Coney Island

Discovering Coney Island

There is a moment on the D train, somewhere around the 20th Street station in southern Brooklyn, when the subway rises from underground darkness onto elevated tracks and the landscape opens up. The tight grid of row houses falls away, the sky widens, and in the distance — past the auto body shops and the public housing towers and the old Italian social clubs — you see it: the skeleton of the Cyclone roller coaster, the bright arc of the Wonder Wheel, and beyond them, the flat silver line of the Atlantic Ocean. This is how you arrive at Coney Island, and the approach matters. The hour-long subway ride from Midtown Manhattan is a journey from the center of the most vertical, compressed city on earth to a flat, wide-open stretch of sand, sea, and spectacle that has functioned as New York’s collective pressure valve for more than 150 years.

Coney Island is not a theme park. It is not a resort. It is a neighborhood at the southern tip of Brooklyn — a real place where people live year-round, where the subway terminates at the end of the line, where the architecture ranges from pre-war apartment buildings to public housing projects to the candy-colored facades of amusement parks. What makes it extraordinary is the accumulation of layers. Since the 1880s, when the first rail lines connected this remote sandbar to the growing metropolis of Brooklyn and Manhattan, Coney Island has been reinventing itself as America’s playground. Dreamland, Luna Park (the original, not the current incarnation), Steeplechase Park — these were not mere amusement parks but fantastical miniature cities of electric light, mechanical wonder, and democratic pleasure. For a nickel subway fare, a garment worker from the Lower East Side could ride the same rides, eat the same hot dogs, and walk the same boardwalk as a banker from Park Avenue. That radical democratization of leisure — the idea that the ocean and the rollercoaster and the hot dog belonged to everyone — became Coney Island’s foundational identity, and it persists today.

The Riegelmann Boardwalk, built in 1923 and stretching 2.5 miles along the beach, is the spine of the Coney Island experience. It is wide enough to accommodate strollers, cyclists, joggers, couples walking arm-in-arm, and clusters of teenagers blasting music from portable speakers without anyone feeling crowded. On a summer afternoon, the boardwalk is one of the most diverse public spaces in America — Russian grandmothers from Brighton Beach, Dominican families from Washington Heights, hipsters from Williamsburg, tourists from Tokyo and Berlin, lifelong Brooklynites who have been coming since childhood. Everyone faces the same direction: toward the ocean, where the waves break on sand that stretches to the horizon line of the Atlantic.

Luna Park & The Rides

The current Luna Park, opened in 2010 on the site of the old Astroland park, carries forward a name with deep Coney Island roots. The original Luna Park opened in 1903 and was a sensation — 250,000 electric lights illuminated its towers and minarets, creating a skyline of fantasy architecture visible from miles away. That park burned down in 1944, but the name and the spirit survived. Today’s Luna Park is a modern amusement park with over 30 rides, anchored by two machines that predate it by nearly a century.

The Cyclone, built in 1927 by the Harry C. Baker Company, is a wooden roller coaster that stands as both a New York City Landmark and a National Historic Landmark. It is 2,640 feet of track, an 85-foot first drop at a 58-degree angle, and a top speed of 60 miles per hour — numbers that sound modest by the standards of modern steel coasters but feel absolutely terrifying when you are rattling through them in a wooden car on a wooden track held together by engineering principles from the Coolidge administration. The ride lasts one minute and fifty seconds. Riders emerge shaking, laughing, and occasionally crying. Charles Lindbergh reportedly said it was more thrilling than flying. A single ride costs $10, or it is included in the unlimited day pass. The Cyclone is the reason Coney Island exists in the American imagination, and riding it is non-negotiable.

The Wonder Wheel, built in 1920 by the Eccentric Ferris Wheel Company (a name that proved prophetic), is a 150-foot Ferris wheel with a design unlike any other in the world. Sixteen of its 24 cars are mounted on internal tracks that allow them to slide inward toward the hub and back out again as the wheel rotates — a swinging, lurching motion that produces genuine startlement even in riders who have been on a hundred Ferris wheels. The remaining eight cars are stationary, offering a calmer ride with the same views: the full sweep of the Brooklyn coastline, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge connecting Brooklyn to Staten Island, the distant towers of Lower Manhattan, and on clear days, the curve of the New Jersey shore. Like the Cyclone, the Wonder Wheel is a city landmark. A single ride is $10.

Beyond these two icons, Luna Park offers the Thunderbolt — a modern steel coaster with a 115-foot vertical drop, a zero-gravity roll, and a top speed of 55 mph — along with family rides, spinning rides, midway games, and the Soarin’ Eagle, a suspended coaster where riders fly face-down over the park. Day passes ($50 unlimited, $35 for four hours) are the best value for anyone planning more than a handful of rides.

Nathan’s Famous & The Food

Nathan’s Famous has occupied the corner of Surf Avenue and Stillwell Avenue since 1916, when Nathan Handwerker — a Polish immigrant who had worked at a competing Coney Island hot dog stand — opened his own counter selling frankfurters for five cents each, half the price of his former employer. The nickel hot dog made Nathan’s an institution. More than a century later, the original location remains the flagship, and eating a hot dog here is one of New York’s essential food rituals. The classic order is a beef frank with spicy brown mustard and sauerkraut. Crinkle-cut fries, available in a cup or a bucket, are the mandatory side. A hot dog and fries will run you about $12 — not the nickel bargain of 1916, but still one of the cheapest and most satisfying meals in New York City.

Every Fourth of July, Nathan’s hosts the International Hot Dog Eating Contest on its outdoor stage — a spectacle of competitive consumption that draws ESPN cameras, thousands of spectators, and the world’s top speed eaters. The current record, held by Joey Chestnut, stands at 76 hot dogs in ten minutes. Whether you find this inspiring or horrifying, it is undeniably Coney Island.

Beyond Nathan’s, the Coney Island food landscape extends in several directions. Totonno’s Pizzeria Napolitano, on Neptune Avenue a few blocks from the boardwalk, has been making coal-oven pizza since 1924 — the thin, charred, blistered crust topped with fresh mozzarella and San Marzano tomato sauce is among the best pizza in New York City, which means among the best in the world. Totonno’s is cash only, serves whole pies only ($22-28), and keeps irregular hours that sometimes involve closing when the dough runs out. Call ahead. Walk east along the boardwalk to Brighton Beach, and the food shifts entirely to Russian, Ukrainian, and Georgian cuisine — piroshki stuffed with meat or potato ($3-4) from bakeries on Brighton Beach Avenue, khachapuri (Georgian cheese bread, $8-10) at Chaikhana, and full seafood spreads with live music at Tatiana Restaurant on the boardwalk ($25-40 entrees).

The New York Aquarium

The New York Aquarium, operated by the Wildlife Conservation Society, sits on the boardwalk between the amusement park zone and Brighton Beach. It is the oldest continuously operating aquarium in the United States, founded in 1896 at Castle Clinton in Battery Park and relocated to Coney Island in 1957. The aquarium took severe damage during Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and has been undergoing a multi-phase rebuilding process that continues to transform its facilities.

Ocean Wonders: Sharks! is the marquee exhibit — a 57,000-square-foot building that takes visitors through recreations of New York’s ocean habitats, from the Hudson River Canyon to the deep Atlantic, with sand tiger sharks, sandbar sharks, and rays gliding through 500,000-gallon tanks. The exhibit makes the connection explicit: these species live in the waters just offshore from where you are standing. The aquarium also features sea lion shows, penguin exhibits, touch pools with rays and sea stars, and seasonal outdoor exhibits. Admission is $27 for adults, $22 for children (3-12), free for children under 3. The aquarium is open year-round, making it one of Coney Island’s few off-season attractions.

Brighton Beach — Little Odessa

Walk east along the boardwalk for fifteen minutes from Luna Park and you cross an invisible cultural border. The amusement park colors fade, the signs switch from English to Cyrillic, and the soundtrack shifts from pop music and carnival barkers to Russian ballads and the clatter of dominoes on folding tables. Brighton Beach — known as Little Odessa for the wave of Soviet Jewish immigrants who settled here beginning in the 1970s — is one of New York’s most distinctive ethnic neighborhoods and a destination in its own right.

Brighton Beach Avenue, the main commercial street running beneath the elevated B and Q subway tracks, is a sensory experience unlike anything else in the city. Grocery stores display smoked fish, pickled vegetables, dried fruits, and candies with labels entirely in Russian. Bakeries sell black bread, pirozhki, and pastries layered with poppy seeds and sweetened farmer’s cheese. Fur shops — an incongruous sight in the age of fast fashion — stand beside pharmacies advertising herbal remedies and beside restaurants where the menus run to ten pages and the vodka arrives in carafes set in ice buckets.

The boardwalk section of Brighton Beach operates on a different rhythm from Coney Island’s carnival energy. Older residents sit on benches, playing cards and chess, watching the waves, speaking Russian and Ukrainian and Georgian. On summer weekends, the beach fills with families who bring elaborate picnic setups — folding tables, grilled meats, salads in Tupperware, bottles of wine. The atmosphere is communal, unhurried, and deeply rooted in a community that has transplanted its culture across an ocean and maintained it with remarkable tenacity.

The Beach & The Boardwalk

The beach itself deserves separate attention, because Coney Island’s beach is not merely an appendage to the amusement parks — it is the original attraction, the reason anyone came here in the first place, and it remains one of the most remarkable urban beaches in the world. Two and a half miles of sand, free and open to everyone, facing the open Atlantic Ocean, accessible by a $2.90 subway ride from anywhere in New York City. On a peak summer Saturday, the beach can hold 100,000 people, and even at that density the sheer scale of the shoreline absorbs the crowd.

Swimming is permitted in designated areas when lifeguards are on duty (Memorial Day through Labor Day, 10 AM to 6 PM). The water is the Atlantic — cool in early summer (mid-60s Fahrenheit in June), warming to the mid-70s by August, with moderate waves and a sandy bottom that drops off gradually. The undertow can be significant after storms, so swim near lifeguard stations and heed flag warnings. There are no beach chair or umbrella rentals from the city — bring your own or buy a cheap umbrella from the vendors on Surf Avenue ($10-15).

The boardwalk experience changes with the time of day. Mornings are quiet — joggers, dog walkers, elderly residents doing tai chi near the fishing pier. By noon on summer weekends, the full carnival atmosphere is in motion: music, food vendors, street performers, the distant screams from the Cyclone, the percussive crash of waves. Late afternoon brings golden light, lengthening shadows, and a softening of the day’s intensity. Evening is when Coney Island becomes most cinematic — the neon of Luna Park against the darkening sky, the Wonder Wheel lit up like a jeweled clock, the boardwalk crowds thinning to couples and small groups walking in the salt air.

The Mermaid Parade & Cultural Life

The Mermaid Parade, held annually on the Saturday closest to the summer solstice, is Coney Island’s signature cultural event and one of the largest art parades in the United States. Founded in 1983 by the non-profit arts organization Coney Island USA, the parade draws thousands of participants in handmade costumes — mermaids, sea creatures, mythological figures, elaborate floats — down Surf Avenue and onto the boardwalk. It is a celebration of creativity, body positivity, and the eccentricity that Coney Island has always nurtured. There is no corporate sponsorship, no barricades separating marchers from spectators, and no dress code beyond the loosely marine theme. A King Neptune and Queen Mermaid are crowned each year (past honorees include David Byrne, Lou Reed, and Queen Latifah). The parade is free to watch. Participating costs a small registration fee and requires a costume.

Coney Island USA, headquartered in a building on Surf Avenue, also operates the Coney Island Museum ($5 admission) — a small but fascinating collection of sideshow memorabilia, historical photographs, vintage ride parts, and artifacts from the neighborhood’s golden age. The associated Sideshows by the Seashore presents live sideshow performances (sword swallowing, fire eating, contortion) on summer weekends — a direct continuation of the tradition that made Coney Island famous as a place where the unusual was celebrated rather than marginalized.

Planning Your Visit

A full day at Coney Island follows a natural rhythm. Arrive by late morning to claim beach space before the crowds peak. Swim, sunbathe, and people-watch through the early afternoon. Walk to Nathan’s for a late lunch. Spend the afternoon at Luna Park — ride the Cyclone first (the line grows as the day progresses), then the Wonder Wheel, then explore the rest of the park. Walk east along the boardwalk to Brighton Beach for a Russian dinner as the sun drops. Return to the Coney Island section of the boardwalk for the evening atmosphere — Luna Park lit up, the ocean darkening, the summer air carrying salt and sugar in equal measure. Catch the D train back to Manhattan with sand in your shoes and mustard on your shirt. This is the correct Coney Island experience.

For those who want to stay overnight, hotel options in Coney Island itself are limited but growing. The area is best used as a day trip from Manhattan or Brooklyn accommodations, with the subway providing easy access. If you do stay locally, Brighton Beach has several small hotels and the neighborhood offers a more residential, less tourist-oriented base.

The best strategy for summer weekends is to arrive early. The beach and boardwalk are open by 6 AM, and the morning hours offer a Coney Island that most visitors never see — quiet, atmospheric, with fishermen casting from the pier and the rides standing motionless against the sky. Luna Park typically opens at noon on weekends (11 AM on some holidays), and Nathan’s opens at 10 AM. By 1 PM on a hot Saturday, the area is packed. Weekdays in June and September offer the ideal balance: warm weather, operational rides, and manageable crowds.