Warm (if not particularly dry) weather is finally here, blessing New Yorkers with lots of time for beach trips and outdoor sports. Warm weather also offers up the opportunity to combine those two activities, and thanks to the city’s long list of available watersports, you have quite a few aquatic choices in the summer months, from kayaking to sailing, to surfing in the Rockaways. Ahead, we’ve rounded up a few of our favorites.

Dive in

New York City has some great local beaches, like the Rockaways, Coney Island, and Brighton and Orchard Beaches. But when you need a short break from all the spots you can hit via the subway, it’s worth remembering that there are some great beaches just a quick drive or NJ Transit/Long Island Railroad-ride away. Here are some of our favorite day beach trips from the city, from up-and-comer Asbury Park and Long Branch in NJ to long-time favorites like Fire and Shelter Islands.

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Even if you’ve never managed to keep a succulent alive for more than a month, there’s no denying that apartment greenery is having a moment. Luckily, New York is full of plant shops and other great spots offering classes and workshops to locals looking to shore up their green thumbs and maybe not kill a plant the second it crosses their threshold. Ahead, we’ve rounded up the 10 best, from terrarium and flower-crown making to botanical mixology to the principles of hydroponics.

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St. Patrick’s Day is almost here, and though its modern iteration seems to have devolved into a daylong drinking activity, it’s still a good time to reflect on New York’s Irish heritage. Irish immigrants have been coming to New York since the colonial era, but in the 19th century, they were one of the biggest groups in the city, making up about a quarter of the population. Their cultural influence is everywhere, but there are some spots in town where it shines through the most. Here are our favorites.

Check ’em out

It’s sometimes hard to see New York’s romantic potential, considering the city’s sheer quantity of subway rats and mysterious street sludge. But despite some of New York’s less love-inspiring qualities, there are a lot of beautiful, heart-stopping spots that set the right tone for romance, even if you have to contend with yellow snow on your way home. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, we’ve rounded up our 10 favorites, from a medieval monastery to a cozy restaurant haunted by Aaron Burr to tried-and-true favorites like the top of the Empire State Building.

Love is in the air

New York is home to world-class institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, the Guggenheim, and MoMA. But this city’s museum scene has more to offer than just the Temple of Dendur—in fact, it’s full of smaller, way funkier spots serving up found art, oddities, and history, including the history of this ever-odd city itself. Here are 10 of our favorites.

Start exploring

You may have thought NYC’s wildlife predominantly consisted of subway rats and the giant cockroaches that find their way into your apartment each summer, but it appears there’s more to this city’s animals than pests. Indeed, New York is actually full of unique birds, mammals, and insects that help contribute each day to our shared ecosystem. It’s also full of walking tours, boat tours, driving tours, and other activities that’ll give you an opportunity to get a good look at the wildlife around us, both in the city and just outside of it. Here are some of our favorites.

The top 8 wildlife activities in and around NYC

In New York City, the “outdoors” can consist solely of backyard bar happy hours and occasional picnics in Central or Prospect Park. But when the urban landscape starts to feel oppressive, your legs start itching to scale a mountain, and Brooklyn Boulders just isn’t going to do it for you this time, there are a number of quick escapes just outside the city that offer easy to difficult nature hikes and treks. Some of these are easily accessible by Metro-North; some might require a car or bus ticket, and some happen to be in the city itself, provided you consider Staten Island within its borders. All of them feature great views, exercise, fresh air, and the occasional tree, how novel! Ahead, discover our favorites.

See our favorites here

With Memorial Day just around the corner, most New Yorkers have two options–sit in endless hours of traffic trying to get to the beaches on the Hamptons or down the Jersey Shore, or have a staycation in the city. And while the latter may sound boring (and hot!) there are plenty of beaches to hit up within the boroughs. From the Rockaways to Fort Tilden, we’ve rounded up the seven best sandy spots in NYC.

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Lead image, clockwise from top left: © Sprout Home; © The Sill; © Chelsea Garden Center; © The Sill

At long last, it appears springtime’s on its way to New York, transforming streets of sad, wilted grey and brown into, er, slightly less sad-looking grey and brown. If the little buds starting to sprout on tree branches in the parks and on the streets aren’t enough green for you, there are plenty of plant shops in the city that’ll help introduce some oxygenating goodness into your own apartment, no matter how small, dark, or pet-filled it may be. Note that for the sake of this list, we’ve stuck with plant shops, not florists, though you’ll find arrangements at some of these shops—this one, though, is for home gardeners and lovers of succulents, which it turns out you do need to water from time to time, a lesson some of us first-time plant parents learned the hard way.

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