Cafe Edison at the Edison Hotel is a good diner/coffee shop.
http://menupages.com/restaurantdetai...9&cuisineid=22

The Cheyenne Diner, not as close has the classic metal diner look and food is good. It's nearish Macy's.

Maybe the others are not interested in the Xmas Spectacular b/c of price. There are $49 tickets available on off peak shows.
75DMORCH Is the $49 discount Code to get discounted seats for non-peak shows during NOVEMBER Only.

Yes the Cafe Edison is a classic, often called the "Polish Tea Room".

For the poster staying on the east side, try Bloom's on Lexington and 39th or 40th. It's kind of old-fashioned and has been around for a while.

I'm not at all a fan of the open-top bus tours, because I find them really expensive. However, if your cousin has mobility issues, it might be a viable option. If it's cold, you can always sit inside. Or you could just buy a day pass for the MTA and ride the regular bus.

Neo Patrick

Well I studied history - my degree is european history - so I already know way more than the guide tells you - and quite possibly more than s/he knows. And I always study a map before I go to get a good picture of where things are and how the public transit system works.

Perhaps it comes from being a native New Yorker - but I'm much more comfortable heading out on my own than sitting on a bus in traffic and being lectured as if I were in 6th grade (IMHO that's the level of the average tour guide). As for an overview of the buildings - usually you can get that from riding a city bus.

And I do sometimes do walking tours - but the in depth tours of a specific area or topic -in which the guide does know more than I do about it.

Well, of course if you know more than the professional guides it would be silly to take a bus tour that lectures you. I was assuming that the poster asking the question probably is NOT more knowledgeable about New York than the professional guides, but I could be wrong.

WOW.... I was not "lectured". I was Magna Cum Laude in college, ok? I certainly knew the history of NYC and had been there twice before I took the Party shuttle with my girls, but got WAY more out of it on that tour. It is excellent and the guide was a native and young and enthusiastic. Why are you being so negative if you haven't tried it? I also enjoyed the Architectural boat Tour in Chicago. Yes, it's best to experience some things on your own, but as a first experience in Manhattan, the Party Shuttle is an excellent tour. They go to great pains to get incredible guides. I am a world traveler and can appreciate a good thing!

LLindaC, I think you missed the point. When someone knows more than anyone else, including professional guides, there is no point doing the tour and being unhappy in a subordinate role. I enjoy an introductory tour in a new city as well, but I've never been anywhere where I am a greater expert than a trained professional guide. Some others apparently are.

This is interesting for me, since I'm going to NYC in less than 3 weeks. It will be my 2nd time and my daughter's 6th time. So she can be my tour guide, LOL. We have two people in NYC (a niece and a long time friend), who are giving us ideas also.

Cheyenne (9th Ave at 33rd Street) is a great classic silver diner.And Bloom's is one of the ones I was trying to remember on the east side and couldn't - Doug, I'm pretty sure it's the corner of 40th (and Lex).

NeoP, Smiths it is! I'm definitely gonna try their breakfast the next time I'm in that area! Thanx for the tip.

(I think I'll stay out of the tour guide/bus discussion - other than to say that I think the OP and her cousins would find it worth their while. Okay, I guess that's not staying out of the conversation tho LOL.)

NY Tour guides can range from extremely knowledgable and entertaining to clueless. The buses pass by work and by our apartment and many of the tourists look like they are transporting figures from Madame Tussaud's. We do wave at them and yell, "Spend money, spend money." We have an acquiantance who is excellent professional bus guide but knows others are not as good.

We are not tour people, since we would rather "dscover" sites on our own rather than have another's impression. We have, however, taken days tours in places like Guatemala and Belize, since I a city kid and cannot tell one poisin tree from another.

Neo Patrick

I think the problem is that many of the guides are not very professional - and give out clearly erroneous information. Others may know a lot more - but the canned spiel is written at a very basic level.

And I still don;t get the point of looking at the outside of a museum.

I've done lots of tours that I've loved - with very erudite guides, in many parts of europe - but specialty in-depth tours of a specific sight or area.

My only tour in the US was with a group of clients in DC - and we were amazed to learn that Lincoln had freed the slaves in 1860 - and that the guide couldn't recite the Gettysburg address correctly. (Isn't that one of those things we all have to memorize in middle school?)

My funniest experience along those lines was a London Walks of "Dickens' London". We were standing on The Strand and the guide was telling us that until the early 1900s the area that is now The Strand was just a beach and the water from the Thames lapped right up to it. A little while later we walked DOWNHILL towards the river and stood outside a house where he told us Dickens lived as a child. I asked if Dickens was a good swimmer. The humor escaped the guide.

I think you're either a tour person or you're not. I hate to see hordes of people lined up here waiting for those awful red buses. I always think - WALK someplace this is a huge waste of your time. We already had a hop on/hop off system - we called them trains and buses!

If you have mobility issues, the subway is hard to impossible. But I really do hate those tour buses.

Alright, call me a hypocrite - but I'll add my two cents about bus tours.

I'm one of those people who loves to get a "lay of the land" in a new place whenever possible - including where the museums are (by the outside). But I'm not a guy-with-a-microphone tour bus rider, either.

The best (and only!) "tour bus" I ever used was in Berlin. There is one city bus that was identified in all the guide books as being a great loop line that passes all the major areas/sights in the city, and it delivered as promised.

The problem in NYC is that there's no single bus like that. And the bus system is intimidating for newbies unless specific lines are identified for you. The problem carries over to the bus map: an awesome resource for its detailed information, but too overwhelming if you're just trying to pick out some good routes to take for sightseeing!

So, for vickib2 and her cousins, it sounds like a guided tour would be a good option. I've heard lots of good things about the Party Shuttle, but can't comment on it directly. I will say that I always learn something new when I take out-of-town guests on one of the Big Onion walking tours.

When we lived in NYC I always took them on the Circle Line tour. It was predictible that the guide would point out New York Hospital and say it was either Mt. Sinai or Columbia. We lived across the street from the hospital and this was way back in the dark ages before Columbia Presbyterian and NYH-CUMC joined forces. There were a host of other errors, too, but that was the most egregious---to me, lol.

If you are looking for another play I can hearatily recommend THE RITZ
w/Rosie Perez. It is a laugh a minute.