I Scream, You Scream …
Forget about the frozen yogurt craze, and the endless lines that go with its virality. Instead, this is the summer to double down on ice cream at the shops that make the New York City scene so special.
Start with Julia Jeans on the Lower East Side, where classic flavors are made in small batches; or with Biddrina Gelato in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, which just opened a second location at Shaver Hall in Midtown; or with the Ice Cream Window, a seasonal, weekend-only spot in Ridgewood, Queens. It collaborates with Lady Moo Moo, an ice cream maker with two shops in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, to create distinctive offerings like Styrian (pine nuts and pumpkin seed oil) and waldmeister (sweet woodruff).
Go to Mr. Ps Homemade Ice Cream in Flatbush, Brooklyn, for Caribbean flavors like soursop and coconut, or Sundaes Best in Koreatown for brown sugar milk tea gelato and kalamansi sorbet (a kumquat-mandarin hybrid), or Albero dei Gelati in Park Slope for Italian favorites like stracciatella.
Morgenstern’s Finest Ice Cream, a longtime favorite, recently reopened its original store on the Lower East Side. Sugar Hill Creamery has three stores in Harlem, and there’s Caffé Panna in Gramercy Park and the Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory in Chinatown. Il Laboratorio del Gelato has shops on the Lower East Side and Upper East Side, while Malai’s stores in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, and the West Village are joined this summer by a pop-up at Hudson Yards.
Get Your Kicks
With the FIFA World Cup in full swing, New York City is becoming a soccer paradise: There are fan zones at Brooklyn Bridge Park, Battery Park, Rockefeller Center, the Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens and Staten Island University Hospital Community Park. And for those who want to play, Street Lab’s Soccer Streets program offers free pickup youth games across the boroughs (see Street Lab’s calendar for locations and times).
Will this be the year that Americans fall in love with Panini? Not the sandwich, but the collectible World Cup stickers that have been a childhood rite of passage across the globe since 1970. This year, Panini has parked a bright yellow truck at the Telemundo Fan Village at Rockefeller Center, where you can buy and trade stickers from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. until July 19. Visit the Panini website for upcoming swap events.
Lincoln Center is getting in on the action with Penalty Flicks (July 9-18), a free outdoor film series at Hearst Plaza. Highlights include the documentary “Pelé” (July 9) and the cult favorite “Shaolin Soccer” (July 16), Stephen Chow’s hilarious kung fu-style film about a hopeless Hong Kong team.
While the eye-watering cost of World Cup tickets puts attending its games out of the reach of most, you’ll find family-friendly prices when the National Women’s Soccer League champions Gotham FC play two matches in July. This is the team’s first regular season in New York City, and it starts with the Queens Classic against the Washington Spirit at Citi Field on July 15. Before the game, there is an afternoon watch party for the World Cup semifinal and a festival with food trucks, caricature artists, a mini pitch and a photo booth. On July 18, the Bats, as the team is known, face the Seattle Reign at the recently upgraded Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island.
Star-Spangled Spectacles
The tall ships are returning to New York Harbor for the nation’s 250th birthday. The ceremonies begin on July 3 from 1 to 3 p.m. with a procession of Class B ships on the East River. Then on July 4 from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Parade of Tall Ships sails from the Verrazzano Bridge up the Hudson River to the George Washington Bridge.
The public can board these ships from July 5 to 7, noon to 6 p.m., at Brooklyn Bridge Park, Sail City (next to the Intrepid Museum), South Street Seaport and Staten Island Waterfront Park. Admission is free, but reservations are recommended.
The 50th edition of the Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks is being staged on the East and Hudson Rivers this year. Prime viewing spots include South Street Seaport, Brooklyn Heights and Jersey City. The festivities start at 8 p.m., with the fireworks expected to begin about an hour later.
Alfresco Movies
On July 2 at around 8 p.m., Wollman Rink presents “Captain America: Brave New World” as part of its free family-friendly movie series, Thursday Movie Nights on the Overlook.
Other series screening free films include Movies Under the Stars, which offers scores of titles like “Wicked: For Good” and “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants” at dozens of city parks through July 31; Movies in the Square on Tuesdays at Domino Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (July 7-Sept. 15); SummerStarz on Fridays at WNYC Transmitter Park in Greenpoint, Brooklyn (July 17-Aug. 14); and Oculus Outdoors on select Thursdays and Fridays in Lower Manhattan (through Sept. 18).
Tennis, Everyone!
One of the highlights of the U.S. Open is Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day, which kicks off the 2026 tournament on Aug. 23. The daylong festival is free — children 18 and under don’t need a ticket, but adults must register for a U.S. Open Fan Access Pass — and features live music, face painting and kid-friendly tennis lessons and drills.
The real thrill is watching the pros get in some practice before the competition begins. As a bonus, the specially priced family meals are back. Costs have yet to be set, but last year they were a reasonable $10.
Island of Fun
Governors Island is one of the city’s great getaways when the weather gets hot and sticky — and The Yard is one of the island’s greatest treasures, an adventure playground that lets young people ages 5 to 19 create their own play space with scraps of wood, pipes, old tires and other castoffs (before entering, you must sign a waiver either on site or online). The 20,000-square-foot area is open every Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
On Aug. 15 from 2 to 8 p.m., the island hosts the House Crawl & Parade. Before participating in this march along the thoroughfares amid former military housing, you can make your own island-inspired costumes, luminaries and puppets with the artist Sally Beauti Twin.
Arts All Around
Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City runs through Aug. 8 and offers dozens of events that include story times, musical performances and workshops like the deep-sea-themed costume-making one on July 10 that is followed by a dance party with the D.J. Miho Hatori of the band Cibo Matto.
In Riverside Park, the Hippo Playground Summer Concert Series returns with performances every Wednesday afternoon at 3:30 from July 22 to Aug. 26.
Take a Dip
New York City’s public swimming pools are open for the season. The newest is the showstopping Gottesman Pool at Harlem Meer, on the northern end of Central Park. The most dramatic is the Floating Pool Lady, a seven-lane pool in a barge that docks at Barretto Point Park in the Bronx. Toddler-friendly pools can be found all over the city, including the recently reopened wading pool at the Asser Levy Playground at East 23rd Street and F.D.R. Drive, and the Mini Pool at Tompkins Square Park in the East Village.
The post 39 Ways to Entertain Your Kids in New York City This Summer appeared first on New York Times.
