Walking Tour of Central Park With Private Local Guide

We begin our tour at the southwest corner of Central Park. Here you'll see how New York is able to pack so many spectacular sites into one place. At this one corner is not only one of the main entrances to the park, but you also have the USS Maine Memorial, the statue of Columbus on a 76-foot pedestal and Trump International Hotel.

Central Park West if home to some of the most famous residences in the world. One of the buildings we'll see is the "Ghostbusters Building" which was not only the scene of the Ghostbusters' battle with the Staypuff Marshmallow Man, but was also the home of Buddy's New York Family in Elf.

After passing the famous Tavern on the Green restaurant, we'll see the 15-acre Sheep Meadow. It's a great place for people-watching and - if you so choose - kicking off your shoes and walking in the grass.

We'll briefly leave the park again to see The Dakota, a favorite residence for celebrities, past and present, and scene of the tragic assassination of John Lennon in 1980.

Heading back into the park we'll visit Strawberry Fields, a memorial built to honor John Lennon after his murder and within view of the apartment he and Yoko shared at The Dakota.

This part of the tour features some of the most AMAZING photo-ops with cityscapes framed by the park and The Lake (yes, that's really the name!). We'll cross the Bow Bridge and move into The Ramble, one of the most forested sections of the park.

Here you can climb to the top of the Castle for a bird's eye view The Great Lawn and The Delacorte Theatre, the outdoor home of Shakespeare in the Park.

We start heading south and east, taking a walk that gives us a view of The Oblisk and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This walk will bring us to the Alice in Wonderland statue.

From Alice we'll pass Conservatory Water, seeing the sailboats skimming about, see Hans Christian Anderson, The Central Park Boathouse and make it to Bethesda Terrace, home to Bethesda Fountain. Avengers fans might recognize this as the spot The Avengers said their farewells before Thor brought Loki back to Asgard. Countless other movies - Enchanted, Elf, Home Alone 2, Marathon Man - and TV shows were filmed here.

After a walk down The Mall, the longest straight stretch in the park, originally designed for the gentry to take carriage rides, we'll work our way around to the Balto Statue, which in turn brings us to the Delacorte Clock and the entrance to the Central Park Zoo.

We'll walk past, but don't go in, the Central Park Zoo (The zoo requires a separate admission, since we are almost done at this point, you do have the option to end the tour here if you'd like to head into the zoo). However, the seals are clearly visible from the walkway.

We're in the final stretch, as we head past The Pond (again, the real name!). Gapstow Bridge also offers amazing views of Central Park South with its 1000+ foot towers offset by the park in the foreground.

We finish our tour at the Pulitzer Fountain at the park's southeast corner, 3 blocks from our start and directly in front of the Plaza Hotel.