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Big Apple Greeter is a voluntary organisation which was set up to give visitors to NYC a personal insight into the Big Apple.
A Greeter meets you at your hotel and you get an hour's walking tour of your chosen neighbourhood, and it is all free. You even get a subway pass for the day. We had a great time. Check the websites for details.
We're normally people who cringe at the idea of organised tours but after a couple of days touring the city by foot and subway, it was nice to let someone else do the work.
It's impossible to get a true handle of the neighbourhoods in an open top bus but it's a good way of getting your bearings and snapping some good photos.
The guys selling the tours are polite but really just after the sale so don't really offer much in the way of explanation or advice. I don't think English is often their first language but that's no reason to to be fearful as all the tours are totally legit.
I do recommend the Brooklyn Tour. Although the photo opps are less than in Manhattan, we were entertained for a good couple of hours by the guide (Mr Siegel, didn't catch his first name). A true Brooklynite, he regaled us with his own family history and his own upbringing outside of The City. It was refreshing to have someone combine the official tour script with his own political opinions, his feeling about Manhattan and his hatred of the LA Dodgers! Make sure he serenades the bus with the Frank Sinatra song or ask for your money back!
Get on the main city tour and then hop off at the South Street Seaport to get your connection. Watch your timing as the last tour to Brooklyn starts about 3pm.
Get on at 8th and 49th, or 45th and Times Square.
Connection at South Street Seaport.
Get a free (but make a donation) personalised tour of New York for your family/small group, led by an NY born citizen.
You can suggest some things you'd like to see, they'll show you how to use the subway and bus - or anything you and they like. Book well before you go. It made the rest of our stay so much easier - and we'll use them again.
Now that you cannot go up the Statue of Liberty, we found the ferry tour to the island a bit of a waste of time. The line is very long (it took us over an hour).
To skip the queues go to the Staten Island ferry terminal and head to the back of the boat. You'll get exactly the same view of the Lady, without having to queue up. I think its a better view and quicker.
Check out my NYC guide here:
www.alib.co.uk/guides/index.htm
Totally customized private tour of New York City. Very personal and personable guide. Before you arrive, they work out an itinerary with you by email. Then, their guide takes you all around. It is much cheaper than you might think. Depending on the number of people in your family or group, it may actually be the best tour bargin in New York.
Get a rickshaw ride round Times Square. If you've never been to Times Square before you'll come out of the subway and be overwhelmed by it all. We found this a great way to soak it all up and it was definitely one of the funniest experiences we had in NY. We managed to get a 15-minute tour for $20, which I thought was a bargain (about £6 each between two people). You're bound to get a cool guy or girl with a story to tell who will give you a individual and real tour of the city - they live there after all. A lovely Israeli guy picked us up. Revel in being a proper tourist for a bit, being ferried round in the open air. You won't feel overly secure dodging in and out of the Times Square traffic but that was all part of it. If you don't take it too seriously, like a gondola ride in Venice, you will love it, laugh a lot and be glad you did it.
Just hail one down. Preferably choose the best looking one because you will have a view of their arse the whole time.
Buy a day ticket for the hop-on-hop-off sightseeing bus. I would seriously recommend the downtown tour for your first day-there is a tour guide on each bus if you’re interested in the history of the places, and if not, you can sit back and enjoy the views or try to follow your route on a map to get your bearings! You can get on and off at any stop-which are at all the main downtown attractions, buses are quite frequent and the tour guides are very friendly-pleased to answer any questions or help you figure out which stop you need!
These hop-on, hop-off tours are a fantastic way to start your sightseeing. Running out of Times Square, Gray Line do tours of Downtown, Uptown, Brooklyn and a night tour. You can buy tickets from the many sellers in Times Square and your best buy is the All Tour pass, which is valid for two days for all the tours at about $46.
Each bus is open top and comes with a tour guide, who is usually true New Yorker and has plenty of information on the places you pass through, as well as plenty of recommendations for restaurants, shops, cafes etc.
The night tour is not to be missed as you go across to Brooklyn shore and get a beautiful view of Lower Manhattan. Be warned that it gets very chilly sitting up top at night, no matter how hot it has been during the day, so take a sweater.
The buses stop at all the major points of interest and run from 8am until 6pm, with the night tour starting around the same time until about 9pm.
Main point:Times Square or any stop
Lasted three hours, costs about the same as the Statue of Liberty trip. We had the same views of the statue plus toured the rest of Manhattan. No x-ray/search as per Statue of Liberty and Empire State so much more enjoyable and relaxed.
It leaves from pier 83, which is right next to the air and space display and concorde so all in all great value plus you don't get the disappointment of finding out after the security etc to get to the Statue of Liberty that you can now only go up the base not the actual statue.
On Location Tours specialise in guided tours to locations around New York and New Jersey which have been used in film and TV shows. I recently did the Sopranos and Sex and the City tours. If you're a fan of either show I would highly recommend them. The Sex and the City Tour is particularly good for finding out about good bars and restaurants in the city.
Big Onion does thematic walking tours in the city. I've done their immigrant New York, Lower East Side and Central Park walks in the last couple of years, and they are not to be missed if you want to learn about the history and culture of the city. The tours are led by specialists in New York City history and travelers can check the schedule online. you should really try to squeeze one in when you are there.
schedule and tour descriptions at bigonion.com
The Municipal Art Society (MAS) is a non-profit organization which aims to make NYC more livable. It focuses on many aspects of NY life including planning and zoning but also runs exhibitions, programmes and tours on architecture, public art and the cultural development of NYC. The MAS has its own galleries with rolling exhibits on NY-based themes, many of which are unique to the organization. These run for 6-8 weeks at a time and info can be found on their website: www.mas.org The tours are especially great for tourists though, particularly if you've been to NYC before and have seen all the usual sights already. They take you to little-known districts where expert guides show you around and offer fascinating information on places you might not think of going otherwise, like Harlem, the Bronx, and various areas of Brooklyn and Queens. The Grand Central Station tour is the most popular and runs every Wednesday at 12.30 from inside the terminal. The schedule changes all the time so you'll need to check their website to see what's going on when you visit, but you can just show up at the street corner and join the tour without booking. Prices are very reasonable; make sure to get there early. Tours leave promptly and are often hard to track down once they're under way.
The Municipal Art Society of New York 457 Madison Ave (btw/ 50th & 51st) NY 10022 T: 212-935-3960 W: www.mas.org Subway: B, V, F, D to Rockefeller Center 6 to 51st & Lexington
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