Many say you haven’t fully experienced New York until you have experienced its Sex and the City side. After all, this is the side many tourists have come to know about New York, even before stepping into the city, thanks to the popular HBO show.
While I’m not a huge fan of the show, I used to watch its episodes every now and then. I feel somewhat familiar with the series setting, thematic, sex, and of course, the city. So, when I got invited to do a Sex and the City tour, it was a no brainer for me to hop in.
Let me start by saying that the tour guide is not the typical tour guide. She is fashionable a la Carrie Bradshaw and spot on in her Sex and the City (SATC) lexicon and facts. Needless to say, I was way out of the tour’s typical demographics of young (and not so young) single women looking for the ideal love in the city. But still, it was a lot of fun seeing over 40 uninhibited women having fun in their “playground” and visiting the “sacred” places of their SATC religion.
The 3.5 hours tour started at the Pulitzer Fountain in front of the Plaza Hotel, where Mr. Big’s engagement party was hosted. From there, we hopped on a tour bus to pass by a few important buildings and sights while watching the video clips of the scenes that made them famous. In some locations, we hopped of the bus to experience first hand the location.
One of the most interesting stops was The Pleasure Chest. If the name isn’t familiar to you, this is a hugely popular sex shop. Of course, its popularity grew after Charlotte bought her “rabbit” there (if you know what I mean…). Now, they barely can keep up with the demand of those, um, essentials? Also, it was extremely amusing seeing a stampede of women (among them a few bachelorettes) running around the sex shop like a kid in a candy store, and then doing their best to hide their new acquisitions, or simply showing everyone their “toys”.
The rest of the tour was spent following the footsteps of Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda through some iconic spots like the Meatpacking District where Samantha settled, the art gallery in SoHo where Charlotte worked, the church where Samantha wooed “the Friar”, the restaurant Buddakan where Carrie and Big’s wedding rehearsal dinner was hosted, and many more.
If you’ve seen the series, you’ll know and relive those moments, but if you haven’t, there are small clips of the series and scenes that will get you up to date with what happened on that specific spot.
In some of the locations you get to experience a bit more about the SATC experience, like having cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery, where Carrie and Miranda used to enjoy their cupcakes; and have a cosmopolitan at “Scout”, the bar that Aidan used to own in the series, presently located in Little Italy.
If you’re a SATC fan, make sure to check out this tour as it almost feels like an extension of the original series and movies. It’s obvious that there would be no Sex and the City without New York, but it wasn’t until I cruised the city in this tour that I saw how every single corner of Manhattan screams SATC and how many New York spots came to be what they are thanks to this glamorous tv series.
For more info on the Sex and the City tour, be sure to check out the On Location Tours website.
How do you relate Sex and the City with New York?
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