New York Like a Native
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  • Brooklyn tours
    • Brooklyn 101 tour >
      • Brooklyn 202 tour
    • North & west of Prospect Park >
      • Fort Greene & Clinton Hill tour
      • DUMBO, Fulton Ferry, Brooklyn Heights tour
      • Park Slope tour
      • Viewing (and Walking) Brooklyn Bridge (+ More)
      • Atlantic Avenue & Downtown Brooklyn
      • Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens tour
      • Red Hook tour
    • Williamsburg & north Brooklyn >
      • Williamsburg tour
      • Greenpoint tour
      • Bushwick and East Williamsburg tour
    • Central Brooklyn >
      • Bedford-Stuyvesant tour
      • Crown Heights tour
      • (Not Just) Victorian Flatbush tour
      • Sunset Park tour
      • Green-Wood Cemetery tour
    • Coney Island and southern Brooklyn >
      • Coney Island Webinar, Virtual Tour, & Resources
      • Coney Island (& Brighton Beach) tour
      • Bensonhurst tour
      • Bay Ridge tour
    • Jewish, food, and Xmas lights tours >
      • Jewish Neighborhood Tours
      • Food, dessert, ice cream tours
      • Dyker Heights Christmas Lights tour
    • Moving to Brooklyn/layover tours >
      • Moving to/Studying in/Retiring in Brooklyn
      • Airport/Cruise/Layover tours in Brooklyn
    • Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park/Barclays Center
  • Beyond Brooklyn
    • East Village tour
    • Jackson Heights tour
    • Lower East Side tour
    • Long Island City tour
    • Ridgewood tour
    • Sunnyside & LIC East
  • About your guide
  • Fees/Schedule/FAQ
    • Fees for private tours
    • Schedule
    • FAQ
    • Vehicle and custom tours
    • Tours for classes
    • Resources on Brooklyn
    • How to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge
    • Picking a Hotel in Brooklyn
    • Picking an AirBnB in Brooklyn
  • Contact me/Book
  • Blog

Energetic, eclectic tours of Brooklyn and beyond, from a veteran guide.


Why tour with Norman Oder of NY Like a Native?


Why visit Brooklyn neighborhoods?

Brooklyn tour guide Norman OderBrooklyn tours with guide Norman Oder
See reviews on TripAdvisor, Yelp, and Google.

"Fast walking, fast talking Brooklynite Norman Oder"
--Rough Guide to NYC.


"The thinking person's tour guide"
--TripAdvisor reviewer

"Their favorite day of class over the semester"
--College professor

"Mr. Oder has an encyclopedic knowledge of the borough..." --Wall Street Journal

"...incredibly knowledgeable, dynamic, and engaging."--Trip Advisor reviewer


Veteran Brooklyn tour guide Norman Oder aims these private tours--mainly walking and public transit--to be wide-ranging and briskly-paced. Most tours involve 2+ to 5 miles of walking, but can adapt to your pace. Vehicle tours range farther.

Please click on section headings in menu for full list of tours.


These tours, all led and booked by Norman--no substitutes!--are geared to energetic, curious people, and have attracted enthusiastic visitors of all ages, from student groups to seniors, as well as New Yorkers and Brooklynites interested in learning more.

They are generally for visitors who've already visited city highlights and want to go deeper.


While exploring neighborhoods, we aim to understand the history of what we see, what's changed, and why. Yes, I typically bring a binder with relevant images (some old, some relatively recent), and sometimes photo books.

The idea, as one tour guest aptly put it, is to get the gestalt of a neighborhood, recognizing the advantages and pains of change.

Please note: these tours were originally conceived for people visiting the neighborhoods from Manhattan. If you already live in or are visiting Brooklyn (or Queens), I may be able to adapt the routes to take advantage of your starting point.
See map of tour neighborhoods here.​
Below is a screenshot of the map. It's more readable at the link!

Picture
Brooklyn, the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, would be the nation's fourth-largest city if it were independent. When you explore with me, you learn about the ebb and flow of Brooklyn's history and neighborhoods, especially its fascinating and uneven rebirth, and witness its diversity, complexity, charm, and challenges. I aim neither to sugarcoat nor to denigrate.

My private tours can focus on Brooklyn highlights, specific neighborhoods, or multiple areas, including parts of Queens and Manhattan. I try to be more wide-ranging than a purely academic or architectural tour, but mindful of history and more substantive than a tour, say, focused on food (though we can eat!). I'm intrigued, enthused, and sometimes confounded by what we see. I can work with you to customize tours.

We're looking at neighborhoods, some of which are quite large, but are the building blocks of the city. We should gain clues from the landscape and built environment--buildings, parks, businesses, signage, murals--to help us understand what we see and how things might have changed. (I often bring old photos.)

​
I can introduce you to some of Brooklyn, but, remember, it's larger and more populous than the City of Paris (within the peripherique), and it "contains multitudes." It's not a "neighborhood." You can't see everything in a day!

A message to international visitors: you are welcome!

First steps to your tour

Nearly all my tours are private tours, and mostly on foot. My listed tours usually start at 2.5 hours, but can be modified. The tours rely mainly on walking, sometimes with public transit or taxis, though we can adapt a tour for vehicles.

Brooklyn is a borough, not a neighborhood. It consists of many neighborhoods. 

New to Brooklyn? Start at the waterfront near the Brooklyn Bridge. with Brooklyn 101 (3 hours), which includes classic neighborhoods and borough highlights. The expanded Brooklyn 202 adds more neighborhoods. For a less-demanding 2-2.5-hour tour, choose a variation of Brooklyn 101.

There are many other neighborhood options, though not as central to Brooklyn's history. (These are better for people who've already seen some of Brooklyn.) You also could go beyond Brooklyn, like the Lower East Side and East Village in Manhattan or Long Island City and Jackson Heights in Queens.

I can also combine neighborhoods for themes; many but not all have interesting architecture; some have waterfront views; some have more food options; others help tell the story of different immigrant groups; some show recent redevelopment.


​To save time, please first check tour pages, fees, my FAQ and list of "top misconceptions" about Brooklyn, as well as the map

Also see some of my Blog posts, such as:
  • Thinking About Hotels in Brooklyn: Location
  • Review of "36 Hours in Brooklyn," in the New York Times 
  • What are the Top 10 (or 20) Things to Do in Brooklyn? How Might They Fit Into Your Visit (and Our Tours)?
  • Some Advice for First-Time Visitors to New York City
Then get in touch with your preferences and questions.

(I suggest using a desktop or laptop to read this text-heavy site.)
New York Like A Native: Energetic, eclectic tours of Brooklyn & beyond. Experienced guide. Personal service.
  • Home
  • Brooklyn tours
    • Brooklyn 101 tour >
      • Brooklyn 202 tour
    • North & west of Prospect Park >
      • Fort Greene & Clinton Hill tour
      • DUMBO, Fulton Ferry, Brooklyn Heights tour
      • Park Slope tour
      • Viewing (and Walking) Brooklyn Bridge (+ More)
      • Atlantic Avenue & Downtown Brooklyn
      • Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens tour
      • Red Hook tour
    • Williamsburg & north Brooklyn >
      • Williamsburg tour
      • Greenpoint tour
      • Bushwick and East Williamsburg tour
    • Central Brooklyn >
      • Bedford-Stuyvesant tour
      • Crown Heights tour
      • (Not Just) Victorian Flatbush tour
      • Sunset Park tour
      • Green-Wood Cemetery tour
    • Coney Island and southern Brooklyn >
      • Coney Island Webinar, Virtual Tour, & Resources
      • Coney Island (& Brighton Beach) tour
      • Bensonhurst tour
      • Bay Ridge tour
    • Jewish, food, and Xmas lights tours >
      • Jewish Neighborhood Tours
      • Food, dessert, ice cream tours
      • Dyker Heights Christmas Lights tour
    • Moving to Brooklyn/layover tours >
      • Moving to/Studying in/Retiring in Brooklyn
      • Airport/Cruise/Layover tours in Brooklyn
    • Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park/Barclays Center
  • Beyond Brooklyn
    • East Village tour
    • Jackson Heights tour
    • Lower East Side tour
    • Long Island City tour
    • Ridgewood tour
    • Sunnyside & LIC East
  • About your guide
  • Fees/Schedule/FAQ
    • Fees for private tours
    • Schedule
    • FAQ
    • Vehicle and custom tours
    • Tours for classes
    • Resources on Brooklyn
    • How to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge
    • Picking a Hotel in Brooklyn
    • Picking an AirBnB in Brooklyn
  • Contact me/Book
  • Blog