On the con side, there was absolutely no historical or factual information provided on this trip. Would have been nice to know when boroughs were founded, when certain structures were built, or any other details about NYC. Instead, we received a whole lot of anecdotal and wrong information (young boy recently shot here but crime is not as bad as the 70s, hookers used to parade down 42 and 125th streets, Queens has a lot of Chinese, no games have been lost at Yankee Stadium, Queen Elizabeth from Spain helped Cristopher Columbus). But even worse, the ignorance and therefore racism levied at certain cultures, some of which my tween daughter didn’t need to hear (Hasidic Jews have sex through a hole in a white sheet, and only have sex to procreate and the man lets the woman know by putting his hat on the table, and they have other traditions that are “weird”) (the projects are full of welfare mothers with five kids). While the guide (Marta or Maria?) had a very thick Spanish accent that was hard for some to understand, the constant chatter about nonsense was the worst of it. Why couldn’t she just pull out some facts on Wikipedia or, better still, keep quiet and we could have all figured it out without being subject to her prejudices? I would have paid more to have her keep quiet. It’s like some random lady from the Bronx who never read a book decided to become a tour guide based solely on the qualifications of being from NY.
On the pro side, if you sat in the back you could hear less and it was a comfy bus ride through the boroughs. She tried to convince everyone at Coney Island that the f train was faster than the bus ride back, but f train takes more than an hour and bus ride took 50 minutes in comfort. If you have any other way to see the sights or don’t speak a lick of English I would recommend. Otherwise, just Uber there and read Wikipedia on the way.