Good Bus Tour in NYC?
 

I'm looking for a good all-round bus tour in New York City. We have a lot to see in a little amount of time. My nephew has some places he really wants to see so we plan to cover those ourselves, but I'm thinking of doing maybe a half-day bus tour to kind of give him a total overview of NY. Are there any tours that would cover one or both of the stadiums, just to see it but nothing indepth? We thought of going to a game but the Mets are out of town plus that would eat into our time too much. I think the Hop On Hop Off would be too time-consuming and I've heard some of the guides aren't very good.

Better than a 1/2 day bus tour (inside a huge enclosed tour bus) would be the Hop on/Hop off tours.

In the nice weather, seats on the open air upper deck are fabulous for enjoying the fabulous scenery and architecture all about.

Once in a while a guide is a dud, but you can always hop off and catch the next bus if that happens.

A complete "lower" tour, for example, wouldn't take half a day, unless you decide to hop off at any destinations - and stops are very close to the major sights and attractions. Note that you'd want to plan to hop off in order of the places you plan to visit as the route travels in one direction.

Be advised - bring a detailed street map, as the map provided omits many streets and you'll probably wander and wish to hop back on elsewhere.

The full island Circle Line tour, also fabulous, goes by Yankee Stadium, though you can't get off for a tour.

Actually my dad just returned from NY and said his double decker tour bus guide was just as funny as a comedian you would find in a night club. I also think the double decker is the only way to go, and you don't have to get off at all if you don't want to:) Between us & dad, spending about a weeks worth on the tour busses none of us have had any complaints.

If you do the hop on-hop off tour (grayline), make sure you sit upstairs, the guide always stands upstairs and points out the interesting architecture and will for example ask you to look up to your right , not easy to do if your sitting downstairs on the left of the bus,they don't like you to leave your seat.

We did the uptown tour and ended up sitting downstairs and it was such a waste of time - I also agree with the view that if you get a 'dud' or new guide that you get off and wait for the next bus to come along - the first guy we had (on the downtown tour) told us that you don't see gas stations in NY (as we sailed past one) because real estate is so expensive. We got off in Greenwich Village and the next bus that came along had a fantastic guide, who we we were lucky enough to have for the evening tour. the view of NY from Brooklyn is wonderful and not to be missed.

Both stadi are in outer boroughs - Shea is actually right near LaGuardia airport in Queens and Yankee Stadium naturally is in the Bronx. As far as I know there ar no buss tours that go past either one.

If you nephew is really interested you can get to Yankee stadium in about 30 minutes on the subway and they have very memorable tours - including I believe even the dugouts. You can get info on the web site (yankees.com) but do need to reserve in advance.

Other options to the hop on/off tour (I agree you have to sit upstairs and if it's hot, it's hottttt up there) are the NY Party Shuttle (noon-6 pm daily, smaller a/c bus that stays with you while you hop off.

I've also heard of this limo tour

http://www.limotours.com

and I think there's an option for a private tour with that co. which you could ask to include one of the stadiums. But frankly unless you're going to go inside one of the stadiums I see no point. Neither are in very nice areas and you can't see much from the outside that doesn't look like lots of other stadiums.

Thanks for all the great comments. Maybe we will try one of the Hop On Hop Off tours. I thought it would take too long but if we could combine it with some of the things we want to see indepth then we could use it instead of the subway/bus system. I did that when I was in London a couple of years ago. Re Yankee Stadium, he is really more of a Mets fan (don't get upset, he's just a 13-year-old boy, what does he know). I think we'll just do Madison Square Garden as he is a HUGE Rangers fan.