Around 800 cherry blossom trees wither over the water in the hip, canal-centric neighbourhood of Nakameguro in Tokyo; their spines ain’t what they used to be.
From mid-to-late March, the canal is dressed as its festive best, the cherry blossom trees shedding over the narrow 3.8-km stretch, floating in the water to create a memorable piece of true-to-life cinema.
This is the Nakamegruo Sakura-matsuri Festival and it fills the European-like avenues with crowds of locals and visitors, each browsing streets lined with food, drink and snack stalls. It’s reliably the most exciting time to be in Tokyo, with a temperate breeze gently swaying different species of cherry blossom trees, some over 100 years old.
During this time you can also take a boat down the Chidori-ga-fuchi moat that runs around Tokyo’s Imperial Palace, admiring the thousands of pink and white cherry blossoms that crowd the shoreline. It’s a river safari for cherry blossom lovers.
Or you can catch a Shinkansen (and I highly recommend you do) over to Nara. But look beyond the famous Nara Park, where over a thousand shika deer manipulate food out of you by showing off a unique learned behaviour: bowing. You’ll want to bus to Mount Yoshino, a stunning UNESCO-minted mountain range known widely across Japan as the country’s best Hanami (Cherry Blossom viewing) spot. It is.
But while cherry blossom viewing is most closely associated with the Land of the Rising Sun, there’s another city with an abundance of transformative cherry blossom trees, where bright pink blooms and white bouquets turn the world’s most recognisable concrete jungle into a Hanami mecca.
Where Dreams Are Made Of…
I’m talking about New York City. It’s a city with so many moving parts that it’s hard to keep track of all the many things that change this dynamic urban sprawl every time a New York Minute ticks over. And so it’s no surprise that not many travellers know about NYC’s cherry blossom bonanza.
They’ll discover it most reliably towards the end of April, but timings differ wildly in New York depending on the winter season. If New York has a mild winter, those thousands of Cherry Blossoms scattered from Central Park to Sakura Park in Morningside Heights may start to bloom earlier than usual.
Last year when I went to New York City to work on this story, I had the most luck in the final week of April, stumbling upon a surreal, vivid walk of full-bloom Cherry Blossom trees while walking Central Park’s narrow Bridal Path. The narrow, hilly path sits west of The Great Lawn and stretches from 81st to 86th Street.
Most cherry blossoms in Central Park are spread between 72nd Street and 96th Street, with the highest density planted around the Reservoir. And it’s just as much of a blockbuster as the sights are over in Japan, perhaps even more set when looking up against that frame of famous skyscrapers from the park.
Other major spots for cherry blossom viewing in New York City include the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, where a dedicated Cherry Esplanade and Cherry Walk blanket the ground in a carpet of pink and white petals.
With 26 types of flowing cherry trees at this Brooklyn institution, browsing the massive park in late April is essential for those wanting to find the most romantic walks in New York. There’s even a collection of winter flowering cherries grown from cuttings taken from the Miharu Takizakura, a 1,000-year-old tree. The cuttings were a gift from the Japanese government.
Don’t Ignore Staten Island
There are 2,000 cherry trees in Sakura Park alone. Located in Morningside Heights, just inches from West Harlem, this underrated riverside neighbourhood features trees that were sent from Japan in the early 1900s. This is one of the more popular “local secrets” in April, with cherry blossom trees papering the strip from 100th Street to 125th Street. Cross on over to Marcus Garvey Park, bordering, Central and East Harlem for even more of these beautifying blooms.
Take the free ferry over to the oft-ignored Staten Island and you’ll find cherry trees that are much more spread out, rather than concentrated in one area. Set against the historic taverns and picturesque lakes, these blooms take on a mythical quality and, for a few days a year, Staten Island becomes the most beautiful place in New York City.
The True Value of Cherry Blossoms
In Japan, cherry blossoms are held up as sacred, magical flowers representing the fragility and beauty of life. I want to go a bit further than that.
Travel and mindfulness go hand-in-hand. You’re excited. You’re in the moment. You’re living more in the world than in your head; simply because of the novel factor. We need to constantly feed our brain new contexts or risk atrophy. That idea was never more obvious than during the pandemic.
Finding ways to add beauty to what you see in front of you – or even just recognising it – has its practical benefits. Its healing benefits. Nothing forces you to be more present than seeing the beauty of nature in front of you and to have this so aggressively contrasted with the citified swagger of New York City is special.
Just like seeing cherry blossoms in Tokyo and Osaka can make life seem infinitely more beautiful, watching them bloom around New York is a sight I can only wish everyone got to see at least once.
With global warming tending to make more extreme seasons, cherry blossom season will likely keep shifting each year. Your best bet is to time your visit for late April and use CherryWatch, a reliable online tracker that tells you which of New York City’s thousands of cherry blossom trees are in pre-bloom, first bloom, peak bloom or post-peak bloom.
Where should I stay in New York City?
If you’re heading over to see the Cherry Blossoms in New York, there are three places to stay that I’d highly recommend.
The Prince Kitano, Midtown | REVIEW
Above all else, you might want to keep that Japanese connection going. As such, check in to The Prince Kitano in Midtown on Park Avenue. The historic hotel is imbued with that warm, exceedingly helpful Japanese standard of service. Plus there’s a great omakase in the lower level and the oversized rooms are some of the largest in Manhattan. The top-tier suite even has traditional tatami flooring. Rates in late April 2025 should start from around $500-$600 AUD per night.
Tempo by Hilton, Times Square | REVIEW
A hotel in the heart of Times Square might sound like the very antithesis of peace. But Tempo by Hilton works its magic well, soaring above the tourist trap’s iconic red stairs with exceptionally comfortable, modern rooms that are tech’d out and, on request, can even feature a Peleton Bike so you can workout to the backdrop of Manhattan’s flashiest billboards. The location is perfect for exploring New York City, with the very well-connected 42nd Street Termina just inches away. You’re also a short walk from Central Park so you can wake up early and shower yourself in cherry blossoms before the crowds thicken. Rates in late April 2025 should start from around $500-$700 per night.
1 Hotel Central Park, Midtown | REVIEW
If you’re over in New York to check out the beauty of nature, then immersing yourself in biophilic design seems like a smart thing to do. While it does fetch a pretty penny, 1 Hotel Central Park is a gorgeous, nature-inspired hotel with an iconic facade draped in a verticle garden. Inside, the hotel furthers that commitment to bringing nature indoors with natural artwork, a clean-eating restaurant called Jams, and rooms that go far beyond just basic sustainability initiatives. Plus, you’re only a traffic light from Central Park so you can wake up fresh and early to see all those beautiful cherry trees in full bloom. Rates in late April 2025 should start from around $500-$700 per night.
