NYC’s ExperienceFirst Tours a Must-Do

August 1, 2023 ctn_admin

Whether you’ve been to New York City multiple times, or you’re visiting for the first time, there is always something new to see; there are little gems and pieces of history waiting to be discovered in every little nook and cranny of the City.

The problem is the City is just SO big. Where do you start and how can you find them?

Look no further than ExperienceFirst.  Available around the world in many cities including LA, Paris, Berlin, Rome and San Francisco, Canadian Travel News joined the “Little Italy, Soho and Chinatown” tour, one of 16 available in NYC.

Full disclosure: we once worked for NYC Tourism and have lost count the number of times we’ve visited (at least 30) so we felt we already had a pretty good understanding of these neighbourhoods.  It certainly wasn’t our first time to this area – and yet with everything we learned, we felt like it was.

Our guide was Angela Sharp, a comedian and mom whose energy could only be matched by her incredible in-depth knowledge of the City.  The premise for ExperienceFirst tours is simple – guides know their cities inside and out. Think of each one as an expert storyteller; with the stories Angela told us, we felt like we were discovering these neighbourhoods for the first time.

We won’t spoil the tour for anyone with too many details but we will say we hit some iconic spots including walking down Greene Street in SOHO, home to celebrities and high end luxury shops, and then over to Broadway for more affordable brands. We got cannoli in Little Italy where we learned the history of how that area was built by the Italians who came to the country over a hundred years ago. We ate the best dumplings in Chinatown from a “No Soup for You!” style hole-in-the-wall called Fried Dumplings, where you get 13 for $5 (exact change only!). We also saw the former police building, now home to multi-million-dollar condos and where Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio once lived.

On the darker side of things – we learned a lot of history, after all the area we were walking in is home to Five Points, which the film “Gangs of New York” was based on. We walked by De Gennaros restaurant, formerly Umbertos Clam House where on April 7, 1972, “Crazy Joe” Gallo, an Italian-American mobster of the Colombo crime family was shot dead celebrating his 43rd birthday. We headed over to Doyers street in Chinatown, once dubbed the “Bloody Angle” for its curved alleyway which was host to many deadly street fights that are said to have literally stained the streets red.

On a more personal note, I was flabbergasted when at the end of our tour, I had asked Angela about a plaque I had remember seeing about 20 years ago, that marked the intersection of Five Points. I haven’t been able to find it since and no New Yorkers I’d asked knew about it. About a day later I got an email from her; not only had she found the spot, but she had taken pictures of the indent on the street where it likely had been – there is now a formal plaque at the side of the street that must’ve replaced it. THAT is the sign of a guide who knows her city inside out!

The tour itself is about 2 hours and is easy to meet your group at the designated meeting spot. Dress for the weather as it is a walking tour, but the pace is easy and there weren’t any issues slowing down or taking a break for anyone who needed it. ExperienceFirst has received many awards on Tripadvisor, including the #1 Global Cultural Experience, Travellers’ Choice Award and the #1 Rated Tour Company in NYC.

Tour prices start at $39 each and more information can be found here.

About the Author