Manhattan is an island of yellow taxi cabs, gridlock and as a result, pedestrians. With a claustrophobic 27,000 people per km?, on foot or via subway is the best way to get around the Big Apple. New York’s convenient grid layout makes it easy to navigate the myriad city streets on foot and with so many distinctive and colorful neighborhoods to explore, from SoHo to Harlem, Alphabet City to Hell’s Kitchen, there’s absolutely no need to rely on a rental car for transport. All you need to enjoy The City That Never Sleeps is a comfortable pair of sensible shoes, no matter what the season. With that in mind, here are some of the best pedestrian tours in a city that welcomes over 40 million national and international tourists a year.
Like Woody Allen or Martin Scorsese, Bob Dylan is part of the fabric of New York. With the city as his muse, the folk legend’s prolific body of work drips with references to Manhattan. From “Positively 4th Street” to the Hotel Chelsea, Beat poet Allen Ginsberg’s old apartment on 7th to the D Train from “Visions of Johanna”, the Bob Dylan Tour is a fun romp for fans of the singer-songwriter.
Between Grammercy, Chelsea and Greenwich Village, the small Flatiron district is replete with beautiful architecture and history. The Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership offers free 90-minute tours of the area every Sunday throughout the entire year. Professional guides will point out and elucidate on such landmarks as the MetLife Tower and the birthplace of Theodore Roosevelt, a National Historic Site.
Tours of Hassidic New York offer visitors a genuine glimpse into the inner sanctum of the vibrant, yet often misunderstood, ultra-orthodox Jewish community. From liturgical to culinary rites, the 3-hour tour offers a wonderful window into what daily life is like for Hassidic Jews.
A food tour of New York City is a definite must and Nosh(Yiddish for “eat a little”)Walks provide visitors with the opportunity to sample a variety of authentic staples. Examples of 3-hour tours include Harlem’s emergent African food scene, the eclectic Astoria district of Queens and the Eastern European delights of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn.
Home to a lively arts community, Williamsburg, Brooklyn has become a haven for immigrants and hipsters. The ‘hood just over the Williamsburg Bridge from Manhattan features a trove of eclectic shops, fully reflective of the area’s splendid diversity and reputation as a new retail Mecca. Boutiques in the Borough takes visitors on a tour of all the best haunts.
There’s a lot of inherent charm in the seamy underbelly of a city like New York. Though the infamous East Village of the past fell victim to gentrification some time ago, the counter-culture home of the Beatnik movement and The Village Voice still grips the imagination. From The Bowery to St. Mark’s Place, the East Village is never dull.
Emblematic of New York City’s seismic shift in hospitality over the past three decades, Big Apple Greeters is a virtual welcome mat for tourists. The free service provides visitors with a MetroCard pass for the day, good for subway and bus transport, but more importantly, the use of a volunteer tour guide to shepherd you around Manhattan points of interest. For anecdotal gems, insider tips and personalized advice from locals, Big Apple Greeters shows just how far New York City has come to accommodate present-day tourists. The service is available for all five boroughs, large groups and in many languages. Demand is high so reservations well in advance are a definite must.
More than 200 films have been shot in Central Park and as a result, some intrepid entrepreneurs have put together a great tour of the Manhattan landmark. From Kramer vs. Kramer to Love Story, When Harry Met Sally to Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the 2-hour walk runs past some of the most recognizable live sets from the big screen.
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http://www.bittersweetescapes.com offers chocolate tasting tours in NYC which are heaven for chocoholics.
Went on the gangsters, murderers and weirdos tour at the east village visitors center when i was in new york a few weeks ago and i highly recommend it! i learned a lot but it was also really fun and the tour guide had tons of crazy stories about the east village. i think they do other tours as well so if you’re in new york you should definitely check them out. i had a really good sandwich and some coffee at their cafe as well.