There ain’t no place like New York City. Frank Sinatra and Billy Joel sang about it; Sergio Leone, Martin Scorsese, and Bob Fosse made films about it. The in-your-face, glittering, glamorous, high-rise metropolis that captures the imagination, embodies a sense of possibility, and fires up your belief that any schmuck with the right attitude and a half-decent idea can succeed. It’s the American Dream, embodied by Manhattan’s 22 square miles of bleating taxicabs and hot dog stands and palatial avenues and money that never sleeps.
But the most popular attraction in New York (and all of America) this year won’t cost visitors a single dime: Central Park, a pristine green space that’s also one of the most-filmed locations in the world. This 843-acre public park that’s stunningly located amid the crush of jostling towers was ranked the No. 1 choice in a BookRetreats list of the best places to visit in America in 2025.
That Central Park came out on top is little wonder. New York receives more than 60 million visitors annually (including domestic tourists), more than the number of international visitors to some of the world’s most touristed countries. People want a piece of the Big Apple pie and to come into contact with its innumerable icons: Broadway, the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire State Building, and Times Square (its many tourist traps notwithstanding). They spend tens of billions of dollars — an unsurprising number given the average price of a New York hotel room these days — visiting its museums, landmarks, entertainment venues, and diverse food districts.
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Why is Central Park so popular?
Central Park – Alexander Spatari/Getty Images
Central Park scored a rating of 4.075 out of 5 in BookRetreats’ ranking, beating the National Mall in Washington, D.C. (3.994) and Balboa Park, San Diego (3.795) to top the podium. A handful of other New York State attractions made the top 10, including Times Square (No. 5), Rockefeller Center (No. 6), Niagara Falls in Buffalo (No. 7), and Brooklyn Bridge Park (No. 10).
To compile its list, BookRetreats analyzed available online data points, including reviews, ratings, safety reports, and prices, for attractions across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Each attraction was scored between 0 and 1 for popularity, affordability, and tourist safety, and between 0 and 2 for experience. To ensure only genuine contenders qualified, the attractions needed to have at least 38,000 Google reviews, which narrowed the total list down to 77 places of interest. Incidentally, the Hollywood Walk of Fame came dead last, considered America’s worst well-known attraction to visit.
Central Park might not be America’s safest destination — that distinction falls to the charming Midwest city of Fishers, Indiana — but it scored exceedingly well in the popularity (0.98 out of 1) and experience (1.85 out of 2) categories. Moreover, it boasts a spectacular average of 4.8 stars on Google across 270,000 reviews. And according to 100 recent visitor appraisals, 91% say it’s worth the hype. Simply put: If you go to New York, don’t skip it.
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Read the original article on Islands.