Discover New York

Art, Architecture and Design (4 Hour Experience):

• Galleries and Studio Visit
  How is SoHo changing? Who is new to the area and who is leaving? What significant galleries and studios are in SoHo? What's the difference between SoHo and Chelsea? Visit several prominent galleries and meet with an artist in his or her private studio. Go inside an artist's mind as you listen to an artist talk about his work and see works in progress. See first hand how the art market works and learn about contemporary art.
  
• Architecture and Design
  Why did artists develop SoHo? Why do designers call SoHo home? How did these manufacturing spaces and warehouses become stylish boutiques, galleries and restaurants? Take a private look at where new design, performance, high-end furniture, fashion, and art intersect. Examine the 19th century cast iron architecture as you explore the streets of this popular area.
  

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

• Optional lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists
  
• Specialty Shopping
  Explore the combination of merchandising and the merchandise and how architects design intriguing spaces. What new stores are opening in SoHo, TriBeCa and NoLita? Why are architects like Frank O. Gehry designing them? What is the latest fashion trend to hit New York? Check out the Prada store designed by architect Rem Koolhaas along with other design stores and stylish boutiques.

From the 19th Century Tree-Lined Streets to Cinematic Views (4 Hour Experience):

• Brooklyn Brownstones
  Explore some of New York's most charming neighborhoods: Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, and Carroll Gardens. Enjoy the cinematic view of Lower Manhattan across the river and walk the tree lined streets where artists and writers sought inspiration and the wealthy found refuge from Manhattan. Discover the architecture, shops, and culture of the "Brownstone Belt."

Include Prospect Park (6 Hour Experience - Above experience plus):

• Optional lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists
  
• Prospect Park
  Discover the gracious architecture of Park Slope. Explore Prospect Park, the crowning achievement of Brooklyn's golden decade - the 1860's. The park is filled with winding carriage paths and lush landscape.

3 Hour Experience:

• Auditioning and Acting: A Performer's Life
  What does a director look for in an audition? What does a producer want? How does the casting director find the right performer to turn into a star? Meet a performer from a Broadway production and hear what performers did in their audition to land their parts. Ask questions and learn what their lives are really like. You can bring a script with you if you wish to conduct your own performance and have the Broadway Casting Director provide an analysis.

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

3 Hour Experience:

• Costumes: From the Script to the Designer
  Whether it is a play, a musical, an opera, all of them use costumes. How are the costumes designed? Which comes first, the costume or the actor? How are the fabrics selected? Who keeps track of all the bits and pieces that make up the costume? How can one costume be fitted for people that are different sizes? Meet the people that design the costumes which help create the characters. Visit a major costume house. Learn how they actually "build" a costume, and how fabric flows across a stage.

Include Custom Exploration (6 Hour Experience - Above experience plus):

• Optional lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists
  
• The Costume Collection at the Museum of FIT
  The Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology has the largest collection of 20th century pieces of fashion in the world. Hear about the collection, how it is used and by whom. See pieces pulled from the collection just for you which represent a brief history of fashion through the decades of the 20th century. What are the differences between a ready-to-wear piece and a couture piece?
  (The FIT is open Tuesday through Friday)

3 Hour Experience:

• Moving Across a Stage!
  What does it take to be a dancer in the theater? What is it like to audition? How do you get in shape and stay that way? Meet highly trained dancers from a Broadway Show and watch as they demonstrate their warm-ups and daily rehearsal routines. This program provides people with an insight into the many challenges and rewards of living the disciplined life of a professional dancer. Please let your DNY Destination Specialist know if you wish to learn one of the dance routines to one of the shows!

4 Hour Experience:

• Garment District Shopping Experience
  Exclusively for Women's apparel and Accessories. The Garment Center is open Monday - Friday
• Guests enjoy a special insiders shopping tour in the Garment Center of New York City.
  
• Access wholesale showrooms that are not open to the public and sample sales for fashion apparel and accessories. Showrooms are selected to fit the group’s demographics, including sizing and what items they are interested in purchasing. Showrooms and sample sales generally have traditional sizes 2 -12. (Plus sizes or extra small sizes cannot be guaranteed.). These are samples, not a complete selection that would be available in major stores. If a designer is in his/her showroom, we make arrangements for a quick meet and greet, but cannot guarantee their availability.

6 Hour Experience - Above experience plus:

• Optional lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists
  
• More Garment District Shopping
  After lunch, your shopping expert helps you finish the day collecting the last minute items on your gift list!

Park Avenue 1922 - 2001 (4 Hour Experience):

• The 1920's to the 21st Century
  Park Avenue is synonymous with wealth. It boasts some of the world's most famous buildings including the famous Waldorf Astoria, home to every U.S. President since Herbert Hoover. Uncover Park Avenue's unglamorous past while traveling past famous shops and eateries. From the first decade of this century, see the transformation from an avenue of open railroad tracks into an elegant beaux-arts boulevard, and its redevelopment after the Second World War as an icon of the cool, corporate, "International Style" Modernism.

4 Hour Experience:

• Flea Markets
  New York has several wonderful locations housing art and bargain priced antiques. We choose one of the best shops for antique aficionados! In a city where artifacts come from around the globe, flea markets hold treasures galore. These bargain priced venues are a must for people with a budget in mind.
  
• Chelsea Antiques Warehouse
  Next, we visit the Antiques Center. This warehouse is full of everything from costume jewelry to scenic backdrops. Wander through the treasures of days gone by. (closed Mondays)

Include Custom Exploration (6 Hour Experience - Above experience plus):

• Optional lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists
  
• Customized Exploration
  Next, we continue our exploration based upon those items that you personally want to see.

Lunch with Oscar Hammerstein (6 Hour Experience):

• Oscar Hammerstein III
  Oscar Andrew Hammerstein has devoted his life to studying and preserving his family's heritage and their contribution to American culture. He lectures before universities, institutes, theatrical and civic organizations on the Hammerstein Family's pivotal role in shaping the development of theatre and popular entertainment in America from the 1860s to present day.
• Mr. Hammerstein is represented exclusively by Discover New York. Single Lecture topics include: Oscar Hammerstein the 1st - The Opera-Mad Father of Times Square Oscar Hammerstein the 2nd - Broadway's Premier Lyricist Willy Hammerstein's Victoria Theatre - The 'Nut House' of Vaudeville The Hammersteins of New York - A Whirlwind Historical Overview Two-part lectures include:
  
  • Lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists
    
  • Broadway Matinee
    This afternoon, enjoy a wonderful Broadway show of your choice based upon availability

4 Hour Experience:

• Exploring Public Art
  What role does public art play in Madison Square and Battery Park City? Stroll around the tip of Manhattan to discover the multitude of public outdoor art. Beginning with the history of the old Customs House now housing the Museum of the American Indian. Discover how architects, artists, and landscape designers have been collaborating to give Battery Park a unique sense of place. Focus on the changing nature of public art over time and its relationship to its surroundings. From gravestones to monuments to statues, public art has taken different forms over the years. Visit the Tom Otterness sculpture, Irish Hunger Memorial, and see the latest developments at Ground Zero.

Include a Private Studio Visit with an Artist (6 Hour Experience - Above experience plus):

• Optional lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists
  
• Artist Visit
  What is an artist's studio like? How does an artist start a painting or sculpture? Why do they choose acrylic or oil? Why does an artist prefer one method to another? Take a look behind the art-market and visit an artist in their studio. Speak one-on-one with the artist, hear about his/her methods, and see works in progress.

4 Hour Experience:

• Boutique Shopping for the Home
  New York has several wonderful locations for the best shopping for home fashions. Explore several of them in the morning where the merchandise is constantly changing for fun and exciting selections.

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

• Optional lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists
  
• Chinatown Bargains
  Everyone wants a bargain; and Chinatown has something for everyone. Clothes, handbags, toys, watches all share space on the street for you.

Newest Galleries with a Studio Visit (4 Hour Experience):

• Chelsea Galleries
  Why is Chelsea the hotbed for artistic activity? Where are the new galleries and who are the emerging artists? What's in the private viewing room? We will explore some of the established contemporary galleries and new gallery spaces as well as visit some of the younger up and coming dealers. Find out who is hot and who's not.
  
• Artist Studio Visit
  What is an artist's studio like? How does an artist start a painting or sculpture? Choose acrylic or oil? Why does an artist prefer one method to another? Take a look behind the art market and visit an artist in their studio. Speak one-on-one with the artist, hear about his/her methods, and see works in progress.

Include shopping in the Meatpacking District (6 Hour Experience - Above experience plus):

• Optional lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists
• Shopping in the Meatpacking District
  Are you are ready to purchase the most fashionable stiletto boots or just want to try them on? Shop among models, artists, fashion editors, socialites, and celebrities as you visit the newest downtown fashion mega boutique – Jeffrey New York, home of hot designer duds. Also see Rei Kawakubo's Comme des Garcons boutique, a 5,000 square foot space which one enters through a strange tunnel with curved aluminum walls.

2 Hour Experience:

• The World of Wine
  Food lovers have a wide variety of programs to choose from when working with DNY’s Destination Specialists. Sit down and enjoy a cheese and wine class in a private room or walk around stations and sample wines and cheese. After the event, your guests will be impressed when they receive their own personalized wine report with the wine descriptions, their individual ratings, group ratings and other recommendations.
  
  Let our Sommelier entertain your guests with a tasting of world class wines with any of the following themes:
  • Regional Wine Tasting - By country or region (i.e. Bordeaux, Rioja, Australia)
    
  • Wines of the World - Sample different wines from different countries
    
  • Varietal Tastings - (i.e. Great cabernets from around the world)
    
  • Golf Themed - Sample wines from golf greats such as Arnold Palmer, Nick Faldo, Ernie Els and Greg Norman
    
  • Sports Themed - Sample wines from sports legends such as Joe Montana, Wayne Gretsky, Tommy Lasorda, Dick Vermeil and Mike Ditka.
    
    
• It’s a fun way to spend an evening learning about wine and which are your favorites. The cheeses are pared with the wine selections. This opportunity is perfect for holiday parties rather than the more formal sit down dinners. It works very well for team building too!

Include Lunch or Dinner (4 Hour Experience - Above experience plus):

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

Shop for the Best Kitchen and Tableware in New York (4 Hour Experience):

• Kitchen Suppliers
  We begin in midtown at New York's most famous supplier to both restaurants and home chefs. See what's new in the marketplace as you shop around this innovative store.
• China, Coffee and Tea
  By reproducing famous china patterns from private clubs, railroads, and hotels, this is New Yorker's favorite stop. Prices are low and they'll ship! Travel across the street to the "Disneyland" of home furnishings where you can collect, rather than decorate! Peruse the store to find the latest designs. We'll stop for coffee and tea here.

Include Dean and Deluca (6 Hour Experience - Above experience plus):

• Optional lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists
  
• Dean and Deluca
  New York's flagship store for food and tabletop is our next stop. You'll be able to pick up those hard to find ingredients while savoring a peek at cookies that cost $14 a piece!

East Village and Greenwich Village (4 Hour Experience):

• The East Village
  Walk through the neighborhoods made famous by immigrants, radicals, and show folk alike. From the "Jewish Rialto" of the turn of the century to the hit Broadway musical "Rent," see why the East Village has been a part of our popular culture. Learn about the German, Ukrainian, and Eastern European Jewish immigrants, as well as the Beats, the Hippies and a host of radicals. Discover Old World bakeries, ethnic food stores, craft shops, off-off Broadway theaters, and the sites of the birth of the counter-culture.
• Greenwich Village
  A stroll through the Village transports even the most jaded traveler, revealing the many layers of its rich history and varied lifestyles. Enjoy New Yorker's beloved Landmark District filled with gracious architecture, residential tree-lined streets, hidden mews, enticing ethnic cuisine, political and social history, off-Broadway theaters and diverse night life.

Include the Meatpacking District (6 Hour Experience - Above experience plus):

• Optional lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists
  
• Meatpacking District
  The transition from wholesale butcher shops to a place where the hip and famous meet has been stunning over the past few years. We visit the neighborhood and see the boutiques and restaurants that open weekly so each visit is different.

3 Hour Experience:

• Training the Voice to Make Sweet Sounds
  What is song styling? What breathing techniques are necessary to become a great singer? How do you involve an audience in your performance? Although designed for the experienced student, this workshop explores the art of marrying music and drama effectively to achieve great emotional impact. You'll work with a professional theatre director and musical director, to be coached through basic warm-ups and exercises. You can bring sheet music with you and work on a performance with a Musical Director. Once you feel comfortable with the song, then a Casting Director can evaluate your performance and help you fine tune it.

4 Hour Experience:

• Salvage Companies
  Where do the bits and pieces of New York's buildings go when they are torn down? “One Man's Junk is Another Man's Treasure” search takes you into the salvage companies. You also discover where the gargoyles go. New Yorkers have a rich urban history that is captured by architectural fragments, furniture, and sometimes junk.
  
• Shopping
  Explore landmark neighborhoods, lined with fanciful cast iron facades. Find inspiration while shopping alongside interior designers, trendsetters, and film producers.

6 Hour Experience - Above experience plus:

• Optional lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists
  
• Museum Exhibit
  Why is New York considered the center of the art world? Which great works exist in New York today? Look closely as you visit the most significant related exhibition making its way through New York. Whether it be at the Museum of Modern Art or Morgan Library see first hand why the exhibition is so riveting.

Drawings, Prints, Handmade Paper (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. How is paper made? What materials make up paper? How is paper embossed? What is a watermark? What does cold press mean?
  
• Paper Galleries
  Visit a non-profit institution and galleries whose mission is to preserve and promote these art-making methods. Ask questions and see first hand how works on paper are playing an important role in the contemporary art world. What artists are working with paper? Where are the newest galleries and who are the emerging artists? What's being exhibited? Who decides? Together, we explore the intimacy and immediacy that drawing and printmaking can offer the artist.

Include a Studio Visit (6 Hour Experience - Above experience plus):

• Optional lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists
  
• Studio Visit
  What is a printmaking studio like? How does an etching differ from a lithograph? Why does an artist prefer one method to another? Visit a working printmaking workshop and studio, and see first-hand how prints are made. Create a dialogue on issues of art and culture as you ask the artist questions while having a private look at proofs and prints.
  (Program limited to twenty people, not offered on Sundays)

Who is Photographing What and Why? (4 Hour Experience):

• Galleries
  What is being exhibited in New York's top photography galleries? What's a vintage print? What's an edition? How has the digital camera changed the scene? Visit several prominent photo galleries where the directors speak about the current exhibits as well as photography today. Gain insights into recognized sssists in the field and the market for contemporary photography. Find out what sssists are most collectable while you are chatting with dealers and directors.
  
• Photographer's Studio Visit
  Meet a professional photographer, hear about his/her methods, examine works in progress and find out what photography means to the sssist. Learn what is an “Artist's Proof”. Is the magic in the eye, or in the developer's hand? Who needs a dark room anyway? Find out who is taking pictures and why.

Include a Visit to the International Center for Photography (6 Hour Experience - Above experience plus):

• Optional lunch at a neighborhood restaurant chosen during your consultation with one of our Destination Specialists
  
• The International Center for Photography
  Visit the International Center of Photography, housing over 55,000 photographs. It is one of the most prominent museums of photography in the world. Take a private tour while you have a dialogue on issues of sss and culture. How has photography changed? What is the difference between iris prints and daguerreotypes?
  (Program not offered on Mondays)