Staten Island, NY

Staten Island is the southernmost of New York City's five boroughs, occupying most of Richmond County in the state of New York. With a population of roughly 475,000, it is the least densely populated of the boroughs and feels markedly different from its neighbors, blending suburban streets, parkland, and waterfront with a more residential, small-town pace. Best known as the home of the free Staten Island Ferry, the borough also offers some of the most direct public views of the Statue of Liberty and Lower Manhattan and serves as a gateway to the Staten Island units of the Gateway National Recreation Area. It sits approximately five miles southwest of Manhattan across New York Harbor, connected to Brooklyn by the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and to New Jersey by three crossings further west.

The Staten Island Ferry is the borough's marquee attraction, running between the St. George Terminal on the island and Whitehall Terminal in Lower Manhattan around the clock. The roughly 25-minute ride is free for all riders and passes close to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, making it a staple New York experience. On the St. George side, ferry riders step off into a small waterfront district of restaurants, the historic St. George Theatre, and esplanades that look directly back at the skyscrapers of Lower Manhattan.

A short drive from the ferry terminal, Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden occupies about 83 acres on the island's north shore. The grounds, once a 19th-century retirement home for sailors, now contain a campus of museums, galleries, performance spaces, and the New York Chinese Scholar's Garden, set among formal gardens and a row of preserved Greek Revival buildings. It is one of the larger adaptive reuse projects of its kind in the country and a frequent stop for families and culturally curious travelers.

Historic Richmond Town sits near the geographic center of the island and is the borough's main destination for early American history. The site gathers dozens of preserved and restored structures spanning the 17th through 19th centuries, with costumed interpreters, a working farm, and craft demonstrations throughout the season. Together with the Staten Island Historical Society collections, it offers a quiet counterpoint to the better-known historic sites of lower Manhattan.

The Gateway National Recreation Area includes several Staten Island units, most notably Fort Wadsworth beneath the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, Great Kills Park along the southern shoreline, and Miller Field to the east. Managed by the National Park Service, the multi-thousand-acre recreation area layers beaches, salt marshes, and birding hotspots over centuries of coastal defense history, giving the borough some of the city's most accessible parkland.

Staten Island's mix of harbor views, green space, and historic sites, paired with a quick ferry ride into the heart of Manhattan, makes it a quietly compelling base for short-term rentals. Guests can spend a day on a National Park Service beach or wandering an 18th-century village and still make it to a Broadway show by evening, all while staying in a setting that feels a step removed from the city's busier corridors.