You never need to pay $30 for museum admission in New York if you know the weekly rhythm. Bookmark this definitive timetable for free and pay-what-you-wish museum hours across all five boroughs.

Trace the blocks where DJ Kool Herc ignited a global musical revolution in 1973, then explore the free contemporary art museums and Art Deco apartment palaces of the Grand Concourse.

For the price of a single subway swipe (or completely free), you can trade fluorescent tunnel platforms for open-air upper decks, 17th-century harbor forts, and Staten Island’s cliffside parks.