Having never read or owned a New York Tourism Guide or New York City Visitor Guide before, this was a really fun experience for me. I went to Strand Bookstore (www.strandbooks.com), "Home of 18 miles of New, Used, Rare and Out of Print Books," (a must-see quintessential NYC institution) and looked at almost every New York City Tourism Guide.
NYC Insider Printable Guide Map Book
There are hundreds of NYC Tourism Guides, but we wrote our own guide because we wanted you to have one available immediately to print right at home: The NYC Insider New York Travel Guide.
An organized, easy to follow, color coded guide to NYC. The Printable NYC Guide includes detailed maps of every neighborhood, weekly chart of Free Museum Days and Times and free weekly neighborhood tours, Best of NYC Categories and lists by ALL native New Yorkers and much more. Print as many copies as you like, share them with friends and family and ONLY take the pages you need while you’re traveling.
New York Tourism Guides
Other New York Tourism guides range from general to highly specialized; architecture, history, movies, walking tours, culture, a specific neighborhood, vegetarian/vegan, antiquing, shopping, beauty, hipster, pet-friendly…and dozens more. Below are some of our top recommendations.
NYC Insider Tip
Make note of Kindle vs Paper/Hard copy reviews online. When researching any of the books below, make sure you are clear on the difference between the Kindle reviews and the Paper/Hard Copy reviews. Amazon bundles all the reviews together, which for a fiction story is great, but for a Travel Guide, you want to see the difference in reviews because not all books translate well to digital without a lot of formatting changes.
Fodor’s New York City
This New York Tourism Guide is laid out extremely well with single pages of attractions, experiences, food, photo spots and shopping on the first page of each section. Then it goes into detail within the section. There was the right amount of background, history and facts about New York.
I was definitely in sync with this book-their dining choices, sights, etc. Hmmm…maybe I’ll get one for myself?
- Fodor's Travel Guides (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 480 Pages - 08/27/2019 (Publication Date) - Fodor's Travel (Publisher)
Frommer’s EasyGuide to New York City
I really enjoyed this book! Ms. Frommer and I think alike. Her New York Tourism Guide had some wonderful and creative suggestions for alternative and cheaper hotel accommodations, like how to stay in a private room at the apartment of a chef who will make you breakfast every morning.
- Pauline Frommer (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 320 Pages - 10/29/2019 (Publication Date) - FrommerMedia (Publisher)
The book was simple, easy to read and definitely from an Insider’s perspective. All of her recommendations are spot on, including unique things to do and which tours she thought were worthwhile (or not).
The Frommer’s online NYC Forum is excellent, and Pauline Frommer personally answers questions quite often.
Lonely Planet New York City (City Guide)
Very well organized. Excellent maps of each neighborhood with eating, shopping and dining organized well. Pick the area of NYC you want to explore, and go. The maps are designed well and I agreed with most of the restaurant choices.
This book would top the Fodor’s Guide above, except the Fodor’s is more accurate, a big deal in New York City given how quickly things change.
Do not confuse this book with the “Lonely Planet New York State” Guide, which I do not recommend.
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- St Louis, Regis (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 448 Pages - 08/21/2018 (Publication Date) - Lonely Planet (Publisher)
Recommended Family and Kids Guides
Some of these guides are for parents to help plan and some are for kids to use.
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- FlyingKids (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 05/02/2016 (Publication Date) - FlyingKids (Publisher)
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Most Popular NYC Books and Guides
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- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Imber, Ali Zweben (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 208 Pages - 09/30/2018 (Publication Date) - Globe Pequot (Publisher)
- Not For Tourists (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 400 Pages - 09/17/2019 (Publication Date) - Not For Tourists (Publisher)
- Pyle, Nathan W. (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 144 Pages - 04/15/2014 (Publication Date) - William Morrow Paperbacks (Publisher)
Fodor’s New York City’s 25 Best
Very portable New York Tourism Guide. It highlights the best things to see in an easy to read and follow format. It’s not too extensive, but definitely enough for someone spending 3-5 days in town. They had some good day trips in there for different city areas with easy to follow directions of what do, see and eat. I tended to agree with most of their restaurant and shopping recommendations.
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PS – while their book is very good, their online Forum for NYC is terrible. I’ve seen many incorrect postings, and while they monitor for certain things, accurate information is not one of them. They discourage experts from posting or providing valuable information to visitors.
About New York Tourism Guide Reviews
A little background, so you can relate (or not) to my opinions. I generally like "lighter" tourist guides. I like to be told the "must-sees," what to do, where to go, where to eat and how to get there. Preferably all together in an easy-to-follow format. Some fun facts and history are great, but I prefer to learn about an attraction while I’m experiencing it. After the "must see" things, I prefer to integrate into the local culture as best I can – basically be an Insider.
I was surprised to find some of the guide book brands I usually love for other countries and cities had less than impressive New York Tourism Guides. If you don’t live here, it’s hard to walk into a store and be able read a selection this impressive, so I hope I’ve helped you narrow the list down. For your convenience, each book has a discount link directly to Amazon.
NYC Insider Guide - The Basics
