How I Plan & Prep for Open House New York (OHNY): Free Map + Itinerary

Even though it’s a 3-Day event that happens annually in October, things for OHNY weekend start buzzing for me as early as the beginning of August.

This is when I’ll see marked on my calendar to “look for the email regarding the opportunity to volunteer for OHNY”

(this year's registration period was from August 13 - September 15, 2025)

I also found having in mind an idea of the time line for the upcoming weekend can be helpful in planning for it..

So here’s that below : (with some of my own notes/thoughts)

OHNY Timeline Planning

October 17-19, 2025 (Friday to Sunday) - Open House New York (OHNY) Weekend

(I mark my calendar and start looking a past maps and places in anticipation of return locations I can try and visit this year I didn’t get around to last year)

August 13 - September 15, 2025 - Registration opens to sign up for volunteering for OHNY Weekend

(I keep a look out for the registration email;

I also start checking their Instagram account for updates and save post to an OHNY list for site reveals and updates )

September 16, 2025 - Volunteer Orientation Location signup email

(Several dates are usually provided in different locations. Volunteers sign up for one date to go for an orientation presentation, get their OHNY Swag -T-Shirt and Button - and receive their assigned volunteer location. I signed up for Oct 7 at 6:30pm, which was at the gorgeous United Palace Theater in Washington Heights)

September 19, 2025 (Friday) - Line Up Preview (for Members only and usually volunteers)

(This year I didn’t have access to the line up preview so I started my planning Sept 26 below)

September 26, 2025 (Friday) OHNY festival lineup goes live

https://ohny.org/weekend/plan-your-weekend/#/?terms=

(I start organizing and mapping out all ✅drop-in locations in Google My Maps…

Yep I said ALL which you can check out in my free shared google maps ✅ All 2025 Drop In Locations layer in the map shared below

This initially gets organized/hyper localized into different boroughs and neighborhoods using the OHNY filter feature (by selecting Drop-in, Borough, I also filter for accessibility) and utilitizing all all in one bookmark manager then I do a full map… and then maps for each borough

If your interested in checking out these maps you can visit my kofi shop for those: https://ko-fi.com/nyismybackyard/shop

*I do want to say I love the OHNY plan for your itinerary feature, and recommend giving it a try to plan your weekend. It just doesn’t work for me because I need to map things out visually and place them in order on a map for visual planning according to boroughs and neighborhoods etc…(which helps me also narrow down things to what I want to see in 3 days)... the itinerary feature on OHNY only lists out what you add to your itinerary which you can reorder…but no mapping things out and ordering according to a schedule and date.

October 3, 2025 (Friday 12pm) Tickets release for ticketed locations

(For ticket locations I don’t map out all of these…I just create a “wish list” by saving the location pages to a bookmarks manager and hope for the best on Ticket Day I get one of these… if I score a ticket I’ll add to to my map (which you can see on my Friday Oct 18 Layer in my google maps I’ll be hanging out in Red Hook)

Then I’ll organize locations nearby to that ticketed location which you can see in the map…

October 7, 2025 (Tuesday 6:30pm)

(Volunteer Orientation, T-Shirt & Button Pickup, Enjoying the United Palace Theatre and getting readying for OHNY weekend photo op booth)

Oct 8 - Oct 16, 2025 - Plan Away Days

(Time spent mapping out locations according to borough and neighborhoods and brainstorming ways to share these "in the wild"...while narrowing down what I’ll will be visiting after my volunteer shift on Friday...mapping out Saturday's Itinerary with my ticketed location in Red Hook, and deciding what other borough I’d like to visit for Sunday... since the majority of my weekend will be spent exploring Brooklyn ... and considering if I’ll be up for all of it ...since I usually end up one out of three days... really...energy- wise every year...

I like to try and drink it all in but need to remember to enjoy sipping things 😉

But I find planning things out this way is very motivating for me ...and I look forward to getting an average of at least three locations in when I've in on the fun of OHNY Weekend

Let's see how this year goes...)

Oct 3, Oct 14, 2025 - 👁️ Keeping an eye on the updates

(Keep a look out for email updates on changes and additions to sites/locations...

Check for updated posts on the website ... such as Weekend Spotlights including Audio tours/Bloomberg Connects/Turnstile Tours locations such as: https://ohny.org/spotlight-ferry/ )

Oct 15 - Oct 16, 2025

(Busy creating some extra maps, and updating my OHNY Weekend map below

Prepping for my shift tomorrow at FABSCRaP)

I do hope you find this map and planning ideas to be helpful to you.

If your like me and wish you could do a marathon day and see how many you can visit ... or are just content with visiting at least a few...you'll still have a great time.

(I do have a sort of marathon-like map for Manhattan I started creating as a Citibike version, but I'm naming it a Marathon Manhattan Version you can find that one here if you like to check it out )

I’m here for you… Always!

Melin NYisMyBackyard NYC Tours, Itineraries

Helping you to conquer to the big city… one small (or big) adventure at a time…

By the way...

I feel like the closing of this post read like a letter so here is my

P.S.

I Just wanted to share highlights that come with Volunteering... I find they are:

You get the line up preview which is usually shared one week prior to going live to the public (and for members only.)

Having an assigned location helps me narrow down what, where, why and how I want to enjoy the weekend... at least on the day (this year on Friday) when I volunteer. Once I’m assigned my location, I will gather all the drop-in locations nearby and map out my day. Which you can have a look at my Friday layer on Google My Maps above or here

But what about all the places you might want to go... which are so many and with so little time to visit them all…?

If you haven’t already take a peak yet maybe my 2025 OHNY map shared here or other maps in my Kofi store, can be of help in narrowing things down.

Happy exploring!