A New Yorker’s Guide to Times Square: How To Watch the Ball Drop

Depending on your point of view, Times Square is the Crossroads of the World, an exciting public forum of the best and boldest New York City and America have to offer — in the loudest, proudest way possible. Or it’s the least favorite part of your commute.

Either way, we’re here to offer you a New Yorker’s insight into exploring the loudly beating, but sometimes stinky and annoying, heart of the Big Apple.

History of Times Square

Times Square started in colonial and early American New York City as Longacre Square, the site of a manor house, farmland, horse-breeding lands, and later a hub for horse-drawn carriages.

In 1904, publisher Adolph Ochs moved his newspaper, the New York Times, to a new, 25-story building on Longacre Square. But, as a key part of the move, he pressured the city to build a subway station there. Longacre Square was renamed after the New York Times. (The Times is no longer in Times Square, having moved to a new, 52-story building on Eighth Avenue a few blocks away in 2007. The old New York Times Building, now known as One Times Square, is still the site of the New Year’s ball drop, a tradition that started in 1907.)

Over the next few decades, Times Square became the locus of public and commercial activity in New York City, the closest thing the city had to a universal public forum. Theaters and dance halls filled it up, as did both locals and tourists, earning its moniker as the Crossroads of the World.

Starting in the 1960s, however, Times Square began being known more for its peepshows, strip clubs, adult theaters, and prostitution, and the square became emblematic of New York City’s greater issues with a failing economy and rising crime. Think “Taxi Driver.”

The city drew up plans to revitalize the area in the late 1980s, accelerating its efforts in the 1990s by taking over several adult theaters and working with the newly reinvigorated Times Square Alliance of local businesses and the Disney company (which bought and renovated the New Amsterdam Theater) to push out seedy shops and prostitutes and bring in tourists and families. It was a controversial move, with many locals decrying it as the “Disneyfication” of New York City under Mayor Rudy Giuliani and a blow to low-income New Yorkers who were forced out. Others saw it as a long-needed cleaning up of a blighted neighborhood.

The Times Square of today is largely a tourist, shopping, and restaurant zone, although it’s also the home of many office towers where many people from the New York metropolitan area work. Though it’s no longer a crime-ridden area, it’s been the site of a couple of failed terrorist attacks in the last couple of decades and continues to be considered a high-profile potential terrorist target, a fact the New York Police Department is acutely aware of. That’s the reason for the relatively high presence of patrol officers you’ll see here.

Location of Times Square

In the simplest terms, Times Square starts in the south on 42nd Street and goes north to 47th Street, starts in the west on Seventh Avenue, and ends in the east on Broadway. The reality, of course, is more complicated since Times Square has never actually been square-shaped (it’s more like a bowtie) and has always been defined more as the area around the confluence of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street with Duffy Square thrown in for good measure.

If you hopped on almost any subway train in New York City, you’d probably get to Times Square at some point — the Times Square-42nd Street subway station, the biggest in the system, serves the 1, 2, 3, 7, N, R, Q, and W lines as well as the 42nd Street subway shuttle.

On foot, Times Square is about a 15-minute walk directly south of Central Park, 15 minutes north (and a block and a half west) of the Empire State Building, and about 5 minutes west of Rockefeller Center.

Times Square is about 50 minutes by car from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), 30 minutes from LaGuardia Airport (LGA), and about 30 minutes from Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) — depending on the favor of the traffic gods, of course.

Hot Tip:

Times Square-42nd Street station is the hub of the New York City subway system, so Times Square’s likely the simplest place to get to in the entire city. The 1, 2, 3, 7, N, R, Q, and W lines all pass through here, with both the local and express trains making stops here. You can also take the A, C, E lines to 42nd Street-Port Authority Bus Terminal and walk a couple blocks east; the B, D, F, M lines to 42nd Street-Bryant Park and walk a couple blocks west; or the 4, 5, 6 (or 7, if you weren’t paying attention and missed the Times Square stop from 34th Street-Hudson Yards) to Grand Central-42nd Street and walk a few blocks west.

Activities

Obviously, the biggest event in Times Square is the annual New Year’s Eve countdown to watch the ball drop from the needle atop the rooftop of One Times Square — the NYPD typically estimates over 1 million revelers in the square that night, though other estimates have gone as high as 2 million. Meanwhile, some experts pooh-pooh both figures and say the figure is most likely under 100,000.

But there are other things to do in Times Square when it’s not December 31, too.

New Year’s Eve in Times Square

The New Year’s Eve Ball rises to the top of the pole around 6 p.m. on December 31 on One Times Square. The NYPD begins cordoning off pedestrian traffic in Times Square in the afternoon starting at 43rd Street and Broadway and working their way north. (The police start even earlier for vehicular traffic — 4 a.m.) You can only enter the area from specific entry points:

• 49th Street from Sixth and Eighth avenues
• 52nd Street from Sixth and Eighth avenues
• 56th Street from Sixth and Eighth avenues

The NYPD will not allow you to walk northbound or southbound or cross intersections at all. So if you’re going to Times Square east of Broadway or Seventh Avenue, you have to enter at Sixth Avenue at the nearest cross street to where you’re going. If you’re going someplace west of Broadway or Seventh Avenue, get in on Eighth Avenue at the cross street nearest to your destination. If you’re going to a restaurant or bar on 42nd Street, enter at 41st Street and Eighth Avenue.

Don’t bother trying to get to Times Square by car on December 31 — the subway is your best (and basically only) bet.

Hot Tip:

The best place to see the ball drop is along Broadway between 43rd and 50th streets or Seventh Avenue up to 59th Street. Video screens showing the ball and the night’s musical performances are also on the walls of One Times Square and around the square.

Entrance into the viewing pens is free and first come, first served, and they open at 3 p.m. If you plan on meeting people who are arriving separately, try to use the same entry points into Times Square and have backups in case the viewing area you want has filled up before you arrive. The NYPD will close off these pens as they deem them at capacity. (And good luck actually finding each other!)

If you leave a full viewing pen, the police will not let you back in. So be sure to pack warmly and bring snacks for when you get hungry.

There are no port-a-potties in Times Square on New Year’s Eve, and you shouldn’t expect any businesses to let you use their restrooms if you’re not a customer, whether it’s New Year’s or not, so be prepared to hold it all night.

The police will search bags. These items are strictly forbidden in Times Square on New Year’s Eve:

• Alcohol (remember: public drinking is against the law in New York City)
• Backpacks
• Large bags
• Large coolers
• Lawn chairs and folding chairs
• Picnic blankets
• Umbrellas

There’s a designated viewing area for people with disabilities at 44th Street and Broadway, and American Sign Language interpreters are working here. Email info@timessquarenyc.org ahead of time for more details.

Many of the restaurants and hotels with views of the ball drops offer special viewing events (for a price, of course, unless you know someone). Be sure to get instructions from the venue about how to get in on the evening of December 31.

Hot Tip:

The following hotels, bars, and restaurants have a view of the ball drop:

Bar 54 at the Hyatt Centric Times Square New York
Beast and Butterflies at the M Social
Bubba Gump Shrimp Company
The Knickerbocker
New York Marriott Marquis
Olive Garden
R Lounge
Renaissance New York Times Square Hotel
Tempo by Hilton New York Times Square

Be wary of companies or people offering ludicrously priced “all-access passes” or something similar that supposedly lets you in and out of several venues in Times Square. The NYPD doesn’t let you use these passes (many of which are fake) to cross police lines, so you’ll most likely find you’ve shelled out hundreds of dollars (or more) to be stuck outside behind the same police barriers as everyone else. Also, remember that the public viewing areas are totally free, and anyone who tries to sell you access to one is scamming you.

If you actually make it to 11:59 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, you’ll see that it takes 60 seconds for the ball to descend from the top of the pole to the bottom of the pole. And you’ll probably end up inadvertently taking home a few strips of the 1 ton of confetti the official Times Square confetti cannons team drops on celebrants each year at midnight.

If, however, you want to do like the locals do and would rather do anything else besides being packed in with possibly a million strangers on one of the coldest nights of the year in Times Square, you can always watch the ball drop online for free. Starting at 6 p.m. on December 31, TimesSquareNYC.org streams the night’s festivities free of commercials — and you’re allowed to drink Champagne and leave the room to use the restroom as many times as you like.

See a Broadway Show

The Theater District, also known as the Great White Way, was named for the bright lights of Broadway’s marquees. This area feeds into and includes Times Square, starting on 42nd Street and Broadway and ending at 53rd Street and Broadway.

The most foolproof way to see a Broadway show is to buy tickets online way ahead of time. You can buy tickets directly from the theater hosting the performance you want to see, but there are a lot of shows and theaters, so it can be confusing. You can also find all current shows on and buy tickets from broadway.org, which is the website of the Broadway League, the alliance of Broadway theaters. You can also buy tickets from the 2 ticket vendors that handle most of the theaters’ business: Telecharge (212-239-6200) and Ticketmaster (866-870-2717).

If this is more of a last-minute decision, you can go in person to the box office of the specific theater you want to go to after 12 p.m. but before the opening time. You can also find discounted tickets to shows at the TKTS booth, which is run by the nonprofit Theatre Development Fund. The booth is at W. 47th Street and Broadway, on the north end of Times Square and by the bleacher seats.

Hot Tip:

A Broadway theater is considered any theater in the Theater District with a seating capacity of 500 or more. Off-Broadway refers to any New York City theater with a seating capacity of 100 to 499. Off-off-Broadway is a New York City theater that seats under 100.

Madame Tussauds

Though the Madame Tussauds wax museum started off with Marie Tussaud making wax impressions of the decapitated heads of the guillotine victims of the French Revolution, it’s now on 42nd Street with displays of modern celebrities, both living and dead.

General admission starts at $39.99. The museum includes 5 floors of sometimes startlingly lifelike wax figures, real bars populated with wax figures of famous people like the Kardashians, and a small theater showing 4D movies (3D movies with additional effects like air being blown into your face during a scene with wind).

What To Avoid in Times Square

Like many areas around the world derided as tourist traps, Times Square has its share of in-your-face touts, costumed figures, and desnudas — topless women in body paint. The touts typically card placards advertising hop-on, hop-off bus tours of the city, while the costumed characters and desnudas want you to pay them to take photos with them.

The costumed characters can be aggressive, and unless you really want a photo with a complete stranger dressed as Elmo or Spider-Man, your best bet is to avoid engaging with them. There’s no need to be rude, of course — they are human beings — but you’re under no obligation to have a conversation with them, go with them anywhere, or even make eye contact (this is New York City, after all).

On 45th Street and Broadway around lunchtime, you may also encounter the Naked Cowboy, an Ohio man who’s been playing his guitar in a cowboy hat, cowboy boots, white briefs, and basically nothing else since 1999. If you take a photo of him, he expects you to pay him.

Where To Stay in Times Square

Times Square has been a popular district for hotels and visitors for over a century, and it currently includes points hotels from every major hospitality loyalty program.

Here are a few, but note that it will be next to impossible to find any availability for December 31, even far out.

New York Marriott Marquis (Marriott Bonvoy)

1535 Broadway

With its direct view of the ball drop, the Marriott Marquis is a perennial favorite and has a restaurant and bar with a view of Times Square, as well as an eighth-floor terrace.

Renaissance New York Times Square (Marriott Bonvoy)

2 Times Square

Another Marriott hotel with views of the ball drop, the Renaissance has terrace rooms over Times Square.

The Knickerbocker Hotel (Leaders Club)

6 Times Square

Though it’s not a member of a mainstream loyalty program, the Knickerbocker does have a view of the New Year’s Eve ball drop. It has a Charlie Palmer steakhouse, a rooftop bar, and rooms with 12-foot ceilings.

Hyatt Centric Times Square New York (World of Hyatt)

135 W. 45th St.

The Hyatt Centric has — what it boasts of as — the highest hotel cocktail bar in the city on the 54th floor.

Tempo by Hilton New York Times Square (Hilton Honors)

1568 Broadway

The Hilton Honors loyalty program’s toe in Times Square, the Tempo also has an outdoor terrace and a restaurant with views of the city.

Hard Rock Hotel New York (Unity by Hard Rock)

159 W. 48th St.

The Hard Rock Hotel New York’s location in Times Square is hard to beat if you’re really into Times Square and the kind of music that appeals primarily to men of a certain age. It has a rooftop bar and a restaurant. It is, a little confusingly, about 6 blocks north of Times Square’s Hard Rock Cafe.

Hot Tip:

You don’t have to stay in Times Square to get the Times Square experience, you know. Here’s our guide to the best points-and-miles hotels in Gotham.

Where To Shop in Times Square

Disney Store

1540 Broadway

It did put the “Disney” in the Disneyfication of Times Square, so it’s no surprise there’s a flagship Disney store on Broadway. It’s not huge, but you can get your fix of the characters from “Frozen,” Marvel, and “Star Wars” here.

M&M’s World

1600 Broadway

For some reason, Times Square is where to find both various kinds of M&M’s candies and the anthropomorphized marketing characters based on said candies. Note that the machines where you can print custom M&M’s with your photo are on the second floor, and the lines can can get long.

Hershey’s Chocolate World

701 Seventh Ave.

This milk chocolate brand wages war against the M&Ms army across the street in its own store. On a cold winter day, though, a cup of Hershey’s melted hot chocolate can be a family lifesaver.

The Fantastic World of the Portuguese Sardine

1592 Broadway

Yes, this is a novelty store dedicated specifically to a single kind of fish. And not just that, a single kind of fish from a single country. You can get tinned sardines in different sauces, but they also have tins categorized by year, sardines sprinkled with gold flakes, and other seafood in cans.

Where To Eat in Times Square

Carmine’s

200 W. 44th St.

This age-old Italian restaurant is a family-friendly, wildly popular place where you’ll almost definitely need reservations and will likely be dining among several large parties.

Ellen’s Stardust

1650 Broadway

The lines are long, and the food’s … well, let’s just call it acceptable. But the real draw here is the staff, who are made up of struggling actors hoping that their next gig will be in one of the nearby theaters on Broadway (and, indeed, several Broadway actors have been discovered here). Though it’s obvious they’re here for their big breaks, the waitstaff is friendly and breaks out into song all the time, so it’s really more about the show than the Sysco frozen burgers.

Hard Rock Cafe

1501 Broadway

If you’ve been to a Hard Rock Cafe anywhere in the world, you know pretty much what you’re getting in any other. The Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square distinguishes itself with an outdoor space above the marquee that overlooks Times Square.

Krispy Kreme

1601 Broadway

I almost stuck this between the M&M’s store and Hershey’s store in the shopping section, since this 4,500-square-foot flagship store is in many ways more like them, with its loads of doughnut-themed paraphernalia for sale, than a place like Carmine’s or Ellen’s Stardust. But it does indeed serve freshly made doughnuts in a wide variety of permanent and seasonal flavors, and you can see them being made before you sink your teeth in.

Jimmy’s Corner

140 W. 44th St.

I genuinely struggled with whether or not to include this dive bar in this list, as it’s one of the few old-school, locally loved institutions that you’ll rarely see a tourist in despite the fact that it’s in the heart of the most tourist-heavy neighborhood in the entire city.

Jimmy’s is a tiny bar the size and shape of a cramped apartment building hallway that’s the legacy of late boxing trainer Jimmy Glenn (who succumbed to COVID-19). Glenn rubbed elbows with greats like Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, and it’s this bar that’s featured in one of the greatest movies of all time, boxing-related or not: “Raging Bull” (it’s where Jake LaMotta, played by Robert DeNiro, tries his hand at standup comedy — DeNiro’s stage is simply the top step leading to the back room).

Once you’re sick of the chain restaurants and nonstop billboards and lights, Jimmy’s is the “real New York” antidote for the Times Squareness of it all.

Final Thoughts

Times Square is not a ‘80s Charles Bronson movie, and you won’t be robbed by roving gangs in this public plaza, but it also hasn’t been infantilized and turned into a New York-themed Disney World amusement park. Either way, you’ll likely willingly give just as much money for photo-printed M&M’s, gold-flaked sardines, and, if you’re coming on the last day of the year, a sliver of a view of a rooftop ball drop.

So keep your expectations realistic, your wallet handy, and — if you’re watching the ball drop — make sure everyone visits the restroom beforehand.