7 Best Greenwich Village NYC Tours

The tree-lined streets with bourgeois-style houses, restaurants, bars, alternative stores and parks of Greenwich Village invite you to take tours to learn more about this area of New York City. Strolling through this neighborhood is one of the most recommended activities when deciding what to do in New York.

Youwill not be bored for even a minute if you choose to let yourself be carried away by the proposals of the gastronomic tours and walking tours with a professional guide through the various sites of interest in the area. Without a doubt, Greenwich Village opens up a myriad of sightseeing options for you to discover when you visit New York.

Without a doubt, Greenwich Village is not an area of the city to see museums and monuments, but it is perfect to experience live its history and the beauty of its streets and buildings.

Therefore, the first tour you should take in Greenwich Village (one of the oldest neighborhoods in New York) is the walking tour to live your own experience in this place.

There are several reasons to choose this tour, but the most important ones are the possibility of walking through these streets with leafy trees, the houses that remind us of the bourgeoisie of the early twentieth century (some were inhabited by important cultural figures) and the bohemian style that is still present today.

The walking tours through the streets of Greenwich Village are led by a local guide, which makes the walk much more interesting. This guide will tell you real stories about important events that happened in the neighborhood and anecdotes and stories of famous people related to the Village.

In addition, there are several stops at emblematic sites, such as Washington Square Park, the Stonewall Inn bar where the gay rights movement began in 1969 and several of the houses where writers, musicians and members of the movements that emerged in this neighborhood lived, among others.

This tour may surprise you much more than you imagine.

Details of interest

• Price: from 35 €.
• Duration: approximately 2 hours.
• Means of transport: the tour is on foot.
• Advantages of this option: to know the most beautiful sites of the neighborhood and the most interesting stories thanks to a guide who lives in Greenwich Village.
• Disadvantages of this option: the time of the tour may seem too short because of the interesting tour.

The history and development of Italian gastronomy began many years ago. Some dishes that compose it such as pastas, pizzas, chocolates, ice creams, wines, liquors, risotto and many other specialties are very popular all over the world.

Greenwich Village has its own sector that will remind you of Italy and has been chosen as the place for a walking tour to know and taste the best of that country's cuisine.

This type of tour is one of the most interactive in the tourist market, as is the case with all gastronomic tours. However, this one is very special since, if you like Italian food and drinks, you will feel at ease every minute of the tour.

Some of the gastronomic stops that are always included in the route are Caffe Reggio, Raffetto's Pasta Store, Unico Taste of Sicily (ice cream and cannolis) and Faicco's Italian Specialties(Italian specialties for in-store purchase or home delivery), among others.

The role of the guides in these tours is vital to make the participants feel comfortable, ready to enjoy the gastronomic experience, in addition to providing them with information about each place in an expert manner.

Details of interest

• Price: from 69 €.
• Duration: from 2 to 3 hours.
• Means of transportation: the tour is on foot.
• Advantages of this option: Italian cuisine is one of the best ways to experience the culture of Greenwich Village.
• Disadvantages of this option: You will want to take the tour again as soon as possible.

The Greenwich Village area is described in different ways. The most popular is as a bohemian, activist and bourgeois neighborhood par excellence.

However, its streets are also said to hide ghost stories which, of course, have been turned into tours involving small groups of people.

The mystery and ghost tours take place after dark (it couldn't be otherwise) and last approximately two hours on foot.

The tour takes you along different sites, streets and buildings (e.g. Washington Square and the Brown Building belonging to New York University) where ghostly stories and unsolved mysteries took place.

Some of the must-sees are the Emma Lazarus House, the famous Hangman's Elm, the House of Death( isMark Twain's ghost there?) and the Brown Building fire story, among others. Don't let these names scare you and be brave enough to take this fun tour!

The whole experience on these tours is very entertaining. A good part of that fun is due to the guides who tell the ghost stories in the best possible way and give an additional attraction to the tour.

Details of interest

• Price: from 32 €.
• Duration: about 2 hours.
• Means of transport: the tour is on foot.
• Advantages of this option: A tour that includes stories of ghosts you didn't know, lots of historical details and lots of fun.
• Disadvantages of this option: You might feel a bit scared at some point of the tour.

Greenwich Village offers a heterogeneous cultural richness that can be seen through the music and other art forms that began to take shape within its boundaries. This cultural diversity is also reflected in the gastronomy, which is why the gastronomic tours offered in this area of the city are so varied. Undoubtedly, several of its restaurants are among the best places to eat in New York.

The usual recommendation, which any expert in New York tourism would give you, would be to do as many food tours as possible in Greenwich Village because you will have the opportunity to delight yourself with traditional dishes, cakes and cupcakes incredible. You will also learn a lot more about the history and culture of the people who live there.

Some tours combine dining in Greenwich and a walk through the amazing park that the High Line has become. This means you may have to do two different tours in one tour but I assure you it will be worth the effort of the walk.

The stops to try the different culinary offerings are very different and range from pizzas and pastas, to sweets and ice cream, not to mention the best sandwiches in town.

Details of interest

• Price: from 120 €.
• Duration: about 3 hours and a half.
• Means of transport: the tour is on foot.
• Advantages of this option: Two tours in the same tour, each with its own attractions.
• Disadvantages of this option: The tour can be quite long, but it is worth enjoying the two proposals.

Perhaps you never imagined that a tourist activity could combine history, literature and beers. However, this is possible. There are guided tours available that focus on a scheduled tour of various bars and pubs favored by famous writers who lived in Greenwich Village.

This tour brings together the best local beers, the history of several strategic sites in the neighborhood and interesting information about those renowned writers who once spent time there to drink and write. Tour members can purchase drinks at each stop if they wish (over 21), but they are generally not included in the tour price.

Some of the pubs frequently visited on these tours include the White Horse and Marie's Crisis Café, among others. The neighborhood has a very strong craft beer tradition, so you will probably have the opportunity to try several of them during the pub crawl.

Obviously, if you are looking for what to do in New York with kids you are better off choosing any other tour.

Details of interest

• Price: from 45 ¤.
• Duration: about 2 hours.
• Means of transport: the tour is on foot.
• Advantages of this option: The fun of this tour is generated by the excellent stories shared by the guides, the tasting of beers for those who wish to try them and the decoration of the bars and pubs.
• Disadvantages of this option: It is not recommended to buy beer at each historic stop.

Music is part of global history, and rock 'n' roll has a prominent place in world culture.

So you shouldn't be surprised to learn that among all there is to see in Manhattan are tours that take in sites that are iconic to New York counterculture (e.g., Café Wha?) and American music.

On these tours, guides tell stories about musicians such as the Velvet Underground, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan who created their music and first played it in Greenwich Village.

Each site visited on these tours is related to music and great stories of musical art. The guides are the key to making these tours as entertaining as rock 'n' roll history deserves.

Details of interest

• Price: from 50 ¤.
• Duration: about 2 hours.
• Means of transportation: the tour is on foot.
• Advantages of this option: The musical stories of this tour will surprise you.
• Disadvantages of this option: You may want to stay longer listening to music in Greenwich Village.

While Greenwich Village is home to a wide range of culinary varieties from the cuisines of different countries, there are also restaurants that offer anauthentic New York menu.

For this reason, gourmet tours have already been created to tour the most important exponents of hamburgers, cupcakes and donuts, among other local delicacies.

The guides are specialists in the city's gastronomy, its origins and its long history. This is also part of the culture of the city and the Greenwich Village neighborhood. You can not miss this walking tour that combines historical information of the area with the possibility of tasting those dishes you always dreamed of.

• Price: from 90 €.
• Duration: between 2 to 3 hours.
• Means of transport: the tour is on foot.
• Advantages of this option: An interesting tour in terms of culture and exciting for the delicacies you will taste.
• Disadvantages of this option: After this tour you may not want to eat anything else for the rest of the day.

Booking a tour of Greenwich Village is as easy as buying a ticket for any other activity in New York (for example, buying tickets to Madison Square Garden).

The first decision relates to the type of tour you prefer to take and the details related to the purpose of each visit. After that, it is time to make the reservation.

Nowadays, tourist reservations are much simpler and faster than in the past. You just need to find a reliable platform with good reviews that offers tickets and sightseeing tours in Greenwich Village.

Online booking will only take a few minutes and you will be able to pay with different payment methods. In addition, it is important that you check what are the conditions for cancellations and in which cases the tour can be suspended.

There is a wide range of prices, but they can be grouped into several basic categories. For example, walking tours whose services include only a professional guide, gastronomic walking tours which generally have a higher price tag, and the various bus tours, among others.

Prices range from approximately 29 € to 130 €. Everything will depend on the services included in the excursion. Also, there are tourist services in Greenwich Village that are not tours, but ticketsfor shows and bike rentals.

Another factor that defines the price of a tour is what is generally called the added value. Each of these additional details make a tour without luxuries or, on the contrary, with all the luxuries.

On many occasions, you have probably wondered if it is worth touring a tourist site on your own or if it is more convenient to do it with a tour that offers the service of a specialized guide, among other services. In the case of your visit to Greenwich Village in New York City, it could be said that guided tours will be an advantage for you.

It is natural that you think it might be more comfortable and faster not to have to be aware of a guide and have to share the different excursions with other people. However, it is likely that you can get much more out of each tour if it is guided.

The most obvious reasons are that you will be able to learn and enjoy the expert information from the guides, the tour will be much more fun and there will be other people to share each experience. Also, you will be able to organize your budget to invest in excursions in advance.

Although any tour in Greenwich Village entails an additional expense to take into consideration when organizing your New York City vacation, on the bottom line it offers more benefits than disadvantages, so it is important to consider guided tour alternatives.