Park traffic runs counter-clockwise, so this is the real ride — not an alphabetical list. Start two minutes from our door at Columbus Circle.
The first thing you see after the gate: a small pond with the Midtown skyline stacked up behind it, crossed by a low stone bridge. It's the shot everyone wants, and you'll have it in your first five minutes.
Ice skating from late autumn through early spring, and a small amusement park through the summer months. Even if you skip both, the drive above it gives you the rink framed by skyscrapers.
A compact zoo built around a sea lion pool, with a penguin house and a rainforest building. Above the entrance arcade, bronze animals circle the Delacorte clock and play a tune on the half hour.
A formal oval pond where people sail radio-controlled model yachts on weekends. The Alice in Wonderland group sits at the north edge and Hans Christian Andersen reads to a duck on the west — both built to be climbed on.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art sits inside the park's eastern edge. Behind it stands the Obelisk, an ancient Egyptian granite column that is the oldest man-made object anywhere in New York City.
A hundred-odd acres of open water with the Upper East Side skyline mirrored across it. The 1.58-mile cinder track that rings it is the most photographed running loop in the country.
Six acres of formal planting in three separate styles, entered through a wrought-iron gate. It's the quietest place in the park and almost nobody on a day trip finds it — which is exactly why it's worth the extra mile north.
Eleven acres of water at the park's northern tip, ringed by willows and far quieter than the southern lakes. Catch-and-release fishing runs from the Discovery Center on the north shore.
Forty acres of genuine woodland with a stream running through a ravine — it stops feeling like Manhattan entirely. The Blockhouse, a small stone fort from 1814, is the oldest structure standing anywhere in the park.
Fifty-five acres of open grass used for summer concerts, with the castle standing on the rock above Turtle Pond just to the south. It's the highest viewpoint in the park and still houses a working weather station.
The cast-iron Bow Bridge arches across the narrow point of the Lake and is the single most photographed spot in Central Park. Just south of it, a staircase drops into the Bethesda Terrace arcade and its fountain — the architectural heart of the whole park.
The Imagine mosaic sits in a quiet triangle just inside the park from the Dakota, where John Lennon lived. From there, the Mall runs south under the largest stand of American elms left in North America, and drops you back at Columbus Circle.
Central Park is easy to ride once you know where bikes belong. We cover all of this in the two-minute briefing before you leave the shop.
Bikes belong on the loop road, not the footpaths. The Mall, Bethesda Terrace, Bow Bridge and the Reservoir track are all walking-only — lock up and go in on foot.
Everyone on the drive moves the same direction. Keep right, pass on the left, and never ride against the flow — it's the single most common mistake visitors make.
The drives are posted at 25 mph, and e-bikes are held to a lower limit inside city parks. Signs are posted at every gate, and the north end has one real descent.
Helmets are required by law for riders under 14, and we hand one to every rider whatever their age. A lock, basket and route map come with every rental too.
Between 8th Avenue and Broadway, right next to the McDonald's. It's a two-minute walk to the Columbus Circle gate and five minutes to the Hudson River Greenway if you'd rather ride the water instead.