Tour Spotlight: New York City Rally

May 20, 2019

Grab a great big bite out of the Big Apple on Fantasy’s 8-Day New York City tour, September 8-15, 2019. Park your RV in the comfort and convenience of a full-service RV park in Jersey City, and leave all the driving and sightseeing to us! Live, love, and laugh every second on all the sidewalks of New York with six deluxe guided motor coach tours, including two top Broadway shows.

Opening night explodes with Fantasy’s signature orientation, party and dinner. We’ll trip the lights fantastic on a magic motor coach tour of Manhattan’s blazing bling… Hamilton Heights, the Harlem hotspot with river views; Rockefeller Center, home of Top of the Rock in the heart of Midtown Manhattan; and Times Square, “The Crossroads of the World.” Then there’s Lincoln Center, and the Metropolitan Opera House. On a crisp fall night, Manhattan’s glittering skyline views dazzle the senses like nothing else.

Exotic Chinatown is teeming with energy and we’ll be a part of it all starting with a walking tour to an authentic Chinese food lunch. We’ll walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, as part of a Lower East side Immigrant History tour. A vantage point on the Manhattan Bridge showcases the scope of the Manhattan skyline, spectacular even in the daytime. This evening, we formally meet Lady Liberty via a water taxi. A suggested Fantasy add-on option for maximum fun seekers is the One World Observatory, atop One World Trade Center and a visit to Katz’s Delicatessen, home of the mile-high sandwich.

More action comes on a tour of Manhattan proper! We’ll visit Greenwich Village, aka “the Village,” home to one of NYC’s most beloved urban refuges -- Washington Square Park. This area attracts the eclectic art crowd, and now that you’re officially part of the “Village People,” feel free to bust out “YMCA” at any time! We’ll visit NYU, one of the world’s premier research institutions, then the SoHo-Cast Iron District to study its unique architecture. And just because we can, we’ll take the subway to Grand Central Station, still the busiest station in the country. Next, we’re off to Midtown Manhattan to explore the art deco architecture of the Chrysler Building, famous for its changing faces and 360-degree city views. We continue on past the United Nations building to Radio City Music Hall, for a revealing backstage tour. Explore Rockefeller Center and stroll down fabulous 5^th Avenue like we own the place (wish we did!) before dinner in Manhattan and a top Broadway show!

This “city that never sleeps” has new meaning for you now. Discover it yourself on Fantasy’s DIY, Do-It-Yourself Day. Here’s your chance to personalize your experience in the belly of the beast. Our RV park is just a hop, skip, and jump away from Manhattan – close to path and light rails and next door to ferry service into New York City. Fantasy provides roundtrip water taxi tickets across the river to New York. From there, explore NYC on your own – by boat, train, bus or subway.

Back on the bus for a guided tour of the East Side, our first stop is Chelsea Highline Park, a visionary public park built on an old freight line elevated above city streets. On to Trinity Church, a progressive Episcopal community more than 300 years old. Explore all eight blocks of Wall Street, home to the world’s two largest stock exchanges: the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. Here’s a good photo op with the “The Bull of Wall Street.” On to the urban oasis of Battery Park at the confluence of the Hudson and East Rivers. Bowling Green Park is another green island in the middle of this bustling financial district. At the tip of Manhattan, we stop at Alexander Hamilton’s U.S. customs house to marvel at the stunning French-influenced architecture. Dinner in Manhattan and another top Broadway Show!

The Statue of Liberty, St. Paul’s Chapel and 9/11 Memorial are the sacred sights on another guided motor coach tour. Lady Liberty stands tall and proud over the must-see Immigrant Museum on Ellis Island. It is so humbling to read the heartbreaking stories from millions of immigrants of how and why they came to this country in pursuit of “the American dream.” St. Paul’s Chapel not only survived the great New York City fire of 1776, but also the 9/11 attacks, thus known as “the little chapel that stood.” The 9/11 Memorial is located on the hallowed grounds of the World Trade Center and chronicles the utter anguish of 9/11. We share this day of respect, reflection and remembrance with our new friends over dinner.

Away to the West Side on our last guided tour. First stop is St. John the Divine, the mother church of the Episcopal diocese, lauded for its massive community outreach programs. Next is Central Park Conservatory Gardens, formal gardens with international themes. We pass by Time Warner and plunge headlong into the chaos of Columbus Circle just to say we did it! Lincoln Center is a popular visit, as is ABC Television Studios. The Guggenheim Art Museum designed by Frank Lloyd Wright is equally fascinating both inside and out. There’s Grant’s Tomb, the final resting place of President Ulysses S. Grant, the 18^th president of the United States. Riverside Church, with its history of social activism, is an interesting tour stop. Past distinguished speakers here include Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela. This Harlem neighborhood is a major African-American business residential and cultural center and welcomes all visitors. We close our grand day in Gotham with both a walk and carriage ride through the soothing green space of Central Park. A surprise Farewell Dinner promises a true New York experience. And then there are final goodbye hugs over continental breakfast in the morning

Fantasy’s 2019 8-Day New York City tour starts on September 8 and is all gone in a “New York minute”. In 2020, we’ll visit NYC again, starting September 6.

Other Fantasy adventures are just waiting for you and you may want to combine them with your NYC adventure! Start the party early, or just keep it going with any of these exciting Fantasy options, all taking place nearby: 24-Day Upstate New York on August 14, 12-Day Autumn Harvest on September 18, or 29-Day Autumn in New England on September 20.