New York City Walking Tours

New York City loves pedestrians and pedestrians love New York City, which is why one of the best ways to see it is on foot. Whether you want to visit sites of its early history as a Dutch colony, explore its rise to financial power, understand the immigrant experience or visit its landmarks in literary history, there is a New York City walking tour for you.

There are many options for finding the right New York City walking tour. Aside from companies that provide standard tours for a fee, there are also individual guides with unique presentations (such as the edible plants tour of Central Park) that advertise their tours on event mailing lists mostly known only to native New Yorkers such as the weekly Nonsense list. Additionally, many museums and similar non-profit organizations (such as the Botanical Gardens) offer walking tours on specific aspects of New York City. There are even free walking tours of particular neighborhoods sponsored by individual business associations in an effort to promote tourism and commerce. One of the best is that of the historic Union Square area, Finally, there are self-guided walking tours of New York City, which allow you to explore a section of the city with a map, information and sometimes even a podcast found online.

If you're looking for walking tours on a specific theme from a big company (which gives you the advantage of being able to book ithout much trouble or fuss), you should check out the offerings of New York Talks and Walks. This company offers both day and evening walks on everything from New York ghost stories to a patriotic view of the city's history. Its guides include historians and academics, which means you get high-quality information on your walking tour. Another great tour company is Foods of New York which offers a range of tours that include food tastings of both uniquely New York treats and the wide variety of gourmet and international fare available here.

For a more personalized walking tour experience, consider booking with an individual guide who will actually design a tour to your own specifications. In this scenario, you get an experience designed just for you, instead of a recitation (no matter how interesting) from a script. For this, consider Susan Birnbaum who has led walking tours on everything from the more typical topic of New York's immigrant history to the currently trendy tour of New York's knitting hot spots.

If you're more of a self-guided tour person, check out the offerings at Spectacular Strolls (which has tours available for other cities as well). Everything you need to follow your 20 - 40 minute walking tour can be purchased from the website, at only $2 a tour. Another great self-guided walking tour company for New York is Tailored Tours.

However you choose to do it, skip those ubiquitous buses that drive around to show the city to toursits from a distance and see New York City the way it was meant to be seen, on foot, amongst its people and focusing on the little uniquenesses that make it special.