3. Pelham Bay Park, The Bronx

Bartow Pell Mansion
At a whopping 2,765 acres Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx is the largest park in New York City. Like the city’s other massive parks, Pelham Bay Park has the room and facilities to accommodate both sports and nature enthusiasts. But what sets it apart from the other parks is Orchard Beach, the Bronx’s only public beach, a man-made oceanfront created by Robert Moses.
Long before becoming a place of recreation, the parkland was the site a short lived colony founded by Anne Hutchinson, a former Puritan settler. The land would later become part of Pelham Manor and the site of the Revolutionary War Battle of Pell’s Point in 1776. According to the Friends of Pelham Bay Park, the stone walls American troops hid behind as they attacked the British forces are still present within the park’s golf course. Other spots to visit include the Bartow-Pell Mansion, a World War I statue, and a statue that is the remnant of a demolished athletic facility. Read more about what to check out in Pelham Bay Park here.