Not that we’re not glad winter is over, but this weekend’s sweltering summer heat may just be too much to bear. But we don’t have to be confined to our apartment, sitting in front of our window A/C unit. We’re still fun, active people, dammit!
Luckily, the city is full of indoor activities that blast cool air as you enjoy them.
If you have yet to go to this gem, well, you need to get it together. Major personalities including Louis C.K., Dave Chapelle and Amy Schumer have been known to swing by for “surprise” appearances to test out their new material. Spoiler alert: It’s always awesome.117 Macdougal St.
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2.The Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club
You know the game that rules retirement communities and cruise ships? Well, this is like that in zero ways. Royal Palms does transport you back to old school Florida though by way of its faux palm trees, tropical cocktails and “cabanas” lining the very shiny, very fast shuffleboard courts. Your new skills are sure to impress the grands on your next visit. 514 Union St., Brooklyn
Bakingin your own kitchen sounds like a nightmare, but using someone else’s oven and still getting to eat the cupcakes is perfect. The famous East Village bakery will teach you how to properly bake and frost these bad boys before sending you home with half a dozen.123 E. Seventh St. 4. American Museum of Natural History
By day, the museum is full of prehistoric animals, natural disaster rooms, 3-D underwater flicks and, recently, arachnids with the return of “Spiders Alive!” By night, it still has all of those things but with Champagne, catered food and drinks, jazz music, flashlight tours and other nerdy delights for you and 200 others during the museum’sGrown-Up Sleepover, which is back for three nights (Aug. 1, Oct. 2 and Dec. 19 from 7 p.m.-9 a.m.) Tickets are a steep $350, but you’ll have bragging rights for life.
5.Chelsea Piers
Anyone up for some indoor sports? [Insert hilarious sex joke here.] Chelsea Piers is like Chuck E. Cheese’s for adults, housing everything from batting cages and a gymnastics foam pit to soccer and a 23-foot indoor rock-climbing wall.
6.Escape from a locked room
Were you really great at puzzles as a kid? Did you always know it was Colonel Mustardin the observatory with the candlestick? Even if the answeris “no,” you should still get a group together to try solvingone of the city’s locked room mysteries. You’ll have an hour to use your collective wits to find the key to your freedom.Escape the Room;Escape Entertainment
7.Regal Cinemas Battery Park
This movie theater could be the city’s best kept secret: It’s never too crowded (well, we may have just ruined it by telling all of you that, but whatever), it’s huge, so cold you may need a sweater, and conveniently located atop a Shake Shack. Make a night of it by grabbing a drink before or after your movie at Pier A Harbor House right on the water.102 North End Ave.
8.Barcade
More than 140vintage arcade games like Donkey Kong and Miss Pac Man, plus dozens of seasonal craft beers? We don’t think there’s any need to elaborate further.
9.The Conservatory at Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Who says you can’t be one with nature when you’re inside? Certainly not the people at the Brooklyn Conservatory, where you can roam across five indoor gardens filled with waterfalls, orchids and lush greenery spread. Experience a whole world of weather from the Desert Pavilion to the Aquatic House and Bonsai Museum.990 Washington Ave., Brooklyn
10.New York Sports Clubs
Working out in the wild is one of the joys of the warm weather season, but above a certain temperature it can get seriously dangerous. Through Aug. 31, come into anyNew York Sports Clubslocation and work out for free anytime the temperature hits 90 degrees or higher. Just tell the front desk you’re there for the “heat wave promotion.”
