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The muscle boys in Chelsea favor this two-story gym with the latest weights and circuit training equipment and fitness classes. It also offers sauna, massage facilities, and a café serving healthy meals and snacks. The gym actively supports gay causes from AIDs walks to Gay Pride organizations.

Named after an 18th-century feminist group, this Lower East Side lair is not only a comprehensive source for women’s literature but a social center with a café, gallery, readings, and events. Women of all ages and races are welcome.

A favorite East Village cruising destination. Weeknights are mellow, weekends packed.

A classic experience, the walk across the Brooklyn Bridge yields thrilling vistas of city skyscrapers through the intricate bridge cable work. Bring the camera to record unparalleled views.

A swath of green with formal plantings behind the Public Library.

The horse-drawn hansom cabs lined up at the edge of Central Park are romance personified. The driver, appropriately attired in fancy dress and top hat, will help you up as you nestle in for a 20-minute trot past park landmarks (see Central Park).

The profusion of bars, shops, and cruisers between 6th and 7th avenues is the epicenter of gay Greenwich Village. The crowd is a bit older since so many younger gay men have defected to Chelsea.

Many clubs have party nights. Sunday nights, for example, are big at Splash, Friday nights at Crobar, Saturday at The Roxy, Sunday at Avalon. The Cock is lively all week. Venues and days change, so consult the press for current happenings.

Just to walk into this chapel, New York’s oldest public building, is to enter a world of grace and reverent serenity. The concerts held on Mondays at 1pm offer a chance for visitors to revel in the beauty of the setting and the music (see St. Paul’s Chapel).