PRIVATE TOURS — Information and Tour Descriptions
For a private tour, you can choose among dozens of different neighborhoods.
MANHATTAN:
Downtown Neighborhoods, Ethnic Downtown Neighborhoods,
Greenwich Village Selection, Midtown Neighborhoods,
Uptown Neighborhoods
CITY TOUR
BROOKLYN
Tours are presented in a language of your choice. Our overview city tours include lots of fascinating details, led by some of the most knowledgeable, experienced, and professional guides in New York City.
We can arrange anything from a walking tour, to a limousine tour for 1 to 3 people, to group tours in busses.
Telephone or e-mail us, so we can discuss prices, what your thoughts are for the tour, tour selection, size of your group, and time and date preferred.
MANHATTAN:
DOWNTOWN NEIGHBORHOODS
A COLONIAL MELTING POT WITH HEARTY DUTCH FLAVOR
Old New Amsterdam — a frontier town where people of the world came to buy low and sell high. The Financial District boasts many of Manhattan's most famous historic sites.
THE HISTORIC LADIES MILE IN THE FLATIRON DISTRICT
The grand emporiums of the 1890s have become 21st century superstores. From
Union Square to Madison Square, the grandeur of the past enriches the present.
HIDDEN CHARMS
OF CHELSEA
Townhouses preserved in a pastoral setting, art and high fashion where taxi garages once prevailed — a waterfront transformed.
EAST
VILLAGE — CULTURE AND COUNTER-CULTURE
From Stuyvesant's bouwerie to the Tompkins Square riot — an area rich in ethnic
diversity.
DOWNTOWN GRAVEYARDS — WHERE THEY CAME TO REST
Why are graves of African slaves, the first Jewish settlers, and founders of the American Republic still in the heart of the Financial District?
THE GENIUS AND ELEGANCE OF GRAMERCY PARK
Discover a London Square that became home to creative minds, and the most famous witch in America.
SOHO: CAST IRON COMMERCE ENLIVENED WITH ART
Nineteenth century cast-iron emporiums and 20th century "AIR" notices give way to 21st century boutiques — Soho's changing scene.
TRIBECA — NEW DIVERSITY FROM AN INDUSTRIAL PAST
This once gritty light-industrial district gives way to residential loft conversions and hot spots of food, film, and design artistry.
FROM LANDFILL TO LANDSCAPE: BATTERY PARK CITY AND THE WORLD FINANCIAL CENTER
Learn about Manhattan’s striking waterfront promenade. From world finance
to desert palms.
GANGS OF NEW YORK AND THE BLOODY FIVE POINTS
A colorful 19th century immigrant neighborhood, the notorious Five Points, with
such areas as Paradise Square, Cow Bay, and Bottle Alley, and such gangs as the
Roach Guards, Plug Uglies, and Dead Rabbits
WHEN
ITALY MOVED TO NEW YORK
Immigrants, priests, politicians, gangsters — Little Italy and the diversity of the Italian experience.
WHEN CHINA AND ITALY BECAME NEIGHBORS
A look at the people who moved to the fast-changing Chinatown and Little Italy.
WHEN CHINA MOVED TO NEW YORK
Chinatown's bleak 19th century bachelor society of hard-working immigrants infuses
the district today.
MORE TEEMING THAN BOMBAY: THE OLD JEWISH LOWER EAST SIDE
New York's renowned melting pot — poignant history, and food with a rich heritage.
THE DREAMS AND TERRORS OF ELLIS ISLAND
Discover the origins of ethnic New York, where 17 million people first entered America.
ETHNIC NOSHING — LEARN THE HISTORY, TASTE THE FOODS
This walk samples Jewish, Indian, Chinese, and Italian delicacies.
THE FLAMBOYANT AND THE BOHEMIAN: GREENWICH VILLAGE AND HOW IT BECAME FAMOUS
Highlights of the Village — history, theater, architecture, women of renown, literary landmarks, notorious personalities — NY's perennial Bohemia.
THE INTIMATE WEST VILLAGE WITH ITS SPECTACULAR WATERFRONT PARK
Winding streets, quirky shops, and the only NY park extending 800' into the Hudson
River.
GREENWICH VILLAGE GAY AND PROUD
Visit this mecca of love, rebellion, and liberation.
MACABRE GREENWICH VILLAGE-
Murders, graveyards, hanging trees, and ghosts — the underside of Village history.
GREENWICH VILLAGE LITERARY WALK
English 101 on city streets — Walt Whitman, Henry James, Eugene O'Neill,
Willa Cather, Edith Wharton, Edgar Allan Poe, Louisa May Alcott, and Edna St.
Vincent Millay.
OLD NEW YORK AT WASHINGTON SQUARE
Henry James, carriages, stable alleys, 19th century residences, and brooding
poets — it all happened here.
THE IMMIGRANT, RADICAL, NOTORIOUS WOMEN OF WASHINGTON SQUARE
Factory workers, scholars, artists, radicals, aristocrats-all these women left their imprints on the Washington Square Neighborhood.
THE
NEW MEAT MARKET — BUTCHERS, BAKERS, AND ART SCENE MAKERS
Three shifts of a typical day — meatpackers unloading sides of beef, to fashions
and galleries, to the gritty club scene. How did it all come about?
GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL
"CROSSROADS OF A MILLION PRIVATE LIVES"
A brilliant design and God's view of the stars.
"HELL AIN'T HOT — THIS HERE'S HELL'S KITCHEN!"
Whatever happened to the lurid district of One-Lung Curran, bloody slaughterhouses, and the sweaty old Madison Square Garden?
MURRAY HILL: J P MORGAN AND TALES OF THE GILDED AGE
John Murray's and J. P. Morgan's visions of culture and the good life shape the
neighborhood of today.
GIVE MY REGARDS TO BROADWAY:
THE DAZZLE OF THE GREAT WHITE WAY
The lore, tradition, and new excitement of the Times Square Theatre District.
GREAT
SKYSCRAPERS OF MIDTOWN
The great buildings of New York — Rockefeller Center, Trump Tower, the
Plaza Hotel, St. Patrick's Cathedral — and the people who helped create
them.
ROOSEVELT ISLAND — FROM MADMEN TO LEAFY MAIN STREET
From the old Blackwell farmhouse to the newest apartments, this island thrives 300 feet and more than a few decibels from Manhattan Island.
WASHINGTON
HEIGHTS — NEW YORK'S ACROPOLIS OF MANSIONS, NATURAL HISTORY, AND WAR STRATEGIES
Here's where John James Audubon found exotic birds and George Washington confronted the overpowering British. His headquarters still stands — the oldest building in Manhattan.
MORNINGSIDE
HEIGHTS — FROM COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY TO GRANT'S TOMB
Home to the first college in New York, Morningside Heights today is a center
of cultural, religious, and educational organizations.
HARLEM
— KEYSTONE OF AFRICAN AMERICA
20th century hub of black culture and struggle. History, homes, music, churches, artists, leaders, and today's economic renaissance.
JEWISH HARLEM
When Harlem was home to 100,000 Jewish people, it was the third largest Jewish
settlement in the world.
CENTRAL PARK
— THE BIG BACK YARD OF THE CITY
Dismissed as a “filthy, squalid, and disgusting” site, these
843 acres became a work of art at the heart of the concrete jungle.
STAR-STUDDED BUILDINGS OF CENTRAL PARK WEST AND THE GREAT PARK THEY FACE
Discover highlights of the first great park in America, and the great apartment houses that enjoy it.
FIFTH AVENUE GOLD COAST
Fifth Avenue at Central Park — the great fortunes and splendid mansions
of New York’s Gold Coast.
BUS TOUR OF THE BIG APPLE
Uptown and downtown, by bus, van, subway, or limousine, experience the great
variety of Manhattan neighborhoods.
BRIGHTON BEACH — LITTLE ODESSA BY THE SEA
A remarkable concentration of immigrants has transformed this seaside corner
of Brooklyn into a Russian village.
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS AS 19TH CENTURY SUBURB: THE GENTRY ACROSS THE BRIDGE
Visit the promenade, personalities, and patrician architecture of this intimate
neighborhood.
DUMBO — WALLED CITY OF BROOKLYN
A tiny waterfront district of Civil War-era factories and warehouses, attracting artists, creative businesses, and competing visions for its future.
THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE
THE WONDER THAT JOINED 2 CITIES
The tour begins at the Manhattan side of the bridge once called the "Eighth Wonder
of the World". Subject of poems, stories, art, and movies, the Brooklyn Bridge
is a dramatic entryway to 2 great parts of town.
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