Walking Tours, New York

Walking Tours, New York

New York City is the perfect place to walk around, with beautiful buildings, leafy boulevards in an orthogonal grid, and fresh air. Discover the famous sights as you explore the different areas of the city on a walking tour. New York has 5 boroughs – Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island, each of which has its own distinct sub-culture and charms.

Manhattan is the heart of New York, densely populated with sky-rises dominating the scene in every direction.

• A walking tour of the Financial District of Lower Manhattan will take you around the skyscrapers on Wall Street including NYSE and Trump Building, Battery Park, Bowling Green, Federal Hall, City Hall, and the mighty 1 World Trade Center.

  Greenwich Village is a Bohemian haven for artists, the birthplace of the Beats and Folk Movement as well as the LGBT rights movement. Walk around the Village to see 19^th century houses on winding roads that deviate from the city’s orthogonal norms, and learn more about the movements that originated here, the Stonewall Inn where the gay liberation riots of 1969 were launched, and the artists who frequented the bars and cafes here such as Edgar Allan Poe, Jimi Hendrix, Dylan Thomas, and Bob Dylan.

  SoHo, Little Italy, and Chinatown are some of the oldest neighborhoods in the city, with vibrant ethnic neighborhoods and cast iron buildings. Explore the area to see the magnificent buildings in SoHo, sample some mouthwatering pizza in Little Italy, and shop your way through Chinatown. Once the haunt of artists, SoHo has gentrified over the past few years to become a fashionable shopping district.

• Midtown Manhattan has a concentration of iconic historic buildings, including the United Nations Headquarters on 42^nd Street, Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, MetLife Building, and Rockefeller Center. Marvel at the breathtaking architecture of these awe-inspiring buildings, and be dazzled by the energy of Times Square and Broadway.

  The Grand Central Terminal is a fascinating building with a Beaux-Arts façade topped by a 13 foot clock with Tiffany glass surrounded by sculptures of Minerva, Hercules, and Mercury. A tour of the premises throws lights on the history of the station and its marvelous architecture, from the ceiling murals of the Main Concourse to the whispering gallery near the Oyster Bar & Restaurant in the Dining Concourse.

• Upper Manhattan is a melting pot, with few tourist attractions such as Grant’s Tomb, Apollo Theater, and The Cloisters. Explore the area to learn more about the Harlem Renaissance and its influence on the cultural scene of the US. Get an understanding of the role of literary, political and cultural giants such as Langston Hughes, Sarah Breedlove, Malcolm X and Du Bois.
• Central Park is the green lungs of the city, where you can stroll along its leafy boulevards, paddle in ponds, jog or skate around or even take a horse-ride lesson. A walking tour of the park is refreshing, with stops at the Grand Army Plaza, Plaza Hotel, Central Park Zoo, the Pond, the Dairy, the Mall and Literary Walk, Bethesda Terrace and Fountain, the Sheep Meadow, Strawberry Fields, and the Dakota Apartments. Also see the parts of Central Park that have featured in movies, such as the Wollman Rink in Serendipity and Love Story, the Naumberg Bandshell in Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Kramer vs Kramer, Bow Bridge in Spider-Man 3 and Night at the Museum, Cherry Hill in My Sassy Girl, and Bethesda Terrace in The Avengers.

The Brooklyn Bridge connects Manhattan to Brooklyn, and is one of the most recognized landmarks of the city. There are several tours that take you across the Bridge to DUMBO to explore the art galleries, boutiques, cafes and chocolateries.

The Bronx was the birthplace of hip-hop, and has a roller-coaster history, going from a neighborhood with solid immigrant communities to a haunt of bootleggers and gangs, followed by a social and cultural renaissance. Walk along the Grand Concourse to see the Art Moderne County Courthouse, New Deal murals in the General Post Office, the Art Deco Dollar Savings Bank building and Fish building.

There are hundreds of tours on different themes, from graffiti to gangsters and food to photography. Compare your options and get going to discover the greatest city in the world.