If you run, the Financial District is a better base than it looks on a map. The streets are narrow and crooked and full of scaffolding, which sounds bad, but you're never more than about seven minutes from open water in either direction, and the paths along both rivers are flat, continuous and mostly free of intersections. Add the fact that this neighborhood is genuinely empty before 8 a.m. on a weekend, and you get city running without the constant stopping.
Here are the routes we actually give guests, starting from John Street.
The short one: East River esplanade, Seaport to Battery
Head east on John to Water Street, cut over to the waterfront at the Seaport, then turn right and run south. The South Street esplanade takes you under the FDR past Pier 15 and Pier 11, around the Battery Maritime Building, and into Battery Park at the tip of the island. It's roughly a mile and a quarter each way, so about two and a half miles out and back with the harbor on your left the whole way and the Brooklyn Bridge behind you.
This is the route for a first morning or a shakeout. It's flat, it's obvious, and you can't get lost: the water is on one side and Manhattan is on the other.
The good one: the full waterfront loop, about four miles
Same start, but keep going. Run south along the East River to Battery Park, curve around the bottom of the island past the Statue of Liberty ferry docks, and pick up the Hudson River Greenway heading north. You'll pass Battery Park City, the ferry terminal at Brookfield Place, and the North Cove marina, then cut back east on Chambers or Vesey and run home through Tribeca and past the World Trade Center site.
That's about four miles depending on where you turn inland, and it's the run that makes people understand the geography of Lower Manhattan better than any map. You've gone around the end of an island. Do it clockwise as described and the sun comes up over the East River behind you on the first half.
The long one: north on the Hudson River Greenway
The greenway is the reason serious runners stay downtown. It runs uninterrupted along the Hudson from Battery Park up the west side, no cars, no lights, water on your left. From Battery Park north to Chelsea Piers is roughly three miles, so from our door out and back lands you comfortably past 10K with change. Keep going and you can run to Riverside Park without crossing traffic, which is not something you can say about many cities.
Wind is the variable. The Hudson side is exposed, and in January a north wind on the way up will change your pacing plans. Run north first while you're fresh and let it push you home.
The bridge one: Brooklyn Bridge out and back
The pedestrian and bike entrance is up by City Hall, about ten minutes' walk or a very short jog from John Street, and the bridge span itself runs a bit over a mile across. Out and back from here is roughly three miles with a gentle climb in the middle, which is as close to hills as this neighborhood gets.
One rule: go early. By nine in the morning the promenade fills with people stopping for photos, and you'll spend more time dodging than running. Before seven it's mostly commuters and other runners and it's one of the best half hours of running in New York.
The car-free one: Governors Island
When the ferries are running, the island has a loop road around the perimeter of a little over two miles with no cars on it at all. The ferry leaves from the Battery Maritime Building at 10 South Street, which is about a fifteen-minute walk from us. This is a weekend-morning outing rather than a quick session, since you're on the ferry's schedule both ways, but for repeats or a flat steady effort with harbor views there's nothing else like it this close to downtown.
Practical stuff
Water: fountains along the esplanades run in warm months and get shut off in winter, so carry a bottle from November through March.
Lights: the East River esplanade is well lit; parts of the greenway north of Battery Park City are dimmer. If you're out before dawn in winter, the East River side is the safer pick.
Surface: nearly all of it is pavement. There's no soft-surface option down here, so if you're coming off an injury, plan accordingly.
Bad weather: our fitness center is on the lower level, which is where we end up ourselves in February. There's also the laundry room, which after a week of running in the same two shirts is more useful than it sounds.
If you're here for the marathon
The Financial District is a practical marathon base, mostly because the official runner ferry to the Staten Island start leaves from Whitehall Terminal at the bottom of the island, which you can walk to from here. We've written that up separately with the race-morning logistics.