Updated November 3, 2026 · by the Stride Stories team · every fact checked against a source
New York is a great city to run in, as long as you know where to go. The best routes give you room to move and something to look at: car-free park drives, bridges over the East River, a boardwalk by the ocean, and streets lined with history.
Here are eight of our favorites, across four boroughs. Each one is a tour in the Stride Stories app, where short stories play as you pass each place, timed to your pace. But every route works on its own too, so take the tips and go.
1. Central Park: the classic loop
Start: Merchants' Gate, Columbus Circle · Distance: 6.0 miles · Tour: The Loop: Central Park
The big loop is New York's classic run. The park's drives total 6.1 miles, and the loop drives have been closed to cars for good since June 2018. Save something for the hills at the north end, around McGown's Pass and the Harlem Meer.
What to look for: Cleopatra's Needle, an Egyptian obelisk cut around 1443 BC that has nothing to do with Cleopatra, who died about twenty years before it even reached Alexandria. And near 90th Street, the bronze statue of Fred Lebow, who founded the New York City Marathon. The first race, in 1970, was 127 runners doing loops of this drive.
Read our full Central Park loop running guide.
© OpenStreetMap2. Two Bridges: Brooklyn Bridge and back
Start: City Hall Park · Distance: 3.55 miles · Tour: Two Bridges
Out over the Brooklyn Bridge's raised promenade, through DUMBO, and back over the Manhattan Bridge. Since 2021 the promenade has been for people on foot only, with cyclists on their own protected path on the roadway. It still gets busy, so go early if you can.
What to look for: the four main cables. A contractor supplied inferior wire, so Roebling added 150 extra wires to each cable. And on the Brooklyn tower, a plaque to Emily Warren Roebling, who carried her bedridden husband's instructions to the engineers and was officially the first person to cross.
Read our full guide to running the Brooklyn Bridge.
© OpenStreetMap3. Prospect Park loop
Start: Grand Army Plaza · Distance: 3.83 miles · Tour: Thanksgiving Loop: Prospect Park
A loop of Brooklyn's big park from the Soldiers' and Sailors' Arch and back. Prospect Park has been car-free since January 2018, and all its drives are protected bike lanes. This tour was made with Thanksgiving morning in mind, but it runs just as well any day.
What to look for: Prospect Park Lake, Brooklyn's only lake, about 60 acres and man-made, dug with skating in mind. And Battle Pass, beside East Drive, where American and Hessian forces clashed during the Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776.
© OpenStreetMap4. Roosevelt Island
Start: Roosevelt Island Tramway station · Distance: 3.45 miles · Tour: Island of the Lighthouse
A run on an island in the middle of the East River, from the tram up to the lighthouse at the northern tip and down to Four Freedoms Park at the southern one. The tram itself is a story. It opened in 1976 as the first commuter aerial tramway in the United States, and it was meant to be temporary.
What to look for: the small stone lighthouse at the north end. Local legend says a patient from the island's asylum built it himself. At the other end, the Smallpox Hospital ruin, the only ruin in the city that is an official landmark.
© OpenStreetMap5. Coney Island boardwalk
Start: the Boardwalk at West 19th Street · Distance: 1.19 miles · Tour: Coney Island
A short run around Coney Island's amusement area, from the Parachute Jump past Nathan's, the Wonder Wheel and the Cyclone, finishing on the Riegelmann Boardwalk. The boardwalk itself is 2.7 miles long, so it's easy to add miles.
What to look for: Nathan's Famous, home of the July 4 hot dog eating contest. You may have heard that it began in 1916. In 2010 a Nathan's promoter admitted he and a partner made that legend up in the early 1970s. Then the Cyclone: of nearly two dozen roller coasters built at Coney Island, it's the only one still running.
© OpenStreetMap6. Harlem: 125th Street to Strivers' Row
Start: Marcus Garvey Park · Distance: 1.8 miles · Tour: Harlem
A short route through Harlem, from the fire watchtower in Marcus Garvey Park, past the Apollo, to the row houses of Strivers' Row.
What to look for: the watchtower itself, the only survivor of 11 cast-iron watchtowers put up around the city from the 1850s. The Apollo Theater was built in 1913 as a burlesque house that at first served only white patrons. In 1934 it reopened as the Apollo, for Harlem's Black community. And on Strivers' Row, peek through the gates at the back alleys: some still have signs reading "Walk Your Horses."
© OpenStreetMap7. Long Island City: Bridge to the Gantries (free)
Start: Queensboro Bridge · Distance: 1.86 miles · Tour: Bridge to the Gantries
A Queens run from under the Queensboro Bridge, past art and old rowhouses, to the river at Gantry Plaza. This one is a free sample tour in the app.
What to look for: the bridge overhead, the only one of the four great East River bridges that isn't a suspension bridge. It's a cantilever bridge, built for heavier loads. At the end, the big red Pepsi-Cola sign, which went up in 1940 as the longest electric sign in New York State. Along the way, the site of 5Pointz, where by one estimate about 11,000 murals were painted in the building's last decade.
© OpenStreetMap8. The Bronx: Stadium and the Concourse (free)
Start: Yankee Stadium · Distance: 1.13 miles · Tour: Stadium and the Concourse
A quick run from Yankee Stadium up to the Grand Concourse, and another free sample tour.
What to look for: Heritage Field, across East 161st Street, where the original Yankee Stadium stood. Second base on the new field sits at about the spot where the old home plate was. Then the Bronx County Courthouse: when it opened in 1934, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia moved the seat of city government here from City Hall for three days. The Grand Concourse itself is often described as modeled on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, and for most of its length it's 180 feet wide.
© OpenStreetMapTips for running in New York
- Use the car-free parks. The drives in Central Park and Prospect Park are closed to cars. Stay in the lane for people on foot and watch for bikes.
- Beat the crowds on the bridges. The Brooklyn Bridge promenade is often crowded at the photo spots. Our tip: go early in the morning.
Hear the story as you pass
You can run any of these routes with just this page. Or let the city tell you about itself: in the Stride Stories app, each story plays as you reach its place, timed to your pace, and your music ducks under the narrator and comes back after. Every tour has an optional soundtrack. The Long Island City and Bronx tours are free to try, and so is our self-guided walking tour of Lower Manhattan.
What is the best running route in NYC?
There's no single best, but the Central Park loop is the classic. The park's drives total 6.1 miles and have been car-free since June 2018.
Where can I run in New York without cars?
Central Park's loop drives have been closed to cars since June 2018, and Prospect Park has been car-free since January 2018.
Can you run across the Brooklyn Bridge?
Yes. The raised promenade is for people on foot, and cyclists have used a separate path on the roadway since 2021. It gets crowded, so early mornings are easiest.
Are there free running tours in New York?
Yes. In the Stride Stories app, Bridge to the Gantries in Long Island City and Stadium and the Concourse in the Bronx are free sample tours.
Hear the stories as you pass them
Stride Stories plays each place's story as you reach it, timed to your pace, and lowers your music while it talks. Tours download to your phone and work without a connection.