The deck to pick if you are only doing one, for the simple reason that the Empire State Building is in the photograph rather than under your feet.
Why this one
The argument is short. From the Empire State Building you get a superb view that does not contain the Empire State Building. From here you get Midtown with the Empire State in the foreground, the whole of Lower Manhattan behind it, and — turn around — Central Park laid out end to end, which no other deck in the city gives you properly.
That second view is the underrated half. From the north side of the deck the park reads as the designed object it is: a rectangle of forest with the Upper West and Upper East Sides framing it and the George Washington Bridge closing the distance.
The three levels
The deck occupies floors 67, 69 and 70, and they are not equivalent.
67 is enclosed, with glass and interior space, and it is where most people stop.
69 is outdoors but has glass panels along the railing. Good for looking, awkward for photographing.
70 is the top, open air, no glass, no barrier in your shot. It is smaller than the others and it fills up, which is why going straight there on arrival is worth doing.
There is no time limit once you are up, so working down from the top after the initial rush is the sensible order.
Skylift and the beam
Two paid add-ons have appeared in recent years. Skylift is a small rotating glass platform that raises a handful of people above the 70th floor for a few minutes. The Beam is a recreation of the 1932 lunch-on-a-girder photograph — you sit on a beam that swings out over the edge and get the picture. Both are extras on top of the deck ticket and both are enjoyable if that is your sort of thing and entirely skippable if it is not.
Timing
Sunset is the busiest and, if you can get a slot, genuinely the best — the deck lets you stay through it, so booking about an hour before sunset gives you daylight, dusk and the city lit, all on one ticket. That is the single most efficient booking on this page.
Failing that, first thing in the morning is quiet and clear. Late at night is quiet and dramatic.
Book online with a timed slot. Walk-up is possible and on a summer afternoon it is a bad idea.
Getting up there
The entrance is on 50th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, downstairs into the Rockefeller Center concourse. Security screening, then a lift that does most of 67 floors in under a minute with a light show on the ceiling.
It is worth arriving with time to look at Rockefeller Center itself before or after, since the ticket puts you in the middle of it anyway.
More Skyscrapers & Views
Empire State Building
Built in 410 days during the Depression and empty for years afterwards. The 86th-floor deck is open air, which is what the newer decks in Midtown are not.
Chrysler Building
The best Art Deco tower in the world, and you cannot go up it. The lobby is open, the crown is not, and it is still worth the detour.
One World Observatory
The tallest building in the western hemisphere, at a height of 1,776 feet chosen for the year rather than the engineering. Fully enclosed, with a harbour view no other deck gets.