New York City is undoubtedly one of the most exciting dream destinations in the whole world. No wonder NYC inspired so many writers, actors, and other artists, you just simply can’t feel uninspired in New York! If you’re already visited the Big Apple, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.
New York City is also one of the most photogenic places on the planet. Tall skyscrapers, insane viewpoints, beautiful parks, world-famous landmarks, what more can you ask for? It’s literally impossible to take a bad photo in New York.
If you already have tons of pictures from NYC but you still struggle with crafting the perfect caption for your New York picture on Instagram, you’ve come to the right place!
In this post, I collected all the best New York captions for Instagram, including meaningful New York captions, hilarious New York puns, funny quotes about New York, and many more.
Are you interested in reading about the best photo spots in New York City as well? Then make sure to check out my guide to the most Instagrammable places in NYC!
*Disclosure: This post contains a few affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase through my link.*
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Best New York Captions for Instagram
1. “The city that never sleeps.”
2. “Once upon a time in New York.”
3. “New York is always a good idea!”
4. “New York is not a place. It’s a feeling.”
5. “Anything is possible. This is New York.”
6. “New York is a 24-hour city. It never stops.”
7. “London is a mystery, NYC is an explanation.”
8. “Happiness is…. holding tickets that say New York!”
9. “I want to live as many lives as there are in New York City.”
10. “New York City is where your wildest dreams come true.”
11. “Somewhere between living and dreaming, there’s New York.”
12. “Follow your heart, even if it takes you all the way to New York.”
13. “The people who say Las Vegas never sleeps must never have visited New York.”
Best New York Quotes for Instagram
14. “New York is not a city – it’s a world.”- Iman
15. “The only people who can afford to be artists in New York are rich.”- Sophie Frances
16. “There is something in the New York air that makes sleep useless.”- Simone de Beauvoir
17. “There is more sophistication and less sense in New York than anywhere else on the globe.”- Elbert Hubbard
18. “A hundred times I have thought: New York is a catastrophe, and fifty times: it is a beautiful catastrophe.”- Le Corbusier
19. “New York is really the place to be; to go to New York, you’re going to the centre of the world, the lion’s den.”- Zubin Mehta
20. “More than anything else New York is a city of superlatives, a place where the best, the brightest, the biggest is the norm.”- Marilyn J. Appleberg
21. “But there is one thing about it – once you have lived in New York and it has become your home, no place else is good enough.”- John Steinbeck
22. “My favorite thing about New York is the people because I think they’re misunderstood. I don’t think people realize how kind New York people are.”- Bill Murray
23. “London is satisfied, Paris is resigned, but New York is always hopeful. Always it believes that something good is about to come off, and it must hurry to meet it.”- Dorothy Parker
24. “The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.”- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Short New York Captions for Instagram
25. “Meet me in New York.”
26. “Late nights, bright lights.”
27. “Meanwhile, in New York…”
28. “I left my heart in New York.”
29. “Sleepless nights and city lights.”
30. “New York is always in my mind.”
31. “New York – The City of dreams.”
32. “New York is calling and I must go.”
33. “Enjoying every New York minute.”
34. “My life didn’t begin until I got to New York”
35. “You’re going to make it happen. This is New York.”
36. “You can leave New York, but it will never leave you.”
37. “New York City is the city that other cities can only dream of being.”
38. “If you follow your heart just right, it will get you to New York City.”
Short New York Quotes for Instagram
39. “I’m in a New York state of mind.”- Billy Joel
40. “New York to me means the world.”- Donna Karan
41. “Give me the streets of Manhattan!”- Walt Whitman
42. “This isn’t a fairytale. It’s New York City.”- Alex Flinn
43. “You haven’t lived until you died in New York.”- Alexander Woollcott
44. “If London is a watercolor, New York is an oil painting.”- Peter Shaffer
45. “New York is a diamond iceberg floating in river water.”- Truman Capote
46. “One can’t paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt.”- Georgia O’Keefe
47. “Here we are Marv. New York City, the land of opportunity.”- Harry, Home Alone 2
48. “When I’m in New York, I just want to walk down the street and feel this thing, like I’m in a movie.”- Ryan Adams
Funny New York Instagram Captions
49. “Welcome to the concrete jungle.”
50. “Taking a bite out of the Big Apple”
51. “I’m just a little apple in the Big Apple.”
52. “Either you love New York or you are wrong.”
53. “Someone tell Gossip Girl I’m here right now.”
54. “Times Square’s so bright, I need to wear shades.”
55. “New York City is a tourist trap I don’t mind being in.”
56. “Someone asked me for directions, so you can call me a real New Yorker.”
57. “A bad day in New York City is still better than a good day anywhere else.”
58. “People never forget two things: their first love and their first day in New York City.”
Funny Quotes About New York
59. “Skyscraper National Park”- Kurt Vonnegut
60. “I love New York on summer afternoons when everyone’s away.”- F. Scott Fitzgerald
61. “The flag of New York City should be someone with four bags opening a door with their shoulder.”- Alex Baz
62. “New York is the only city in the world where you can get run down on the sidewalk by a pedestrian.”- Russell Baker
63. “When you leave New York, you are astonished at how clean the rest of the world is. Clean is not enough.”- Fran Lebowitz
64. “Anytime four New Yorkers get into a cab together without arguing, a bank robbery has just taken place.”- Johnny Carson
65. “New York is a different country. Maybe it ought to have a separate government. Everybody thinks differently, they just don’t know what the hell the rest of the United States is.”- Henry Ford
66. “When it’s 100 degrees in New York, it’s 72 in Los Angeles. When it’s 30 degrees in New York, in Los Angeles it’s still 72. However, there are 6 million interesting people in New York, and only 72 in Los Angeles.”- Neil Simon
Short New York Puns for Instagram
67. “Queens for a day.”
68. “Spill the Liber-tea.”
69. “First Time-rs Square.”
70. “I’m so glad we MET.”
71. “Living the High Line.”
72. “Stop Yankee-ng my chain.”
73. “Staten Island floats my boat.”
74. “I don’t think you’re Dumbo.”
75. “Winter in NYC is snow joke.”
76. “In winter, NYC is the city of tights.”
77. “Arch you glad you’re in New York?”
78. “I’d really lake to live by Central Park.”
Hilarious Puns About New York
79. “More like Empire Great Building, am I right?”
80. “The street art in New York is very ad-mural-able.”
81. “A trip to NYC can be very taxi-ng on your wallet.”
82. “Finally made it to the Statue of Liberty. It’s a boat time!”
83. “The views from the Empire State Building couldn’t be any NYCer.”
84. “After sightseeing all day, I’m Central Park-ing myself down for the rest of the night.”
Meaningful New York Captions for Instagram
85. “When you leave New York you ain’t going anywhere.”- Jimmy Breslin
86. “I love New York City…you’re never alone but you’re always on your own.”- Blair Waldorf, Gossip Girl
87. “Once you have lived in New York and made it your home, no place else is good enough.”- John Steinbeck
88. “One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.”- Tom Wolfe
89. “When I first moved to New York, I bought Vogue instead of dinner. I just felt it fed me more.”- Carrie Bradshaw
90. “The wanderer in Manhattan must go forth with a certain innocence, because New York is best seen with innocent eyes.”- Pete Hamill
91. “You can try to change New York, but it’s like Jay-Z says: Concrete bunghole where dreams are made up. There’s nothing you can do.”- Liz Lemon
92. “If you want to become a real New Yorker, there’s only one rule: You have to believe New York is, has been, and always will be the greatest city on earth. The center of the universe.”- Ellen R. Shapiro
Read Also: 77 Stunning Brooklyn Bridge Quotes & Captions for Instagram
Powerful New York Captions for Instagram
93. “New York had all the iridescence of the beginning of the world.”- F. Scott Fitzgerald
94. “I don’t like cities. But I like New York. Other places make me feel like a dork.”- Madonna
95. “I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York’s skyline.”- Ayn Rand
96. “It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story.”- Agatha Christie
97. “It’s pretty cliched, but Times Square is just incredible. You really feel like you’re in the capital of the world.”- Timothy F. Cahill
98. “The diversity, the food, the culture, the constant change–New York City is truly one of the most inspiring places on the planet.”- XXMK
99. “I get out of the taxi and it’s probably the only city which in reality looks better than on the postcards, New York.”- Milos Forman
100. “I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York’s skyline. Particularly when one can’t see the details. Just the shapes.”- Ayn Rand
101. “Whoever is born in New York is ill-equipped to deal with any other city: all other cities seem, at best, a mistake, and, at worst, a fraud. No other city is so spitefully incoherent.”- James Baldwin
102. “I look out the window and I see the lights and the skyline and the people on the street rushing around looking for action, love, and the world’s greatest chocolate chip cookie, and my heart does a little dance.”- Nora Ephron
103. “There’s something so romantic about being broke in New York. You gotta do it. You have to live there once without any money, and then you have to live there when you have money. Let me tell you, of the two, the latter is far better.”- Amy Poehler
Romantic New York Love Quotes
104. “I fell in love. His name is New York.”- Unknown
105. “Times Square can’t shine as bright as you.”- Plain White T’s
106. “New York has romanced me unlike anything else.”- Blake Lively
107. “If you follow your heart just right, it will get you to New York City.”- Unknown
108. “If Louis was right, and you only get one great love, New York may just be mine. And I can’t have nobody talking shit about my boyfriend.”- Carrie Bradshaw
109. “I love New York, even though it isn’t mine, the way something has to be, a tree or a street or a house, something, anyway, that belongs to me because I belong to it.”- Truman Capote
110. “Quite simply, I was in love with New York. I do not mean ‘love’ in any colloquial way, I mean that I was in love with the city, the way you love the first person who ever touches you and you never love anyone quite that way again.”- Joan Didio
Inspirational New York Lyrics
111. “I’m in a New York state of mind.”- Billy Joel, ‘New York State of Mind’
112. “I want to be a part of it, New York, New York.”- Frank Sinatra, ‘New York, New York’
113. “Welcome to New York, it’s been waiting for you.”- Taylor Swift, ‘Welcome to New York’
114. “Concrete jungle where dreams are made of, there’s nothing you can’t do, now you’re in New York!”- Alicia Keys and JAY-Z, ‘Empire State of Mind’
115. “Look around, look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now! History is happening in Manhattan and we just happen to be in the greatest city in the world!”- Hamilton Cast, ‘The Schuyler Sisters’
116. “Curtains forcing their will against the wind, children sleep, exchanging dreams with seraphim. The city drags itself awake on subway straps; and I, an alarm, awake as a rumor of war, lie stretching into dawn, unasked and unheeded.”- Maya Angelou, “Awaking in New York”
117. “Even if it ain’t all it seems, I got a pocketful of dreams. Baby I’m from New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of. There’s nothing you can’t do. Now you’re in New York. These streets will make you feel brand new. Big lights will inspire you. Hear it for New York, New York, New York.”- Alicia Keys
Best New York One Liners for Instagram
118. “NYC, be mine”
119. “Follow me to NYC.”
120. “New York, New Me.”
121. “Living that NYC life.”
122. “Take me to New York.”
123. “New York on my mind”
124. “You had me at New York”
125. “P.S. I love you, New York.”
126. “At home in New York City”
127. “My soul lives in New York.”
128. “Living my fairytale of New York.”
129. “New York is not a city, it’s a world.”
130. “There is no place like New York City.”
Stunning New York Captions
131. “But first, let’s go to NYC.”
132. “Dear New York, I love you.”
133. “Always say yes to New York.”
134. “Life in New York is beautiful.”
135. “New York knows how to party.”
136. “I want a little bit of New York.”
137. “New York is where my heart is.”
138. “Happiness is a week in New York.”
139. “Making memories in New York City.”
140. “Endless adventures in New York City.”
141. “Living my best live in New York City.”
142. “I think I was made to live in New York”
143. “Home is where the heart is, and mine is in New York City.”
Final Thoughts
That’s a wrap! I hope you enjoyed reading these beautiful and inspirational New York captions and you had a great laugh at all the New York puns and funny quotes about New York. Crafting the perfect Instagram caption for your NYC photo doesn’t seem so hard anymore, right?
If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment below or send me an email, I always love helping you out! Do you know some other great New York captions for Instagram? Let me know in the comments!
Planning a trip to New York City?
Then you might want to take a look at all our other travel guides about NYC. I promise, they are just as awesome as this article was!
Hotel guides:
- Top 10 Best Areas to Stay in New York City
- 18 Incredible Hotels with the Best Views in NYC
- 12 Epic New York Hotels with Central Park Views
- 16 Best Hotels in Times Square with a View
Travel guides:
- The Ultimate NYC Travel Guide for First Timers
- How to Spend One Day in New York City
- 4 Days in New York City Itinerary: How to See NYC in 4 Days
- Best Observatories in New York City: Which One to Visit?
- 32 Amazing Free Things to Do in NYC for Budget Travelers
- 25 Most Instagrammable Places in NYC You Can’t Miss
- 17 Insanely Useful Travel Tips for NYC
Christmas guides:
- The Perfect Christmas in New York Itinerary for 4 Days
- 13 Incredible NYC Christmas Photo Spots You Can’t Miss
- 15 Festive Things to Do in New York City in December
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