The 10 Best Harlem Tours

After the African-American community settled in Upper Manhattan in the early 20th century, Harlem became the epicenter of black culture in New York City.

To learn more about its history, culture and gastronomy, there is nothing better than taking an entertaining tour of Harlem. Would you like to participate in one? Here are the best tours of Harlem, one of the must-do things to do in New York.

One of the most authentic experiences that you can live during your visit to Harlem and that will allow you to spend a different day as if you were a neighbor is to attend a gospel mass in a local church and go into the streets of the neighborhood to immerse yourself in its culture.

This type of tour usually lasts several hours but is the best way to discover Harlem's African-American roots and soak up New York's cultural diversity.

What will you see on these tours?

On a gospel mass tour and tour of Harlem, you and your guide will meet an original gospel congregation where you can enjoy this famous spiritual music while listening to a live service.

You will also visit emblematic sites of the neighborhood such as the Apollo Theater (where music celebrities such as The Jackson 5, Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Ross or James Brown performed), the Morris-Jumel mansion (the oldest in Manhattan), Sylvan Terrace (a cobblestone street of identical houses) or the Cotton Club (a popular nightclub opened during Prohibition that hosted historic concerts), among other places.

If during your trip you have a busy schedule in New York but you don't want to miss Harlem, my advice is to take a bike tour of the neighborhood with a guide who will show you the highlights while explaining the interesting history of the African-American community in New York.

What will you see on these tours?

It's a fun way to take a tour! It will also allow you to see many interesting sites in a short time such as the Apollo Theater (one of the most historic theaters in the neighborhood where artists such as Diana Ross, Ella Fitzgerald or The Jackson 5 performed), the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Columbia University, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (a library and institution focused on African American culture), Strivers' Row (a treasure of the city's architecture) or the Old Croton Aqueduct State Historic Park, among other sites.

This is one of the tours you can access with the New York Pass, one of the best tourist passes in New York.

Thanks to the enormous talent of its neighbors (mostly African American and Latin American), the Harlem neighborhood has played a prominent role in jazz and hip hop music, making countless contributions to these genres by artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Mario Bauza, Puff Daddy, ASAP Rocky and Azealia Banks, among others.

If you are interested in the history and culture surrounding jazz and hip hop, you will have a great time doing one of the music tours in Harlem.

What will you do on these tours?

Walking around the neighborhood with a guide you will learn a lot about African-American music culture, the artists who marked an era, the most important stages they played on, the oldest record stores and clubs in Harlem, as well as about the murals on the subject in the streets.

These tours offer you a different, fast-paced look at Harlem, and some of these tours even include live musical performances! It's a perfect plan to do with family or friends and suitable for fans of all ages. So... get ready to shake your booty!

If you consider yourself a foodie and in your travels you love to dedicate a little of your time to have new culinary experiences, there is no doubt that taking a gastronomic tour in Harlem is one of the experiences you can't miss.

These types of tours will serve as your first contact with the local cuisine. If the gastronomy of Harlem manages to make a place in your heart, later you can return to the neighborhood to make your own gastronomic route and continue enjoying the best African-inspired food. In the post Where to eat in Harlem you will find several proposals to get your boots on.

What will you do on these tours?

From the hand of a guide you will learn about the characteristics of the Soul Food style (associated with the African-American Southern community) as well as traditional dishes from West African countries (very popular in the area of Little Senegal in the Harlem neighborhood).

And best of all, during the food tours in Harlem there will be food tastings! Are you going to be able to resist this great plan?

One of the most popular things to do in New York is the famous Contrasts Tour, which will take you to explore the five major boroughs of the city: Manhattan, Harlem, the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn.

These types of tours are perfect to avoid the main mistake that many first-time travelers make when traveling to the Big Apple and that is not leaving Manhattan. In fact, it is advisable to take a Contrasts Tour shortly after landing in the city, as it will give you a complete overview of New York. Later you can return to the neighborhood you liked the most to explore it in detail on your own.

What will you see on these tours?

You will see many of Harlem's landmarks with a guide, such as the Apollo Theater and the Cotton Club (two very important venues for the neighborhood's art scene), stroll among the brownstones (peculiar little houses made of red sandstone), learn about the history of some of the neighborhood's illustrious residents by walking the streets of the neighborhood and if you visit Harlem on a Wednesday or Sunday you can even see a live gospel mass in a local congregation.

Do you have the impression of knowing the streets of New York without ever having set foot on them before? That's what travelers who travel to the city for the first time often say. A feeling of "déjà vu", the result of movies and television. Hollywood has made the most of the city in its films like no one else. Also the neighborhood of Harlem, which has been the scene of many productions.

What will you see on these tours?

If you are a serious movie buff, you will surely want to participate in one of the tours of movies and series in Harlem. With the help of a guide you will walk through the streets to know the most cinematographic side of Harlem and its main filming locations in titles such as "Luke Cage", "Law and Order", "Malcolm X" or "American Gangster", among many others.

The movie and series tours of New York are a very fun option to discover this area of the island of Manhattan because they are out of the typical tourist route. Seeing the sets of some of your favorite films in person is a blast. You will have a great time, a highly recommended plan!

On many occasions, bicycle sightseeing tours allow you to tour some of the less touristy corners of the city while enjoying a little adventure on wheels.

It is a very fun option to explore Harlem and its surroundings (for example places like Central Park or the Bronx) without having to take public transportation (sometimes crowded) or take long walks that at the end of the day put the health of our feet to the test.

What will you see on these tours?

These tours of Harlem and its surroundings are conducted in the company of a guide who will show you the most emblematic places of the historic African-American neighborhood of New York and other nearby areas of interest combining art, culture, music and sports. A very entertaining alternative to the typical sightseeing tour, from which you will get a completely new vision of Harlem.

Harlem may not be a neighborhood full of tourist attractions compared to others in New York, but it does have a long and interesting history that you can learn about by taking a tour about African American heritage or civil rights- there's a lot to discover!

What will you see on these tours?

In just a few hours you will learn with a guide, on the one hand, what life was like for Africans in colonial New York City under British and Dutch rule since the 17th century. You will visit sites such as Wall Street (a former slave market in the city), Greenwich Village (the first settlement of free African Americans in the city), Central Park (where the African American community of Seneca Village lived before the construction of the park) or African Burial Ground National Monument (the largest cemetery of the colonial era for African Americans), among other sites.

On the other hand, you will also tour the neighborhood of Harlem to discover with a guide the roots of the African American community in this part of New York and its role in the Harlem Renaissance in the 20s and 30s of the twentieth century or the Civil Rights Movement in the 50s and 60s of the same century following in the footsteps of neighborhood figures such as Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Malcolm X.

In the early 20th century, this neighborhood was the epicenter of a cultural, artistic and social boom within the African-American community known as the "Harlem Renaissance" that laid the groundwork for the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Through a tour of Harlem and the rebirth of African-American culture you will learn what this golden age meant for the neighborhood and the community, the echoes of which still resonate today.

What will you see on these tours?

With a local guide you will learn about the history of many of Harlem's landmarks such as the Apollo Theater, Speaker's Corner, the Brownstones, the Hotel Teresa, the Mount Morris Historic District and much more.

In addition, you will learn about African-American culture in Harlem, the evolution of the neighborhood over time, and get an up-close and authentic perspective on the day-to-day life of the neighborhood.

And if on your vacation in New York you prefer to live an exclusive experience where you can tour Harlem at your own pace, without the rush and the crowds of the big tours, a good option is to take a private tour of the neighborhood.

What will you see on these tours?

You will see some of the most important sites in Harlem with a guide who will teach you about the history of the neighborhood and its role and importance in the development of New York City. From a cultural, political and social point of view.

And best of all, it will be a personalized experience where you will have at your disposal a private guide who will answer all your questions, make recommendations and show you the most interesting places in the tour of Harlem just for you.