The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade currently starts at West 77th Street and Central Park West on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Start location

  • The official kickoff point is the intersection of West 77th Street and Central Park West.
  • This start area is near the American Museum of Natural History, where many of the balloons are also inflated the day before the parade.

Route context

  • From the starting point, the parade generally heads south along Central Park West, then around Columbus Circle and onto Central Park South.
  • It then continues down Sixth Avenue and finishes in front of Macy’s Herald Square on 34th Street.

If you plan to go

  • Spectators often line up along Central Park West between roughly 75th and low 60s streets for good early views near the start.
  • The full public viewing route is about 2.5 miles, so choosing a spot closer to the start means you see everything earlier in the morning.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.