Walking Tour NYC: The Guided Tours Worth Your Money

When you only have a few days for a city as huge as New York, with so much to do just outside it too, booking guided tours helps you make the most of every minute and not miss the important stuff.

Obviously, a few-hour tour won't show you everything, but it's a great starting point for deciding which places you want to come back to on your next trip, because as I always say, you will be back! New York doesn't run out after one trip, or two, or three, or ten. Trust me, I've been back many times and I always find something new to do.

How to book tours

Online you'll find dozens of deals and different providers offering tours, and picking one gets confusing fast. That's why we started another of our projects: Viabam tours, a search engine where we only list tours from trustworthy operators with strong traveler reviews. You have our guarantee: if a tour's rating drops below 4 stars, it gets pulled from the platform.

Another thing to keep in mind when choosing a guided tour is that most tours offer the same thing and go to the same places, but charge wildly different prices. That's the other reason Viabam exists: getting the best rates on the market so you can put every penny you save toward seeing more of this city we're obsessed with.

The most popular guided tours in New York

To make your search easier, here's a list of the best-rated guided tours in New York:

• Contrasts of New York tour: this one takes you to wildly different attractions in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. In 5 hours you'll realize there's a lot of New York outside Manhattan.
• 4 hours through Manhattan: you'll quickly cover the city's biggest highlights with an expert Spanish-speaking guide. Ideal for first-time visitors.
• Christmas lights tour: if you're visiting during the gorgeous holiday season, this tour takes you to Dyker Heights, a Brooklyn neighborhood where residents decorate their houses top to bottom, just like in the movies!

If you have more time or you already know the city, you can venture out to one of the nearby cities on these tours from New York with Spanish-speaking guides.

• Did you know you can see Boston on a day trip from New York? Read up on the most English city in the United States and see if it tempts you.
• There's plenty to see in Philadelphia and getting there from New York is easy, it's only two hours away! This Spanish-language tour to Philadelphia also stops in Amish country.
• Once the weather turns nice, you can book a day trip to Niagara Falls from NYC. It's one of those places everyone should see, and I've been twice and would happily go again.
• Traveling to Washington DC from New York is another great idea. You'll feel like you're walking around a movie set XD

In the guide to day trips from New York you'll find more ideas for can't-miss outings to places near the city.

How to build your own itinerary

If you love your independence and tours aren't your thing, there are ways to make the most of your time and your budget: tourist discount cards. These are passes that get you into dozens of attractions within a set time frame, saving you up to 50%.

The most popular one is the New York Pass, which includes entry to most of the big-name sights. But if you ask me, my favorite is GO CITY, a card where you choose how many places you want to visit and then get up to a month to see them, with zero pressure!

Another traveler favorite is the City Pass. It's fairly cheap and covers just the essentials. It works really well if it's your first trip to New York.

With these passes you decide your own route and your own pace (see an example of how to use the New York Pass in a single day).

Fair warning: you'll end up exhausted, because there's so much to see that the days feel short. But that's part of the hyperactivity New York pulls you into 😉