When thinking of ideal places to retire, one has to include New York even though the rents are high, and the homes are expensive. However, if you choose the suburbs or areas in Manhattan where housing is affordable, you can live your retirement years in what is referred to as “the Big Apple.”

While New York receives millions of visitors a year, you can still enjoy the city that almost never sleeps. Let us review some of the highlights of New York, and the benefits of choosing it as an ideal place to retire.

New York has the finest restaurants in the world, and in every corner of the city. For example: Little Italy offers the best Italian fare; Manhattan has cuisine as diverse as its culture; Chinatown offers the best delicacies; Queens has waterfront which have been highlighted in food magazines; and Staten Island, Bronx and Brooklyn boroughs have restaurants which offer you the finest and most regularly visited restaurants in every category imaginable. In addition, one can spend a day at the South Street Seaport and enjoy shopping and dine in wonderful restaurants there as well.

New York has more museums that most cities, and among the more famous are the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Museum of Modern Art; the Whitney Museum; and the Guggenheim Museum, to name a few. In addition, the most famous attractive of all is Central Park. Filled with lush greenery and trees; paths for cycling and running; this park is renowned as the most beautiful and well kept park in Manhattan. Moreover, on a wintry day, just after a snowfall, the scenes within are reminiscent of a Currier and Ives postcard.

With so much history in Manhattan alone, you can spend hours upon hours exploring all of the areas which are not only historic, but engage in the many stories this city has to tell. You can take a ferry boat ride to visit Ellis Island, which has been completely restored, and visit the Statue of Liberty as well.

If you love performing arts, you will love New York. Broadway is the “Great White Way” in which entertainment abounds. Musicals, plays, and thousands of theaters throughout the five boroughs are always offering the best entertainment anywhere. In addition, Lincoln Center is home to the ballet and opera; Carnegie Hall offers concerts; and Madison Square Garden hosts major concerts and sports events as well.

There is no other place on this planet that offers as many shopping areas as New York. Every borough has hundreds of stores and malls in which you can spend a day and still not see everything single shop. New York also has flea markets; the Fulton Fish Market; and the New York City Terminal Market, where you can buy fresh vegetables and fruit daily.

Living in Manhattan can afford you the opportunity to use the subway or bus systems to get around town, without having to worry about taking a car. Queens is only 45 minutes from Manhattan by car, while Brooklyn is a bit closer, and Staten Island and the Bronx are approximately 15 minutes away by car.

Retiring to New York is not just a place to live; it is an adventure unlike any you ve ever experienced. It is filled with businesses and street vendors; parades and holiday celebrations for all ethnic groups; it is home to St. Patrick’s Cathedral as well as many other famous Churches, and Christmas week you can stroll along 5th Avenue and look at the incredibly beautiful window displays at all the famous stores such as Tiffany’s, Macys, and others. After which, you can sip a cup of hot chocolate at Rockefeller Center while watching skaters do their thing on the rink just out side your restaurant window.

Yes, New York is an ideal place to retire. It does not matter if you live in any of the five boroughs; you are never far from where the action is. New York, New York – as the song says, will make you “want to be a part of it!”