Where is Central Park?

Central Park is in Manhattan, New York City, sitting right in the middle of the borough between the Upper East Side, the Upper West Side, Harlem and Midtown. Don't bother looking for a single address — it runs about 50 city blocks, from 59th Street up to 110th Street, squeezed between Fifth Avenue and Central Park West. It opened in 1858 as the country's first major landscaped public park, and today it still covers 843 acres in one of the most crowded stretches of land on the planet. Four streets box it in:

• South: Central Park South (59th Street)
• North: Central Park North (110th Street)
• East: Fifth Avenue
• West: Central Park West (Eighth Avenue)

Central Park address & GPS

No single street address exists for a park that spans roughly 50 city blocks. Punch one of these into your GPS instead:

• Grand Army Plaza: 5th Avenue & E 59th Street, New York, NY 10019
• Columbus Circle: Central Park West & W 59th Street, New York, NY 10019
• Strawberry Fields: Central Park West & W 72nd Street, New York, NY 10023
• The Met / 5th Avenue entrance: 5th Avenue & E 82nd Street, New York, NY 10028
• Conservatory Garden: 5th Avenue & E 105th Street, New York, NY 10029

Best Central Park entrances by attraction

Grand Army Plaza (59th & 5th) is the one everyone pictures — the horse-carriage line, the Plaza Hotel, the Pulitzer Fountain. Head here for the Pond, Wollman Rink and the Zoo. Columbus Circle (59th & 8th) gets the most foot traffic on the west side, next to the Time Warner Center, Trump International and the Maine Monument — go this way for Sheep Meadow, Heckscher Playground and Strawberry Fields. Strawberry Fields (72nd & CPW) puts you a few steps from the John Lennon memorial, the Lake, Bethesda Terrace and Bow Bridge. The Met entrance (82nd & 5th) leads straight from the museum to Cleopatra's Needle, Belvedere Castle and the Great Lawn. The Conservatory Garden (105th & 5th) is the quietest and, honestly, the prettiest — the formal garden, the Harlem Meer and a north end most tourists skip.

If you enter from the west side, it's worth knowing Central Park isn't the only green space along that edge of Manhattan — Riverside Park runs along the Hudson just a few blocks over and makes a good add-on to a west-side visit. For a rundown of guided ways to see Central Park itself, see our Central Park tours guide.

Central Park subway — how to get here

You can reach Central Park from just about any NYC neighborhood in under 20 minutes by subway. Driving takes longer and costs more.

• West side: A and C reach Columbus Circle (59th); B and C continue up Central Park West to 81st-Museum of Natural History, 86th, 96th, 103rd and Cathedral Pkwy (110th). The 1 runs a block over on Broadway, with its own stops at 72nd, 79th, 86th, 96th and Cathedral Pkwy (110th)
• South side: N, R, W — 5th Av/59 St for Grand Army Plaza
• East side: 4, 5, 6 — 59th, 68th-Hunter, 77th, 86th, 96th, 103rd and 110th-Lexington
• F, Q: Lexington Av/63 St for the southeast corner and the Zoo

Walking distance from major NYC landmarks

• Times Square: 0.5 miles / 10-minute walk north
• Rockefeller Center: 0.7 miles / 14-minute walk north
• Empire State Building: 1.5 miles / 30-minute walk north
• Lincoln Center: 0.4 miles / 8-minute walk north to Columbus Circle
• The Met: directly on Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street
• 9/11 Memorial: 5 miles south — take the 1 train

Frequently asked