Where to Ice Skate in Lower Manhattan

The Rink at Brookfield Place, 230 Vesey Street. Outdoors, on the Hudson side, with the water right there behind the boards. It's the one we send guests to when they want to actually skate rather than queue, and it has the longer season: last winter it ran through the first of March, well past the holiday rush. Prices last season were $15 for a one-hour public session on a weekday and $17 on a weekend, with skate rental $5 on weekdays and $7 on weekends. They also run private lessons. From our door on John Street it's about a twelve-minute walk west, or one stop on the E to World Trade Center and a short walk through the Winter Garden, which is the version to pick if it's raining. Sessions are timed and weekend slots go first, so book a few days out.

Winterland, on the roof of Pier 17. An open-air rink on top of the Pier 17 building at the Seaport, with the East River and the Brooklyn Bridge behind it. It's the better photograph and the colder skate, because there's nothing between you and the wind coming off the water. Hats and gloves, not just a coat. It comes back for the winter season most years and sells timed sessions, so check the Seaport's page before you walk over rather than turning up. It's about a nine-minute walk east from us, down John Street and across to Fulton.

Which one to pick. If you're skating with kids or anyone who hasn't been on skates in a decade, Brookfield Place: bigger sheet, calmer crowd, and you're thirty seconds from being indoors and warm when it stops being fun. If you want the skyline shot and you're dressed for it, Pier 17. If it's January or February and you assumed skating season was over, Brookfield Place is the one still open.

Both rinks are weather-dependent and both publish their own hours, which move year to year. Ask us at the desk if you want us to check what's running the day you're here.