Annie_V

Planning to take a walking tour (or two?) when we visit New York City later this summer with our family of 4 including a 10 and 13 year old.

We have done city walking tours (and bike tours) in the past, and enjoyed them as a family.

For $350 we can take a 6 hr private tour with Real New York Tours www.realnewyorktours.com

For just under that price we could get approximately the same number of "tour hours" by taking 3 different 2 hour tours at companies like Big Onion (bigonion.com) or Uncle Sam's New York (www.unclesamsnewyork.com)

And of course there are other options like Scott's Pizza tour www.scottspizzatours.com (which the kids are voting for)

So my question....
which New York walking tours have you taken and enjoyed?
On one had the idea of a private tour that takes the whole day has appeal, but would it be too much all at once?

Thanks

vjpblovesitaly

I've never taken any, but I've heard Big Apple Greeters being recommended a lot.

Aduchamp1

SueNYC who posts on these boards is a licensed tour guide. I have no idea as to her price structure, however.

http://thestarryeye.typepad.com/expl...this-blog.html

nytraveler

Big Appkle Greeters are volunteers that give you 4 hours or so fo time in a specific are of the city that you pick. They also show you how to use public transit and provide Metrocards (but you have to pay to fill them up for more rides). If you do this reserve far in advance since their are not enough guides to go around. and do know what area of the cityyou would like them to show you.

Have not taken any of these tours myself, being a native, but I would think 6 slid hours of touring would be too much for a 10 year old - esp if you get a day like today - it's expected to be 100 - and feel like more with the humidity.

mclaurie

It's like comparing apples and oranges. Only you can determine whether your family would prefer one overview tour vs. multiple tours covering individual areas. It's better to compare Real New York Tours to say the overview bus tours except Real NY uses walking and SUBWAY vs. a bus.

I've heard people complain that some of the Big Onion Tours get too many people and it becomes difficult to hear the guide. I know foodsofny.com and noshwalks.com are popular and a good way to both taste different foods and get some history of an area. With kids, maybe several shorter tours would be a better idea. Why not sign up for a Big Apple Greeter (bigapplegreeter.org) and also look at some of the shorter tours. In addition to Scott's Pizza tour which is all in Manhattan, there's asliceofbrooklyn.com which might be more fun as it will pass Coney Island.

WorldGallery

We did the Foods of NY tour - http://www.foodsofny.com/greenwichvillage.php
Like you, I compared many of them (the same ones you did) and went back and forth. It was hard to decide but when I really thought about spending hours on one particular tour with kids ages 10 - 17, I knew it needed to be more than someone just explaining history to us in order to keep my kids engaged. When I spoke with John at Foods of NY, I knew this was the one for us because it had kid friendly food (food was excellent) mixed with history in a great neighborhood, Greenwich. We loved this tour and our guide, Sephora. Sephora was great with kids but also totally interesting to adults as well. She is probably one of the best tour guides I have ever had on any tour. If we go back to NYC (and I am ready to go back now!), we will do another tour with them.
We had tried to get someone with Big Apple Greeters but the request was never forfilled.
Even though we didn't do a "NYC overview" tour, I still feel like we got just as much, if not more, by going to each particular place that was of interest to us (and sometimes doing a guidedor audio tour at the place).

Annie_V

Thanks for everyone's replies
We talked it over as a family and interestingly both kids really favoured the idea of having a full day tour on the first day. They said that they liked the idea that if it was a private tour they could ask all the questions they wanted (and pointed out that on any tour our family has done, we are always the ones asking the most questions anyway!). They also both said they liked the idea that one whole day was taken up with a tour, and that after that we could visit things without having to worry about leaving something we might be enjoying because we had an appointment for a tour.

I have e-mailed Apple Greeters, but no reply yet, but had a long, enthusiastic and detailed reply from Real New York tours, so I think we are going to go with that option - a full day private tour on our first day.

Now trying to decide on city passes!

thanks for your help...

nytraveler

Big Apple Greeters typically give only a few hour tour - since they are volunteers - not paid guides. If you want a real full-day tour I think you will have to go with a commercial guide.

traveler2005

We took the Real New York tour last October. Although I'd been to NYC twice, I hadn't explored much of the city and this was a tremendous way to expand my knowledge. There were five of us splitting the private tour. We all thought it was well worth it. However, if you've been on a number of walking and biking tours already, you might not need this sort of tour.

I wrote a review on their website. I also have a quite a bit of detail about it in my trip journal (I thought I'd posted it up as a trip report - but guess I never did).

In any case, this is what I wrote in the website review:

Our group of 5 booked a Big Apple full day private tour on October 8th. Three friends were first time visitors to NYC. My husband and I had been before, but wanted to see more of the city. Our tour guide, Joe, met us at our hotel and so began a marvelous day getting to know New York City. Being able to walk and take the subway through NYC made us feel more a part of the city. Learning to use the subway was a skill that served us well throughout our stay.

Some of the highlights included Times Square, Central Park, Greenwich Village, Christopher Park, Washington Square Park, Joe’s Pizza, Café Wha, Washington Square Park, Soho, Little Italy, China Town, Five Points, the Brooklyn Bridge, St. Paul’s Chapel, Wall Street, and the WTC Memorial.

Before the trip, I’d tried without success to make myself read the dry histories listed in my tour guides.
Having Joe share historical and cultural references as we stood where they took place brought them alive. Taking the Big Apple tour allowed us to see more in one day than we could have seen in a week on our own. Not only that, but the personal walking/subway tour was so much more memorable than bus tours I’ve taken in other cities. So often, on a bus tour, it is hard to hear, you can’t ask questions, and half the commentary fades into a blah-blah-blah background. As I think back to our Real New York tour, I can still visualize all the little stories that Joe told as we explored the city. Joe was personable and a good storyteller. It was wonderful being able to ask questions whenever we wanted. We learned so much from him. By the end of the day, he felt like a long-time friend.

Booking the Real New York tour on the first full day of our trip turned out to be a touch of brilliance. It gave us a perspective on the city, a feel for its layout, and the confidence to travel wherever we wanted on the subway the rest of our trip.

traveler2005

After I wrote my reply, I finished reading the other replies and see that you'd pretty much made the decision.

I concur with your kids that having the tour knocks many places off the "must see" list all in one fell swoop.

I also spent a bunch of time trying to decide about city passes. In the end, we didn't get any. If we had, we probably would have been rushing from place to place trying to get our money's worth.

traveler2005

One other thing that you might want to be aware of with the Real New York tour was that it entailed a lot of walking. We were all pretty tuckered out at the end of the day. I don't know whether your 10 and 13 year olds would be more energetic or less than our group. Of course, since it's a private tour, they can tailor it to what your family wants. We wanted to see as much as possible.

Gia

I have not taken any tours in Manhattan, as I grew up and live here and *think* I know all about my city. (I know I don't but you know how it is when you live somewhere, you take it for granted). Anyway I have done Context tours in Rome & Florence & Paris - which were all amazing, really excellent guides. Small tours. I know they now offer tours in NYC. Not sure if they have what you want, but just another option if you want to check them out. http://www.contexttravel.com/city/New_York

Annie_V

Thanks to everyone for their replies
I continue to waffle back and forth on this though!
I am looking at the New York Pass and it has a number of tours included (Food on Foot; Central Park Bike tour etc) and between that, Apple Greeters and the Free by foot tours, I wonder if we need to do the Real New York tour as well.
I think a pass will end up suiting us because I find that with a pass, the money has been spent, and if you go to something that ends up not being what you expected, you have permission to bail to try something else. I think it will also be useful to manage compromised (youngest really wants to see the Harry Potter exhibition - I don't think it would be worth us each spending $25 each to go, but would be happy to spend an hour there as it is included in the pass)

But traveller2005 your description of the Real New York tour sounds like it is exactly what I would hope it would be (and I'm not worried about the kids having the energy for the walk - past experience suggests we will be having to keep up with them )

So I continue to ponder...

nytraveler

Most people report not getting their money's worth out of the pass - since you have to keep moving so quickly from place to place for it to cost less than the entrance fees. Plus many of the sights listed are places you probably really don;t want to go.

Annie_V

The way we are doing it is I have given the family a list of attractions and activities (all the ones included in the pass and some that aren't) and everyone has rated them Must see; Good- like to go; Sure-I'd tag along; No
So now I am working on possible itineraries that let everyone work in their top choices (without packing everything in to tightly!) and then I will see if the pass makes sense. If the cost comes close, then I will go for it for the sake of not having to worry about 'is it worth it' for each attraction. And if not, then we won't do it I know that we want to see all the things included in the New York CityPass (not to be confused with the New York pass!!) so I will be comparing the price of those things based on getting the CityPass (very confusing!)

traveler2005

>If the cost comes close, then I will go for it for the sake of not having to worry about 'is it worth it' for each attraction.

When we were in Paris, we bought a pass like this. It was worth the cost just not to have to stand in lines for tickets. I am guessing that the passes in NY would also have some time savings that way (not sure though as I haven't use one there).

furledleader

The Central Park Conservancy offers free 1-2 hour tours of parts of Central Park.

http://www.centralparknyc.org/visit/tours/guided-tours/

Each tour concentrates on a specific theme or area of the park. It's a great, intimate way to explore this urban oasis.