Gotham Walking Tours New York City Walking Tour Descriptions* Please scroll down the page (NYC tour descriptions appear in alphabetical order)
	The "Big Apple" Sampler (approximately 7.5 hours) It doesn't get any better than this . . . walking, "subwaying" and snacking (just a little) our way around the Big Apple  Walk, talk, and eat as we take in various iconic NYC sites on foot and by train  Stops on this historically-oriented tour include: Battery Park and views of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island; Bowling Green and the "Canyon of Heroes"; Wall Street, the Financial District & Trinity Church; The World Trade Center Site and the Memorial Preview Center; City Hall, "Newspaper Row," and the African National Burial Ground; View of the Brooklyn Bridge from the Manhattan side; Little Italy (snack options); Chinatown (snack options); SoHo (pizza option at Lombardi's); Greenwich Village (Washington Square Park); Times Square; St. Patrick's Cathedral; Rockefeller Center; & Grand Central Terminal A vertiable smorgasbord of historical, architectural, cultural - and a few culinary - offerings to fuel things on along the way! Brooklyn Bridge and Brooklyn Heights (2 hours) Our walking tour begins with a leisurely stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge.  Along the way, we'll talk about the amazing Roebling Family – John, Washington, and Emily – who conceived of the bridge and saw it through to completion, as well as the scores of engineers and immigrant laborers who risked their lives building this extraordinary monument.  From there, we'll head into the heart of brownstone Brooklyn – Brooklyn Heights – the first New York City neighborhood to be designated as an historic landmarked district and the site of splendid homes typical of a number of architectural styles.  We end the tour near Montague Street, one of the main commercial strips in Brooklyn Heights, and the current or former site of a number of churches such as St. Ann and the Holy Trinity (Brooklyn is often referred to as the "City of Churches"), and cultural institutions such as the original Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Mercantile Library, and the Brooklyn Art Association. Stops on this tour may also include a combination of sites associated with: Abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher's Plymouth Church; old Miss Middagh's "fruit streets"; the Hotel St. George; the movie "Moonstruck"; Walt Whitman; the Roebling Family; W.H. Auden; Gypsy Rose Lee; Truman Capote; Arthur Miller; Norman Mailer; Thomas Wolfe; the former A.A. Low and A.T. White mansions; George Washington and the Battle of Brooklyn; the Esplanade (or "Promenade" to native New Yorkers) that overlooks the East River and provides one with breathtaking views of Manhattan; one of Brooklyn's earliest educational institutions for women; Borough Hall (Brooklyn's City Hall prior to 1898); and the Brooklyn Historical Society.*     (images: A.A. Low mansion, Brooklyn Bridge, Borough Hall)        (images: Heights' homes, Henry Ward Beecher, A.A. Low mansion)
	Brooklyn Bridge, DUMBO & Fulton Ferry Landing (2 hours)  "DUMBO" stands for the recently fashionable, but always gritty, Brooklyn neighborhood whose acronym stands for "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass."  This walking tour focuses on the part of DUMBO located between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges.  We begin the tour with a leisurely walk over the Brooklyn Bridge, where we'll discuss the history of that magnificent structure and take in the breathtaking views of both Manhattan and our eventual destination – the cobblestoned streets of DUMBO. DUMBO played a crucial role in Brooklyn's development as a major center of manufacturing.  We'll see traces of the cardboard, paper bag, coffee, tea, sugar, and machinery factories and warehouses which are increasingly giving way to upscale boutiques and trendy galleries and eateries.  As you walk DUMBO's streets and waterfront and view the hauntingly beautiful remains of its huge brick warehouses and storage facilities (and traces of railroad tracks that seemingly disappear into abandoned buildings or under sidewalks), you'll readily understand why Brooklyn was once referred to as the "Walled City." We'll also visit various sites located near Old Fulton Street, Brooklyn's "downtown" district for a good part of the 19th century.  Sadly, by the 1930s the district was well past its heyday, and had been reduced to what the 1939 Federal Writer' Project's WPA Guide to New York City would describe as "a small, isolated sector of musty, dilapidated buildings nestling in the shadows of the Brooklyn Bridge . . . . a sort of Brooklyn Bowery, with flophouses, small shops, rancid restaurants, haunted by vagabonds and derelicts."  Today, Old Fulton Street is alive with tourists and natives alike. We'll end the tour like many of the Manhattanites who boarded "Beecher Boats" did on Sundays in the 19th Century: we'll walk up into Brooklyn Heights and visit Abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher's Plymouth Church.  From there, I'll point anyone interested in the direction of the Esplanade/Promenade for unparalleled river views of New York City and a wonderful place to eat your own brown bag lunch. Stops on this tour may also include a combination of sites associated with: the Manhattan Bridge; the "Gairville" manufacturing complex; the Eagle Warehouse and Storage Company (also the site of the old Brooklyn Daily Eagle); Walt Whitman; the ruins of the Tobacco Inspection Warehouse; the old brick warehouses of the Empire Stores; the Fulton Ferry landing; and Plymouth Church.*       (images: Eagle Warehouse townhouses, Brooklyn Bridge DUMBO, Empire Warehouses)     (images: Tobacco Inspection Warehouses, Eagle Warehouse, DUMBO railroad tracks to nowhere)
	Central Park (3 hours) Join us as we explore New York City's magnificent park - located in the heart of bustling Manhattan - but you'd never know it! Stops on this walking tour may include a combination of sites associated with: Strawberry Fields; the Maine Monument; the Sheep Meadow; the Obelisk ("Cleopatra's Needle"); Belvedere Castle; the Lake; Bethesda Terrace; the "Angel of the Waters"; Seneca Village; the Ramble; Bow Bridge; the Mall; the site of the "rocking chair" revolt; the Dakota and John Lennon; Grand Army Plaza; the Pulitzer Fountain; and the Plaza Hotel; among others. (image/postcard: Wikipedia's "Central Park, Winter") Chinatown and Little Italy (2 hours) Join us as we explore the ever-shifting boundaries of historic Chinatown and Little Italy.  We'll discuss the changing face of the neighborhood over the last two centuries:  from the Irish and the former Five Points district, to the present-day Little Italy and Chinatown.  Along the way, we'll also talk about the current population of Chinatown, including its Cantonese, Fujianese and other Asian residents, as well as the remnants of the Italian population and businesses that inhabit Little Italy. Stops on this walking tour may also include a combination of sites associated with: various outdoor fish and vegetable markets; Old St. Patrick's Church; Banca Stabile (an 1865 Neapolitan bank whose fixtures remain preserved); San Genaro (the patron saint of Naples); the Church of the Transfiguration; the Church of the Most Precious Blood; one of the oldest storefronts in Chinatown; the hub of old Chinatown (Doyers, Pell and Mott Streets); Mulberry Bend; Ragpickers' Row; Bandits' Roost; Callahan's saloon (where Al Jolson and Irving Berlin performed early on in their careers); the Edward Mooney House (one of the oldest townhouses in the city); Chatham Square and the Kim Lau Memorial; the Mariners' Temple (the oldest Baptist Church in the city); St. James Church (which had one of the largest Irish Catholic congregations in the city); and the burial ground of the first Jewish congregation in the United States.*        (images: Chinese fruits & vegetables, Doyers Street)      (images: Mulberry Street's Feast of San Genaro nuts and candies, Old St. Patrick's, Chinatown frogs)
	Christmas & Hanukkah Tours (3.5 - 4 hours) Let us guide you around New York City on a classic, and historically-oriented,  New York City Christmas & Holiday walking tour! Please visit our NYC Christmas Tours Page For A Detailed Itinerary Available again this year from December 2010 through January 2011 Please contact us at lina@walkingnyctours.com or call us at (646) 645-5782 for details Civic Center, Downtown Manhattan and South Street Seaport (2 hours) Our walking tour begins in the heart of New York City's civic center, where New York's major municipal and state, as well as federal court buildings are located, and then heads south, along Broadway, to visit a number of other historic sites in downtown Manhattan, including Park (old "Newspaper") Row, the Woolworth Building, and St. Paul's Chapel.  Then. we head east, to the South Street Seaport and its landmarked buildings.   Stops on this walking tour may also include a combination of sites associated with: A.T. Stewart's "Marble Palace" (one of the earliest and largest of New York City's retail stores); the New York County Courthouse ("Boss Tweed's" Courthouse and one of the sites most associated with the 19th century graft and corruption of Tammany Hall); the African Burial Ground; the Municipal Building: Foley Square; the "Prison Window" monument of the Rhinelander Sugar House Revolutionary War Prison; Park Row and Printing House Square (the home to many of the city's newspapers from the mid-1800s until after the turn of the century); P.T. Barnum's American Museum; City Hall and City Hall Park; the city's first (and secretly built) subway; the Woolworth Building; St. Paul's Chapel (the oldest church in Manhattan, it sustained relatively little damage notwithstanding its proximity to the Twin Towers and went on to serve as the heart of the massive rescue and relief effort after September 11, 2001), and the South Street Seaport.*      (images: Tweed Courthouse, Sun Clock, Municipal Building & St. Andrews)     (images: South Street Seaport Historic District)
	Culinary Tours of NYC (3+ hours) Visit Our NYC Food Tours Page For The Latest (Delicious!) Menu (image: Yonah Shimmel Knishery in the Lower East Side)  East Village (2 hours) It started out as part of the Lower East Side, but by the mid–1960s began taking shape as the East Village we know today.  Its history is rich with stories about the polyglot communities that have called it their home (or hangout) at one time or another:  the aristocrats who resided near Astor Place, the immigrant German, Jewish, and Ukrainian residents, the counterculture of the 1960s, and the mobs of pierced and tattooed youths who roam St. Mark's Place.  Stops on this walking tour may also include a combination of sites associated with: Peter Cooper and Cooper Union; St. Mark's-in-the-Bowery Church; Peter Stuyvesant; the Yiddish Rialto; the Fillmore East; the General Slocum Maritime disaster of 1904; Tompkins Square Park and the Police Riots; McSorley's Old Ale House (and the long-standing debate over which watering hole can lay claim to the title of the city's oldest drinking establishment); the Amato Opera; the Bouwerie Lane Theatre; the (reputably haunted) Merchant's House Museum; the remains of aristocratic Colonnade Row; the Astor Place Riot of 1849; and the old Astor Library (and now home to The New York Shakespeare Festival's Joseph Papp Public Theater).*  (image: Tenth Street Baths)       (images: St. Mark's, Tompkins Square Park, Tenth Street tenement)   (image: McSorley's Old Ale House)
	Ellis Island & Statue Of Liberty (6 hours) Hop on the ferry and visit what was, from January, 1892 to November, 1954, the nation's immigration depot.  From there, we hop back on the ferry and visit the lady, "Liberty Enlightening The World," dedicated in October, 1886.    (images: Wikipedia's Ellis Island & Statue Of Liberty)  Financial District and Wall Street (2 hours) Join us as we explore the historical sites associated with the nation's financial capital.  While we can't shed any light on the mind-boggling events that have gripped Wall Street and Main Street (and are hard-pressed to find anyone who can), we can help you forget the world's woes as we wind our way around the canyons of lower Manhattan and enjoy the many historical sites along the way.   Stops on this walking tour may also include a combination of sites associated with: the former United States Custom House; Bowling Green Park (the city's first park); the financial district's "Charging Bull"; John D. Rockefeller; "Steamship Row"; Trinity Church and the graveyard in which Alexander Hamilton and other famous individuals are buried (and where New Yorkers love to take their brown-bag lunch); the New York Stock Exchange; the J.P. Morgan & Company Building (with its telltale scars of the bomb that killed 31 people in 1920); Federal Hall (where George Washington was inaugurated); the Federal Reserve; the old Singer building (one of the tallest buildings ever demolished); and the Woolworth Building (the "Cathedral of Commerce").*     (images: Woolworth Building, New York Stock Exchange, Trinity Church)
	Food Tours of NYC (3+ hours) (image: Little Italy Delicacies in Alleva Grocery on Grand & Mulberry Streets)   Visit Our NYC Food Tours Page For The Latest (Delicious!) Menu Gangs of New York (2 hours) You've seen them portrayed by Martin Scorsese in his 2002 film, "Gangs of New York," and may have even read about them in Herbert Asbury's classic of the same name (the book that inspired Scorsese), or Tyler Anbinder's Five Points.  Now, join us as we explore the site of the notorious Five Points slum in which the Forty Thieves, Bowery Boys, Roach Guards, Shirt Tails and Dead Rabbits, among other gangs, as well as legions of destitute immigrants, lived in the mid- and late-nineteenth century.  Charles Dickens toured the saloons, brothels and gambling dens of the Five Points (with "two heads of the police") and, in his American Notes for General Circulation, stated:  "all that is loathsome, drooping, and decayed is here."  Today, this area encompasses parts of Chinatown and Little Italy, as well as the area in which many of the City's civic buildings are located. Stops on this walking tour may also include a combination of sites associated with: the New York County Courthouse ("Boss Tweed's" Courthouse); the Emigrant Savings Bank; City Hall; the 1857 Police Riot; the tragic 1863 Draft Riots; Columbus Park; Paradise Square; the Old Brewery; Murderers' Alley; Mulberry Bend; Cow Bay; Chinatown's Church of the Transfiguration (where mass is held in Cantonese, Mandarin and English); Chatham Square and the Kimlau Memorial Arch; the oldest Jewish cemetery in the United States; and the founding site of the American chapter of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.*           (images: Columbus Park, site of former Five Points district, Old St. Patrick's)
	Ghost Tours of New York City (2.5 hours) Please see our New York City Ghost Tours Page for a detailed itinerary of this historically-oriented haunted ghost tour This tour is offered on a year-round basis
	Gramercy Park and Union Square (2 hours) Join as us we venture around the site of numerous political and social protests and vigils (by anarchists, socialists and "Wobblies," by those opposed to the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti in 1927, by numerous labor sympathizers, and anti-war protesters, among others).  Union Square is also home to one of the city's largest greenmarkets (farmers' market). From there, we'll head to the elegant, tree-lined setting of Gramercy Park, Manhattan's only private residential square, with its lovely homes, noted clubs, and famous former inhabitants.  One would never guess that it started out as a 19th century swamp. We end the walking tour relatively close to where we started (Union Square) so that you can roam around the greenmarket on your own if you choose and sample the many fine fruits, vegetables, cheeses and other delights that the market has to offer, while engaging in one of New York City's favorite pastimes – people watching.  Alternatively, you may want to visit one of the many incredible restaurants that are located within a short walking distance of Union Square (both high-end and affordable ones) and take in the scene from there.  Bon appétit! Stops on this tour may also include a combination of sites associated with: the Democratic Party's political machine, Tammany Hall; the shopping district once known as "Ladies Mile"; the original "Dead Man's Curve"; the birthplace of Theodore Roosevelt; the National Arts Club; the Players Club; the Gramercy Park Hotel; the Hamilton Fish house; Edwin Booth (the famous 19th century Shakespearean actor and the brother of John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln); Washington Irving and Irving Place; "The Block Beautiful" of 19th Street; the homes and hangouts of O'Henry, Oscar Wilde, Peter Cooper, John Barrymore, the eminent architect (and playboy) Stanford White, New York City's celebrated diarist George Templeton Strong, Humphrey Bogart, and John F. Kennedy; Pete's Tavern (which O'Henry frequented in the days when it was known as Healy's Tavern); the stylish salon of 19th century lovers Elizabeth Marbury (the literary agent of George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde, among other writers) and Elsie de Wolfe (America's first professional interior decorator); and the majestic Consolidated Edison Company Building.*      (images: Edwin Booth, elegant Gramercy Park homes, National Arts Club)
	Grand Central Terminal (2 hours) What better way to learn about the storied past of one of the busiest train terminals in the world than by spending time learning about its splendid nooks and crannies?    Visit and learn about the cavernous expanse known as the Main Concourse.  Find out why one of the distinguishing characteristics of its enormous astronomical ceiling is the fact that its depiction of the constellations is backward.  Discover the secret that lurks within the information booth (the opal "Clock").  Visit the "Kissing Room" and the "Whispering Gallery."   Discover what's so special about about Coutan's Mercury, Minerva and Hercules, the elegantly restored Campbell Apartment, and more.   And who can forget "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, the owner and builder of the terminal?       (images: "The Clock," "Transportation," and GCT Chandeliers)
	Greenwich Village (2 hours) Bohemians, Beats, Hippies and Gay Liberation – the streets of Greenwich Village (native New Yorkers refer to it simply as "the Village") have seen all this and more.  We'll travel even farther back in time as we explore the rich social, political, cultural, artistic and literary history of a neighborhood that has captured the world's imagination.  Walk with us and experience how the Village evolved from the early 19th century until today. Stops on this walking tour may also include a combination of sites associated with: Washington Square Park (including the Washington Arch and the park's "hanging elm"); the "Row" of homes on Washington Square North that date back to the 1830s; the Washington Mews; the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire of 1911 (where 146 workers, largely immigrant Jewish and Italian women, jumped to their deaths, as scores of frustrated and helpless firemen and policemen looked up from the streets below); Judson Memorial Church; New York University; Minetta Lane and the ever-gurgling Minetta Brook; Henry James; Edith Wharton; Eugene O'Neill; Eleanor Roosevelt; the Beats; Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix; the Stonewall Gay Liberation Riot; and the former Jefferson Market Courthouse and Women's House of Detention.* (See our Lesbian & Gay Greenwich Village Tour, below)   (images: The Row - Washington Square Park, Bleecker Street subway station)     (images: quaint Village streets and doors, Washington Square)
	Greenwich Village - Gay & Lesbian (LGBT) Tour (2 hours)  Discover why the Village was the historical heart of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community.  The Stonewall Inn, the Duplex, Gay Liberation, and Pride, as well as sites associated with the former Oscar Wilde Bookstore; Eleanor Roosevelt; Willa Cather; Audre Lorde; Bayard Rustin; Allen Ginsburg; Sylvia Rivera and others.  (See our Historic Greenwich Village Tour, above)    (images: Village Cigars, Christopher & Gay Streets, "Gay Liberation")
	Ground Zero/World Trade Center Site (2 hours) (Included in Historic Lower Manhattan tour (below),  or Civic Center tour (above))
	Historic Harlem (2.25 hours) The Harlem Renaissance lives on!  Walk with us as we explore sites associated with: The Apollo Theater and its famous "Amateur Night;" Astor Row; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; Strivers' Row; Sugar Hill; The Abyssinian Baptist Church; the "Renny;" the "Great Black Way;" the Cotton Club; the NAACP and other civil rights' organizations; the "Black Waldorf;" and sites associated with Langston Hughes; Lena Horne; Madame C.J. Walker; Thurgood Marshall; President Bill Clinton and others.     (images: Apollo Theatre, Wikipedia's Madame C.J. Walker, Central Harlem mural)
	Immigrant New York City (2 hours) The streets of Lower Manhattan and the Lower East Side speak volumes about the multi-ethnic history of the immigrant groups that have called it "home" since the 19th century.  Walk with us and learn about the experiences of the Irish, Chinese, Italian, Jewish, African and Latino people that lived, worked and socialized on the crowded streets of these vibrant neighborhoods. Stops on this walking tour may also include a combination of sites associated with: Al Smith; the Ancient Order of Hibernians; historic Chinatown and the new wave of Asian immigrants; the remnants of Little Italy; the evolution of the old Five Points neighborhood; the African Burial Ground; historic synagogues and daily Jewish life on the Lower East Side. (image: Rivington Street - Lower East Side)   (images: Essex Street - Lower East Side, Chinese New Year Celebration 2009)
	A Londoner In New York (2 hours) ***  New Tour  *** Join us as we explore the relationship between London and New York City over the last two centuries.  This tour focuses on Lower Manhattan, from the colonial past to the post-Revolutionary War period, as well as the more modern manifestations of the relationship between these two great cities. From the Brooklyn Bridge to London Bridge, from the Subway to the Tube, join us as we explore the history of these two cities and how their histories and destinies are inexorably interwined.  Stops on this tour may include a combination of sites associated with: the Great Fires of 1661 (London) and 1835 (New York); the legacies of the slave trade; George III and colonial New York; Hanover Square and George I; the Memorial Garden for the English victims of September 11th; the World Trade Center site and the Memorial Preview Center; Wall Street; Richard Upjohn and Trinity Church; Queen Elizabeth II; St. Paul's Chapel; the construction and transformation of the cities' skylines; the roots of Manhattan's first subway station, and more.        Lower East Side (2 hours) Visit what was once one of the most densely populated 19th century neighborhoods.  On this tour, we focus on the sites associated with the flourishing Jewish community which eked out a living selling all manner of goods from pushcarts and working long, hard hours in the garment industry.   Stops on this walking tour may also include a combination of sites associated with: the Essex Street Market established by Mayor Fiorello (the "Little Flower") La Guardia; the Williamsburg Bridge; the Henry Street Settlement and Lillian Wald; Seward Park; Judaica shops; the historic Eldridge Street Synagogue; 19th century tenement buildings; the "Khazzer Mark" ("Pig Market"); the last of the pickle shops; the oldest deli in the city; an old-world purveyor of caviar, herring, lox and other fine delicacies whose family still carries on traditions established over 90 years ago; Lenin and "Red Square"; the former headquarters of the Jewish Daily Forward (famous for, among other things, its Bintel Brief (or "Bundle of Letters")); the Educational Alliance (the "Edgies") and the relationship between the "uptown" and "downtown" Jewish communities; the rise and fall of the former Jarmulovsky's Bank; and the site of Streit's Matzoh Company.*      (images: Henry Street Settlement, Jewish Daily Forward Building)      (images: Lower East Side delicacies)
	Lower Manhattan (2 hours) On this walking tour, we explore the area where it all began – Lower Manhattan – or New Amsterdam.  Walk back in time through history and rediscover the historic, political and cultural sites associated with the birth of New York and the nation.  Stops on this tour may also include a combination of sites associated with: Bowling Green Park (the city's first park); Battery Park (with views of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island); Castle Clinton (a former fort, immigration processing center, concert hall, and aquarium); the former United States Custom House; Pier A (one of the last of the city's old piers); the Promenade overlooking New York Harbor; Hanover Square; the Great Fire of 1835; the Rectory of the Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton; the Stadt Huys (New York's City's first City Hall); Fraunces Tavern; Delmonico's restaurant; Wall Street; Federal Hall (where George Washington was inaugurated); St. Paul's Chapel (the oldest church in Manhattan, it sustained relatively little damage notwithstanding its proximity to the Twin Towers and went on to serve as the heart of the massive rescue and relief effort after September 11, 2001); Trinity Church and its graveyard; City Hall Park; Alexander Hamilton, George Washington and others.*      (images: Statue of Liberty, Fraunces Tavern, Federal Hall and George Washington)
	Madison Square Park, Flatiron District and Union Square (2 hours) We start at Madison Square Park, the former home of P.T. Barnum's Hippodrome, two Madison Square Gardens, ornate mansions, luxury hotels and the nearby birthplaces of President Theodore Roosevelt and writer Edith Wharton, among others.  Many also consider Madison Square to be the birthplace of baseball, since Alexander Cartwright formed the first baseball club (the New York Knickerbockers), there in 1845. From there, we venture over to the distinctive Flatiron Building, and then south to Union Square Park, the site of numerous political and social protests and vigils and the home of the city's largest greenmarket (farmers' market). Stops on this walking tour may also include a combination of sites associated with: the Fifth Avenue Hotel and the "Amen Corner"; the Flatiron Building; the expression "23 skiddoo"; the Star of Hope; the Metropolitan Life Insurance Tower; the Appellate Division Courthouse; the Memorial to the Victims of the Injustice of the Holocaust; the New York Life Insurance Company Building; the Jerome Mansion (childhood home of Winston Churchill's mother, Jennie Jerome; the architect and playboy, Stanford White, who was murdered (by the husband of a former flame, showgirl Evelyn Nesbit) while attending a play held on the Roof Garden of the second Madison Square Garden; fundraising efforts for the Statue of Liberty; the Democratic Party's political machine, Tammany Hall; the shopping district once known as "Ladies Mile"; the birthplace of Theodore Roosevelt; and the original "Dead Man's Curve."*     (images: Metropolitan Life Tower, Madison Square Park)   (images: Greenmarket offerings)
	"Manhattan Melting Pot" NYC Food Tour (4 hours) Please see our NYC Food Tours Page for our other food tours and prices New York City is home to a veritable "melting pot" of cultures and the incredible culinary traditions that have been tantalizing the palates of native New Yorkers and tourists for decades.  What better way to experience NYC than by walking the streets of Chinatown, Little Italy and the Lower East Side and by "noshing" your way through the culinary treats that are readily available.  Mangia! On this tour, we weave our way through Chinese, Italian, & Jewish bakeries, delicatessens, salumerias, pickle mongers, bagel, bialy and knish shops, gourmet donut shops, vintage candy stores, herbal shops, produce markets, fish markets and ethnic groceries as we learn about and sample our way through a number of culinary traditions. Here's how it works . . . The tour lasts approximately 4 hours.  Please note that the price of the tour does not include the price of food.   Our goal is to provide you with a bit of knowledge about the culinary traditions and history that form the backdrop for many of these delectable edibles so that you – rather than a tour guide handing out small morsels – can choose the treats that entice your palate (and adhere to your dietary needs or health restrictions).  Join us on a culinary adventure! Experience the sights, sounds and smells of NYC up close and sample food of your own choosing on an extended tour of these vibrant neighborhoods.
	"New Yorker" Tour Package (approximately 9 hours) Our most comprehensive tour - walking, "subwaying" and snacking (just a little) our way around the Big Apple   Walk, talk, and eat as we take in various iconic NYC sites on foot and by train Stops on this historically-oriented tour include: Battery Park and views of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island; Bowling Green and the "Canyon of Heroes"; Wall Street, the Financial District & Trinity Church; The World Trade Center Site and the Memorial Preview Center; City Hall, "Newspaper Row," and the African National Burial Ground; View of the Brooklyn Bridge from the Manhattan Side; Little Italy (snack options); Chinatown (snack options); SoHo (pizza option at Lombardi's);  Greenwich Village (Washington Square Park); Times Square; St. Patrick's Cathedral; Rockefeller Center;  Grand Central Terminal; The Chyrsler Building; Fifth Avenue Shopping District; and Central Park A vertiable smorgasbord of historical, architectural, cultural - and a few culinary - offerings to fuel things on along the way! Interested in a comprehensive NYC tour that covers additional and/or alternate sites? Just contact us and we'll customize a tour package for you SoHo and NoLiTa (2 hours) Walk with us and explore the area South Of Houston ("SoHo") and North of Little Italy ("NoLiTa"), as well as a number of neighboring areas. SoHo is rich with fine examples of 19th century cast-iron architecture.  What you see today – the Corinthian columns and Palladian windows – originally housed sweatshops that teemed with cheap immigrant labor.  The sweatshops eventually gave way to artists' lofts which, as is usual in New York City, gave way to soaring real estate prices and yet another new dawn of "luxury" apartments.  But the soul of SoHo survives in the form of its cast-iron structures, bishop's crook lampposts, Belgian block (cobblestoned) streets, and even the survivors of Soho's mid-19th century "red light" district – a former brothel or two.  Stops on this walking tour may also include a combination of sites associated with: the "Little Singer Building"; the Haughwout Building (where Mary Todd Lincoln shopped for her china and glassware and where passengers rode the first Otis elevator); Walt Whitman, the original "Bohemians," and Pfaff's Cafe; the fashionable Metropolitan Hotel; Niblo's Garden theater (the site of one of the first Broadway plays); the League for Free Love; the remnants of the luxurious St. Nicholas Hotel; the remnants of the Greene and Mercer Street "red light" district; John "the Teflon Don" Gotti's former clubhouse, the Ravenite Social Club; prototypical tenement buildings; Old St. Patrick's Cathedral and its cemetery; and the Romanesque Revival Puck Building.*        (images: Haughwout Building, Puck Building, Little Singer Building)
	Statue Of Liberty & Ellis Island (6 hours) Hop on the ferry and visit what was, from January, 1892 to November, 1954, the nation's immigration depot.  From there, we hop back on the ferry and visit the lady, "Liberty Enlightening The World," dedicated in October, 1886.    (images: Wikipedia's Ellis Island & Statue Of Liberty)     Tribeca (2 hours) "Tribeca" is the name of the neighborhood located in the Triangle Below Canal Street. Tribeca started out as a residential neighborhood, had many of its homes converted to textile and dry goods factories and warehouses (which were later occupied by artists in the 1970s-1980s), and has, in true New York City fashion, come full circle once again as a family- and dog-friendly neighborhood of high-priced luxury lofts and upscale boutiques and restaurants.  But its cobblestoned streets and old warehouses continue to speak volumes about its colorful past.  Come see and hear about the many stories associated with the city's Lower West Side. Stops on this walking tour may also include a combination of sites associated with: Bogardus Triangle and the history of Tribeca's cast iron structures; Duane Park (near the site of the city's first hospital and where, in 1788, mobs of angry citizens staged a riot in response to medical-students' grisly practice of digging up cadavers in the city's cemeteries; the New York Mercantile Exchange (also known as the "Butter and Cheese Exchange"); John F. Kennedy, Jr.; the Art Deco Western Union Building; American Express' 19th century stable; the "Ghostbusters'" firehouse; a row of landmarked Federal row houses dating back to the late 1700s and early 1800s; the Tribeca Film Festival; the city's first (and secretly built) subway; Frederick Douglass; and Washington Market Park.* (For what it's worth, the contours of the neighborhood resemble a trapezoid, rather than a triangle).       (images: Mercantile Exchange, Tribeca commercial building, Staples Street)    (images: Cary Building, Duane Street)
	Twilight Tour of Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn Heights & DUMBO (3 hours) Please see the Brooklyn Bridge/Brooklyn Heights/DUMBO descriptions, above.  This twilight tour of Brooklyn includes a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge and short forays into Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO.  The tour ends on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade with its extraordinary views of Manhattan and the Bridge. You might want to walk the bridge back into Manhattan on your own at the end of the tour and take in the Manhattan skyline from the bridge in the evening.  Or, explore Brooklyn's restaurants on your own.  There's plenty of good pickins. We'll point you in the right direction at the end of the tour . . . .
	* Please note:  All tours & itineraries are subject to availability and to change

   All NYC Tours Are Available On A Private Basis

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A Londoner In New York City

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