Best spots to stare at the Manhattan skyline in Brooklyn

There is a good reason why Pier 1 in Brooklyn Bridge Park is one of the most popular places for wedding pictures. Few places in NYC offer a more iconic skyline view of the city. Enjoy the New York Harbor from the granite steps – built from stones salvaged from the Roosevelt Island Bridge reconstruction –, lay on one of the three magnificent lawns for an amazing panoramic view of lower Manhattan, or plop yourself down on a bench on the waterfront promenade for a unique waterfront experience and watch the sunset.

For an unobstructed view of Midtown Manhattan and the Williamsburg Bridge head to the concrete-heavy East River State Park, renamed the Marsha P. Johnson State Park (Marsha P. Johnson was a transgender woman of color who was a pioneer of the LGBTQ civil rights movement) in February 2020. Apart from the magnificent city vistas, the eclectic food market Smorgasburg sets up shop here on Saturdays from April through October with 100 local vendors, attracting 20.000 to 30.000 people every weekend.

This relatively small and new – it opened in 2012 – park is a waterfront destination located along the East River in Greenpoint. Explore natural wetland landscaping, a nautically themed children’s play area, a pedestrian bridge and a pier with gorgeous views of Manhattan. Don’t miss the beautiful and very instagrammable mural of a girl with flowers, Love Me, Love Me Not, by FAILE, the Brooklyn-based artistic collaboration between Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller.

Take a seat on the curving stone bleachers at popular Pebble Beach in the Dumbo section of Brooklyn Bridge Park and enjoy the views of Lower Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge. The park also has a nautically themed playground, an expanded and elevated lawn, a dog run, and the largest outdoor rock-climbing facility in North America.

Tucked away in Red Hook, the Louis Valentino Jr. Park and Pier is a relatively unknown leisure spot that is typically occupied by local picnickers, fishermen, and Red Hook hipsters. Watch the Staten Island Ferry sail by, enjoy the panoramic views of the Manhattan Harbor and skyline, but, most importantly, take in the city’s best and closest front-facing view of the Statue of Liberty.