Fort Tryon Park

Fort Tryon Park is a 66-acre stretch of lawns and landscaped gardens built on glacial formations near the northern tip of Manhattan. Completed in 1935, the park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr (son of the famed Central Park architect) and named after Sir William Tryon, the last New York governor under British rule. To the south of the park the majestic George Washington Bridge spans the Hudson River. Eastward overlooks the sprawling matchbook houses of the Bronx. But the real piece de resistance here is the panorama of the Palisades on the Jersey side of the Hudson. John D Rockefeller, Jr, who commissioned the park, reportedly bought up the real estate along the opposite shore so that future developers couldn't wreck the scenery. You can pull off such maneuvers when you're a Rockefeller.

Meanwhile, the Romanesque stone tower of the Cloisters looms above all this greenery. This museum of medieval art was reassembled from several European monasteries which were dismantled and shipped to the United States. Its collection includes stained glass, engravings, chalices, and columns, but the signature piece is certainly the allegorical "The Hunt of the Unicorn" tapestries.

For many New Yorkers Central Park is the go-to getaway from the city's turbulence. But the serene bluffs and stony ramparts of Fort Tryon Park provide a loftier escape, quite literally.