Visiting New York City with a tour group during the Christmas holidays
An honest review of my experience with Topdeck USA on a 3 day tour of New York City
I had always wanted to visit New York City during the Christmas season, so when I saw this Topdeck tour come up on a Black Friday sale for a really good price, I decided to book it for myself and my sister to visit America for four days from Canada to have a once in a lifetime experience of the Big Apple right before Christmas.
Some highlights of this tour were a harbour cruise to view the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge, seeing panoramic views of Manhattan in the tallest tower in the USA at the One World Observatory, experiencing Times Square lit up at night, watching a Broadway musical and getting a classic New York slice of pizza ! I booked this tour in December of 2016 and I paid for it myself, so this is a completely independent review.
You can read a detailed day-by-day summary of all the experiences I had on this tour or jump straight to the end where I share what I liked, what could have been better, and my final recommendation for this 3 day ‘I Love New York’ tour with Topdeck.
Quick Overview of the Topdeck New York City Tour
Destinations: This tour stayed in New York City for three days, and we visited the Financial District, Times Square, Midtown, and the East Village with the group and many people went off to other areas of the city for optional activities.
Who was on the trip: There were close to 40 people on this tour of NYC, most of them had been together for two weeks out in California and the western states and were ending their America experience with a few days in NYC. There were several groups of friends, many couples, and a few solo travellers. Most people were Australian, with some New Zealanders and British people plus a few from South America, the Middle East and Asia. It was also an age limited tour for people 18-39 years old.
Who was the guide: The guide was an American girl, she was nice and friendly but not overly energetic or enthusiastic, she did arrange everything that was included on the tour but did not provide as much information I would have liked in a few situations.
How did we travel: This tour used public transportation on the New York City subway, and we also did quite a bit of walking. We also took taxis back to the hotel one night.
Where did we stay: For this NYC tour, we just stayed in a Holiday Inn in Manhattan near Times Square for the entire trip. We were in double share rooms with double beds for each person and private bathrooms, there was a breakfast buffet provided daily and luggage storage on the checkout day. It was very conveniently located, only a few blocks from a subway station.
Recommended Luggage: Many people had a rolling suitcase or wheeled duffel bag, hardly anyone had a backpack, we never had to move our luggage once we arrived at the hotel.
Arrival in New York City
I always suggest arriving a day early for a tour to make sure you don’t miss the departure time, it is particularly worth arriving early in NYC because there is just so much to do in the city !
I left Ottawa, Canada with my sister at 6 am, and flew into Newark airport and arrived at our hotel in the Financial District just before lunch. We were both living the student budget life at this point in our lives, so I booked all of our activities, many of our meals, and the first hotel night on Groupon deals to save money.
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It was a beautiful clear, sunny winter day when we arrived, and we walked over to the Brooklyn Bridge to get some classic NYC pictures and then stopped by a special exhibition called the ‘Taylor Swift Experience’ because we are both big fans (this was the 1989 era). I always do some research before visiting NYC to see what special events are on, you never know what cool experiences might happen to be in town !
I also pre-booked student price tickets online for a comedy musical on Broadway called Something Rotten which was a random Shakespeare time travel story that was actually really funny.
Travel Tip: I have never paid full price for Broadway tickets, I always get student price, last minute rush tickets or try the TKTS discount booth in Times Square.
The final stop for today was the M&Ms World candy store in Times Square because I go there every time I’m in NYC to get the special limited edition flavours (mint, candy corn etc.) and it’s a tradition for me. I am always amazed by Times Square every time I go back, it’s just so busy and bright and we have nothing like that where I live. We were back to the hotel and in bed before midnight so we could be ready to meet the Topdeck USA tour group the next day.
NYC Harbour Cruise and Walking Tour
The first thing to do today was get from the Financial District to Midtown to meet the Topdeck tour group at the hotel, no problem right, we will just take the subway ? Wrong. Even though I've been to NYC about ten times now, I still forget that there are express and local trains so some subway trains don't actually stop at all the stops. We went way farther up Central Park then we should have and ended up getting off and taking an Uber back to the hotel.
We made it to the Holiday Inn meeting point, stored our luggage and met the Topdeck group in the lobby, they had all been together for about 2 weeks doing a tour of California and western states. The tour leader wasn't feeling well and everyone seemed quite tired, it was a bit disappointing because we were so excited to join the group and the energy levels were a bit low, but I understand that they had come off a cross country flight.
The entire group was given Metro cards and we all took the subway right back to the Financial District where we started literally a block from our old hotel (at least we took the right train this time !).
The day started with an included harbour cruise to see the classic views of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline. It was quite cold, and we were prepared having just come from Canada, but many of the other people on the tour were not, having just come from California. Make sure to dress for the appropriate season if you join this tour, NYC can get cold in the winter time. Back on land, we met the local tour guide for the day (who I think was from Urban Adventures) for the included NYC walking tour.
Financial District Visit and One World Trade Centre Observatory
The walking tour covered a number of highlights in the Financial District, Wall Street and the surrounding area like the Bull statue, Trinity Church and other famous buildings. I thought it was a pretty good way to learn about American history, I had been coming to NYC for four years at this point, and I still learned something new from the tour.
The local guide also recommended a Naples-style pizza place at an indoor food hall market and it was probably the best pizza I've had so far in the city, so I appreciated having this tour led by a local New Yorker to get recommendations like that.
In the afternoon, we were provided with included tickets for the One World Trade Centre Observatory, which is the tallest building in the USA, I've been to the 9/11 memorial previously, but had never been up in the new tower. We got good views with it being a clear winter day and someone pointed out a building with no windows that is apparently used by the FBI ? Very mysterious. The last stop was inside the Oculus, which is a large subway and train station built to look like a dove sculpture all in white, with a shopping mall on the lower floors, you can read more about it here.
We said goodbye to the day tour guide in the mall, and we expected reasonably (as North Americans) to give her a tip but our tour guide didn't really arrange that or recommend what to do, so no one did. I felt like the tour ended really suddenly and then she was gone, I would have appreciated guidance from our Topdeck group guide about what to do in that situation.
Overall, I enjoyed the walking tour, having never done one despite visiting NYC many times over the years, I thought there was a good range of info presented and the food and coffee recommendations were helpful. I actually did another historical walking tour in Philadelphia with Urban Adventures and you can read more about that experience here.
East Village Christmas Party
After the tour we had free time to get dinner independently, we just had some falafel to go (living that student life!) and did some Christmas present shopping at the big discount department stores. It’s crazy sometimes the price difference between things in the USA and Canada, especially when you factor in lower taxes, so I like to have a look for products or brands which are hard to find at home.
Back at the Holiday Inn, a number of people on the tour wanted to go to a Christmas themed ‘ugly sweater party’ and a girl found one at a bar in the East Village (which is an area that is not as well served by the subway system) .
Instead of calling ahead and asking the bar whether they would let 30 or so people in, we went on a big hour long subway and walking adventure only to be told upon arrival that the owner didn't want that many of us in at once.
Well, that wasn’t going to stop us, since we had already come so far and everyone was dressed up. Another Australian girl found a bar nearby that had at least some Christmas decorations, games and karaoke and was willing to let in 30+ people wearing themed sweaters.
This was the first chance we really had to get to know people better. It definitely seemed like a quieter group, pretty much everyone was either finishing a Topdeck USA tour from out west in California or was about to start one going south to Florida. There was a good mix of people, couples, friend groups, a few solo travellers. We took an Uber back to the hotel just after midnight to avoid another hour long subway adventure.
Rockefeller Centre + Bryant Park
Breakfast was included at the hotel, and the whole day was free time for optionals like food tours or tours of famous movie set locations, things like that. I had booked a number of mostly Christmas related activities online in advance for Nash and I to have the full NYC Christmas experience !
First stop was the Radio City Rockettes Christmas show which had dancing, singing , Santa Claus and... camels. There were lots of families and small children in the actual theatre but I got aisle seats so we could see everything just fine. The Radio City Rockettes are definitely worth seeing at least once, it’s a lot of fun and a classic NYC activity.
For lunch, we stopped by the food hall in Grand Central station and did an audio tour there as well, it was interesting to learn about the architecture, history and the beautiful painted ceilings in such an iconic building .
We also had a quick stop at the main NYC public library branch, a beautiful historical building which is free to enter and was decorated with a giant Christmas tree (I literally could have illustrated this entire review just with pictures of giant Christmas trees, there were so many around the city in late December).
Around Christmas, there is also a big outdoor market in the Bryant Park area which is a fun stop for souvenirs and a hot chocolate. We stopped by the Rockefeller Centre to see the famous Christmas trees, although we didn’t have a chance to go skating. I really do think Christmas time in NYC is something to experience at least once in your life, with so many lights and decorations, it’s just such a magical and memorable atmosphere, especially if it’s snowing.
Ice Bar, Grand Central Station + Fifth Avenue
If you visit NYC during the Christmas season, be sure to walk by the big department and specialty stores to see their Christmas displays, like Macy's, American Girl, Saks, etc. They change the themes every year and it really does look the same as you see in Christmas movies with all the beautiful decorations.
I thought it would be fun to have a drink before dinner, so we stopped by the Minus 5 Ice Bar, which I had booked discount tickets for online. Inside, there were NYC themed ice statues and colourful lights and the drinks were served in ice glasses. My beer started leaking though the glass so they gave me a second one free (you know you are a student when you get excited about free beer !). The Minus 5 Ice Bar is for sure a novelty kind of thing, but it was fun to do once. I actually visited another Ice Bar in Queenstown on a tour of the South Island and you can read more about that New Zealand tour experience here.
Just before dinner time, we returned to the hotel to get ready for last night with the Topdeck USA tour group. Dinner was included at a nearby restaurant and I had veggie burger and fries, pretty average, but I did appreciate that they accommodated me as a vegetarian. Over dinner we spoke to some more people on the tour who were starting with a new Topdeck group leaving for Florida the next morning. Most people on this tour were from far away countries like Australia and were doing their big "once in a lifetime North America trip" which is different than our situation where we can visit anytime quite easily from Eastern Canada. I actually ended up doing a Topdeck tour of Australia about two years later and you can read more about that visit to Sydney and the East Coast here.
So after dinner, I figured being the last night people might want to go out to a nice bar or actually go clubbing or something. Sadly this was not the case, everyone either wanted to get to sleep for an early start tomorrow for their next tour or had flights home the next day since the tour was finishing. Nash and I ended up walking to Times Square and doing some shopping then just went home. Honestly, we were a bit disappointed that no one wanted to do anything in the city.
Times Square
On the last day, we had another included buffet style breakfast at the hotel, and then said goodbye to our short term new friends. Three days wasn't really long enough to get to know anyone and this is the only tour I've ever done where I legitimately could not tell you the name of a single person we met (even though they were all really nice !!).
I hadn't booked anything for this day because I was trying to be flexible, thinking maybe some of the group would want to go somewhere together but people all had to leave for other Topdeck tours or flights home.
My sister and I went to the TKTS booth in Times Square which has last minute and same day discount tickets to Broadway and off-Broadway musicals and shows. We picked up tickets for a show by Nina Conti which was a ventriloquist comedy performance. I know it sounds a bit random but it ended up being hilarious, so that worked out well as a last minute plan !
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We also made a stop at the famous Dominique Ansel Bakery in Soho where I had pre ordered us three ‘Cronuts’ (these croissant-donuts were a very trendy dessert at the time) They had limited edition flavours every month and you had to book in advance to secure them, we had white chocolate peppermint which was very seasonally appropriate.
To save money because we were students at the time, we had flown into NYC using airline points but were taking the night bus home, which is a bit sketchy, but cheap. We showed up at Port Authority well in advance for a 10 pm direct bus to Montreal and all the buses were delayed with huge line ups and confusion with thousands of people trying to get home for Christmas. It literally looked like a scene out of a Hallmark movie, when the bus arrived there were only 2 single seats left and the people in front of us declined because they wanted to sit together and we got the last ones !
That situation was lucky, but so stressful, I've done the overnight bus ride many times before so we were prepared with pillows and blankets but you have to do customs at 4 am, it’s not pleasant but it fits the student life budget ! We made it home around 9 am back to Ottawa and that was the end of our budget NYC Christmas adventure with Topdeck USA.
Final Recommendation for the Topdeck Roadtrip USA New York City Tour
What I liked: I liked that hotel for this tour was actually in Manhattan, and super accessible to the subway system, with good size rooms, it was clean and had an included breakfast. I did call Topdeck and have them confirm that the hotel was ACTUALLY in Manhattan because sometimes NYC tours will use hotels in New Jersey and I didn't want to deal with being farther away.
The included metro card was helpful, as that’s often the fastest way to get around the city. The first day with the included walking tour and boat cruise and observatory visit gave different perspectives of the city and I felt that I learned a lot.
What could have been better: We were joining a group at the end of a longer tour and energy levels seemed very low, it was hard to get to know anyone in 3 days. If I had been travelling alone I think I would have had a harder time making friends. The tour guide was really nice but on a few occasions did not provide advice where it would have been helpful (the tipping situation at the end of the walking tour and getting 35 people to the Christmas party). Overall, having done two previous Topdeck Europe tours, I just felt that the energy level and general feeling was not as exciting as on those tours.
Final Recommendation: I think this tour only makes sense for certain people in certain situations. I was happy with what was included, given that we booked for a very reduced price on Black Friday, but I don’t think we were actually in the target market / right demographic for this tour. As regular visitors to NYC who come every year, I would not do anther tour like this, because we booked most activities ourselves anyway and the aspects of the tour group I was looking forward to ( like going out with people at night or on the last day) didn’t really happen.
I think this is meant for people who are on ‘once in a lifetime North America tours’, who, for the most part, are either starting or ending a longer tour and just added on a few days in NYC. For someone in that situation, this would be fine as part of a longer tour, unless you were really budget minded and wanted to stay in a hostel and book your own activities instead.
So overall, we had an ok experience for the price we paid, this tour is not something I would personally do again as a regular visitor to NYC, but this tour would probably be fine for someone who is on this trip as part of a longer Topdeck USA tour.
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