There are plenty of people who would shove certain summertime activities down their throat. Some people love to buy expensive drinks, wear soul-crushing shoes, and wait in hour-long lines.
But we don't want you to do that.
See, if we could give you one piece of advice, it'd be to stick to our summer bucket list for summer activities that don't suck. Or even our list of free summertime things to do.
So in order to save you from baking in absurd lines and sweating in packed-in crowds, we've compiled a list of 8 completely overrated summertime activities in New York City.
Read on to find out what they are. And then whatever you do, don't do them.
Just don't.
1. Rooftop bars
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Here's the thing. Rooftop bars are awesome, and drinking while marveling at the panoramic NYC skyline is where it's at.
We think you should do this at least once or twice this summer. Do we think you should do this every week this summer?
[anad]
Absolutely not. Spending $13 on a cocktail is fine when you're only drinking one cocktail, maybe two. But when you're trying to get ossified, you don't want to be dropping $13 a drink.
So if we had to give you advice on this one, we'd suggest hitting up a dive bar, and then hit up the rooftop bar at the end of the night for a nightcap.
2. The High Line
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It tears our heart out to say this, because the High Line is gorgeous. It's an absolute revelation.
But when it's a stuffy 90 degrees outside and you just want to stroll past some flowers and instead of getting bombarded with hoards of tourists, the High Line is probably not worth it.
You can't walk ten feet without someone with a heavy accent demanding you take their picture.
Or accidentally being in someone else's picture. You can't find a lounge chair to save your life, and you wind up feeling like a jerk, third wheeling everyone else in this city on dates. Oh, and don't even get us started on those phony buddhist monks pestering us for a donation.
Our grand idea for avoiding the heartache of the High Line is to visit Prospect Park. It's, for now, still under the radar. And just as fabulous.
3. The Brooklyn Bridge
The Brooklyn Bridge embodies the same heartbreak as the High Line.
When you visit the Brooklyn Bridge for a casual, daytime stroll, it becomes so much more than that. It becomes a quest for pure survival to get to the other side.
You'll be shoved every which way. You might even find yourself doing the shoving.
[anad2]
You'll have to barrel your way through a crowd just to keep moving. And if you stop walking, you'll be barraged from behind. And those crazies on bikes? You're lucky if you don't get run over, seriously.
And bringing people who aren't from NYC to stroll the bridge? Forget it. If they don't have experience maneuvering NYC's psychotic streets, they'll be completely left behind.
4. Central Park
Central Park is way too big. Unless you show up with your friends, you'll probably spend half the afternoon searching for your friends, feeling resentful towards them, and draining your battery texting each other.
You're also not allowed to play aggressive sports in Central Park. If you try to play a friendly game of touch football in Sheep Meadow, you'll be asked to stop.
And it's really hard to relax on the strategically-placed lounging rocks in Central Park without remembering how many homeless people use them as toilets. Every. Single. Day.
So instead, go play sports on Randall's Island. There are plenty of noticeable landmarks to find your friends, and you're definitely allowed to play sports.
,5. The Empire State Building Observatory
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For the first fifty or so years of its existence, the Empire State Building was the tallest building in the world. It was even referred to as the "Eighth Wonder of the World."
But, newsflash: it's no longer the tallest. It's kinda not even that tall anymore, especially if you're comparing it to One World Trade Center or the army being assembled on 57th Street.
[anad]
And visiting this landmark in the summer is a really, really bad choice. You might wind up paying $50 just to stand in a sweaty, tourist-filled crowd. And that line to go upstairs every morning? Fuggetaboutit.
If you want to pay a lot of money to stand in the observatory of a really tall building, visit One World Trade. Since, you know, it's actually tallest around. Well, for now.
6. Coney Island
Yes, yes, this sounds like a contradiction, we know. We do think Coney Island is great for a multitude of reasons. It's iconic. It has Nathan's and that roller coaster they have is epic.
Coney Island is a happy-go-lucky, family environment during the day-- despite the crowded beach and head-splitting boomboxes on full blast.
But at night? It gets shady here, and real quick. The trash and nonsense pile up, the air grows pungent, and the line at Nathan's wraps around the block.
It's also become so expensive it's driving away the locals. Which is depressing. We're sorry for hating on such a legend. But over $20, just for parking? Really?
7. Shake Shack's line in Madison Square Park
Eating burgers should be fun.
Eating burgers should not involve forty minutes of waiting in a line, twenty stressful minutes of finding a table, and then three minutes of scarfing down a burger because of how stressed you are about people wanting your table.
[anad2]
Don't get us wrong. Shake Shack is delicious. They even have those chicken sandwiches in their Brooklyn locations.
But don't go there during lunchtime. You want to still experience it? Fine. Go on off-hours, like 3 or 4 p.m.
8. Nightclubs in the Meatpacking District
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The Meatpacking District is where happiness goes to die. And there are no redeeming qualities for the clubs in that neighborhood.
From elitist snobs who are "friends with the bouncer," to hour-and-a-half-lines, to requiring women to wear heels that absolutely massacre their feet, to charging 2 bottle minimums for a group of four guys, we mean it.
No one wants to pay $20 for a watered-down vodka cranberry. And no one enjoys being packed into a stuffy, overcrowded club while house music pounds away.
So what to do instead? Literally, any bar in the East Village. No, seriously. Any of them.
Check out Tourist Traps? 10 Most Overrated Restaurants in NYC.
[Feature Image Courtesy: Forbes]