This five-hour guided walking/riding/subway tour will allow you to see Manhattan in a way that is unexpected, from the lights of Times Square, to the serenity of Central Park and ultimately down to the World Trade Center Site (we do not enter the site, but view it from a vantage point.)

It is hard to put in words, the wonders we will see and the surprises you will have. The tapestry of the city is woven anew on a daily basis, so no trip is ever exactly the same. On this tour you will discover the richness and diversity of the West Side of Manhattan, and have fun hours doing it!

We’ll meet in Times Square on the corner of 45^th Street and Broadway, your guide will be wearing a bright orange vest. Please be there on time, we leave at 10 AM sharp. 

We’ll board out bus and head up 8^th Avenue to Central Park, our first stop. No matter what the season, the park is delight to the senses. We’ll have ample time to explore a small section of a very large park.

We’ll re-board and head east to Fifth Avenue. Our vehicle will pull up to the steps of the MetropolitanMuseum were we’ll get out and stroll along 5^th for a few blocks. On our left will be some remarkable mansions from the time of New York’s Gilded age. So many stories to tell, our own Downton Abbey’s!

Next, we’ll head south to a birthday party, the 100^th Anniversary of the one, the only Grand Central Terminal. Not only is it one of the most interesting and beautiful buildings in the world it is also one of the most exciting. We’ll spend some time here and possibly have lunch in the Terminal. There is an extensive and diverse food court in Grand Central Terminal.

On a nice day we go to Madison Square Park around which there are a large variety of restaurants to enjoy, including Eataly, a destination stop with a collection of Italian specialty shops and eateries.

After lunch, we’ll head down to Greenwich Village. We’ll stop and walk through Washington Square Park over to MacDougal Street and down past some of the coffee shops and coffee houses that spawned the Beats, than later Bob Dylan, Lenny Bruce, Dave van Ronk, Tiny Tim, Joni Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix, Barbara Streisand, the list is endless. The Village is one of the most interesting neighborhoods on our tour and worth a day’s exploration.

The excursion continues south. On our way, well pass through Soho, Tribeca and the Financial District. We’ll also pass the Wall Street Bull, who stands defiantly at the foot of Broadway in front of Bowling Green Park.

To travel south is to head back through time to the epoch of the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam. These winding streets and alleys of lower Manhattan are the oldest parts of the city. We will pass through these areas as we make our way over to the Winter Garden to view the new World Trade Center. We do not enter the 9/11 Memorial, but will view it from a striking vantage point across the street.

When the weather is nice, we also walk down to the Esplanade along the Hudson River to relax and enjoy views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and New York Harbor.

We end our journey by taking you back to our starting point in Times Square via NY’s wonderful subway. A trip to the city could hardly be called complete without a ride through this underground world. At first daunting, but easily tamed, and by far the best way to get around town. 

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The photograph itself was taken on the Upper West Side of Manhattan around what is now 86th Street. If you have taken our Get Acquainted West Side Tour, you know how densely populated that area is. The Dakota, which stands on the corner of 72nd and Central Park West, was the first apartment building constructed in Manhattan; it opened in 1881.

You can see the lure for the wealthy to live away from all the hubbub of teeming lower Manhattan. Imagine, it was the country; a suburb. It would last for a while, and then of course NYC expanded, and engulfed the solitude.

If you’d like to learn more about this historic photograph and it’s provenance you can go  here.

Stay tuned for more photographs of New York City from Fred! Got something to say? Leave it in our comments section below, or on our Facebook Fan Page. Thanks for reading!

The post New York City’s Upper West Side: Farmland Before Skyscrapers? appeared first on NYSee Tours.

This five-hour guided walking/riding tour will allow you to see Brooklyn in a way that is totally unexpected, from the docks of Red Hook to the amazing diversity of Williamsburg. This tour is designed specifically for our guests who want to discover the budding, “of the moment” feel of the borough yet still experience its historical-richness.

This diversity is what makes Brooklyn such an interesting place to visit. Many Americans can trace their ancestry back to Brooklyn; it has been an integral part of the fabric of New York City for over 100 years.

Our tour begins at the Barclays Center, Brooklyn’s brand new sports arena. The facility is serviced by all subway lines, and takes less than a half hour to get to from Midtown, Manhattan. We’ll meet there and board the mini-bus.

We’ll head down Flatbush Avenue to Prospect Park. Calvert Vaux and Frederick Olmsted, the architects of Central Park and hundreds of others consider it their masterpiece. After a stop and Grand Army Plaza and a short walk through the park, we’ll re-board the bus and ride down Montgomery Street in affluent Park Slope; it’s been called “one of the most beautiful blocks in America”. The Slope is synonymous with families; there are probably more baby carriages per square block than any other place in the City.

We’ll ride through the working class community of Sunset Park to Greenwood Cemetery. It’s lush landscapes were the inspiration for Central Park in Manhattan, and at one point it was a major tourist attraction, drawing half-a-million people a year. We’ll stand on Battle Hill, the highest point in NYC, where a large sculpture of the goddess Minerva stands, saluting Lady Liberty in the harbor below. Nearby lies the grave of Maestro Leonard Bernstein, you can put a stone on it if you like.

Lunch is next, we’ll ride over to Red Hook and stop at the Fairway Market. On a nice day we can eat down by the water, were there are unusual views of the Statue of Liberty and New York Harbor to behold. Red Hook was the industrial heartland of Brooklyn. Today, it maintains that industrial, small-town feel, with local waterfront pubs and freight docks. While Manhattan almost looms over it, it is far from the New York City you think you know. It’s a lost world, rediscovered.

After lunch, our tour continues to Brooklyn Heights, NYC’s first suburb. The Heights is known for it’s elegant 1820′s brownstones and narrow cobblestone streets. General George Washington commanded his troops from the Heights during the Revolutionary War. Later, Washington Roebling would supervise the construction of Brooklyn Bridge from his home on Columbia Terrace. Truman Capote and Norman Mailer hung their hats in the neighborhood, which is also famously known for the Esplanade, a narrow ribbon of park, with panoramic views of Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan.

Next up is DUMBO, a vibrant new residential community between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridge overpasses. Lined with old warehouses, art galleries, and dramatic views of Manhattan, this historic neighborhood transports you into one of the newer cultural centers of New York City. We’ll next hit Brooklyn Beach, were you can take a whirl on Jane’s Carousel, a ride lovingly restored and situated right on the waterfront in a shimmering glass building.

Finally, a trip to Brooklyn would not be complete without a visit to Williamsburg. And even though you’ll surely see a good amount of skinny jeans, pork pie hats, thin ties and plaid, Williamsburg is culturally rich, and home to enclaves of Puerto Ricans, Polish, Italians, and particularly, a large population of ultra-orthodox Hasidic Jews.

At tours end your guide will accompany you back to Manhattan on the subway via the L line, which connects you to all major subway lines in the city.

From history to art, from architecture to fashion, Brooklyn is a multi-faceted slice of New York City. Join us and our local New York guides on this remarkable tour to discover Brooklyn, and leave feeling that you’ve seen New York in a way very few people see it.

As a sign reads on the Brooklyn Bridge, posted by Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn borough president: “Leaving Brooklyn – fuhggedaboudit!”

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Visiting New York City can be a daunting experience; an enormous, bustling city that can be hard to enter or understand.  But it wasn’t always this way.  There was a time when New York was little more than a seaport, albeit a formidable one, but nowhere near what it is today.

Join us as we trace this city’s history and growth from the South Street Seaport all the way up to the skyscrapers of Midtown.  You will not find a more comprehensive or better-guided tour of Manhattan.  Anywhere.

You’ll meet your native New York guide in front of the South Street Seaport Museum.  There we will watch an unforgettable 22-minute film on New York City’s history that will act as a perfect base of New York history and culture for the next few hours of our tour.

After the film we’ll reassemble and take a short walk thru the Seaport.  It is the only part of NYC that remains intact as an historic district, with cobble stone streets and buildings dating from the 1800’s. We’ll walk over to the East River for stunning views of the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges.

There, we’ll board our bus and head up to Chinatown.  This neighborhood will challenge any image of New York you already had.  We’ll walk through the narrow, twisted streets of Doyers, Pell, Bayard and more, eventually heading to Columbus Park.  All along, we’ll experience the intensity and beauty of the culture that the Chinese have brought to our city; at times, you feel like you’re in a Chinese city. We’ll also point out some of the best and most famous Chinese restaurants in Chinatown.

Our next stop is the East Village.  On our way north, we’ll make a brief stop at a total New York institution: Economy Candy.  There you will be able to indulge your sweet tooth on practically every candy known to man, as well as some that you remember from your childhood, but can no longer seem to find anywhere.

We’ll begin our exploration of the East Village at Compass Park on Stuyvesant Street (the only street in NYC that actually faces East/West).  There we’ll walk over to St. Marks Church on the Bowery.  Petrus Stuyvesant is buried in the church courtyard, and by some accounts still haunts the building (we make no promises about ghost sightings).

En route, your guide will discuss the history of  the The East Village, one of NYC’s oldest and most diverse neighborhoods, having been home to Poles, Jews, Germans, Ukrainians, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans and now the Japanese. Each immigrant group left it’s mark, and we’ll feel those histories etched into stone on tenement buildings, churches and stores along our route.

We’ll take a break for lunch on St. Marks Place where there are dozens of restaurants and eateries.  You can even walk over to the famous Gem Spa for an Egg Cream – a local drink that contains chocolate, cream, and seltzer, but zero egg. Why it’s called an egg cream, no one knows!

We’ll regroup after lunch and and take a short ride up to Union Square Park, redesigned by Olmstead & Vaux, the famous creators of Central Park. Union Square is one of those spots in NYC to feel the pure energy and buzz of our city. Sitting on the plaza, one may hear the oratory of a firebrand radical or watch kids do breakneck tricks on their skateboards. It was also where people came en mass to attend vigils and grieve after 9/11.

Our next and final stop, the New York Public Library.  We’ll enter and explore one of the most unique buildings in NYC.  The NYPL has stood on the same block bounded by 41^st and 42^nd streets on 5^th Avenue for over 100 years.  Not only is it one of the grand libraries in the world, it is one of the most beautiful.  In front sit the two famous lions — Patience and Fortitude.

Inside there are exhibits to view, rooms to visit.  With your guide, you’ll explore this spectacular New York landmark.

The tour ends here, and you will be able to access all the major subway lines as well as walk over to Times Square and Grand Central Station.  Of course your guide will direct you to any location you might need to get to.

At tours end we will have traversed over 200 years of Gotham’s dynamic history. We will have walked some of the oldest cobblestoned streets in Manhattan, imagining sailing ships pulling into their wharves at South Street, explored some of the Lower East Side, felt the energy of Union Square and Midtown. And seen beautiful vistas of the East River bridges, and more.

Join us on the Get Acquainted East Side Tour for a journey through time, from NYC’s beginnings as a small seaport to it’s current position as one of the most diverse and interesting cities in the world.  You will leave our tour with a greater depth of understanding of the richness this city embraces.

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For example, we are very proud to announce two new tours coming very soon. As a little sneak peak, our first will be of the East Side of Manhattan, from the South Street Seaport to Chinatown and the Lower East Side, to the East Village and Union Square, we take you on a journey through time. The second tour will be of Brooklyn. We hit all the major neighborhoods, from Brooklyn Heights to Red Hook, to Prospect Park and Williamsburg.

Whatever you think you know about New York City, you can be sure you’ll our tours with a brand spankin’ new perspective on how diverse, unique and historically rich this city is. Keep checking our website for the full rundown.

Have a comment? Be sure to leave it with us below. Thanks for reading, and be sure to pop back for more each week, as we post something new.

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