This Is the Best Free Attraction in New York City

According to travel planning site Budget Your Trip, a one-week trip to New York City will typically cost about $2,541 for one person and $5,082 for two—a visit to the Big Apple isn’t exactly cheap. But there are a few key areas where you can save.

In December, financial site CashNetUSA published a report on the best free attractions in every state across the U.S. For its report, it examined Tripadvisor reviews, then identified all free-admission attractions, and finally isolated the highest-rated fee-free attraction in each state based on those reviews. (CashNetUSA noted it filtered out attractions with fewer than 750 tourist reviews for most states, except North Dakota, which had a 250 review threshold.) 

After all that digging, it named the World Trade Center’s Liberty Park the top free attraction in New York City. 

The park, which overlooks the World Trade Center campus, is a stunning one-acre green space that “has something for everyone as a community park and home to must-see monuments and points of interest,” the report explains. The space was designed by landscape architect Joseph Brown, serving double-duty as a beautiful place for people to gather or unwind and as a green roof over the garage and roadways.

“A living wall, designed by Plant Connection of Riverhead, contains a variety of plant species that grow along the park’s northern wall,” the park’s site adds.” The Saint Nicholas National Shrine is located on the east side of the park. The Koenig Sphere and America’s Response Monument occupy its western side. The west end of the green space also connects to the pedestrian walkway (damaged on 9/11) over West Street to Brookfield Place.” 

Across its thousands of five-star reviews on Tripadvisor, travelers say it’s a not-to-miss experience in New York City. And, as one traveler wrote, it’s “a very peaceful place to reflect.” 

However, this isn’t the only spot in New York that has free admission. Green-Wood Cemetery came in second, followed by Central Park in third. They’re followed by the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, the Brooklyn Tabernacle, St. Joseph’s Chapel Catholic Memorial at Ground Zero, the Brooklyn Bridge, and Brooklyn Bridge Park, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and the World Trade Center Station, rounding out the top 10. So really, there’s no need to shell out a ton for experiences when there’s this much to do for nothing in New York. And that way, you can splurge on a few more pizza slices, bagels, or one of New York’s best hotels instead.