My wife and I will be visiting New York and I would like to start the
trip with a private tour. In London you can get private individuals
who are trained and vetted and they spend a day taking you around the
sights which interest you in their private car and telling you about
the sights. It works really well. Is there a similar service in New
York, if not what would be the closest we could get to being shown
around by a New Yorker ?
Thanks

swill-ga:

A service that specializes in creating custom packages like you've
described, is 'Romancing Manhattan Tours', a nine-year-old company
that has been focused on offering memorable private tour and travel
packages in New York City since their inception. Their website is:

http://www.lets-do-newyorkcity.com/nyc/

If you walk through their website (starting with the 'name' field at
the bottom of the home page... any name will do here, it is meant to
'personalize' your visit to the website), you will find various ideas
for putting together a memorable visit to NYC. Ultimately, your best
bet is to e-mail the firm directly with a description of the
arrangements you have already made (hotel, arrival/departure dates)
and any preferences you have for things/places you have to do/see, and
let them recommend a package for you.

Another service provider that provides private tours of NYC is 'New
York Stories: The LimoTour Inc.':

http://www.limotour.com/

They offer pre-packaged tours that range from short one-hour blitzes
to an eight-hour guided tour:

http://www.limotour.com/newyork.htm#NEWYORK

While less personalized than the tours that Romancing Manhattan Tours
promises, the pricing is a bit more economical.

Please note that with Romancing Manhattan Tours, you can have them
include the airport transfer(s) in the package they design for you,
for a truly customized experience.

I hope this helps!

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher

In truth I had already found everything in the answer out for myself.
Today was the first time I had used Google Answers and I was looking
for a New Yorker with some inside knowledge to point to the kind of
things I could not easily find on google for myself.
However in fairness to aht-ga they have answered the question I raised
perfectly well.  Thanks

swill-ga:

I'm glad that you found the answer I provided to be satisfactory. To
increase your level of satisfaction for any questions you may choose
to post in the future, might I suggest that you include any
information that you have already found on your own, to limit the
amount of redundant information that may be provided in the answer? As
well, feel free to specify anything in addition that you feel would
enhance the answer you receive. For example, you mentioned that you
were looking for 'a New Yorker with some inside knowledge'... it is
perfectly fine to include this qualification in your question, to
ensure that you get exactly what you are paying for!

I hope your trip goes well and is a memorable one!

Regards,

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher