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From giant menorah lightings to New Year's Day hikes, check out our picks for how to spend the holidays in NYC!
The best way to enjoy the warm weather in New York City is to go out and explore! This May, you can join Untapped New York for exciting NYC walking tours and events as we uncover the hidden gems of Governors Island, walk through an abandoned hospital on Ellis Island, and so much more. In the coming month, we’re especially looking forward to launching our newest tour: A Taste of New York: Food Tour of Chinatown, Little Italy, and the Lower East Side.
A Taste of New York Food Tour
On our Taste of New York tour, you’ll join longtime Lower East Side resident and expert tour guide Richard Soden for a 3-hour culinary journey through Lower Manhattan. As you sample traditional Italian, Chinese, and Jewish foods, you’ll learn about the immigrant history of these famous neighborhoods and uncover historic remnants converted for modern-day use. You’ll leave with a full stomach and a full mind!
Do you have photos from an Untapped New York tour? Send them to us at contact@untappedcities.com and you may be featured on our website or social media channels! You can also tag us @untappedny on Instagram. See the list below for all our upcoming experiences in May!
Tour the new offices of noted architect firm FX Collaborative located inside a newly constructed tower designed by the firm at 1 Willoughby Square. With a unique design inspired by the historic lofts of Brooklyn, this innovative office tower offers stunning views of Manhattan and the East River. This exclusive tour is free for Untapped New York Insiders. Not an Insider? Become a member today and get your first month free with code JOINUS.
On this tour led by a trained naturalist and former National Park Service Ranger, you’ll unpack over 400 years of history while enjoying the scenic views and natural settings of Governors Island. Used by both Native Americans and Dutch settlers, Governors Island has undergone multiple transformations over the centuries. It hosted three different military fortifications and now serves as a hub of recreation, cultural arts, and climate research. Explore the ever-changing island and discover what lies ahead!
Take in the sights, smells, and tastes of one of the most beloved attractions of Bronx’s Little Italy, the Arthur Avenue Retail Market. Built in 1940, the Arthur Avenue Retail Market is a covered Italian bazaar that brings together delicious Italian food, gourmet goods, and shopping under one roof. From sausage makers to cigar rollers and cafes to beer halls, the market has it all. Participants will get to try the best that Arthur Avenue has to offer with samples from local vendors. This exclusive tour is free for Untapped New York Insiders. Not an Insider? Become a member today and get your first month free with code JOINUS.
Go inside the UAP foundry and studio where some of NYC’s most significant pieces of public art have been made on a virtual tour! UAP acquired the Polich Tallix Foundry in 2019 and is proud to be part of a vibrant creative community in the Hudson Valley. Through this workshop tour, participants will explore the latest UAP projects with incredible artists and creatives; delving into modern methods of art-making and the integration between art, architecture, and design. This exclusive virtual tour is free for Untapped New York Insiders
This synagogue built in 1887 was the first great house of worship by Eastern European Jews in the United States. For decades, the synagogue thrived, but in the 1920s Jewish families began to move away from the Lower East Side, and it was eventually abandoned. After a 20-year renovation, the synagogue was restored to its former glory. Join an exclusive tour led by museum docent and Insider Richard Soden! This tour is free for Untapped New York Insiders.
Explore where New York began and see what is left of Dutch New Amsterdam! With New York City’s first map in hand, you will trace the streets of 1667 Manhattan while discovering the many hidden Dutch relics south of Wall Street. Physically touch history as you find out how Bowling Green got its name and see the foundations of New York City’s first City Hall (which was also a tavern!), the long-forgotten oyster pasty cannon, the original battery wall and so much more!
Explore the abandoned sites of New York City through the lens of photographer John Lazzaro, author of A Vanishing New York: Ruins Across the Empire State. In this live, virtual talk, you’ll see images and outtakes from the book that show the decaying ruins of sites like Staten Island’s Seaview Hospital and more. This virtual talk is free for Untapped New York Insiders.
Patrick Bringley, your guide for this tour, worked as a museum guard in the Met for a decade. As you follow him through the galleries of priceless artifacts, you’ll hear stories of the museum’s hidden nooks and vast backstage spaces. Locate hidden traces of the Met’s 150-year history as you
peer into the eyes of a once-stolen Greek statue, find the tooth of Mary Magdalen in a Renaissance reliquary, and see the Met’s familiar masterpieces in a fascinating new light.
Drink your way through the surprising history of coffee in New York City while exploring Greenwich Village, its iconic birthplace. You will learn how New York and coffee go hand-in-hand both in cultural and economic development. By the end of this experience you will have tasted: an espresso, a drip coffee, chocolate-covered coffee beans, and a cappuccino… so you will be caffeinated!
Find out why there are human skulls inside this home of one of the oldest social clubs in New York City. Located on Gramercy Park in a building renovated by Standford White, The Players was founded by renowned Shakespearean actor Edwin Booth. Learn about the club’s famous roster of members and see Booth’s perfectly preserved rooms on this exclusive free tour for Untapped New York Insiders.
Stroll along Fifth Avenue as it was during the Gilded Age when grand mansions of millionaires lined the illustrious street. As you revisit Millionaire’s Row, discover works of architecture lost to time and some that remain today with a new purpose. This tour will resurrect mansions that no longer stand with stunning historical images and scintillating stories of the affairs that took place inside. See the footprint of the largest single residence ever built in Manhattan, learn secrets of the famous Frick Collection, discover a charming bookshop tucked into a Fifth Avenue mansion, and more! These NYC walking tours are offered every Sunday.
In this live virtual talk with Brooklyn-based artist Daniel Cortes, viewers will virtually step inside his studio for a look behind-the-scenes at how he creates hyper-realistic miniature models that bring to life the urban landscape of the city. Cortes’ work is influenced by his childhood years as well as the 90s era in New York. Every gum stain, sticker, and rust-worn gate tells a story. This virtual event is free for Untapped New York Insiders.
Attend a performance of @giselle, a technology-driven, contemporary interpretation of the beloved romantic ballet classic at The Gerald W Lynch Theater in New York City. Directed and choreographed by Joshua Beamish/MOVE THE COMPANY, the modern reimagining of the romantic classic ballet @giselle explores the connections between the original ballet with modern relationships. Untapped New York Insiders can register for free tickets!
Discover part of Flatbush’s greatest treasure: its spectacular mansions! Developed at the end of the 19th century by developers looking to break away from the Brooklyn brownstone mold, these houses each have their own unique character. From the Japanese House to a mansion that looks like it’s from Gone With the Wind, see them all on this tour!
On this NYC walking tour with our partners NYC Bagel Tours, you’ll discover the best bagels the city has to offer with expert guides. You’ll visit top-rated bakeries and savor the taste of delicious, fresh bagels while learning about the history and culture of the New York bagel. Try a variety of bagels and spreads, from classics like the Everything Bagel to recent innovations like the Rainbow Bagel.
Each bagel is cut into quarters, so you get to sample a variety throughout the tour. These NYC walking tours are offered multiple days throughout the week!
Join Untapped New York Insider and tour guide Mark Satlof for a walk through Manhattan’s Chinatown in search of the remnants of Federal era and pre-Civil War New York. You’ll stand at the literal Five Points and learn about the notorious neighborhood’s surprising history while discovering that underneath the altered facades of numerous Chinatown buildings, there are the hidden bones of 18th and early 19th-century structures – and New York’s oldest tenement. This exclusive tour is free for Untapped New York Insiders.
Let us take you back to the halcyon days when 42nd Street was the Deuce, Eighth Avenue was the Minnesota Strip, the Great White Way was a red light district, and the Crossroads of the World was XXX-rated. We will see former peepshows, grindhouses, adult bookstores, dive bars, hotsheet hotels, sex clubs, porno theaters, and massage parlors–not to mention all three locations of the New York Times on this tour of gritty Times Square!
Take a walk through Central Harlem to see spots where the jazz age thrived and the Black music industry began after WW1, with a focus on Billie Holiday’s life in the area. Follow in Billie Holiday’s footsteps, from her first residence in New York City to the site of her first performances less than 10 blocks away. Stroll through the famous Strivers Row, and see buildings where jazz musicians lived and gathered in the 1920s. This exclusive free tour for Untapped New York Insiders.
Join Untapped New York for our very first Trivia Night hosted in partnership with the Gotham Center for New York History! We’ll enjoy a drink at the Bronx Brewery East Village location as we engage in a night of friendly intellectual competition. Players will compete for exciting prizes from Untapped New York and the Gotham Center including tour tickets, books, and more!
Uncover hidden trap doors, learn about the 37 miles of books buried under your feet, and rediscover hidden mosaic installations both around and under the park on this live-streamed tour of Bryan Park with Untapped New York’s Chief Experience Officer Justin Rivers! This virtual tour is free for Untapped New York Insiders.
Didn’t make it to the 1939/40 or 1964/65 World’s Fairs? Here’s your chance! Uncover remnants of both fairs such as hidden time capsules, the Fountain of the Planets, the Unisphere, and the historic New York State Pavilion. Flushing Meadows-Corona Park transformed from marshy wetlands to ash dump, to the site of not one, but two World’s Fairs. This tour explores the past, present, and future of this 900-acre park, an obsession of the late “Master Builder,” Robert Moses.
Use the NYC subway as your own personal time machine as you travel back to the early days of this subterranean transit system. We’ll go back all the way to opening days to uncover architectural ghosts of the nearly forgotten and partially abandoned stations, a hidden art installation, and fascinating stories such as that of the comically short route of the mythical “Subway before the Subway,” Alfred Ely Beach’s Pneumatic Transit System. These NYC walking tours are offered every Monday through Saturday!
On this tour, you’ll uncover the hidden gems of one of NYC’s most popular landmarks. Walk through a lobby covered in gold, find out where there is a sterling silver model airplane made by the Cartier, and peer into a secret portal that ceremoniously marks the completion of Rockefeller Center’s construction (and is signed by John D. Rockefeller himself). These NYC walking tours are offered every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.
Check out all of our NYC walking tours here!
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