Aside from never having visited Central Park Zoo in the last 30+ times I've been to NYC, I also had never been to Roosevelt Island. My brother thought it'd be nice to spend the afternoon just roaming around and enjoying the nice weather with a bit of different scenery than the regular hustle and bustle of Manhattan, so he took us on a little trip to Roosevelt Island via the Roosevelt Island Tramway:
Queensboro Bridge
Roosevelt Island Tramway
Roosevelt Island Tramway
East River
Queensboro Bridge
View of Queensboro Bridge from Roosevelt Island
View of Queensboro Bridge and East River from Roosevelt Island
To be honest, there's not much to do on Roosevelt Island because it's mostly residential, but the weather was amazing — not too hot, sunny with a lovely breeze — and the views of Queensboro Bridge and the East River are spectacular, so we took a long stroll around, went down their main retail street, and stopped for some drinks at a cute little cafe called Cafe Aviva (where I had a most delicious iced matcha) before heading back on the tram to Manhattan. It does cost a single MTA fare to go on the tram one-way, but I thought it was worth $5.50 to visit an area of NYC that isn't crowded, dirty, or touristy.
And including our stroll through Central Park, we walked over 30,000 steps! Surely, that's enough exercise for the week.
Roosevelt Island Tramway
254 E 60th St.
New York, NY 10022
(212) 832-4555
Cafe Aviva
559 Main St.
New York, NY 10044
