One day in New York: itinerary and highlights

At Times Square, the intersection lit by advertising signs that never turn off, the day starts almost on its own, if only as a place to pass through before moving on.

From here a walk along Fifth Avenue leads toward the Empire State Building, the 1931 Art Deco skyscraper whose observatory, accessible by ticket, offers a view that spans across all of Manhattan.

Continuing north you reach Central Park, the city's great green lung, with its small lakes, stone bridges and views that change at every corner, a natural way to escape from urban traffic.

For lunch, the numerous food trucks and delicatessens at the park's edges offer a taste of New York street food, from bagels to hot dogs.

The MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art, collects works by Van Gogh, Picasso and Warhol among others, a reference point for twentieth-century art.

Heading toward Lower Manhattan, the free ferry to Staten Island allows you to see the Statue of Liberty without needing to disembark on the island, while the 9/11 Memorial preserves its two water pools inscribed with the names of the victims.

Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge on foot at sunset, with Manhattan's skyline at your back, remains one of the most direct ways to end the day, before dinner in DUMBO, on the opposite bank of the East River.

Times Square, the Empire State Building, and Central Park are enough to touch New York's most recognizable symbols, with the afternoon choice between MoMA and the Statue of Liberty.

Entire neighborhoods like the Village, SoHo, and Brooklyn beyond DUMBO each offer enough for a separate day. Seeing Manhattan's skyline framed by the Brooklyn Bridge's cables at sunset is perhaps the image that best tells New York.