Natural attractions - Landscape features

Landscape features include rivers and lakes, coastal features and hills, mountains and valleys. Many tourists find these very appealing.

Manhattan is the focal point of New York, and is an island with the Hudson River to the West and the East River to the East. This provides tourists with views over the rivers, which create interest.

Also, bridges, crossing over the rivers, although not natural attractions themselves, linking the various parts of New York such as the famous Brooklyn Bridge, help to create the tourist appeal of the city.

Rivers mean that tourists can take boat trips, getting away from the hustle and bustle of the city and perhaps keeping cool on hot days as well as providing the opportunity to take photographs.

Some tourists would enjoy a dinner cruise around the Hudson and East Rivers.

Also, the natural harbour of New York provides tourist interest through the vast array of shipping on view.

Apart from Manhattan Island, Ellis Island and Liberty Island are important landscape features which add to the tourist appeal of New York.

For tourists who want to venture away from Manhattan, New York is not far from good beaches on Long Island.

Coney Island is not in fact an island but is a seaside area to the south of Manhattan and Brooklyn on Long Island and is famous for its pleasure parks.

Most of the land of New York City is fairly flat and is lacking in features such as hills and valleys. The great value in this, as far as tourists are concerned is that it makes walking around the city easier. However, there are no natural features which provide panoramic views over the city; these are provided by built features such as the Empire State Building and the Rockefeller Centre.

Much of Central Park is not a natural landscape and cannot be referred to as a natural attraction. Most of the lakes were created as part of the design of the park. Only some of the outcrops of granite rock are natural. (One reason why so many skyscrapers have been built is because the underlying granite is extremely hard so it provides very firm foundations).

However, some tourists might decide to hire a car for a day or two and drive out of the city into upstate New York. Within a couple of hour’s drive of the city there are some interesting areas of hills and forest which could be included as they too form part of the appeal of New York.

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