Five Days of Intense NYC training!

• INCLUDED! Harlem Gospel Brunch. There’s no better way to experience Harlem, then to share a meal together and listen to some incredible singing!
• Harlem Walking Tour. Harlem pops up on itineraries and often terrifies TDs; our walking tour will cover dozens of sights: everything and anything you may need to lead a great tour, by bus or on foot. We’ll tell stories, of course, and also talk about possible variations and possible wow moments for groups. And of course we’ll include a site visit to the Apollo Theater.
• Hamilton Grange. Alexander Hamilton is hot right now! We’ll tour his final home.
• City College. A collegiate gothic masterpiece perched on a cliff.
• Morningside Heights. This is a peaceful, beautiful and under-visited neighborhood great for group tours. We’ll visit Grant’s Tomb,  Columbia University, St. John the Divine, Riverside Church and the little spots and lunch options to wow your group.

• We’ll start in the Meatpacking District, walk the High Line, snack at Chelsea Market, and then explore the West Village, home to more preserved history per square block than probably anywhere else in Manhattan. It’s also charming.
• We’ll then focus on Washington Square Park and the surrounding Greenwich Village streets, a great opportunity to wow your groups with great food, stories, and beautiful architecture.
• We’ll go on a tour of New York University, which shows up on many student and college tour itineraries.
• The East Village is often not visited by groups, and we’ll dive into its fascinating history, beginning as Dutch farmland and ending with everything from punk rock to incredible international food.
• Then we head south. We’ll enter the epicenter of Manhattan “cool,” the unbearably hip neighborhoods of the Lower East Side (with a site visit to the Tenement Museum), NoHo, and Nolita. The history of the tenement district, plus today’s boutiques, bars and food are a great way to wow anyone who thinks they’ve seen everything in Manhattan.
• We’ll include a walking tour of the SoHo cast-iron (and shopping) district, and teach you how to lead a variety of little walks plus point out some of the most interesting shops in the area.
• And that leaves us with the evening for Chinatown and Little Italy, an often-visited neighborhood, but we’ll unlock some secret wow moments, tons of history, interesting markets and food, plus some great mobster stories. The evening will end here, and we’ll all celebrate a long day with dinner in the area (optional, not included).

• Brooklyn is way more than just a bridge walk! But we’ll start at the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge, completing the walk and showing you how it’s done with groups from both sides.
• We’ll end up in DUMBO, talking pizza, factories, lofts and carousels, and the Battle of Brooklyn Heights, of course.
• We’ll climb our way from under the bridge via the gorgeous neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights, ending in Downtown Brooklyn, and pass by the Historical Society and Transit Museum along the way.
• Next up: the oh-so-hip Williamsburg, great for the trendy rainbow bagel, excellent food, and fantastic history.
• The afternoon then will lead us through the great, vast green spaces of Brooklyn: Prospect Park, the Botanical Garden, and Green-Wood Cemetery.

• Just like our day in Brooklyn, we’ll once again start in Manhattan, at the base of the Roosevelt Island Tram, an odd and wonderful little experience that delights groups. We’ll end up on the Island, and share stories of the insane, diseased, Charles Dickens and gentrification. It’s a fun little spot, and our entrance into Queens.
• From there it’s off to Astoria, home to Steinway pianos, great food, the Socrates Sculpture Park, and the Museum of the Moving Image.
• South of there we’ll head to Long Island City, a neighborhood that has sprouted from nothing along the waterfront, but filled with some wow moments for groups.
• From there we head east through the incredibly diverse neighborhoods of Jackson Heights and Sunnyside, for a fantastic lunch.
• And then it’s out towards the airports. We’ll finish the afternoon in Flushing Meadows and Corona, home to Citi Field, the U.S. Tennis Open, the Queens Museum (and nifty Panorama installation), and the iconic Unisphere.
• As the sun goes down, we’ll head towards Flushing‘s enormous Chinatown, and explore the food, shops and history of the area.
• The evening will end, as always, with dinner options. We can return towards Jackson Heights or Astoria’s Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden, or you can feel free to take the short journey to Spa Castle, the weird and wonderful complex where you can soak, massage, and forget about tour season for an evening!

Have you started leading tours in NYC and realize that you need a refresher course? Are you looking for that special story that will add a “wow moment” while visiting the standard sights? Maybe you started your tour season and realize that although you can maneuver yourself through, you lack that special knowledge and confidence to impress your groups. We will cover all the normal spots that are on all itineraries:

• Times Square
• Fifth Avenue
• Central Park
• Columbus Circle
• Rock Center
• Grand Central
• Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island
• Financial District
• 9/11 Memorial