Staten Island - New York city

Tour to Staten Island
Begin your visit aboard the free Staten Island Ferry. The excursion from the tip of Manhattan cruises through New York Harbor past the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and Governors Island, allowing an unobstructed view of lower Manhattan. Visit the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art, which is one of only two Himalayan-style, monastery buildings in the Western world, and the only one in the United States. The Chinese Scholar’s Garden at the Staten Island Botanical Garden is the only authentic one of its kind in the country.

Museums in Staten Island
Snug Harbor Cultural Center, the Alice Austen House Museum, the Conference House, the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum, Historic Richmond Town, Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art, the Noble Maritime Collection, Sandy Ground Historical Museum, Staten Island Children's Museum, the Staten Island Museum and the Staten Island Botanical Garden, home of the The New York Chinese Scholar's Garden.

While Staten Island was selected as the future site of the National Lighthouse Museum, the fate of that project is unclear.
Staten Island - New York city Attractions
Historic Richmond Town is New York City’s living history village and museum complex. Visitors can explore the diversity of the American experience, especially that of Staten Island and its neighboring communities, from the colonial period to the present. The village area occupies 25 acres of a 100-acre site with about 15 restored buildings, including homes, commercial and civic buildings, and a museum.

The island is home to the Staten Island Zoo, which recently opened a newly refurbished reptile exhibit. Zoo construction commenced in 1933 as part of the Federal Government’s works program on an eight-acre estate willed to New York City. It was opened on June 10, 1936, the first zoo in the U.S. specifically devoted to an educational mandate. The Society has remained steadfast in its concentration on this goal, which is still a vital part of the Society’s current mission. The Staten Island Zoo was also the first zoo anywhere to exhibit all the 32 varieties of rattlesnakes known to occur in the United States. In the late 1960s the Zoo maintained the most complete rattlesnake collection in the world with 39 varieties.