isabel

I want to get some good photos from the water and was wondering if either the circle line cruise or the NY Water Taxi would be better.

nytraveler

Both services have a variety of different routes. You need to decide what you want photos of - and check which routes cover them. the web sites of each company show maps of the routes.

In general, the Water Taxi will give you much more limited opportunities due to many shorter routes - but , it does depend what you want pix of.

isabel

Both the 2 hour circle line and the hop on hop off water taxi route cover essentially the same territory (from 42nd/44th on the Hudson around to 34th/42nd on the East River). So I guess I'm wondering if the fact that the taxi keeps going in to dock whereas the circle line cruise stays out in the middle of the rivers (presumably) would make for better photos - or maybe not as good. I was hoping someone who had been on both of them could say which they felt was better. The water taxi also docks at a couple of places in Brooklyn/Queens which might have nice views over to Manhattan. On the other hand it looks like the circle line might get closer to the statue of liberty. Anyway, just wondering if anyone had first hand experience.

tomassocroccante

Generally, the closer you are to the Manhattan banks of the rivers, the less the photo ops of landmarks will be, since views will be blocked by close structures. This will be different when the things you want to shoot are in lower Manhattan (Financial district) or elsewhere such as near the UN etc. From the Circle Line around Manhattan you see everything , but mostly from one perspective.

isabel

Thanks for the reply. I guess there are pros and cons about each of them. I'm really tempted by the hop on hop off taxi but I'm afraid the circle line might offer better shots.

Anyone know if the circle line gets horribly crowded on summer weekends?

tomassocroccante

I can't tell you how crowded it gets, isabel, but the capacity is regulated by law for safety, so ... I'm sure it is popular. In the summer, possibly as busy on a nice weekday as weekends.

I took the CL trip around Manhattan 25 years ago or more with some of my visiting family, and actually enjoyed it a lot.

Just did a search for "circle line" and "view" online and came up with someone's photo album on about.com - do the same and you may find other online photo galleries to give you an idea what to expect.
http://gonyc.about.com/od/photogalle...-Line-Boat.htm

isabel

Reporting in: I took the water taxi and it was fabulous! It was so much fun, I can't believe I never thought to do it before. For less than the price of the circle line I got a two day hop on hop off pass. Riding the entire loop is exactly the same route as the circle line, so you definitly see the same things. But then you can do it over and over if you choose, and I actually found it rather useful to get around to some extent.

The water taxi is a much smaller boat (there are several of them, some smaller than the others, but all much smaller than the circle line) - and it goes alot faster so it's actually fun. If you want a more subdued slow ride then I guess the circle line would be better. But seeing those boats I was very glad I was on the water taxi.

I highly recommend it.

Ryan

If you want to do the Circle Line for a sense of NYC, then certainly do that.

But, for my money, I think you can get some great shots of NYC from the Staten Island Ferry - which is free. Leaving Manhattan, the best perspective is from the stern of the boat. As you pull further away, the view increases.

mdwest

We did the 3 hour Circle line tour last Saturday. We took the earliest tour that was available because we were told the other Saturday tours get really crowded. Our cruise was only about 1/2 full. I thought that we had a very impressive views. The narration was exceptional, especially compared to the lousy guide we had on the Grayline bus tour.

tomassocroccante

Isabel, what's the fare on the 2-day water taxi pass? Might be a fun way to cool off this summer ...

isabel

The fare was $20 for a one day pass, $25 for two days. It runs from 11-4 weekdays, and 11-8 weekends. You can get on and off as often as you like.