Post Tagged with: "New York City"

California Tours features a series of interviews with the tour guides who lead our tours around the US. They’ll share funny stories, travel tips, and details about the destinations that they visit so often.

Bryce Hill is a tour guide based in the New York area, with expertise in New York City, Washington DC, Philadelphia, New England and Montreal.

Can you tell us a little bit about your background?
My background includes BA degrees in Speech/English/History and a MA degree in Theatre Directing.  For over 20 years I ran the theatre department at a Performing Arts summer camp.  Several of my former students are currently on Broadway.  I also got the opportunity to work at a Relais Chateau hotel property doing special events.

So how did you get started as a tour guide? 
While online looking for a new career path, Tour Directing popped up.  It encompassed several of my personal passions: directing, teaching, travel and meeting new people.  It seemed liked the perfect fit for me.

How did you end up in New York?
When I was 5 years old I saw the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV in color for the first time.  When the Radio City Rockettes arrived with Santa, I walked up to the TV screen and announced to my family that I was moving to NYC.  From that moment on it was just a matter of time.  Three of my former students are now Rockettes!

What do you like about being a tour guide?
Sharing the places I love with others and being the first to show it to them.

What is challenging about it?
Trying to remember what it was like when I first saw something and trying to give my guests that first “wow” moment.

How do you prepare your trips?
First, I get the logistics part of the trip out of the way, the nitty gritty stuff – how to get from point A to point B on time.  Then I focus on the “fun” stuff of the trip – these are the things that my guests will always remember.

What is the “creative process” for a tour guide?
This is really the best part of being a Tour Guide.  We get to bring each place to life for our guests.  It is really similar to putting on a play.  Everything has to have a beginning, middle, and end. People really want to hear the stories about each place, not just see the places.  It is the stories that they remember.

Can you recommend any getaways, outdoors or otherwise, near New York?
I recommend a side trip to West Point, the military academy, which is just over an hour away from Midtown Manhattan.  It is a beautiful drive up the Hudson River into the mountains (who knew NYC is less than an hour away from mountains!). It is beautiful any time of year.  The campus is on a dramatic cliff above the river.  The best day to go is on a Sunday, when you can have Sunday Brunch with the Cadets at the historic Hotel Thayer right on the campus.

What is your dream itinerary for New York and the surrounding area?
I would hope that you have at least 4 days, if not a week.  But the must-see places include a trip to: Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Wall Street, the World Trade Center and the 9/11 Memorial. Chinatown, Soho and Greenwich Village. Times Square, the Empire State Building, Grand Central Station and Rockefeller Center. Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And make sure to see at least two Broadway shows! If you have more time, then I would recommend walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and exploring Brooklyn. Other sights that take you out of Manhattan include Yankee Stadium, the Bronx Zoo, the Staten Island Ferry and Coney Island!

Visit these links on the travel blogosphere for more on New York:

• Escape to adventure: New York City on MatadorNetwork

Visitors to New York must strategically plan their energy – if you shop all day in SoHo and then drop when you get to the hotel, food can seem like too large an undertaking. But in New York, food is one of the greatest attractions of all. Luckily, the Lower East Side is snugly nestled between SoHo, the East Village and Chinatown – all sweet little cake toppers on this larger smorgasbord of visual and cultural delight. The Lower East Side represents a culturally rich corner that has always drawn attention, from the Europeans populating its tenement-littered ghetto in the early 1900s, to the hipsters and Hispanic communities of today who rule the increasingly trendy bar and foodie scene.

In the LES, a clever bit of detouring can make the most boring or hectic city errands into sweet treats: after snagging a few necessities, I stopped at Doughnut Plant to taste a few exotic variations on New York’s second favorite dessert (the first being, of course, the ever-popular cupcake). Recommended doughnut taste test: tres leches and crystallized ginger, two nods to the area’s heavy Hispanic and Chinese influences.

Clinton Street Baking Company: the best place in New York for inventive pancakes

I also came across the Clinton St. Baking Co., which hosts a Pancake Month in February and also delights year-round, with amazing dishes like pancakes with fresh blackberries, pecan streusel and maple butter – heaven! They’re open until well into the night for prime-time craving relief, and the mere thought of their inventive pancake creations will forever be my Pavlovian bell… pancakes with crunchy bananas and cinnamon-chili-chocolate sauce – where can I begin my praises?

Cogs and wheels in public art on the LES.

Even ignoring the food – although this is highly discouraged! – the LES is bursting with endless cultural and historical venues to discover. I toured an old tenement house from the early days of Ellis Island immigration, where painfully poor Jewish immigrants endured stifling heat and cramped quarters just to have a slice of the American Dream. The neighborhood also has some fantastic public art, notably in the Hispanic area. Avenue C was even given a second name, Loisaida Ave., for the Hispanic pronunciation of “Lower East Side.” The display at left can be found at ABC No Rio, whose website says, “ABC No Rio is a collectively-run center for art and activism. We are known internationally as a venue for oppositional culture.”

My wanderings led me to the recently-defunct Café Charbon, a longtime favorite of the neighborhood and always a pleasant sight to behold when meandering nearby, with its authentic French mailbox, window of (fake) cheese, and recreation of the classic French tabac (smoke shop). Now visitors of the francophile persusasion will surely gravitate down the block to Les Enfants Terribles, a Moroccan/French fusion restaurant. From corner to corner, the Lower East Side is truly a place to witness the fabled “melting pot” that is New York City.

Cheese wheels in the now-defunct Cafe Charbon

After so much walking, my mind was set on the highly-anticipated end note of the trip: Rice to Riches. Rice pudding and snark bundled together like me and my favorite blanket on a cold day. I got the hazelnut, which tasted a little like plain chocolate, but still good, with whipped cream, but the flavors and topping possibilities are endless (Cinnamon Sling? Fluent in French Toast? Why must New York offer so many choices when we have so little time to explore?). I’ll leave you with this delightful image from the inside of Rice to Riches. Now, how to decide if I have room for spicy grilled corn and tacos at my favorite corner Cuban joint, Café Habana… For a day of foodie indulgence, anything goes.

“Eat all you want… you’re already fat.”

Doughnut Plant, 379 Grand St.
Clinton St. Baking Co., 4 Clinton St.
ABC No Rio, 156 Rivington St.
Rice to Riches, 37 Spring St.
Café Habana, 17 Prince St.

Bonus recommendations:

• Lombardi’s Pizza, 32 Spring St. (the LES answer to famous New York-style pizza)
• Sugar Sweet Sunshine Bakery, 126 Rivington St. (try the pumpkin cupcakes!)

Photos © A. Furukawa