Welcome to New York City

As a multilingual tour director, guiding tours across America and Canada I have, for over 30 years, seen the most beautiful places in the Continental United States and Canada. When I started out as a New York City licensed tour guide, I was contemplating whether I should take a camera with me, to record all the beautiful places I was about to discover on my tours.

But because I thought this idea to be a bit silly, a tour director acting like a tourist and so I opted not to take a camera along. Besides in those days, before the iPhone, digital photography and the like became all the rage, having your pictures develop, was not only a hassle, it was also quiet expensive. So I came to the conclusion that I would take pictures with my heart and instead concentrating on my work at hand, namely guiding people, tours and groups, entrusted to me, safely and securely across the land.

That’s what I did – without taking any pictures and today, because I also lived in New York City for 10 years, I can tell you all about Manhattan and the many beautiful places in North America. So far  USACanadaTours only coveres a few places but at least one additional page per week will be added, so come back often to discover more of America and Canada.

Since not everybody has the good fortune to live in the USA or in Canada, and therefore has to travel, just to get here, inbound transfers from the three New York airports and best accommodations are covered first.  

Port Authority Airports JFK International - Newark Liberty - LaGuardia

Unless you come in from Asia, your first destination flying in from London, Frankfurt, Paris or other places in Europe, would most likely be the city of New York.

Your airport would be John F. Kennedy also know as JFK actually located in the Borough of Queens. So unless you take a helicopter from any of the New York area airports, you will not be able to touchdown in Manhattan on your arrival from overseas. Newark in the state New Jersey, right next to New York and La Guardia also in Queens are the main airports for domestic flights originating in the U.S.

Queens is one of the 5 Boroughs of the city of New York, if you visit the city you would most likely transfer to NYC and staying in a Manhattan hotel or residence.

One word regarding your transfer from the airport into the city – take a taxi. Unless you travel alone, it does not make any sense of having first to wait for the express bus and than being dropped off at one of the Train Stations on 42nd Street in midtown Manhattan, when your hotel is 20 or more blocks away from there. Times Square Cam.

Two express bus tickets costs almost as much as a taxi or even a private limo, and you get dropped off at the front door of your destination, be it a hotel or an apartment. UP

Now you might wonder where to stay in New York, particular when going there for the very first time. Of course you have heard of Times Square, Central Park and 5th Avenue and chances are everything else is still sort of shrouded in mystery. Here is something you should consider when booking a hotel – the higher up in any hotel or building your accommodations in New York the better you are going to sleep.

I once lived in a small apartment on the first floor on York Avenue and it was no pleasure to hear the garbage truck arriving in the morning, collecting refuge and trash in a very noisy way. Alternatively, another time I stayed in a very small room at the Carlyle Hotel on E. 76th Street, but on the 40th floor looking South and the view was pure heaven. Besides sleeping well, I could see all of Midtown Manhattan, the Empire Ste Building, and the, then still standing World Trade Center Twin Towers. (Well justice has been done now).

So before you pick a hotel don’t think ‘oh we are just going to sleep there’- better think twice, and spend a bit more money to sleep well, high above the traffic noise and emergency vehicles sirens. You need to be well rested to enjoy the excitement in a city like the Big Apple. Let’s just touch on the different location within Manhattan. There really is no best location, because what you like makes a neighborhood the best for you.

You want to stay in the safest neighborhood and best place you can find. New Yorkers will tell you New York is like any other big city, there is good and bad people everywhere. I think it’s an understatement because New York, besides Central Park at night, is a safe and comfortable place, you just need to keep your eyes open, be vigilant and aware of what’s going on around you. UP

Having lived in New York for about 10 years until 1981, I have never become the victim of a crime, but while I lived there crime did happen, just not to me. To be honest I have to say during my first few hours in the city, walking with a friend to Bloomingdales along Lexington Avenue I constantly looked behind me, being sure someone is going to stab me in the back.  

The different neighborhoods in which I and some of my friends and acquaintances lived were clean, relatively speaking, and safe. I always felt safe where ever I was in New York. You could walk in the streets and nothing really happened. Maybe it’s because I did not looked like a tourist. That part where I lived is called the Upper East Side and there are quite a few very nice hotels and also apartments for rent.

The Upper East Side, the part of New York I like best, is the area from 57th Street to 86 Street and from 5th Avenue to the East river Drive. It’s very residential containing many restaurant, shops and galleries. So any hotel within this area, location on or close to 5th Avenue should be your first choice when you decide to stay in this part of town.

Since you might a tourist and visitor who like to see things, there are excellent subway and buss connections to downtown where you can visit Wall Street, and the Statue of Liberty.  This is also a good location for anyone doing business because of its central convenient location

While down there at the financial district walk over to Battery Park and take the Ferry to Staten Island. There is not much to do for a tourist in Staten Island, but you are going there, because on the way back you get an awesome view onto the skyline of lower Manhattan, less the World Trade Center unfortunately, and you get to pass so close to the statue of liberty that you could save yourself the Money and the time that it takes to visit her on separate occasion. UP

Not fare from Battery Park and the financial district you have the Village, China Town and Little Italy. This is a very colorful part of New York with Chinatown being the second largest Chinese habitat of Chinese people outside of China after San Francisco.  The Village with its lofts, former factories, attracts artists and people looking for alternative life styles and caters to a large segment of new Yorkers who prefer gay or lesbian relationships.

Smaller boutique hotels make a good living in the Area, even though Trump Soho is one of the fancier places that overlook the coming and goings of the busy TriBeCa and west Village Area. This would be again one safe place in a much diversified neighborhood of New York.

Going back up the great White Way as Broadway is called we now arrive at Times Square, where along 42nd Street and along Broadway you can find all kind of big Hotels who cater mainly to tourist groups, so in their lobbies you hear and see the Japanese, Russians, Italian and people from South America. Outside there are Pizza Parlors, small Delis and lots of T-Shirt vendors, with and without a store of their own. Do you want to stay there if you are a Theater fan? Yes, I would think so, because the whole atmosphere is something to behold at day and night. UP