New York Guide and Deals

Fun Station USA fills its indoor space with the scaled-down amenities of an amusement park, such as mechanical rides, a multileveled maze, and a large concession stand stocked with carnival cuisine. At all hours of operation, the air buzzes with excitement—a byproduct of jingle-jangling machines, flashing lights, and splashes of color at every corner. After acquiring tickets from myriad arcade games that include skee-ball and air-cannon shooting galleries, revelers head to the redemption counter to exchange their winnings for prizes and foreign currency.

Settle traffic arguments by challenging an opposing driver to a duel on Boomers!'s speedy go-carts. Or just cruise solo, banking curves and outdriving total strangers in a wild day of rubber-burning and dust-eating. For crashtastic thrills, climb aboard a bumper boat and drift on the waterscape, floating amok and gleefully broadsiding fellow captains. A bit of the briny seeps into Boomers!'s mini-golf range, where it creates a sparkling blue hazard to complement the verdant greens. Finish the day with a feeling of accomplishment that comes only from climbing Boomers!'s big, giant rock wall. The 32-foot climbing surface has a variety of handholds and different climbing options, so explore them all with the three climbs. Be sure to check Boomers! Medford's hours before heading out.

Named one of America’s top 100 driving ranges by Golf Range Magazine in 2011, Broadway Driving Range & Miniature Golf invites golfers to launch towering drives under covered hitting bays toward a target field that stretches more than 350 yards. Golfers who favor a natural feel can hack through a bucket of balls at the range’s all-grass hitting areas; synthetic hitting mats cater to refined sand wedges that consider divots uncouth. Laid-back clubbers can practice pendulous putts at the complex’s miniature-golf course, where players circle around a barn built in 1932 through a farm-themed circuit of 18 miniature fairways featuring antique farm tools. Broadway Driving Range can cool down clients with soft-serve custard from Green Acres Ice Cream.

Timothy Haskell is no stranger to scaring folks: The Daily Beast considers his Nightmare series "one of the most frightening haunted-house productions in New York City." But when he teamed up with haunted-house vet Steve Kopelman, Timothy didn't want to keep populating creepy corridors with imaginary ghouls. At Nightmare: Killers, the duo tap into the true terror inspired by historical and contemporary serial killers to explore the monstrosity of their actions and the celebrity and cultural obsession surrounding them. The New York Times lauds the attraction as “a taut, assured production that knows exactly what it wants to do (scare the hell out of you) and performs its task with ruthless, coldblooded precision."

In the lobby, a gallery of artwork, memorabilia, and items from or about famous serial killers primes guests on the haunted attraction's theme and provides a glimpse into the warped minds of the killers in question. At the front of the line, personnel can mark any willing visitor’s forehead with an optional scarlet X, which will grant the actors permission to interact with those victims for the next petrifying 20–25 minutes. Inside the haunt, rooms depict scenes based on Ted Bundy and the Zodiac killer, with the occasional cameo from pop culture’s most fearsome fictional figures. To heighten heart rates even more, visitors will also have to navigate twists and turns, fog, and uneven footing as they desperately try to avoid becoming each psychopath’s latest victim.

The third-oldest zoo in the United States, the Buffalo Zoo was originally founded in 1875 as a deer park in the northwest corner of Delaware Park. Since then, it has grown into a 23.5-acre home for diverse species of mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish, all under the care of the Zoological Society of Buffalo, an organization dedicated to advancing the conservation of the world’s exotic, endangered, and ordinary animals. Within its habitats, creatures ranging from Asian elephants to poison arrow frogs serve as ambassadors from far-off kingdoms, and at the Delta Sonic Heritage Farm’s 1800s-era barn, a collection of berkshire pigs, southdown sheep, and other farm animals represents the fauna that once commonly lived along the Erie Canal. To carry out its educational mission, the zoo regularly hosts programs such as behind-the-scenes workshops and Zoo Snooze, in which kids can stay over for the night and wake up alongside the lions roaring angrily at their rooster alarm clocks.

The successor to Coney Island’s iconic amusement parks of the 20th century, Luna Park delights families with games, entertainment, and attractions ranging from classic spinning teacups to "The Cyclone Roller Coaster", an 85-foot roller coaster originally built in 1927. As youngsters acclimate to adrenaline on low-fi rides such as the Big Top Express, a colorful circus train featuring clowns, elephants, and a bright-red caboose, bigger kids and stilt-wearing toddlers dive in to such exciting diversions as the Wild River, a log flume that culminates in a sopping, 40-foot plunge. Luna Park packs even bigger thrills into roller coasters such as the Steeplechase, which accelerates from zero to 40 miles per hour in less than two seconds, and the Soarin’ Eagle, which glides above crowds on the paths below. Throughout the day, games such as Whac-a-Mole and Duck Pond challenge players’ skills at naming every animal’s Latin taxonomy.