WorldGallery

I have been searching for a tour company that would be a combination of walking and driving for my mother-in-law. We don't want the Hop On Hop Off option (after reading reviews for it here. Thanks for those insights!) She wants a driver with tour guide for about a 6 hour tour. I have had some great guides and some not so great ones, which can make or break a tour. This is her first time to NYC and she cannot walk for extended periods without a rest. Can anyone recommend a great guide (one that will not read from a script) that is courteous, interesting and fun? I had one of the best guides ever in NYC on the Foods of NY tour. Her name was Sephora but she only does a food tour.

DebitNM

SueNYC is a regular poster here. Don't have 1st hand knowledge, but check her out:

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

SueNYC

You might want to look at Destination Management Companies like Beyond Times Square that will provide a driver and tour guide (which could be me) to handle this and some of your other needs. Sounds like from your posts that you are managing the arrangements for 11 people and not just a small family trip.

nytraveler

There are a umber of excelent guides in NY - but if you mena private guide AND drivr - and you would need two people - since parking is amajor issue - for just one person - that will be extremely expensive.

Can you clarify how many people it will be? Do you need just a sedan - or some time of van for a whole group?

Also, do you have any idea of what sights your MIL wants to see?

WorldGallery

Yes, I am planning for 11 people. Some of the days we are all together but other days, we split up because I am the only family with 3 teen girls. The rest are 3 couples ages 45 - 65. Also, my husband and I have been twice before so there are some things we don't want to do again. So basically, I am planning two overlapping trips to take place at one time, doing some things together but not all.
We would like to do the tour with driver all together so that would be 11 people total. Our main thing is getting a great guide. That is the most important thing to me. We traveled to Europe this summer and took lots of guided tours. I now realize it is not the tour company but the individual guide you get. For example, we used Context Travel for 5 tours. Two were excellent, one was avg, and two were very disappointing but all assigned from the same company.
We want to see Soho, interesting neighborhoods, Grand Central station but the places aren't as important as the information given. We are open to what we see because we can always go back and do some things on our own, like the 9/11 Memorial
Thanks for the help!