21 Engaging Things To Do In NYC With Teens

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Ask our teen and tween their favorite place in the USA, and they’ll answer New York City! But their last visit was a few years ago before they hit their teenage years, so we decided to bring them back to see if it’s still their number one city.

And it was.

As it turns out, there are so many things to do in New York City with teens, it can kind of get overwhelming trying to narrow down what to do.

Kalyra, now 15 and in tenth grade, is starting to think about colleges and NYU is on her list for their film school. So, our top priority on our list of things to do in NYC with our teens was to walk around the campus surrounding Washington Square.

We’re so glad we did.

Kalyra spent the three days in New York saying, “I’m so happy we’re here. I love this city so much!” At least she’ll be closer to me, then USC, the other college on her list!

After that, it was time to explore the city and some of the other top NYC attractions for teens. Here were some of our favourites!

What to do in New York City with Teens?

New York City can be daunting to plan, as it’s an iconic city with countless attractions and landmarks to see, such as The Empire State Building, the One World Observatory and World Trade Center Monument, and of course the Statue of Liberty, as well as many historic sites, and unique museums.

But anyone visiting NYC will have already added those to their list.

This is not one of those overwhelming lists of 101 things to do in NYC with teens, but a highly curated list based upon the real-life experience of our family, and why our older kids liked them.

We mostly did all of these on our winter weekend getaway to New York, but I threw in a couple more we’ve done before that I know teens and tweens will love.

Here are our favourite teen-friendly attractions in NYC and a few hidden gems for those families who like to discover something new.

1. Take a Walking Tour of Greenwich Village (with Cupcakes)

Our walking tour of Greenwich Village was one of our teen’s favorite things to do in New York City.

We spent six hours in the great Taylor Swift Ticketmaster debacle getting tickets for the Philadelphia show, so you can imagine the delight on Kalyra’s face when our guide directed her to look up at the street sign pointing the way to our next stop.

Yep – Cornelia Street.

We…