Lower Manhattan has one real advantage over the rest of the island when it comes to sunsets: you can walk to open water in every direction. Up in Midtown you're looking for a gap between buildings. Down here you just walk west for 15 minutes and the sky opens up over the harbor.
We get asked about this most in the fall, when the sun sets early enough that you can watch it and still have dinner at a normal hour. Here's where we send people, in order of how far you have to walk from John Street.
Battery Park, the western edge
Start here. It's the classic view and it's about a 15-minute walk from our door: down Broadway to Bowling Green and keep going. The sun drops behind the New Jersey shoreline, the harbor goes orange, and the Statue of Liberty sits out there in silhouette. Stand on the promenade near the water rather than back in the park, and walk a little south toward the old Pier A building for the widest angle.
It gets busy in summer. In October and November you'll often have long stretches of railing to yourself, and the light is better anyway.
Wagner Park and the Battery Park City esplanade
This is the one we actually prefer. Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park sits just north of Battery Park on the Hudson side, about 20 minutes on foot, and it's a lawn with benches and a low terrace facing straight across the river. Fewer visitors, more locals with a bottle of wine and a dog.
From there the esplanade runs north past the marina at North Cove, where the boats and the towers make a better photo than the sun does. Keep walking and you'll reach Rockefeller Park at the north end, which is the family option: big lawn, playground, room for kids to run while the adults watch the sky.
Pier 25 in Tribeca
If you want to be out over the water rather than beside it, walk 25 to 30 minutes north to Pier 25 in Hudson River Park. It's a long pier that sticks out into the Hudson, so the sunset is dead ahead and the city is behind you. There's mini golf and a playground on it, plus lawn chairs at the end. Combine it with dinner in Tribeca on the way back and it's a good evening.
The Staten Island Ferry, for the price of nothing
The best value sunset in New York is still the free ferry. Whitehall Terminal is about a 12-minute walk from John Street. Board roughly 40 minutes before sunset, go to the back of the boat on the way out, and you get the Statue of Liberty, the harbor, and the skyline lighting up behind you. Ride back on the next boat. The round trip runs a bit under an hour depending on the schedule, so check the departure times before you head down.
One practical note: everyone has to get off at each end, so you can't stay on the same boat for the return.
The east side, for a different kind of light
Sunset doesn't only mean looking at the sun. Some of the best evening light down here lands on the buildings, not in the sky. Walk seven minutes east to the Seaport and stand on Pier 15 or Pier 17 with your back to the sunset: the Brooklyn Bridge and the Brooklyn waterfront go warm and gold for about 20 minutes, and the harbor traffic passes right in front of you.
The Brooklyn Bridge walkway does the same thing with more people on it. If you're going to walk the bridge at golden hour, start from the Manhattan side about an hour before sunset and you'll be near the first tower when the light peaks.
When the sun actually sets
Rough guide for planning, give or take a few minutes:
- Mid-August: around 8 PM
- Late September: around 6:45 PM
- Late October: just after 6 PM
- November, after the clocks change: around 4:40 PM
- December: around 4:30 PM
The short December days are the reason winter sunsets are easy here. You can watch one at Battery Park and still be sitting down to dinner on Stone Street by 5:30.
Making an evening of it
The simple version: leave John Street about 45 minutes before sunset, walk down Broadway to Battery Park, follow the esplanade north into Battery Park City as the light goes, then cut back east through the World Trade Center campus. That's a loop of about an hour and a quarter, all flat, all lit, and it ends five minutes from home.
If you'd rather not go out at all, most of our suites have a kitchen, so plenty of guests cook and eat late instead. The city's still there in the morning.