Discover New York

4 Hour Experience:

• Battery Park City
  We’ll explore the neighborhood of Battery Park and see the wonderful gardens and playgrounds. Walk around the delightful sculpture by Tom Otterness, walk through the Irish Hunger Memorial, view Ground Zero and enjoy the see the Statue of Liberty from the tip of Manhattan.
  

Include the Museum of the American Indian (6 Hour Experience - Above experience plus):

• Optional lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists
• Museum of the American Indian
  The outside of the Museum of the American Indian is as interesting as the collection inside. We’ll learn about the wonderful sculptures on the outside of Cass Gilbert’s US Custom House built in 1907. The collection inside represents artifacts that depict the lifestyle of various US Indian tribes.

4 Hour Experience:

• Private Shopping at FAO Schwarz
  Begin your day with private shopping at FAO Schwarz before the store opens to the public and see the fascinating variety of exclusive merchandise. Let us know if you wish to take a tour with a Toy Soldier!
  
• Central Park Wildlife Conservation Center
  Where is New York's backyard? How large is it? How many different species of birds actually migrate through the park annually? Why do the pathways curve the way that they do? Where can you rent a rowboat? How many bridges and tunnels are in the park? We'll begin to explore this 843-acre wonder with a carriage ride! Visit the famous Children's Zoo, and explore the three climate zones, home to over 100 species of animals. You'll see the famous twirling monkeys as the Delacorte clock strikes the half-hour!
  

Include a VIP Visit to the American Museum of Natural History (6 Hour Experience - Above experience plus):

• Optional lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists
  
• American Museum of Natural History
  After lunch, we head to New York's home of the Dinosaurs for VIP treatment with a private experience. This three city block museum houses the wonderful new planetarium in the Rose Center for Space and Science. See the African safari in the Hall of African Animals.

New York in a Nutshell (4 Hour Experience):
This Highlights Experience is personalized just for you and your children to keep them interested in what they are seeing. Discuss with your DNY Destination Specialist the locations that you wish to see. Your DNY expert licensed guide will focus on those locations so that you spend as much or as little time at each as you wish. Getting out of the vehicle and walking around to get a real feel for New York is important. Depending upon the weather conditions, traffic, and any street conditions, your visit is designed to include as many of the following locations as possible:

• Option 1
  
  • Midtown to Downtown
    Rockefeller Center, Times Square, Garment District, Flatiron District and Ladies Mile. Greenwich Village, SoHo. Chinatown, Little Italy. Wall Street and the Financial District, Ground Zero Memorial site, Battery Park, Statue of Liberty, The Museum of Jewish Heritage, The Museum of the American Indian, View The New York Stock Exchange, South Street Seaport, The Lower East Side, East Village, The United Nations, Tudor City, Turtle Bay and Park Avenue
• Option 2
  
  • Midtown to Uptown
    The Upper West Side including Lincoln Center, The Dakota, Central Park, Strawberry Fields, American Museum of Natural History. Harlem and Morningside Heights: Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Columbia University, Grant's Tomb, Riverside Park, the Hudson River, George Washington Bridge, The Apollo Theater, The Upper East Side & Conservatory Garden, Museum Mile including the Museum of the City of New York, The Museo del Barrio, The Jewish Museum, The Cooper Hewitt, The Neue Gallery, Guggenheim Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Frick Collection
    

Include Lunch and the Second Option (6 Hour Experience - Above experience plus):

• Optional lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists
  
• For the full day, simply combine option 1 and option 2.

4 Hour Experience:

• The International Center for Photography
  Who wouldn't love to capture their own memories? Children love to take pictures and New York is a great subject. Who are some of the greatest photographers of the 19th and 20th century? What new, helpful hints can you pick up at the International Center of Photography? Explore the amazing variety of shapes and angles in the architecture of New York City and visit the International Center of Photography’s new campus.
  
• Photographing New York's Harbor
  Next, we take the Staten Island Ferry to Staten Island. Along the way, examine how the same image changes perceptions as we move further away or get closer to objects.

Include the Alice Austen House (6 Hour Experience - Above experience plus):

• Optional lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists
  
• The Alice Austen House Museum and Garden
  Visit Alice Austen’s restored 1890's home. How did Alice contribute to documentary photography depicting life in New York at the turn of the 20th Century? By the end of the day, learn how to set up a camera, create a shot, understand lighting and have the results to keep as a souvenir of their trip to New York. (Thursday - Sunday only)

4 Hour Experience:

• Street of Ships
  Where is the street of ships? The answer is uncovered as we explore the mysteries of Lower Manhattan’s history. Don your detective's cap and get ready to do some sleuthing. This is the real beginning of New York's history.
  
• Cannon's Walk
  What is Belgian block? Who was Schermerhorn; and what is Schermerhorn Row? What is the Pilot House used for today? Are there mounds of garbage underneath some of New York's piers and some of the tallest skyscrapers? We'll explore this 19th Century district and understand what the captains brought into New York's shores and how it was used.

Include the Police Museum (6 Hour Experience - Above experience plus):

• Optional lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists
• Police Museum
  The Police Museum gives visitors an insider’s look at the history and traditions of the largest police force in the country and its role in the history of New York City. With artifacts that date all the way back to the Dutch settlers, visitors can discover the impact of the NYPD over the last three centuries. They will find out the reason police precincts around the nation are marked with green lights outside their doors, why officers are called “cops,” why their bosses are called “brass,” and which came first, the Model T or the Highway Unit? Hear the moving stories of officers responding to the tragic attacks of September 11, 2001 and learn how the NYPD now works beyond the borders of New York City to ensure the safety of every citizen. View the shields of every officer killed in the line of duty since 1845, and contemplate the bravery and dedication it takes to be one of New York's Finest. (Closed Sundays)
• If booked on a Sunday, we will substitute the American Sports Museum, The Museum of Financial History, or the Museum of the American Indian depending upon the day.

Hands on Class (4 Hour Experience):

• Making Handmade Paper
  Witness a hands-on demonstration of how paper is made, allowing participants to actively engage directly in the process. What materials make up paper? How is paper embossed? What is a watermark? What does cold press mean? Your handmade paper is sent to you when it’s dry so that you are able to fill your treasure box with New York memories decorated with your own handmade paper.

Include Shopping for Paper (6 Hour Experience - Above experience plus):

• Optional lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists
• Exploring the Paper Specialty Shops in Chinatown and SoHo
  Enjoy a visit to Chinatown with a stop at the Pearl River Department store, plus shopping on Canal Street for watches, handbags, scarves, backpacks and toys. Next, visit Kate's Paperie to see an incredible variety of paper and paper products from the around the world. Identify the techniques used in some of the 4,000 different examples of handmade paper.

4 Hour Experience:

• Museum of the City of New York
  See the Museum of the City of New York’s Toy Collection that documents the social history of childhood in NYC. The collection contains over 10,000 toys and amusements used by New Yorkers from the Colonial Period to the present day. Holdings include: the Stettheimer Doll House of the 1920’s with its miniature art gallery of original paintings and sculptures by New York’s foremost avant-garde artists of the period. Antique dolls, toys, games and puzzles, soldiers, trains and boats, children’s books, puppets and toy theater, art gallery of original paintings, and sculptures by New York's foremost avant-garde artists of the period.

Include Madame Alexader's Doll Factory (6 Hour Experience - Above experience plus):

• Optional lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists
• Madame Alexander’s Doll Factory
  A walk through the Madame Alexander Heritage Gallery reveals 600 expertly crafted glamour dolls wearing intricate designs. You’ll visit the doll hospital, and the showroom, which is replete with hand-painted floral murals. Inside the doll hospital, you can watch the experts construct the famous figurines such as "Cissy," the first full-figured doll which "Madame" Beatrice Alexander Behrman created in the 1950's.

Where did and where do New Yorker's Live (4 Hour Experience):

• From 19th Century to 21st Century
  How has New York changed? Take a private tour through New York City's only family home preserved intact, inside and out, from the 19th century. The interior is filled with the family's furniture and belongings, including pieces from New York's finest cabinetmakers, such as Duncan Phyfe and Joseph Meeks. Personal items also fill the home including needlework, family photographs, sewing boxes, and costumes.
  
• Row House Hunt
  Why do New Yorkers love to live in a row? What is a row house, anyway? Where are they? Explore Greenwich Village a neighborhood with tons of row houses and find out what makes a house a row house. What is a brownstone, and where did the word “stoop” come from? Solve row house puzzles, play a row house game, and even make a row house of your own to take home.

Include a Visit to the Jewish Heritage or Tenement Museum (6 Hour Experience - Above experience plus):

• Optional lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists
• Museum of Jewish Heritage or Tenement Museum
  Explore New York's history while taking a private tour at the Tenement Museum or the Museum of Jewish Heritage. A living memorial to the Holocaust. Experience individual stories of New York's men, women, and children, as well as, life and culture.

4 Hour Experience:

• The Bronx Zoo
  Home to over 4,000 animals. Come and celebrate the season with snow leopards, polar bears, tigers and other cold-weather creatures. Enjoy indoor attractions, Madagascar!, Jungleworld and World of Darkness. African Plains, Congo Gorilla Forest, Jungle World, Madagascar, Tiger Mountain, World of Birds, World of Reptiles, World of Darkness, Mouse House, Monkey House, Children's Zoo.
  
  Trek past lions, storks, and zebras on a typical African savanna. Herds of gazelles share their home with nyalas and African wild dogs and giraffes eye each other across a plain. It’s as close to the Serengeti as you can get in the Bronx!
  
  Go nose-to-nose with gorillas in a 6.5-acre swath of the rainforest that transports you to the heart of Africa. Your Congo wildlife safari is packed with surprises as you trek beneath the canopy of leaves, through sprays of mist, and up to tree-top lookouts.
  
  Transport yourself to the tropics! Inside the Asian jungle. The warm air is just right for otters, gibbons, and a tapir, just a few among the nearly 800 other critters that live in mangroves and beaches; sharing their homes just as they would in the wild.
  
  Go nose-to-nose with Siberian tigers on a woodland that recreates the Russian Far East. In this showcase of the Zoo’s animal enrichment program, discover how training, toys, and foraging games help the big cats stay fit and stimulated.

Include Lunch (6 Hour Experience - Above experience plus):

• Optional lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists

Carriage Rides, Subways and Grand Central Terminal (4 Hour Experience):

• Out and About
  How do New Yorkers get around? How did they get around in the past? Travel by private van to Central Park to experience a horse drawn carriage ride.
  
• The Underground Horse of the 20th Century
  Explore the art in the subways and how early New Yorkers identified which subway stop was their destination. How many layers of trains are underneath the streets of New York?
  
• Grand Central Terminal
  Visit Grand Central Terminal. Why is Cornelius Vanderbilt's statue on the front of this building? How many people use this train station complex to get to work? How many of the constellations in the ceiling can you identify? Can you hear something in the whispering corner?

Include a Ride on the Staten Island Ferry (6 Hour Experience - Above experience plus):

• Optional lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists
  
• The Staten Island Ferry
  Begun by Cornelius Vanderbilt in 1810, at the age of 16, this ferry has linked Staten Island with Manhattan carrying visitors and local New Yorkers. Bring your camera to photograph the Statue of Liberty up close

4 Hour Experience:

• Chocolate
  Everyone has their favorite food and chocolate seems to be an all time favorite for many. The world of chocolate has been changing rapidly over the past several years. New flavors are being added all the time to incorporate a variety of spices in addition to traditional fruits and nuts. Discover the very best of the best in the world of chocolate. Call a DNY Destination Specialist to customize this option for your group by neighborhood and type of chocolate that you wish to try. Private chocolate making classes are also available upon request.

Include Lunch (6 Hour Experience - Above experience plus):

• Optional lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists

4 Hour Experience:

• The Upper West Side
  Where are the best bagels and lox, pickles, and pastrami? Noshing through New York's Neighborhoods gives history a new flavor. Understand who lives in New York, where they work, what they eat and why. Visit the H&H bagel factory, and then head to Zabar's appetizing store to explore this emporium of smoked fish, delicatessen items, coffees, and over 700 kinds of cheese. The fresh fish displayed in the windows of Citarella are considered "food art."
  
• Chinatown
  Travel to Canal Street for a taste of Chinatown's cart food. Which area of China do wheat noodles come from? Which area of China do rice noodles come from? Taste the difference between wheat and rice noodles, barbecued ducks, chickens, and roast pork.

Include Lunch (6 Hour Experience - Above experience plus):

• Optional lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists

4 Hour Experience:

• Chinatown
  Chinatown is filled with marvelous food emporiums selling everything from dried and fresh fish, mushrooms, cakes and cookies, and really unusual items for home health remedies. Sample some of the best barbeque chicken and pork, dim sum, and fortune cookies.
  
• Lower East Side
  Next, explore the Lower East Side, and sample pickles from the barrel at Gus’. E'xplore the Essex Street Market, taste candies from one of the famous candy shops in the neighborhood; and then sample bagels and bialys the food staples of a New York Sunday brunch.

Include Lunch (6 Hour Experience - Above experience plus):

• Optional lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists