Best New York Night Tours Compared: Boat, Bus, Air or On Foot

The New York Night guided tours on sale here share one skyline, and none of them sells a ticket to a place. What you choose between is how you see the city, where you start, how long you spend on foot and whether it is dark yet. This guide sets them side by side so you can decide in a few minutes.

Which night tour is best for a first visit?

For most first visits it is Circle Line's Harbor Lights cruise. It sails from Pier 83 at West 42nd Street at sunset, costs $45 a person, and spends two hours on the harbor. You pass within about 100 feet of the statue, run under the East River bridges and come back up the Hudson as the towers light up. It carries more reviews than any other evening we list.

It has two drawbacks. The boat is big and the seats are first come, first served. And you see the city from the water only, never on foot. If either matters, read on.

Our three picks each have a page of their own: the Harbor Lights cruise, the closed-top bus with stops in Midtown and Dumbo and the helicopter flight from Linden.

How do the tours compare at a glance?

Here is every evening on one table, one row per product. Where a tour is sold on two platforms it appears once. Read the fare column carefully: a few prices are per car or per group, not per person.

The time column is the one to read twice. A cruise gives you two hours on the water and none on land. The skyline vans give you up to 70 minutes at a stop. The open-top buses give you none at all.

What does the cheapest seat get you?

The lowest fare is $27 a person, for Circle Line's 90-minute sunset sailing from Pier 16 at the Seaport. It sails out to the statue and back, with music and an app audio guide instead of a live one, so bring headphones. Seats are first come, first served.

For a little more you get a guide. NY Waterway's golden hour cruise is $38, with a live guide and a free bus to its pier. The Dumbo and Queens skyline tour is $38 and collects you from your hotel or a set point. The Village haunted walk is $35.

Boat or bus?

Take the boat if you want the whole skyline at once, the statue close up and the bridges overhead. Take the bus if you want the lit avenues from street level and, on the closed-top bus, two stops on foot. The boat follows the sunset; most buses leave at a fixed time.

That last point decides it in summer. A cruise that sails at sunset always turns to lights on the way back. A bus that leaves at 6pm in June is back before the sun goes down. Our night boat tours and night bus tours pages compare each kind in full.

Is a helicopter worth seven times a cruise fare?

A night flight costs $275 to $334 a person, about seven times the Harbor Lights fare. For that you get 25 to 30 minutes in the air, which works out at roughly $11 to $13 a minute. You also spend the evening getting to New Jersey and back.

What the money buys is the one view nothing else gives you: the whole lit city from above, with the harbor black beneath it. HeliNY flies from Linden Airport, and Charm and Zip from Essex County Airport in Fairfield. If that view is the photograph you came for, it is worth it. If you mainly want to see the lights, a cruise shows you more of them for longer. The night helicopter tours page covers both airfields and the weight and ID rules.

Open-top or closed-top?

The open-top double-deckers give you the signs and towers overhead with nothing in the way, for 90 minutes or two hours, and no stops. The closed-top bus is heated and cooled, runs for three hours, and lets you out in Midtown and in Dumbo.

So choose the open top for the look of the lit streets on a mild night, and the closed top for a cold or wet one, or if you want to stand still for a photograph.

Which ones are dark in June?

In mid-June the sun sets at 8:29pm and it is fully dark at 9:02pm. That rules out any tour that starts and ends before nine.

• Dark, or turning dark: the sunset cruises, TopView's 8pm bus, the 8pm ghost walk in its second hour, the Spanish-guided van that ends at about 10:30pm, and any flight you book after nine.
• Light: TopView's 6pm bus, which is back before sunset.
• Depends on the start: the closed-top bus and the skyline vans, whose start time shows when you book.

The sunset and dark times by month give the figures for every month.

Which ones pick you up?

• From your hotel: the Dumbo and Queens skyline tour, from hotels and set points across Manhattan.
• From any Manhattan address: the private Jersey skyline van, and in the Christmas season the private holiday car.
• A free bus to the pier: NY Waterway's golden hour cruise.
• Nobody: the other cruises, buses and walks meet at a pier or a Midtown kerb, and the flights start at the airfield. Each start is on our meeting-points map.

Which work with a wheelchair?

More than you might expect. Circle Line's Harbor Lights boat is listed as wheelchair accessible. Big Bus has a lift, and TopView asks you to contact it ahead. HeliNY and Charm Aviation list access on their flights, and the Village haunted walk, the Waverly Place ghost walk, the dinner walk, the Christmas lights walk and the Spanish-guided van all say they welcome wheelchair users.

The closed-top buses, most vans, the yacht, the bar walks and the Dyker Heights coaches say they are not suitable.

What about children?

Most evenings take children, but read the small print. On Charm Aviation a child from age 2 pays the full fare, and on the yacht every ticket is priced as an adult's. The Dumbo and Queens tour asks for a booster seat under 8. The gangsters and ghosts walk calls itself family-friendly, with children six and under free.

Some evenings are out of bounds. The bar walks are 21 and over, and the 8pm ghost walk takes under-18s only with an adult of 21 or more.

Which suit photographers?

The skyline tours, because they stop. You get about 70 minutes in Dumbo and an hour at Gantry Plaza State Park on the Dumbo and Queens tour, and eight stops along the Jersey shore on the Royal City vans. That is time to find a spot and wait for the light.

From the air, HeliNY's cabin has floor-to-ceiling windows, but only a camera, a phone and sunglasses go aboard. On the closed-top bus, flash is not allowed.

Which is best in winter?

In December the sun sets at 4:28pm and it is dark by 4:59pm, so every evening is dark from the start. Evening lows in Central Park average about 34°F. The heated choices are the closed-top bus, the cruise cabins and the Dyker Heights coaches; the open-top decks and the walks are cold.

December also brings its own tours: the Dyker Heights coaches, the Fifth Avenue lights walk and the holiday bus. Our Christmas lights guide covers them.

Which run in Spanish?

The New York City Lights van is guided in Spanish, and one Dyker Heights coach runs in Spanish or English by option. Another Dyker coach offers both languages, the Jersey skyline van may run with a bilingual guide, and the Niagara day trip has a guide in English or Spanish.

Our pick, reader by reader

• First visit: the Harbor Lights cruise at $45.
• Lowest fare: the Seaport sunset sailing at $27.
• Want to walk, not just look: the closed-top bus at $45, or the haunted walk at $35.
• Photographs of the skyline: the Dumbo and Queens tour at $38.
• Once in a lifetime: the Linden flight at $330, at a time after dark.
• Over 21 and sociable: a bar walk from $38 to $40.

For how the evening itself unfolds, read what to expect on the night.

Frequently asked questions

Three ways to see the city lit up

NYC Sunset & Harbor Lights Cruise with Statue of Liberty

Two hours from the West 42nd Street pier at sunset, past the statue and under the East River bridges, with a live guide and an app in nine more languages.

From $45 per person

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NYC at Night: Luxury Bus Tour of Top City Highlights

Three hours on a closed-top bus from 8th Avenue at 49th Street, with a guide and two stops on foot: ten minutes in Midtown and 20 in Dumbo, across the river.

From $45 per person

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NY Helicopter Tour: New York City Skyline from New Jersey

A shared flight of 25 to 30 minutes from Linden, New Jersey, at a time you choose, with the pilot narrating. Check in 50 minutes before, with photo ID.

From $330 per person

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