Tours of New York
Welcome to Family in New York! There are well over 30,000 in the family now. That's how many guests we have served on our tours of New York over the years.
Family in New York started out in the late 1800's, when my paternal great grandparents immigrated from Italy and settled on 7th Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It is the same street Abraham Lincoln visited in 1860, when he stopped by McSorley's Ale House (still here) for either a light ale or dark ale. There are no other choices at McSorley's!
It was tough immigrating from rural hill country in central Italy and settling, in what was at the time, the most densely populated place on the face of the earth. Eventually, the family moved from New York City to rural Upstate New York and returned to farming. On the same farm established by my great grandfather; my grandfather lived out his 87 years; my father was born and raised; and I lived the first years of my life, until my parents moved to suburban New York City for employment. I stayed close to the farm throughout the years, working and earning money during school vacations, from Junior High through my secondary and post-secondary education.
I earned both Bachelor's and Master's degrees from New York institutions and spent over 25 years working in New York in the field of human services, including management positions in some of the largest human service organizations in the United States. To be near work, I moved back into the city and have lived in either the Bronx or Manhattan for nearly half my life now.
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Over the years, I worked in two areas of the city heavily visited by tourists – Madison Square Park (Flat Iron Building) and Herald Square (Empire State Building / Macy's). I would watch New York sightseeing tours pass by with their buses and think, “what a horrible way to see the city." You either drive-by on the bus or get dropped off and you're all on your own. In all fairness, several companies now drop you off and allow you to follow a guide holding an umbrella high in the air, through the crowded city streets. Certainly, none of these are good ways to experience New York and you spend too much money traveling to and staying in New York City to accept anything less than a great tour!
So, I got my Sightseeing Guide License; built a little do-it-yourself website and began conducting private tours of New York on the weekends. Well, what started out more as a part-time hobby quickly grew into a full-time business and I was soon able to "quit my day job" to conduct tours of New York full-time. The rest is history!
I have since been joined by a number of other New York City licensed sightseeing guides, who are equally (maybe more) enthusiastic about this city as I am. To our classic Manhattan tour offerings, we have added tours of Brooklyn; Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens; New York night tours; shopping tours; Long Island winery tours and tastings; food tours; day trips to: Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Amish Country, the Hamptons, Boston; and New York layover tours. We now offer almost 40 different tours and it all started out with just two. We will even custom create a tour just for you, if you do not find exactly what you are looking for.
So, if you are coming to the city, we invite you to "join the family" on one (or more!) of our tours of New York and / or one of our day trips to area destinations outside of the city. Let us help you not merely visit, but explore, experience and enjoy all the city has to offer! Let us help you find out what's so great about this city that they named it twice - New York, New York!
Please use the button, just below my picture above, to contact us with any questions and / or for more information. We will happily respond.
We look forward to hearing from you and serving you during your time in New York,
R. Scott Piedmonte
Founder, President
and Tour Guide!