Uncover Coney Island Boardwalk’s Best Attractions With This Essential New Yorker’s Guide

Depending on when and where you grew up, you may think of the Coney Island boardwalk only in the context of Neil Simon, Bugs Bunny, or old black-and-white photos of people in outdated bathing suits from right around when World War II ended.

As a Brooklynite who essentially lives down the road from Coney Island, I can assure you that, yes, Coney Island and its boardwalk are a real place; it is indeed full of quirky, neurotic, creative types of all religions (just like the rest of New York City). The Wonder Wheel is still spinning, and the Cyclone is still creaky. But, even though I have gone to Coney Island several times a year for many years, I have yet to see a single wise-cracking, cross-dressing, anthropomorphic rabbit.

Here’s the inside scoop on the Coney Island boardwalk (which no one calls by its official name, the Riegelmann Boardwalk).

Location

The Coney Island boardwalk sits along the beach at the southern end of the neighborhood of Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York City. The nearest airports are John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and LaGuardia Airport (LGA), with the former being much easier to get to Coney Island and vice versa.

By car, the easiest way to get there from the north for most people is by driving south along Ocean Parkway, which turns west and becomes Surf Avenue, Coney Island’s main drag and the nearest street parallel to the boardwalk. Coming from the east, including from JFK, it’s a straight shot on the Belt Parkway, which has signs for the off-ramps to Coney Island.

In the off-season, it’s not hard to find angled street parking right by the boardwalk on some street stubs off Surf Avenue, like on W. 15th Street. But in the summer, you’re much better off taking the subway unless you like driving around in circles on Coney Island’s ill-maintained streets for half an hour before parking your car in a sketchy-looking spot blocks from the beach.

By subway, you can take the D, F, N, and Q lines to the end of the line to the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue stop. This is a large train terminal where the trains stop on an elevated platform and feed passengers into the large, mall-like terminal building diagonally across from the original and main Nathan’s Famous on Surf Avenue.

To get to the aquarium side of the boardwalk by subway, take the F or Q trains to the W. 8th St.-NY Aquarium stop. It’s another elevated station, a block north of the New York Aquarium, and is notable for its built-in architectural sculpture, Wavewall, by New York City artist Vito Acconci. The sculpture resembles a liquid or organic mass of triangles climbing the subway platform.

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Need ideas on how to get to New York City on points and miles? Check out how our own Katie Corrigan Seeman did it.

Riegelmann Boardwalk

The boardwalk extends 2.7 miles west to east, from West 37th Street to Brighton 15th Street. Most visitors stick to the area from around West 19th Street (near the defunct Parachute Jump, Maimonides Stadium, and Pat Auletta Steeplechase Pier) to West Fifth Street, just past New York Aquarium.

To the east of the aquarium, Coney Island turns into Brighton Beach, known for its large population of Russian immigrant families. As you cross over to the Brighton Beach side of the esplanade, you start seeing Russian restaurants on the boardwalk.

To the west, the boardwalk starts to abut residential communities and apartment buildings, eventually stopping at the border with the neighborhood of Sea Gate. You may notice that the boardwalk is in greater disrepair as you get farther west, including areas that have never been fully rebuilt after significant storm damage.

The boardwalk varies between 50 feet and 80 feet wide and, until 2008, was made from actual boards of tropical hardwood. The current plan is to replace the wooden boards in patches with more environmentally friendly and sustainable plastic lumber and concrete.

The boardwalk is about 15 feet high and is reachable by ramps, but most of the space under it is completely inaccessible.

Since they’re still mostly real wood, the wooden planks of the boardwalk warp, shrink, and splinter just like any other piece of wood. The gaps between the boards can get pretty wide. You won’t lose your baby between them, but there are spaces between boards where you could easily lose coins, jewelry, credit cards, or even cellular phones. Since it’s physically impossible to go under the boardwalk, if you lose something between the gaps, it’s gone for good.

You can ride bikes or Rollerblade on the boardwalk between 5 and 10 a.m. Be careful when the boardwalk gets crowded, and consider walking your bike until you get to a less busy stretch. You can expect to get ticketed if police catch you riding your bike after hours. You can bring leashed dogs on the boardwalk — but not the beach — between May 1 and October 1.

The boardwalk has public bathrooms (which look like giant wooden recreational vehicles on stilts) on W. 8th Street, Stillwell Avenue, W. 17th Street, and W. 21st Street. When they’re open, you can use the toilets at Luna Park, Deno’s Wonder Wheel, and Surf Avenue Nathan’s Famous.

Activities

Coney Island is a living, breathing New York City neighborhood, but it’s built its reputation around tourism, which is centered around the boardwalk and the stretch of Surf Avenue by it. Though Coney Island was the country’s biggest amusement center for almost a century — from the 1880s to World War II — it’s been since dwarfed by mega parks such as Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney World, Six Flags, and Hersheypark.

Still, there’s plenty to do, and it’s the kind of place where you should explore and find your own fun, but here are a few highlights.

Amusement Parks

Though it can be hard to figure out where one park ends and the next begins, there are now 2 major amusement parks on the Coney Island boardwalk: Luna Park and Deno’s Wonder Wheel.

Both have their own rides, games of skill and chance, arcades, food stands, and so on. Annoyingly, both also have their own currencies and payment cards, which aren’t interchangeable, so if you want to go to both, you have to put money on 2 separate cards, one for Deno’s and another for Luna Park. (The ride prices vary from ride to ride at each park.) To make it even more fun, the Coney Island arcades have a separate card system (Eldorado) from the amusement parks.

There are amusement park ticket booths at both the boardwalk and Surf Avenue street entrances to the amusement parks. The cards are durable and can be used from year to year—we have a stack of them from years past and have never had ride credits expire. The Deno’s and Eldorado cards are about the thickness of plastic credit cards, while the Luna Park cards tend to be thinner.

You do not have to buy admission tickets or payment cards to enter either park — you can simply stroll in and out as if they were public spaces, as long as the parks are open. No one will stop you or ask you to show your payment card to prove you can pay for rides at the entrance. When you go on a ride, the attendant scans your card or directs you to where you need to scan it yourself.

The rides and amusement parks are seasonal, with Luna Park typically opening for weekends in late March, going 7 days a week starting Memorial Day (and weeklong breaks in April and May), going back to weekends only around Labor Day, and then closing around Halloween (though it sometimes does seasonal Christmas events). Deno’s usually has a shorter calendar, starting the season in April and ending in early September. Check their current calendars on their respective websites before you go, if you want the rides to be a linchpin of your Coney Island experience.

The rides at Deno’s Wonder Wheel Amusement Park include the iconic Wonder Wheel, a 150-foot-tall Ferris wheel that has defined the Coney Island skyline since 1920. The Wonder Wheel has separate lines for stationary and swinging carriages, so make sure you know which you want and get in the correctly color-coded line before you enter the wheel.

Deno’s also has more gentle rides for younger children than Luna Park, a scare-filled haunted house ride, and a zombie-themed attraction.

Luna Park, on the other hand, has more thrill-seeking rides, including the Thunderbolt and Soarin’ Eagle. It opened in 2010 on the former sites of Astroland and Dreamland, parks that both closed in the late 2000s. It takes its name from the original Luna Park in Coney Island from 1903.

The Cyclone, the wooden roller coaster that’s been around since 1927, became part of Luna Park in 2011. It’s on the National Register of Historic Places, gave its name to the local minor league team, and runs for nearly 2,700 feet with 6 turns and 12 drops from a maximum height of 85 feet and speeds of up to 60 miles per hour. It’s a bucket-list favorite of coaster enthusiasts, and fans have included Charles Lindbergh and those who like its vintage, early-20th-century charm.

If you’re not a fan of roller coasters and find the concept of a century-old wooden roller coaster that creaks and groans as you ride horrifying, then maybe this one’s not for you. Coaster fans have told me that you want to be in the back car on the Cyclone because the wheels come off the rails, but I haven’t been able to confirm if this is true, and, frankly, I never intend to get on again to find out.

Keep your expectations realistic at Coney Island, as the amusement parks are somewhere between town fairs and Disney World or even Six Flags in terms of fanciness. They’re not going to be as seedy-looking and badly maintained as the rides that some itinerant company sets up in your town’s high school parking lot once a year, but Coney Island’s amusement parks will seem grotty to those expecting Disneyesque levels of perfection.

Beach

Yes, you can go to the beach at Coney Island, which is easily accessible from the boardwalk. There’s a playground on the beach near W. 12th Street (across from Deno’s Wonder Wheel and Paul’s Daughter restaurant), and there are beach showers on the boardwalk near some of the beach entrances along the length of the main drag of the boardwalk.

Should you swim in the water? That’s your call — but I wouldn’t. New York City has done better cleaning up its waters in recent decades. However, it’s still a good idea to check the New York City Health Department’s regularly updated beach water quality report before you take a dip. The last time I went in the water at Coney Island, which admittedly was a couple of decades ago, I went home with a full-body rash that lasted for a week. You may also notice that many beachgoers at Coney Island seem to stick to the sand. Cue the hoary “Coney Island whitefish” jokes here.

Lifeguards are on duty from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in season. You’re not allowed to swim when they’re not present.

Brooklyn Cyclones Baseball

The Brooklyn Cyclones are a Class High-A minor league (South Atlantic League) farm team for the New York Mets. Their stadium, Maimonides Park, is right by the boardwalk and beach in Coney Island.

It’s a small, fun ballpark and great fun for kids, who often get to participate in the on-field activities with the mascots, Sandy the Seagull (named after Sandy Koufax, not Hurricane Sandy) and Pee-Wee, or watch Coney Island traditions like the Cyclones hot dog race with mascots Ketchup, Mustard, and Relish. Tickets can be surprisingly cheap (as low as $7 on some days), and the park is generous with its giveaway days for kids.

At night, when the rides are all lit up and the fireworks are going off, sitting at the stadium can be an unforgettable sight. You can watch games as you hear the screams of riders whooshing by and just make out the Cyclone as it plummets back down to earth.

New York Aquarium

New York Aquarium, part of the same organization that manages other New York City zoological attractions like the Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, and Prospect Park Zoo, is the oldest continuously operating aquarium in the U.S. It’s an unmistakeable sight on the boardwalk, with a facade of silver scales that shimmer and flow with the wind. It’s also a popular place to take the kids for an afternoon in New York City.

Admission for nonmembers ranges from $29.95 to $32.95 for general admission, $25.95 to $27.95 for children 3 to 12, and $27.95 to $29.95 for seniors (65 and older). Kids 2 and under get in free. Even if you’re a member, you should buy advance tickets and reserve a time for your visit.

Admission is free on Wednesdays after 3 p.m., but you must buy tickets and reserve the time. Free Wednesday tickets are released on the Wildlife Conservation Society website at 3 p.m. on Monday of that week.

The opening hours vary by season, but the aquarium is generally open from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Crucially, there’s parking at the aquarium. It’s free for the first 3 hours if you’re a WCS member — and a great place to park for any boardwalk excursion during peak season. Nonmembers will pay $18 for the first 3 hours and up to $40 if you park for 4 hours or more. Most families spend about 2 or 3 hours at the aquarium.

Kids’ typical favorites include the glass shark tunnel, where they walk through a seascape of sharks and other sea creatures, the great glass wall that showcases a living recreation of an ocean canyon, the seal lion show in the outdoor auditorium, and the jellyfish and octopus tanks in the Spineless building.

The cafeteria is in the back of the aquarium courtyard (toward Surf Avenue), and, yes, parents, they have chicken tenders and french fries.

Fishing

Fishing is popular among Coney Island regulars, especially off of Pat Auletta Steeplechase Pier in the summer. It’s known for bluefish, striped bass, fluke, and other local species, and the sight of these guys casting their lines, patiently waiting for a tug on the line, and then reeling in a whopper (or not) is a classic Coney Island view.

Anglers 16 and over must register before fishing with a rod and line in New York City, depending on the fish they catch. Check the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation website for all relevant rules and restrictions before you haul out your tackle box. Also, before you eat anything you catch, do not forget to check New York State Department of Health advisories on eating fish caught in the area. Brooklyn is Kings County, and the waters off Coney Island are considered part of the Lower New York Bay south of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.

Polar Bear Club

On New Year’s Day, you can freeze your tushy off along with hundreds of other people by participating in the Polar Bear Plunge, which is arranged by the Coney Island Polar Bear Club, the oldest winter bathing club in the nation. They’ve been taking weekly plunges together since 1903.

If you want to take the plunge, check the Polar Bear Club website at least the week before New Year’s. The specifics may change from year to year but generally consist of waiting in line to get registered at a counter set up inside Luna Park, going to the roped-off staging ground at the covered public restroom area near W. 15th Street on the boardwalk, and then making your way through the crowds and diving in for as long as you want. A lot of people do this now, and the crowds (and news photographers) come in force, so don’t arrive late, make sure you have everything you need to change into or out of in a convenient bag, and — if you want to last more than 2 seconds in the freezing-cold Atlantic — wear water shoes.

It’s free to take the plunge, but you’re encouraged to make donations to local charities when registering.

Coney Island Mermaid Parade

Billing itself as the biggest art parade in the U.S., the Coney Island Mermaid Parade is an annual, 4-decades-old celebration down Surf Avenue that is usually scheduled for the nearest Saturday to the summer solstice, June 21. Explicitly modeled after the Village Halloween Parade and New Orleans-style Mardi Gras parades, it’s a wild, eccentric, bawdy, occasionally nudity-filled celebration of the start of summer and ends with many of the thousands of participants marching onto the Coney Island beach and diving into the ocean to mark the start of the summer beach season.

Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest

The Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, the eating contest that made Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi household names in some parts, takes place every July 4 on a stage in that stub of Stillwell Avenue (sometimes cordoned off for the contest) right next to the original Nathan’s Famous between Surf Avenue and the boardwalk (and right across from the big public transit terminal). Though the event is now televised, the in-person crowd gets big and rowdy, and the beers seem to flow freely. It’s a free street event.

As someone who’s covered hot-dog-eating contests in Coney Island in person for work, I can also warn you that Nathan’s hot-dog-eating contest is not the way to work up an appetite for hot dogs (or anything else, really). Think of flying flecks of sodden and half-chewed buns, visibly nauseous contestants gagging on gnawed meat, and participants inhaling their vomit in gravity-defying feats of “sportsmanship.” I’m not exaggerating.

Food and Beverages

Though the original Nathan’s location on Surf is always open throughout the year, Nathan’s also opens a location right on the boardwalk during the summer. Like most of the restaurants on the boardwalk, it’s a counter service joint: You order and pay for your food and drinks at one end of the counter, pick it up, and then find a table on the boardwalk to eat it.

All of the restaurants on the boardwalk work generally the same way except for Tom’s, which used to be a full-service diner but has shifted over more to the counter-service model with indoor seating, and Ruby’s Bar & Grill, a beloved bar and eatery (and the only real bar right on the boardwalk), which uses counter service but has a real bar inside. Almost all the boardwalk restaurants also serve beer and frozen drinks (typically cloyingly, syrupy sweet).

Totonno’s, often touted as one of the best pizzerias in New York City, does indeed make a mean pie. However, it’s not on the boardwalk and has been takeout only since the pandemic. It’s on Neptune Avenue, about 3 somewhat unpleasant blocks north of the boardwalk, the B&B Carousel, and the Thunderbolt ride.

Since you can’t eat in the restaurant anymore, we will order a pie and take it to the boardwalk, where we can sit on a bench and watch the waves crash on the beach.

One thing to remember when you eat on the Coney Island boardwalk is that New York City seagulls, like the flying denizens of any seaside resort town, are eternally bold and hungry. If you’re not on your guard, they won’t hesitate to sneak up and swipe an unprotected sandwich or even nab a french fry right out of your hand.

Hot Tip:

You’re not going to find much in the way of points-and-miles hotels in Coney Island, but you can check out the best New York City points hotels in our handy guide.

Final Thoughts

Though Coney Island is past its heyday as the premier amusement capital of America, it’s managed to keep New Yorkers consistently entertained for some 150 years. Whether you’re visiting New York City for the first or 50th time, a trip to Coney Island is a time-honored way of having an authentic New York experience for a day. And if you’re a New Yorker like me, I hope I didn’t need to tell you not to go into the water.