Places thelonelytraveler Wants to Go

As state highpoints go, this spot is one of the lowest, but for years it was also the hardest to climb.

Dunk your churros in rich hot chocolate on the city’s old “Chocolate Street.”

This taxidermy scene brings the struggle for survival in the Indian jungle to a quiet corner of a Manhattan museum.

An eerie diorama that captures the majestic nature of a few prehistoric-looking beasts.

Coney Island’s last surviving haunted ride.

This sculptural piece by the artist Tom Otterness doubles as a jungle gym.

This monument to a veteran of the Mexican-American War is one of only two in Manhattan that serve as an actual mausoleum.

A playground the size of a city block is a modernist monument to civic values and public housing.

This landmark building is now a vibrant performing arts space with musical acts from around the world.

This simple Manhattan salt house is artfully shaped... well, like a giant granule of salt.

Fake subway tiles were installed to cover a design that resembled the Confederate flag—it's unclear if the resemblance was intentional.

This abandoned artificial island off the coast of New York City is now home to dozens of harbor seals.

Surrounded by low rise buildings and partially converted into an auto body shop, this marble archway is the only vestige of a forgotten Manhattan estate.

The famous facade of Grand Central Terminal hides a regulation tennis court—and it's not the first one.

Monument to a forgotten NYC disaster that claimed the lives of 1,000.

The competition: breathe deeply as long as you can.

Despite not growing anywhere near New York City, bananas are ripened in a pressurized room in the Bronx using precise banana science.

This castle-like building in Manhattan helped destigmatize cancer in the 19th century.

This eclectic sculpture garden in Brooklyn, home to a bizarre collection of art, was once a run-down junkyard.

The first "Hall of Fame" in America was designed by legendary Gilded Age architect Stanford White for what was then the NYU uptown campus.

A commemorative plaque hides a door that leads down to the New York Public Library's underground book bunker.

The best B-movies filmed on a shoestring budget were born here.

A bit of retro transportation flair preserved in the world's largest department store.

This enormous Hindu temple in Queens serves incredible dosas in its basement canteen.