New York

[Tony Angelino]

Morning all, we're heading for our firsr trip to NYC between Christmas and New Year and are considering using one of the Private Photography Tours. Basically, they send you a 'pro' photogropher who takes you on a 1/2/3 hour walking tour round various areas of the City and captures it for you..

https://phototrektours.com/best-of-new-york-2-hour...
https://www.getyourguide.co.uk/brooklyn-l2034/priv...

The basic thinking is if we organise something like this for the first morning we are there we would (hopefully) get somebody with good local knowledge who knows the best way to get around who can take us to plenty of the big sites quickly and we don't either have to have the usual photo of 2 out of 3 of us or mess with a selfie stick and a phone.

Plus we take some poor pics.

Anybody used one?
Good idea?
Pricey for what it is?
Risk of getting somebody who doesnt speak much English and have a communication barrier? #
Alternative suggestions?

[Tony Angelino]

had ham said:

With only the teeniest bit of planning, working out a route between all the 'sights' is very easy - Manhattan is an absolute doddle to get around. The service you linked to is certainly not cheap, and of course you won't have much in the way of flexibility if the weather doesn't play ball on the day you've booked.

It also would appear to miss out on some of those iconic NYC locations (I only clicked on one link briefly, so forgive me if I'm spouting crap) - what about The Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island ferry, or a picture with lower Manhattan/Freedom Tower/Hudson behind you, taken from the Jersey City shoreline (only one stop from WTC under the Hudson on the Path), etc, etc?

I'd be spending a little time with Google and planning an itinerary, and rely on a selfie stick or friendly tourists/locals to take those important pictures for you - and spend your money on something more worth your while - it's not like they're aren't thousands of ways to do that in NYC!

I'm a regular visitor on business and know the place quite well - if I can help you plan, I'd be happy to do so. There are loads of folk on here who are regular visitors too, and some folk who are resident - they will likely offer some good insight shortly.

Thanks for the reply.

We have a loose itineray at the moment and are hoping to add more things to it. So far booked we have:

Statue of Liberty
NY Giants game
Broadway show
Top of the Rock
NYE bowling near Times Square

We ideally want some of the 'touristy' pics whilst we are there and thought that might be a decent way to do it, We have 4 nights from 27th December returning 1st January. Other things on the list to try and shoehorn in:

Ground zero
The Highline
Coney Island
Ice Skating (Central Park/Times Sq?)
Shopping
Brooklyn Bridge
Polar Bear dip on NYD

We need to narrow it down and plan further, we're not over fussed about fancy food - happy with streetfood/fastfood type stuff or drinking at all. We're staying in Hoboken NY, me the mrs and our 12 year old lad.

[Tony Angelino]

Thanks again for the replies, much appreciated. Just to address a couple of them:

• Reference ‘street food’, I meant fast food/nothing fancy stuff rather than specifically on the sidewalk! We’re not into fine dining or anything like that. Pizza places, burger places, deli’s etc suit us. Not fussed for late nights or drinking.

• We’re staying in the Hotel Hoboken.
• Top of the Rock, Broadway show, NFL, Statue of Liberty, NYE tickets all booked and paid for – no negotiation on these. With how they fall we’ve got from memory 1 full day and 3 ‘half’ days to fill with the other stuff.

• Happy and expecting to cover long distances on foot and take the subway.

We're still working out the best way from JFK to Hoboken - we don't have a transfer booked the moment. Flight gets in early/mid afternoon I think.

[Tony Angelino]

Will reply later when home, thanks again.

Staying at W Hoboken.

thanks all.

[Tony Angelino]

K50 DEL said:

For my recent stay we chose to base ourselves in Jersey City, and faced the same question regarding getting there from JFK.... in the end, I hired a car from Budget, collected it at JFK and dropped it off the next morning in Jersey City before getting the PATH train into Manhattan... ISTR the total cost of this was <£40 so much cheaper than an Uber and far less stress than Air Train etc (I normally use Air Train and it's great if you're actually staying in the city but as Ham says above, it's a real faff to get into Jersey via that route.

As far as your daily commute from Hoboken to the City goes, having suffered the PATH train at rush hour a couple of times I would advise avoiding that (it's quick and cheap but makes the London underground seem quiet, one morning we had to wait for 8 trains before we were able to cram ourselves in!)

Instead, I would use the NY Waterways service that goes straight from Hoboken to the pier at Wall Street, it's a touch more expensive than PATH but much handier for Midtown and a really nice service.

Thanks, hopefully the train may not be so bad with it being between Christmas and new Year?

Regarding the car, I've just had a quick google search and the cheapest I can find is around £90 so I'd probably just stick with either an uber or a transfer.

Good tip for the water service, thanks.

[Tony Angelino]

RicksAlfas said:

bakerstreet said:

I would recommend adding USS Intrepid to your list of places to go. Aircraft Carrier with the Space Shuttle on it. There is only a few places in the world where you can see a Space Shuttle so worth a visit IMO.

We went to NYC in Jan 2012 and loved it. We stayed opposite Madison Square Garden in a massive hotel which was pretty scruffy but we had a great trip. Weather was bitterly cold. It didn't get above 0C all week, but it really didn't matter. We just spent the week in jackets and woolly hats

We went this April and it snowed!
It was very cold. Take all your gear and decent shoes. We had a spectacularly clear evening when we went up the Rockefeller Center. Amazing views. Well recommended. Do some research first though as you have to book I think.

Here's the Intrepid's A-12 with snow on its wings. Not its usual operating zone!

This looks brilliant, thanks for the tip. Will try and make time to get there most definately.

Much appreciated fellas, keep them coming!

[Tony Angelino]

Well in time honoured fashion, I completely ignored the majority of advise and booked the photographer!

thanks for the tips including those about transport and the air craft carrier.

Keep them coming!
mark

[Tony Angelino]

Crown was booked up several weeks ago for end of December. We only got the pedestal ticket.