Uncle Sam’s New York

Full disclosure, I live in Brooklyn.
I took the World Trade Center tour with my wife. We have lived in New York for a few years now, but enjoy doing occasional tours around the city from time to time to learn fresh and interesting things about neighborhoods we often frequent. We were excited to go on the World Trade Center tour with Uncle Sam’s to gain a perspective on a tragedy that rocked our city before we moved here.
The guide was nice enough. A little discombobulated and didn’t seem to care too much of the whole group was there. The guide often left some people unaccounted for, but it was a large group, so I cut them some slack. More often than not, or guide would start talking about the New York subways, cabs, or restaurants she frequented. This is not what I bargained for on this tour. I was hoping for a greater perspective on the history of this neighborhood — not just the ⁹⁄₁₁ tragedy, but much more. This by far the most historical neighborhood in New York, after all.
I left the tour disappointed, but when asked for a tip, I felt I should give something. We paid $ 18 on a livingsocial deal, so we left the guide $ 2. She complained about our tip to other tour members with us still in earshot — a wildly unprofessional move if you ask me. Oddly enough, she mentioned earlier in the tour not to tip people more than 15% if your unhappy with your service. Well, there you have it … I wasn’t happy with my service.

Signed up for the east village pub crawl. The tour was to start at 730. We arrived at 715 and stayed until 8. No call no show. Bartender made it sound like this was not the first time.

I am not a native New Yorker, but I’ve been visiting and working in New York for much of my adult life and know the city pretty well. Stuck there by myself on business one weekend, I decided to do a walking tour (better than hanging out in hotel room watching tv) and took the West Village Pub Crawl with Dennis. It was so incredible — we ran over our allotted time by a pretty huge margin, we were just having a blast learning stories of this pub or that bar, mixing politics and history and anecdotes.
I just happened to be in New York again in January but this time with my partner so we did the East Village Pub Craw with Michael J. It was also an amazing time — the tour guides do not reel off the same pre-​set speil but instead tailor the experience to fit your interests, the weather and their own preferences, so every tour is unique. Although the tour includes just beer and wine, I opted to pay a little extra to upgrade to small batch bourbons, alternating between Woodford Reserve and Knob Creek.

I’m being generous with one star — because I felt bad for the guy that took my call — clearly he was just doing his job! BEWARE — this company has a «All Sales Are Final» Policy and regardless of the circumstance will not refund your money — very poor business practice!
My trip to NYC was cancelled due to Hurricane Irene. Delta Airlines cancelled my flight. Unfortunately, my travel dates weren’t flexible — this was a one time opportunity — won’t be able to reschedule for the foreseeable future. I contacted Uncle Sam’s New York Tours, explained my situation and was told that I cannot get a refund regardless of the fact that the circumstances are beyond my control. Every other vendor that I had to request a refund from Hotels, Broadway Theatre shows, Statue of Liberty Tours, etc all have been totally flexible and refunded my total amount without hesitation.
WOW — don’t use Uncle Sam’s Tours if your not absolutely sure that there won’t be a natural disaster, Hurricane, Tornado or any other circumstance beyond human control!

Waste of money. $ 50. That was totally not worth it.
We took the WTC tour. The guide Yuri kept making jokes which really bothered me — I mean… a little bit of sensitivity. He started the tour with: «Welcome to WTC, NYC!!! are you excited? woohoo!!!» I am sorry but I didn’t take the tour to be excited/​happy. I took the tour because I wanted details about what happened, I wanted to feel the disaster, but I could not relate to my emotions.
He also kept using his phone while we were walking. That is not cool.
Bottom line, save your money…

My fiancé and I have been on a few tours with this company. One of our tours was the Alexander Hamilton Financial District Tour. As with most tours/​events that I do in NYC, I used
to purchase my tickets. On goldstar they cost $ 16.50 (adult, cheaper for kids) compared to the $ 25 regular price. JACK the tour guide was excellent and very informative. I believe he’s the director of a lot of tours. (Also very well-​mannered). The tour lasts two hours and it flies by quickly. We started off in Battery Park and worked our way around the financial district. While we focused on Alexander Hamilton, we talked a lot about how NYC came to be the financial capitol of the world.
Another tour I did was the Edgar Allan Poe Greenwich Village Walking Tour. My fiancé and I were the only ‘walkers’ — so we had Nathan, our guide, all to ourselves. He was so informative and had answers to all of our questions. Again, I purchased our discounted tickets here:

My wife, two kids, and I took the Hero’s of the World Trade Center Walking Tour. It was our first full day in New York and it was really hot and humid. This was our first tour and despite not being acclimated to the weather (we’re from SoCal) it was an incredible tour.
David was our guide and was a wealth of knowledge and very friendly. Prior to the tour my family and I had already walked through St. Peter’s Church and the ⁹⁄₁₁ Preview Site. I was afraid that we had ruined the tour by doing so. To my surprise I was happy to find that the tour was a hundred times more informative and enjoyable than we could have ever attempted on our own. David took us to places we would have not even thought of going like the Steel Cross and the Weeping Pool.
We’d like to thank David for an outstanding tour and helping my family and I start our vacation perfectly!

Had an awesome time on the nightclub tour — definately one of the highlights of my trip!
Tour guides were friendly and knew the best club to go to. Highly recommend this tour if you’re travelling alone or in a small group of people, perfect way to get company for the clubs. Made friends on the tour also.

I recently had the chance to take a tour with Sam’s, I did the heros of the WTC and it was amazing how much info Annie gave us from Wall st, City Hall to WTC etc.
If you really want to get a good experience go with Sams tour really worth the 4hrs oh one last thing for your next trip to NYC I think the best deal out there is the NY pass

My sister and I purchased the New York Pass online, as it was our first trip to NY and we wanted to do all of the touristy things.
We picked the Walking Tour of Broadway for our first morning there. We met at 11 am in Times Square, where our eccentric tour guide Nathan (I am 90% sure that was his name), walked us around Broadway. He was extremely knowledgeable, and kept up an interesting and entertaining narrative of the history and present shows of Broadway. We saw many of the theaters, and because it was a small group (around 8), kept up at a pretty good pace.
This tour really helped acclimate us to the streets of midtown NY. We were able to be more comfortable with the numbers and where things were located. Nathan was also kind enough to recommend a couple of places for lunch, as well as pointing out where some fun eateries and entertainments might be found at a later point.
All in all, it was a great experience, and definitely made me want to see a show! (BTW, we ended up seeing two! The Fantasticks and Hair! Both fabulous!)
I would recommend this tour if you are new to NY, or just want to learn more about Broadway.

I’m not a New Yorker, and I’ve only been there a handful of times, so whenever I’m there, I have to get in as much sightseeing and cultural experiences as possible. The tour I went on with Uncle Sam’s was the West Village Pub Crawl and I had an absolute blast. Exploring Greenwich Village and drinking at bars where So many artists got their start was an amazing experience. I learned a lot, and found a coupon code for 15% off of my admission which put the total at about $ 31 (the code is DESTC and you can find it at
) and got 3 free drinks, which was very very nice. Everyone involved in the tour was professional, and I met a lot of great people that I otherwise wouldn’t have. What a great experience!

We did the East Village pub crawl this weekend, and it was the most fun I have had on a tour probably ever. We went to four different locations, which makes this a nice introduction to where to hang out in nyc. This is also a great way to meet people in NYC — we had a great time with the people we met on the tour.
We live here and took this tour to entertain some out of town guests — and we got rave reviews from them as well, they really enjoyed the pub crawl. We ended the tour at McSorley’s and spent two hours there with the group we came in with, and ended to tour with some new friends.
So many people come to NYC and mark the sights off their list, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, etc. Unfortunately, people often miss the experience of NYC, because they are focused on seeing the sights, marking the check boxes of what they came to see. This tour captures the essence of what New York is about — it is a city to experience. If you come here and don’t take the time to get the feel of a neighborhood, get to know the personality of the area, you are missing out on what it is to be in New York. This tour can help you discover it.

Sam Cook has a definite expertise in the history of New York and especially the history behind the pub/​bars on this tour. Don’t come on this tour thinking that you will be going to many pubs along the way (details get lost that way). This tour is different is the respect that it takes (4) pubs, at the time of our tour, and gave detailed story and facts about why each one of these pubs were chosen and what they represent as part of New York’s Colorful history. I enjoyed a beer or two at each of the pubs. I went with a Guiness at each location, but I would suggest you ask Sam or the local bartender what to order to experience the history behind this tour.
Although a new tour on the scene, this was a very intimate experience and has the feel of a uniquely personal one-​on-​one (even though there were 22 in our group) historical lesson. Do your yourself a favor and call Sam at Uncle Sam’s New York Walking Tours.