New York Botanical Garden

On our list of the best activities in New York.

The garden was chartered in 1891 after Columbia botanists Nathaniel and Elizabeth Britton pushed for a New York counterpart to the botanical gardens they'd seen in London and on the Continent, and it's held National Historic Landmark status since 1967. Its 250 acres in Bronx Park hold more than a million living plants alongside the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, a Lord & Burnham glasshouse in the Italian Renaissance style that opened in 1902. The grounds also hold the LuEsther T. Mertz Library, one of the largest collections of botanical texts and art in the world.