New York City is huge, and many of its best attractions are spread across different neighborhoods. A map makes it much easier to see what belongs together and plan each day without constantly traveling back and forth across the city.

Use the New York Itinerary Planner above to build your trip directly on the map. It's completely free and you don't need to sign up.

You can add markers for places you want to visit, draw routes between stops, highlight neighborhoods with shapes, add text and emojis, and use different colors to organize each day of your trip.

Color-Code Each Day of Your New York Itinerary

One of the easiest ways to organize your trip is to give each day its own color.

For example:

• Day 1: Blue markers and routes for Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn
• Day 2: Red markers and routes for Central Park and Midtown Manhattan
• Day 3: Green markers and routes for Chelsea, Greenwich Village and SoHo

Select a color from the toolbar before adding your markers, shapes or routes.

Once you've planned several days, you'll be able to look at the map and immediately understand which places belong to each day.

Add Markers for Places You Want to Visit

Use markers to plot all the places you're considering for your New York trip.

You can search for an address or place using the search bar, then drop a marker on the map.

Start with your must-see attractions. For a first trip to New York City, that might include:

• Central Park
• Times Square
• Empire State Building
• Rockefeller Center
• Brooklyn Bridge
• Statue of Liberty
• High Line

Don't worry about organizing everything immediately. Start by getting your ideas onto the map.

Once your markers are visible together, you'll begin to see which attractions are close to one another.

Draw Routes Between Your Stops

Once you've decided which places belong on the same day, use the Route Tool to connect them.

For example, a Midtown Manhattan route could connect:

‍Central Park → Rockefeller Center → Times Square → Empire State Building

Or a Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn route could connect:

One World Trade Center → Battery Park → Brooklyn Bridge → DUMBO

Drawing these routes makes it much easier to visualize the order in which you'll visit each place.

Use Shapes to Highlight Neighborhoods

Not every part of a New York itinerary needs to be a specific attraction.

Sometimes you just want to explore an area.

Use the Polygon Tool to draw around neighborhoods you want to explore, such as Greenwich Village, SoHo, Chinatown, the Lower East Side or DUMBO.

You could also use circles to highlight a general area you want to spend time in without planning every stop.

This is especially useful for parts of New York that are better explored on foot.

Add Text, Emojis and Arrows

Your itinerary doesn't have to be limited to markers.

Use text to label each day or add reminders directly to the map.

You could label sections:

• ‍DAY 1 — LOWER MANHATTAN
• DAY 2 — CENTRAL PARK + MIDTOWN
• DAY 3 — CHELSEA + DOWNTOWN

You can also add emojis to quickly distinguish different kinds of stops — for example, food, museums, parks or observation decks.

Arrows can be useful for showing the general direction you plan to travel, while the paintbrush lets you sketch directly on your itinerary.

Change the Map Style

You can also change the underlying map style.

Choose a style that makes your itinerary easy to read, especially if you're using lots of markers, routes, colors and labels.

The goal isn't just to make a good-looking map. It's to make your New York itinerary understandable at a glance.

Example: A 3-Day New York Itinerary

Not sure where to start? Here's one way you could organize a first trip to New York City.

Day 1: Lower Manhattan + Brooklyn

• Start in Lower Manhattan with the Financial District, Wall Street and One World Trade Center.
• From there, head toward Battery Park. If you're visiting the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, this is a natural day to do it.
• Later, walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and finish the day exploring DUMBO and Brooklyn Bridge Park.
• On your map, give all of these markers the same color and draw a route connecting the major stops.

Day 2: Central Park + Midtown Manhattan

• Start your second day in Central Park. You might add individual markers for Bethesda Terrace, Bow Bridge and Strawberry Fields rather than treating the entire park as a single stop.
• From Central Park, make your way south toward Rockefeller Center, Fifth Avenue and Times Square.
• You could finish the day at the Empire State Building, Top of the Rock or with a Broadway show.
• Give Day 2 a new color so it's immediately distinguishable from your first day.

Day 3: The High Line + Downtown

• Start around Hudson Yards and walk south along the High Line toward Chelsea.
• Stop at Chelsea Market, then continue toward Greenwich Village and Washington Square Park.
• From there, you can explore SoHo, Chinatown, Little Italy or the Lower East Side.
• Instead of adding a marker for every street you want to walk down, try drawing shapes around the neighborhoods you want to explore.

Tips for Planning Your New York City Itinerary

New York itineraries work best when you plan geographically.

Try to avoid choosing attractions for a day simply because they're high on your list. Look at where they actually are on the map.

If four places you want to visit are within walking distance of one another, they probably belong on the same day.

It also helps to leave some open space in your schedule. Neighborhoods like Greenwich Village, the West Village and SoHo are often more enjoyable when you have time to wander instead of rushing from one marker to the next.

Think of your itinerary as a few important anchors surrounded by optional stops.