GUIDED TOUR OF NEW YORK CITY
 

Hi.....I am treating my active 80 year old aunt and her equally active 70 year old friend to a 5 day tour of NYC.....Can anyone recommend a company that can give them daily guided tours of city? Thanks

In this case, I strongly recommend Road Scholar -- (formerly known as Elderhostel) - The New York programs are great. I occasionally work as a tour guide on some of them. They will learn, they will be among peers and you can even come along. You are also free to not show up for some of the programs and do your own thing.

http://roadscholar.org/programs/search_res.asp

Enjoy!
http://thestarryeye.typepad.com/explorenyc/

I looked into this when planning for our upcoming visit to NYC. A couple companies that appear to have good reviews are:

www.realnewyorktours.com
www.walkingnyctours.com

Happy Travels!

Thanks for the advice....will investigate your recommendations.

we used Marvelous Manhattan tours, they have 1/2 day and all day tours on a small tour bus,seats 14 people--very well done,with some exiting the bus for local color--Steve theowner was great

Whateveryou do avoid the large bus tours. You can ususally see only from the top deck (open to sun, heat, wind or snow), much of the information is wrog - and the buses are so large they can't get to many sights.

If they want to do something a little different, we did one of the food tours of New York, and it was a lot of fun.

I second the Marvelous Manhattan Tour. BFF and I went on this last year and loved it.

I also recommend the Marvellous Manhattan Tour and the tour guide, Steve.The food tours as recommended are a good idea. I went on the Greenwich Village one which was great.

Peter, that's the same one we did. I loved that area, and trying all the food was fun.

http://www.freetoursbyfoot.com/nyc/

Check out Free Tours by Foot, a walking tour company that features free tours of Manhattan and Brooklyn. The guides work solely for tips, so they have to give it their all.

There are excellent guided tours of the Met Museum (usually one hour) very often everyday and they are free with admission. The schedule can be checked out online. The tour, a bit of looking around, lunch is a full half-day. Good to walk in Central Park after the museum, or walk the 2 blocks to the Guggenheim.
Most museums have free tours but not as often as the Met.
A backstage tour of the Met Opera is well worth doing. Should not miss a look at Lincoln Center. Again, check it out online.
Taking taxis in NYC is easy and very, very helpful. We do it all the time.
You are very nice to do this for your aunt!!

One more idea...Circle Line is really good and an easy way to get fresh look at NYC. n The city really looks different from the water.

picksteve, those tours look great! Wish they had the food tours during the week! :)