The sliding scale of how outdoorsy you want to be

By

Glamping  —> Primitive Survival Techniques

I have a few major hurdles to get over with the outdoors-thing. First, I have arachnophobia.  I still call my dad, who is 250 miles away and not amused, when I find a spider in my apartment. I’m also overly worried of getting lyme disease and I can’t sleep in tents because I’m entirely convinced there’s a serial killer lurking directly outside. That being said, I love woods, as 80% of the reason I ran cross country was to live out Pocahontas. The other 20% can be attributed to terrible hand eye coordination and a general fear of flying objects.
Living in any city can be soul crushing at times; we all have those mornings we wake up and literally want to run away and go live a simple, solitary existence in van on the banks of some body of water in Patagonia. But then you realize how difficult it is to get a ready-to-eat rotisserie chicken and you slip back into the urban prison of your own creation. So we’ve talked about Governor’s Island in the past, but depending on your physical and emotional flexibility/need for proximity to easily purchasable snacks, here’s a solid line up of ways to recharge your batteries with some element of nature and varying degrees of transit commitment:
a

The nerd and 7-year-old-who-wanted-to-be-an-Egyptologist in me loves that there are still fairly well hidden secrets in Central Park. Next time you’re in the park, send yourself on a scavenger hunt. Most things should be easy to find – the gold start is finding one of the original bolts that was used to map the Manhattan grid over 200 years ago.

a

The Honorable William Wall is a floating clubhouse right off Manhattan, open Tuesday through Saturday all the way through mid-October. Ferries leave every 30 minutes from Brookfield place and for a breezy $20 you can enjoy cocktails on the open water like the pirate you are.

a

So there are two camps (pun intended) of hiking options for New York City dwellers: those that lie within public transit distance and those that require a car and patience for a multi-hour drive.  Both most likely have spiders and ticks so I will resort to glamping but enjoy.
a

New York City and her lovely boroughs have a wild number of secret gardens that can serve as areas to lunch, lounge, work, think, drink, tan, nap, snack, instagram, scroll through instagram…I can keep going…

 

The Tipsy Taco Festival is technically outdoors so that’s why it’s on this list. That, plus the combination of East Williamsburg being a Narnia-esque venture for some, makes this an easy public transit adventure for all the tacos ‘n tequila your heart desires. For $14 extra, you get access to the VIP Guac bar. *envisions a kiddie pool of guac*