aim of providing the most personalized service available. This includes various facial, hydrafacial, massage, nail and SkinCeuticals treatments, the last being the brand name of the popular, medical-doctor-backed line of skin care products. To show off the skin in its cleanest, most glowing form, Upper West Spa offers a wide range of hair-removal options. Where to go bare or furry is a personal decision, of course, but for those who like it smooth, Upper West Spa can get you there: legs, bikini, buttocks, ears, areola, tootsies, back, and chest, and as this list suggests both women and men are welcome. Pick hit: the Casmara Vitamin facial, “a stimulating anti-wrinkle facial treatment with clarifying and brightening effects” whose peel-off mask includes marine algae extract, vitamin C, and dill.

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The Couple Spa

320 E. 65th St.

www.thecouplespa.com

929-344-2888

Starting business in 2004 as the well-reviewed Supple Spa on West 19th Street in Chelsea, as the years passed and people seemed to be increasingly disconnected from one another, Supple started doing more with couples. Come 2016, they went all in on connection becoming Couple and landing on this intimacy-friendly Upper East Side block between First and Second avenues. Indeed, though the pink neon sign at the Couple Spa entrance is on the ground floor of a more modern building, this block has many older three- to five-story apartment buildings, including such colorful Couple Spa neighbors as Rainbow Locksmith, Sam’s Shoe Repair, and Frank’s Cleaners & Tailoring. See, intimacy! Among the couple packages are Aromatherapy (“smell is our most intimate sense, deeply tied to our fondest memories and most vivid emotions”) and the Royal Bath (including massages, body scrubs, and a wooden tub). At the high end, try the Honeymoon, a four-and-a-half-hour journey including a lava-stone aromatherapy massage, body scrub (“with ancient pink salt straight from the Himalayas”), and a rose-petal bath, all while eating sushi and sipping champagne before a session-ending tropical Thai seaweed facial. Solo variations are also available.

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AIRE Ancient Baths

88 Franklin St.

www.beaire.com

917-563-4542

“Ancient” might be a stretch, but this former textile factory near the corner of Church Street does date to 1883: Franklin Edison was the mayor of unconsolidated New York; Seth Low was the mayor of Brooklyn, and Grover Cleveland was NYS governor. The Brooklyn Bridge opened that year also. Nomenclature aside, the setting of Beaire’s Tribeca baths is so stunning, they can call it whatever they like: 16,000 square feet of candlelight, brick, wood, and iron, all a testament to the lasting value of capitalism and now repurposed for your vitality. As for the baths themselves, think of warmth (no cold plunge challenge here, however bracing that might be) and music, the scent of orange blossom and eucalyptus in the air. Aire caters to both individuals and couples with a variety of available massages and treatments, most focusing on relaxation and skin treatment. The Argan Foam Ritual, for example, includes the thermal baths; 15 minutes of foam infused massage; 45-minute body massage with argan oil; a face massage with jade rollers; a glass of sparkling wine or juice. The Himalayan salt ritual, by comparison, includes a 20-minute body wrap with Himalayan salt crystals, followed by an hour-long full-body massage with hot Himalayan salt stones and juice.

Best Walks

Upper West Side: The Lester Bench

This walk around Morningside Heights loops around Riverside Drive and Riverside Park including a stop at what “Best of” calls “The Lester Bench.” This bench is where Alan Alda’s character, Lester, sat in Woody Allen’s 1989 movie Crimes & Misdemeanors, expounding on his life and philosophy: “If it bends, it’s funny!” This bench, which faces the Hudson River, is the first bench on the left as you cross West 113th Street into the park. The scene was shot there because Lester says he grew up in the building behind him, 404 Riverside Dr. Also here, though unmentioned is the monument to Lajos Kossuth (1802-1894), the Hungarian revolutionary and exile who was widely celebrated during his US tour of 1851-1852. This walk continues northward, pausing at Grant’s Tomb at West 122nd Street, and continuing to West 145th Street, a stretch in which one can ponder the great car-chase scenes from Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970) and The Seven-Ups (1973) that were in part filmed here.

Upper East Side: Circumavigating Jackie O

Let’s meet at the Guggenheim or the Jewish Museum, both just steps from Engineer’s Gate at Fifth Avenue and 90th Street—which happens to be where the New York City Marathon course enters Central Park, which this walk (or run) also does. While circumnavigating the park via the East and West drives is always an option (beware of the illegal speeding e-bikes, scooters, and mopeds, however), the loop around what’s formally named the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir is shorter (1.58 miles) and safer, not to mention flat and unpaved. These last qualities are important, for though hills are wonderful, sometimes, whether walking or running, you don’t want that additional strain. Same goes for the gravel as opposed to macadam with its camber and all the reckless e-bikes. As for the reservoir, it was built between 1858 and 1862 as part of the Croton Aqueduct system. Known formally as the Upper Reservoir, it was operated in conjunction with the nearby Lower Reservoir—site of today’s Great Lawn and Turtle Pond. Decommissioned in 1993, the reservoir’s perimeter path was renamed to honor Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in 1994.

Downtown: Pickup on Stone Street

If they don’t work or live there, it’s likely most Manhattanites don’t spend much time far, far downtown. Because in these streets where New Amsterdam began there remain many points and layers of interest. One of these is Stone Street. Start out on the east side of the US Custom House Building—home today of the National Museum of the American Indian—walk the short half block to Whitehall and Stone streets and turn left. While things start out modern, note the old four-story building with London & Martin pub and keep walking north to the end of the block at Broad Street. Here Stone Street seems to end but—it doesn’t! Enter the building called 85 Broad St. (formerly Goldman Sachs headquarters), enter the public lobby, noting the bright map-themed artwork while also keeping an eye out for certain renowned media figures who work in the building (“Is that Harry Siegel?”) and exit—back on Stone Street, with its stunning array of mid-19th-century buildings and Belgian block paving. Stop often before continuing to Hanover Square, where one can take Old Slip down to South Street and turn right toward the Vietnam Veterans Memorial before reaching Broad Street again.

Best Bike Rides

UWS

Fort Washington Special

Unknown to many, yet beloved by those who live there, the upper west ridge of Manhattan known as Hudson Heights is wonderland for cycling. Get there however you like: Fort Washington Avenue starts at 159th Street, but the Hudson River Greenway and even the A train work if coming from afar. The important part is getting close to the George Washington Bridge, but instead of crossing the span into New Jersey like so many other cyclists, you’ll take note of J. Hood Wright Park just south of the bridge at West 173rd Street. From here, head north, your sights first set on Bennett Park, then Jacob Javits Playground, at which point Fort Washington Avenue ends, meeting Cabrini Boulevard to form Margaret Corbin Plaza at the entry of Fort Tryon Park. The options here are many and excellent: Head into the park toward the Cloisters, explore Cabrini Boulevard itself or return south, admiring the many handsome apartment buildings and the St. Francis Cabrini Shrine before stopping for fuel at West 187th Street. Some recommendations: Dutch Baby Bakery, Buuni Coffee, Kismat Indian Restaurant.

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The Bronx Roll

As Our Town has documented for years, the discontinuities on the East River Greenway are vexatious—maddening even. Indeed, cynics might suggest the motto of the well-intentioned path should be “You Can’t Get There From Here!” Once you reach John Jay Park, however, you can wend your down to the Greenway at 79th Street. From here, it’s clear rolling to 125th Street, at which point one can head west into Harlem—which is great—or swing onto First Avenue and bop into the Bronx via the Willis Avenue Bridge—which is the best. While the Bronx is a bicycle wonderland too little explored, for this ride we’ll keep things simple, riding to 138th Street and turning right (east). This is Mott Haven, whose many layers of history will be evident with every pedal stroke. After passing under the Bruckner Expressway, swing a right on Willow Avenue and then right again on East 132nd Street—this is the way to Randall’s Island, which you can explore at leisure, before returning to Manhattan via the Ward’s Island Bridge at East 103rd Street. It’s just that easy; enjoy!

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Pedaling Brooklyn One Bridge at a Time

Brooklyn, ho! It’s been an the epicenter of cycling since the late 19th century, but how to get there? The Brooklyn Bridge has a dedicated street-level bike lane mostly wide enough that the e-bike / moped menace isn’t too bad. The north side of the Manhattan Bridge also has a bicycle path, though here one might be forgiven for thinking pedal power had gone the way of horse-drawn carriages for all motor vehicles crazily speeding. Early mornings are still all right, but rush hours and busy weekends can be stressful. The Williamsburg Bridge has a wide, shared path and then separate bike and pedestrian lanes that are sometimes anarchic but generally negotiable. If nothing else, these trips can be an object lesson in how bicyclists have been betrayed by lobbying groups who used pedalers as a Trojan Horse for interests that range far beyond, and often in contradiction to, bicycle safety. Perhaps the most pleasant way to Brooklyn is take the bike-friendly East River Ferry over from Pier 15. All of Brooklyn’s ferry stops have their unique virtues, though Bay Ridge is especially pleasant, placing one on a pier next to a section of Greenway where no Amazon trucks roam. Whatever your choice, remember: Brooklyn is beautiful and so too are you, the bicyclist.