Latest posts from our New York expert:
New York Walking Tours
When you're new to town and just have a couple days, picking from a panalopy of must-see sights can be daunting. Sometimes your best approach is letting somebody else lead the way giving an insiders' view on what this city has to offer. So lace up your shoes and get ready to walk because despite the fact that a gazillion double-decker open topped tour busses barrel down many a Manhattan street each day, sitting on your duff isn't the best way to go. Although all walking tours listed below are staffed with native guides who have teaching experience along with advanced degrees in the subject matter they cover, each have distinct backgrounds and approaches.
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New arrivals to New York but certainly not the world, Context Travel began covering the Villa d'Este and other Roman treasures like the Vatican and Colosseum nearly a decade ago. Branching out in early 2004 to Florence, Naples, and Paris and again intoVenice in 2007, their latest foray planted them squarely in New York about 4 months ago.
It all began when people began asking founder Paul Bennett, a classics and garden history scholar, to conduct public garden tours. Gradually, visitors wanted him to cover other more historical sites. Realizing that he didn’t have the expertise, he reached out to other scholars who loved sharing their city with visitors. Walks are less geared toward the “big picture” and more like walking seminars. Bringing this same formula to NYC, guides lay it on heavy in extremes from sensory laden chocolate walking tours in Soho led by locally renowned pastry chefs to deep hands-on examinations of lower Manhattan’s urban archaeological sites.
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Offering a rotating roster of nearly 30 history-based neighborhood walks since 1991, Big Onion points out in support of their namesake, that NYC was called the Big Onion long before it was dubbed the Big Apple. Often illustrating how each immigrant group built upon those that came before, tours peel away the many layers constituting today’s city neighborhoods. Must-do walks include the Brooklyn Bridge Tour where guides recount the sheer engineering feats and dramatic labor behind its construction. While the theme may be overdone, their Gangs of New York Tour meticulously covers the finer details of the Five Points neighborhood with stops at Paradise Square, Murderers Alley, and sites of the 1857 Police and 1863 Draft Riots. Other tours reveal what you may have always been wondering such as what the heck Tribeca stands for (psst: It’s Triangle Below Canal). You’ll also discover why the Bowery was once so big and bad and why it’s now experiencing an economic renaissance.
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Run by Dr. Philip E. Schoenberg, NewYork Talks and Walks offers 100 different customized group tours. Drawing from real life stories and folk tales, guides entertain as well as inform. Topics include Santa Claus who was in fact a New Yorker going through various transformations including when Madison Avenue advertisers for Coca Cola turned his suit red. The Haunted and Mysterious New York Tour takes you on hunts for the Peter Stuyvesant apparition as well as Edgar Allan Poe and the Astor Library ghost in Greenwich Village. Other notables for the choosing include a media tour where participants learn how the expressions "news flash" and "yellow journalism" originated. Do you know why Times Square was once called "The Great White Way"? Trace its evolution from farmland to theatrical hub. Think that the Natives were the only ones to get scammed by trading glass beads for lower Manhattan? Find out how the Dutch before them were similarly hoodwinked and afterward over the decades, qu
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Distinctive Delis
All cities have their signature foods and the Big Apple is certainly no different. Despite its sobriquet, upstate NY is known for these particular red juicy crisp fruits. Bagels are more on target but sadly, many of them are now antithetical to the chewy wholesome goodness that have embodied our city's treasured grab-and-go food for generations. Following this trend, it almost seems logical to regard deli food as having met the same demise long ago. After all, if you've had pastrami on rye anywhere else in the country, doesn't that suffice? Haven't we also reached the conclusion in today's world, on constant red alert of saturated fat and clogged arteries, that deli food couldn't possibly be such a highly regarded delicacy. That my friend is where you'd be dead wrong and we're not talking baloney here!
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The Bronx has a long proud tradition of Jewish delis, but in the last 20 years the count has dwindled sharply. Liebman’s is an exception and still run by the family that started it all in 1953 now serving the children and grand-children of original customers. If it's been a long time since your last tongue and coleslaw on rye or chicken soup with Kreplach (small filled dumplings similar to wonton), it’s worth making the trek out to this kosher institution in the Riverdale neighborhood. Tender corned beef, homemade pigs in blankets, and increasingly rare round knishes are only some of their standouts. Renowned as one of the very few places in New York that still make their own pastrami and slice it to order, the process begins with a whole beef brisket rubbed with pepper, sugar, and salt, which is then smoked and steamed to perfection.
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Second Avenue Deli originally opened in 1954 on the southeast corner of namesake 2nd Avenue and 10th Street in the East Village but is now located at 162 East 33rd Street between Lexington and Third Avenues. Beyond the familiar staples of Jewish penicillin (chicken matzoh ball soup) and house cured corned beef, the menu here is for the more adventurous palate seeking more old-school kosher renditions like flanken (center-cut tongue boiled and served with horseradish sauce). Other delicacies include gefilte fish, patties consisting of ground deboned carp mixed with eggs, onions and matzoh meal or challah, and then stuffed into the skin of the deboned fish which is then poached with carrots and onions. Pictures of Yiddish actress Molly Picon are ever present on the walls lest you forget where you are while munching on their spicy cholent. You’ll just have to visit to find out what this is……and don’t cheat by Googling it!
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Situated in midtown on 7th Avenue between 54th and 55th Streets, the Parker family established a deli in 1937 adjacent to Carnegie Hall that has beckoned hungry theater goers ever since. Now in its third generation, owner Milton Parker has co-authored a book entitled: “How to Feed Friends and Influence People: The Carnegie Deli”, chronicling the family's historic stewardship. Their motto has always been: "If you can finish your meal, we’ve done something wrong." You’ll find sandwiches on the menu stuffed with close to one pound of pastrami and corned beef and thick hunks of cheesecake well over a pound along with other traditional deli fixtures like matzoh ball soup, potato pancakes, chopped chicken livers, and smoked salmon. The corned beef hash is the best I’ve ever had! Dishes including “My Fair Latkes”, "Nosh, Nosh, Nanette", and "The Egg and Oy" fittingly adopt Broadway themes and Yiddish phrases. If you’re catching a show in the theater district and you can dodge the tourist
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NYC Ferries
This City is coastal and all its boroughs are on islands except the Bronx, so why not travel the waters surrounding it? Many daily commuters do. Which would you rather do, get in your car and sit in endless traffic or hop on a ferry and drink in the views? Chances are you're just along for a joy ride so sit back and enjoy!
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Round trip rides with some of the best water borne views are absolutely free. Depart from the new launch in Whitehall at the foot of Manhattan every 20 or 30 minutes. Beginning regular service in 1884, a fleet of eight orange ferries now ply the white capped waters separating Manhattan and Staten Island. The Guy Molinari, the most luxurious vessel, is 310 feet long capable of carrying 4,400 passengers and 42 vehicles. Rushing across the wide expanse of Upper Bay at more than 16 knots (18 miles per hour); it takes just under 25 minutes to reach St. George. The boat has four decks, including a small hurricane deck up top, the best observation point from which to view the journey as it unfolds. First come the empty barracks and forts of Governor’s Island to the left, next Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty brush by on the right, then Bay Ridge and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge loom nearby on the left. Upon arrival, walk to Bay Ave. and take 3 blocks left to Victory Blvd., Staten
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Take your pick between a fully-guided circumnavigation of Manhattan with scholarly anecdotes along the way or a full-throttle 30 minute thrill ride from Pier 83 at 42nd Street on the Hudson River to the Statue of Liberty and back.
The New York Circle’s Line 3-Hour Cruise digs deep into the City’s past and present. See all 3 rivers, 7 major bridges, and 5 boroughs where guides point out over 25 world renowned landmarks including a close-up of the Statue of Liberty as well as some historic disaster sites along the way.
“The Beast”, a monstrous speed boat piloted by Captains with names like "Mad Dog", "Wild Thing," and "Hurricane Heidi", whisks past the skyscraper-walled waterfront at a heart-pounding 45 miles-per-hour. With a toothy sneer painted on the side, and the hull continually pounding the turbulent waters throughout most of the journey, make sure that your last meal is well in advance of boarding.
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Operates a flotilla of ferries between Manhattan and many Jersey points within view across the Hudson River. Boats on these routes tend to be smaller and prone rocking and rolling with the waves and stiff currents making the ride adventuresome. One excursion begins at the Battery Park City pier arriving at Jersey City’s Paulus Hook historic district populated with brick row houses, Victory Hall, and The Sugar House. Grove St., just a few blocks to the west and north of the pier, hosts Jersey City’s ornate rococo City Hall. Also great views of Manhattan from the far left bank!
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Must-See Museums Not on 5th Ave.
Sure, we all know of the biggies on "museum mile"...The MET, MOMA, Guggenheim, etc. but there are some lesser known gems that reflect the true essence of what makes NYC the nation's cultural capitol. Whether digging deep into the archives and spending the day or sprinting through, a temporary diversion to your shopping itinerary, one thing is for certain, you'll leave any of these museums with some new perspectives and a broader outlook.
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If you live here, it's as much a part of your daily routine as waking up and grabbing your first cup of coffee. If you're visiting, you've probably hopped on dozens of times after figuring out that hailing cabs is a gigantic budget buster. It's the subway! And here at the New York Transit Museum you'll learn much more about what makes it tick. Want to feel what it was like to sit in a vintage car from the 1960s? Curious about how all those underground tunnels were made? Housed in an historic 1936 Brooklyn Heights subway station, in depth displays have kept growing in scope since its debut in 1976 as part of the United States Bicentennial Celebration. Slated to close after the festivities, it proved to be so popular that it remained open and eventually became a permanent museum.
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Duck out of Manhattan’s concrete canyons and escape to Japan for a bit. Glistening wood floors and wide open sun drenched spaces set against a stunning three-story indoor bamboo water garden, reflecting pool and waterfall transform the scene to serene.
Founded in 1907 as a nonpolitical organization bringing Japan and the United States closer together through intercultural and mutual understanding, the Society has steadfastly refused to take a political stance, preferring education to advocacy even as political and racial tensions worsened between the 2 countries in the 1920s and 1930s leading to its temporary closing during the height of World War II. Fittingly, its current home was built in 1971 across the street from the UN and designed by Junzo Yoshimura making it the first building designed by a leading Japanese architect in New York City. In addition to a 262-seat theater, library, and the world renowned Toyota Language Center, ongoing exhibits feature top Japanese artists
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Here technology and personal accounts visually tell the story of vertical construction in NYC. Exhibits constantly remind you of the crucial synergy between sheer labor and engineering genius that makes an ever evolving skyline possible. Even though the gallery space extends only 3 stories above ground with ceilings just over 11 feet high, it is flooded with natural light and sheathed in mirrored stainless steel floors and ceilings creating the illusion that you’re standing 40 stories above Manhattan in the throes of seeing skyscrapers for the first time. Notable among the collection’s artifacts are a chunk of an early composite I-beam from the 1890's, a picture of two men sliding a gigantic carved limestone panel into place on the Empire State Building, detailed architectural renderings, and a video documenting the World Trade Center construction process.
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