Urban Adventures New York City — Local services in New York

My family and I took the Lower East Side Culture and Food Tour with Erik in April. We have been to New York many times, but this tour took us to places we've never been before. And the food was great! The most delicious dumplings from Chinatown, unique pizza in Little Italy, savory and sweet knishes from Yonah Schimmel, and tasty empanadas. We were definitely full after the tour. Erik shared historic photos that showed what the neighborhoods looked like decades ago and explained why and how they changed. He'd lived in a couple of the neighborhoods, so he added some personal stories, too, which enhanced the tour. Most of the history centers on the poor treatment of immigrants---and history repeats itself today. It's admirable that many people thrived, despite being relegated to slums, and we're lucky that their culture enriches our lives today. We enjoyed learning so much on our tour.

The food stops offer a few minutes to sit; otherwise the tour is an outdoor walking tour. The one improvement I can suggest to Viator is that it would have been nice to know the distance of the tour in advance. We tried to calculate it ourselves based on the posted stops, but we were inaccurate, and our 79-year-old mother was worn out before the end of the tour. We trailed behind, and Erik graciously waited for us to arrive at each stop. The tour was about 4 miles over 3 hours, so the pace is not too fast for able-bodied attendees, but between all the walking and standing, you will definitely want to wear comfy walking shoes and dress for the weather.

We will definitely seek out tours like this on our...

Excellent Tenements, Tales and Tastes Tour

Our guide was excellent: Spirited, funny, informative, and kept us moving along and engaged. We were the only New Yorkers in the group, and still heard lots of new information. This tour is good for people from outside of New York and for New Yorkers, as we heard information that was new to us and found numbers of places we had not been to. It does take a special talent to get people engaged first thing in the morning, which our guide did.

Not a criticism as much as a comment on scripting: At times we were told this is the best __ (market, mozzarella, bagels...) in New York. These absolutes don't work for New Yorkers.

As with probably most of their tours, this was punctuated by eating. Definitely a good way to get sugar into the system and to engage people. It also sets up social situations (at the dumpling place and at the beer hall) where we sat at a table with other participants and got to talk. None of the food except the beer hall pretzels was very good. I found the prosciutto better than the mozzarella of better quality. The Germans on the tour gave a thumbs up to the beer in the beer hall (which you have to pay for yourself - which is OK). I would not take this tour for the food. That said, the tour guide’s spirited storytelling, leadership and bringing us together to engage each other made this a wonderful event and worthy of the...

We had a food tour in Brooklyn with Jessie this week. While Jessie was an informative and engaging guide when it came to Brooklyn history, there were some issues with the food.

The pacing of the tour was really odd. We had Food 1 toward the beginning, then walked for 45 minutes, then stopped for Food 2, then walked for over an hour, then had Food 3. We concluded the tour with a brief walk to the next food destination, where we had the other three food items in one place. It would have been preferable to space out the food or front-load some of the heavier foods so that guests can walk it off throughout the history tour.

The types of foods chosen were also questionable. The first three items (an egg sandwich on a roll, a Scottish scone, and cookies) were very carb-focused, and the last three (fried pickles, empanadas, and pizza) were very fatty. I don’t eat as healthily as I should, but this was a lot for me. Ending the tour with three fatty foods also left my partner and I feeling very sluggish, meaning the tour ended on an uncomfortable note. To speak on the quality of the food, it was all fine, but didn’t feel like we were getting exposed to hidden gems, which is what we typically experience on food tours.

All in all, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this tour. If you find yourself on it and enjoy yourself, great! For us, though, it was...