New York City: An Unorthodox Destination for the Nature Lover

The greenest city in America, New York City has one of the largest areas of greenery, with 25 percent of its 2,00,000 acres of land either parks or open spaces. The Big Apple may be one of the biggest financial centers and developed cities in the U.S., but home to 1700 parks and playgrounds, the city has one of the greenest ecologies in the United States.

The parks have a wide variety of facilities for you to make use of during your trip there. The normal range of sports facilities, such as basketball and soccer courts, bicycle tracks are available. If you want to push your New York Parks experience further, you can even kayak, hold a barbecue, or when the weather permits, go ice-skating at the rinks. Call your local park to find out more about your local park's facilities.

For those in search of a relaxing visit to the park, bird watching can be one of the activities to explore. Armed with a pair of binoculars and a pad of paper to sketch down your findings, you can scour the parks for species such as the woodpeckers and the Warblers at the Blue Heron Park. Bird watching enthusiasts can visit the New York Botanical Gardens, which offer guided tours on the park ecology, allowing you to learn more about not only the plant life, but the animal life there as well.

Or you could visit the Central Park Conservatory at Belvedere Castle, which allows you to loan a birdwatching kit from the park. Just bring your ID to loan the birdwatching kit from the park management, though this is not available to children the age of 6 and below.

Fishing is available at Willowbrook Park, which is also known for its Carousel. Let the kids loose at the playgrounds and the Carousel, and watch as their faces light up when the ride starts, while you sit by the water and wait for the fish to bite. You can also fish at the Charles A.

Dana Discovery Center at the Central Park, at it's catch-and-release fishing area. Meant for education of the public about the marine life in New York, the Discovery Center loans fishing poles to the public to catch fishes in its water, on the condition that once caught, must be let back out into the water.

To see the different varieties of gardens, you could visit the Central Park Conservatory Garden, which offers 6 acres of gardens which architecture is inspired by different cultures. The North Garden is modeled after a formal French garden, which has well clipped vegetation that are arranged in a formulaic manner. The South Garden is a traditional English garden, which features statues and water bodies as a trait of the garden. The Central Garden is an Italian inspired garden, featuring Italian architecture and garden design.

All in all, the parks are fantastic places to bring your family out for the weekend, with the wide range of facilities available for you and your loved ones to have good, healthy fun. Bring the kids over to the parks to educate them on the importance and the wonders of the green, green world, while letting them have fun at the pools and playgrounds that are placed specially for their enjoyment. Take plenty of pictures, and value New York as one of the greener cities to be in.