FREE things to do in Brooklyn
Green-Wood Cemetery
Designed as a park in the 1800s for the residents of the independent City of Brooklyn, before it became part of New York City, it also happens to contain 500,000 permanent residents.
They include stained glass king Louis Comfort Tiffany, Broadway musical legend Leonard Bernstein, inventor Samuel B. Morse, and Charles Ebbetts, owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who played in Ebbetts Field.
There are both free self-guided and docent tours, and a trolley tour.
Atlantic Ocean Beaches
New York City is the only place in the world I know of where you can take the subway to miles of white sand ocean beaches, including some stretches dedicated to surfing real ocean waves.
Coney Island and Brighton Beach are in Brooklyn.
There are additional stretches of Atlantic Ocean beach in Rockaway, Queens.
All have have boardwalks, lifeguards between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and plenty of room to spread out a blanket.
We are always adding NYC freebies.
If you have a favorite you’d like to see included in this list, email us at [email protected].
This list was published in May 2016, and last updated in January 2020.
Evelyn Kanter is a native New Yorker who has written for the NY Times, NY Daily News, NY Post, New York Magazine, and is a former on-air reporter for WCBS Newsradio 88 and WABC-TV Eyewitness News.
Evelyn Kanter also is the author of several NYC and Hudson Valley guidebooks, including my latest, 100 Things to Do in NYC Before You Die.
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