Rockefeller Center
Historical landmark · Midtown West
45 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10111
Highlights
Iconic landmark with TV studios, ice rink, and Christmas tree.
Iconic landmark with TV studios, ice rink, and Christmas tree.
"In the midst of its busy season, tourists flock to Midtown to see its shimmering Christmas tree and nearby office workers join the chorus for seasonal parties; the complex has been pursuing what was described as an “unlikely bid to draw New Yorkers back to Midtown” by recruiting high-profile restaurateurs and trying to lure a more exciting crop of restaurants than a decade ago, and a second wave of openings and outposts is rolling out." - Emma Orlow
"A quintessential urban holiday spectacle centered on an enormous, iconic holiday tree and a lively atmosphere of lights and seasonal displays that epitomize Christmas in the city." - Elizabeth Rhodes Elizabeth Rhodes Elizabeth Rhodes is a senior editor at Travel + Leisure, covering everything from luxury hotels to theme parks to must-pack travel products. Originally from South Carolina, Elizabeth moved to New York City from London, where she started her career as a travel blogger and writer. Travel + Leisure Editorial Guidelines
"Rockefeller Center sits in the heart of midtown Manhattan, both in terms of its physical location and its prominent place in the city's folklore and culture. Whether you want to check out a performance on the plaza outside the TODAY show, visit the Christmas tree, or practice your best moves on the ice skating rink, you're in for an iconic, family-friendly experience. If you buy a ticket to Top of the Rock, you'll enjoy spectacular views of the city below. No matter where you are, you're bound to be constantly pointing and shouting “hey, look at that!”" - Charlie Hobbs, Alex Erdekian, Melissa Liebling-Goldberg
"The 2023 Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is an 80-foot Norway spruce from Vestal, New York. It will be decorated with more than 50,000 multicolored LED lights and a Swarovski star topper. The tree lighting ceremony will take place on November 29, 2023, at Rockefeller Center, and the tree will remain lit daily until January 13, 2024. The tree will then be milled into lumber and donated to Habitat for Humanity." - Travel + Leisure Editors
"Rockefeller Center was one of the great construction projects of the Great Depression, a complex of 14 buildings between Fifth and Sixth avenues and 48th and 51st streets built over the 1930s. It's also one of America's grandest examples of Art Deco design, from the Indiana-limestone-clad buildings themselves to its interior murals and allegorical figures in panels above the entries to the various buildings. (Daniel Okrent recounts the fascinating history of the complex in detail in his acclaimed Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center .) For many travelers to New York, the center is a favorite destination even if they aren't students of architecture or urban planning. It's the home of Radio City Music Hall, where the Rockettes perform; its 70th-floor observation deck offers sweeping views of the city; and every morning tourists gather outside the windows of the NBC studios during the broadcast of The Today Show. The center also hosts temporary large-scale art installations, like Jeff Koons's enormous dancer and flower puppy in recent years, and the lighting of its Christmas tree marks the unofficial start of the holiday season. Another bucket-list experience here is taking a turn on the small sunken ice rink under the golden statue of Prometheus. Just across Fifth Avenue from Rockefeller Center is another New York landmark, St. Patrick's Cathedral, looking better than ever after a multiyear renovation that included a thorough cleaning of the Gothic building's facade."
