Eager Tourist Insider’s Food Tour of Chinatown NYC

First founded in the late 1800’s during the early days of Chinese immigration to America and having fully blossomed in the mid-80’s, Manhattan’s Chinatown is one of the most storied and colorful districts in NYC. Between Canal Street east Broadway and winding alleyways of downtown Manhattan sits an authentic sliver of the Big Apple that is a rare sight as mass uniformity and gentrification spreads through the city rapidly.

This is why we’ve partnered up with Shanghai-born and NYC-based chefs to offer you an insider’s tour of the speciality food stalls, restaurants, bakeries, produce stands and markets in Chinatown Manhattan. Guests will start off with a short introduction into the history of Chinatown and quickly move onto a walking tour that will offer tastings of rare and exotic fruits, Chinese teas, street vendors dishing up favorite local delicacies, and access to hidden gems, art spaces, parks and oddities that only an expert chef would know about.

The tour includes:

• Intro to the current landscape and cultural importance of Chinatown and learning about exotic produce and cooking methods practiced in China

• Tasting of seasonal rare and exotic fruits at three different outdoor markets

• Tasting of two authentic dishes

• Tasting of speciality Chinese tea

• Insider chef as your guide and the chance to ask questions about medicinal Chinese gastronomy

• Complimentary box of tea brand upon the tour’s completion

The dynamic street life, diverse architectural styles, street art-laced buildings, thriving music scene, delectable restaurants and creative community of Porto has long held a special place in our heart. Beyond what is known in “insider” guidebooks to the Portuguese capital are individuals and clandestine street corners that reveal a city you never knew, and which provide a deeper insight into the city and what makes its denizens tick.

Porto, the refined older sister of the extraverted Lisbon, is an adorably hilly city on the cusp of the Atlantic. It is distinctly European without the pretentiousness of Paris and London; effortlessly cool without the contrived scenes of Berlin and New York. The Douro River cuts through the city, while seven UNESCO-protected bridges intersect swathes of cafes, wine bars, nightclubs, galleries, museums, and clandestine cultural gems. I was engulfed in Porto's laissez faire character and charming streets, which were almost reason enough to play hooky on the wine and seafood calling my name from the Douro Valley. But outside the city, a world of thermal springs, local tascas (taverns), and undeniable calm beckoned.

Eat. Drink. Wander. Repeat. Top-notch seafood and daily caught fish are commonplace along the coast, as are surfers in wetsuits and Baroque-era churches. On Saturdays, many of the small towns throughout the region host flea/antique markets (feiras) selling all sorts of knickknacks, zeitgeist items, and vintage treasures that are splurge-worthy without being too expensive. I returned home with 1970's coffee mugs, handmade aloe vera soap (a Portuguese staple), and five bottles of Taylor's Fine White Port (please don't inform the authorities).

The Eager Tourist Porto Film Photography Excursion will bring you into private art studios, cultural sites and thriving neighborhoods led by local photographers who offers expert guidance into the various approaches, techniques and outcomes rendered by film photography formats whilst providing a deep understanding into the Western European metropolis on the Atlantic.

Ideal for both beginner or advanced photographers, Eager Tourist - Porto Film Photography Excursion is a walking tour led by a local city insider and professional photographer who will arm participants with a 35mm camera containing a roll of film with 36frames and visit a range of sites from Porto most iconic architectural buildings to private art and design studios inhabited by local creatives, and other fashionable arteries, all through the lens of photography.

The two-hour urban walking excursion includes guided explanations into the art of film photography, its advantages and artistic qualities that create a nostalgic feeling and emotional quality.

Following the tour’s completion, Eager Tourist will develop your roll of film and email you a link to the images.

Eager Tourist Porto Film Photography Excursion includes:

• A local street photographer and city expert as your private guide

• 2.5-hour walking tour to obscure locales, neighborhoods and sites of artistic and cultural importance with in-depth insight along the way

• Film camera loaded with 36frames of captures for guests to document their moments in person

• Developing of film and emailed to each guest within three days

Length:

2.5hours

Pricing:

1 person -- $250usd

2 persons -- $400usd

3 persons -- $500usd

4 persons -- $600usd

Time passes ever so slowly, the desert vibes washing over and inside of you. A deep internal cleansing, as if life’s medicine stems purely from natural sources. Luxury isn’t a high-brow design piece or seat in a coveted restaurant. It is clean air, infinite open space; the sound of silence only to be perturbed by a bird’s chirp or an arid tree whistling with the wind.

A moment in the desert can feel like an eternity. At first glance, rocks, mountains, tumbleweed and the occasional passing car can seem futile. Blazoning past the banality is a glorious beauty with soulful tones that beckon to be unturned. Denizens of the desert are kind, spiritual and hardworking. Manifesting in many forms, and literal walks of life, inhabitants of this Mars-like environment bring forth new ideas of existing in society, with nature and with oneself.

Nestled deep in the Arava Valley in Israel’s Negev Desert, and far removed from niceties of traditional society, is the village of Shaharut, boasting just 30-some-odd homes and structures that house a wave of free-thinking artists, designers, creatives and philosophers that have fled the crowds of society to live specifically in a place that is rich with gorgeous views, clean air, clear skies and an otherworldly way of life.

Adjacent but still a drive or trek from the new Six Senses, Shaharut has retained its magical essence and developed its own enigma as an intriguing but enigmatic community that are welcoming yet hard to reach. Its residents include local ceramicists, Buddhism teachers, wellness gurus, basket-weavers who have spent years learned from Bedouin cultures, and beyond. Eager Tourist invites you into the very homes, studios and work spaces of Shaharut’s creative community for a two-hour immersive experience that connects you with Shaharut’s local culture and engages you in conversations and eye-opening dialogues about the healing powers of the desert and why this way of life does not yield isolation but spirituality, intrigue and self-fulfillment. Meet yogis, artists, musicians, ceramicists and basket weavers who have created their own distinct micro-economy that attracts visitors from the desert and exports creations across Israel and some even around the world. Led by Shaharut locals as your guide, the “Shaharut Desert Dwellers Tour” brings you into a higher place where you can appreciate this unique way of life and absorb influences that can stay with you well after your journey.

The Shaharut Desert Dwellers Tour includes:

• Shaharut village local as your guide

• Meetings with 3 artists, designers or creatives in their very own homes

• Deep discussions about art, life and spirituality in the desert

• Snacks, coffee or tea of choice

Length: Two Hours

Strolling through the Levinsky Market, Tel Aviv’s locally beloved outdoor food Mecca, one can come across what Saveur magazine voted as one the the top food destinations in the world. Over the last five years the neighborhood — consisting of one main pedestrian street, Levinsky, and an artery of nondescript side streets — has come to fruition as a truly culinary hotspot where generations-old Turkish delis, Greek confectionaries, Moroccan and Persian home food spots and spice shops coverage with trendy coffee shops, bars and restaurants and an overall hip and vibrant vibe. Frills are not the drawing point of this market, but the authenticity, innovation both old and contemporary, and amalgamation of gastronomic pleasures that can be shared by all.

And nestled in this compact culinary hotspot is an artisan and culinary mastermind who is pioneering a new iteration of a classic Israeli beverage that the world has yet to see. Until now.

Benny “Soda” Briga is a culinary mastermind, an artist if you may say, who has originated a new iteration of the bubbly, fruity carbonated beverage called Gazoz. Originating in Turkey with an Italian iteration, the Israeli adaption is an organic, sparkling beverage created on the stop with fruit syrups (plums, berries, peaches), fermentations (kombucha, kefir), beautiful herbs (rosemary, sage, mint, lemongrass), and edible flowers, for a drink that is healthy, refreshing and utterly aesthetic.

Eager Tourist takes you into the heart and mind of Benny’s delectable beverages with an exclusive Gazoz workshop where you will learn to whip up your very own gazoz, plan ,learn about the fermentation process, discuss health benefits of sustainable agriculture, and have an overall fun, inspiring and tasty experience suitable for locals and travelers alike. Crossing borders, Benny has just released his very own “Gazoz” book that will be distributed by Artisan Books, available online and in bookstores across America. Guests will also gain access to Benny’s private laboratory where fermentation and the creation of artisanal liquors takes place behind the scenes, and be guided and led by the vivacious Benny himself.

The Beverage Wizard of Levinsky: Tel Aviv Gazoz Workshop with Benny Soda includes:

Meeting Ben a this Gazoz Kiosk in Levinsky Market
Dialogue, conversation and expert insight into how to grow your own produced and herbs at home
Explanation of the distillation and fermentation process that is the the catalyst for Benny’s organic syrups and infusions
Providing of all materials and guidance for gusts to built their very own Gazoz
Access into Benny’s clandestine laboratory in the Levinsky Market
Tasting of artisanal liquors of more than 100 varities that Benny fermented over three years and are just now available for your enjoyment

Price:

One person: $200usd
Two persons: $300usd
Three persons: $350usd
Four persons: $400usd
Five persons: $450usd

Length: 2 hours

View spectacular Bauhaus and Eclectic architecture buildings in Tel Aviv and trace the city's original urban design by Sir Patrick Geddes from an insider's perspective, guided by city certified-architects and local experts themselves. Our insider's architecture tour will incorporate various elements of architecture in Tel Aviv, from the current boom of contemporary architecture and rapid urbanization to the architectural origins of Colonial and Ottoman architecture-style buildings in Jaffa and Tel Aviv. Enter and explore a wide-range of internationally-influenced structures in and around Tel Aviv, all through the perspective of locals who best know the city.

Length: 2 Hours

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Roll up your sleeves and dive into Tel Aviv’s urban grit and Mediterranean culture with a street photography experience that will show you the cultural pulse and urban core of the city whilst snapping away at street scenes and locales known best by its denizens.

Tel Aviv, a thriving micro-metropolis on the Mediterranean, is perhaps one of the world’s most ambitious and innovative destinations for vegans and gourmets and gourmands with an apt palate for vegetable-based cooking. The city is a melting pot of culture, which is reflected in the cuisine and gastronomy of generations’s old street food spots and hole-in-the-wall eateries to the high-end and upscale restaurants dotted throughout the city, and everything in between.

Israelis pride themselves on growing some of the most delicious, fresh and juicy vegetables on the planet, with Tel Aviv being one of the meccas for farmers and purveyors to sell their crops within one of the three bustling outdoor food markets in the city — Levinsky, Carmel and HaTikva. The Israeli ingenuous DNA of technology and agriculture (the country birthed the cherry tomato), coupled with a deep-rooted “love of food” heritage, the real joy begins and ends on the breakfast, lunch or dinner table.

Eager Tourist offers chef-led experiences that will guide guests on a “Vegan Culinary Adventure in Tel Aviv” that begins with visits to two of the three main outdoor food markets to learn about the locavore produce, how and where it is grown, and to spark discourse and conversations with local vendors and farmers.

Onwards, guests will be welcomed and treated for tastings at four different vegan or vegan-friendly spots across the city, tasting special dishes rooted on vegetables that will surprise and delights foodies of all tastes and interests — but all the while staying true to a vegan manifesto.

End the experience with a conversation with one of the city’s leading vegan chefs and taste special dishes that are unique to the city and represent the pluralistic and food-loving culture that attracts millions of travelers each year.

The dynamic street life, diverse architectural styles, street art-laced buildings, thriving music scene, delectable restaurants and creative community of Lisbon has long held a special place in our heart. Beyond what is known in “insider” guidebooks to the Portuguese capital are individuals and clandestine street corners that reveal a Lisbon you never knew, and which provide a deeper insight into the city and what makes its denizens tick.

Through the gaze of photography, the diverse districts of Lisbon — from the ancient alleys of Alfama to the buzzing nightlife district of Cais do Sodré and every nook in between — reveal the unique the Western European metropolis in its truest form. The Eager Tourist Lisbon Film Photography Excursion will bring you into private art studios, cultural sites and thriving neighborhoods led by local photographers who offers expert guidance into the various approaches, techniques and outcomes rendered by film photography formats whilst providing a deep understanding into the Western European metropolis on the Atlantic.

Ideal for both beginner or advanced photographers, Eager Tourist - Lisbon Film Photography Excursion is a walking tour led by a local city insider and professional photographer who will arm participants with a 35mm camera containing a roll of film with 36frames and visit a range of sites from Lisbon’s most iconic architectural buildings to private art and design studios inhabited by local creatives, and other fashionable arteries, all through the lens of photography.

The two-hour urban walking excursion includes guided explanations into the art of film photography, its advantages and artistic qualities that create a nostalgic feeling and emotional quality.

Following the tour’s completion, Eager Tourist will develop your roll of film and email you a link to the images.

Eager Tourist Lisbon Film Photography Excursion includes:

• A local street photographer and city expert as your private guide

• 2.5-hour walking tour to obscure locales, neighborhoods and sites of artistic and cultural importance with in-depth insight along the way

• Film camera loaded with 36frames of captures for guests to document their moments in person

• Developing of film and emailed to each guest within three days

Length:

2.5hours

Pricing:

1 person -- $250usd

2 persons -- $400usd

3 persons -- $500usd

4 persons -- $600usd

From the gorgeous Bauhaus-laden streets in the city center to the sweeping and derelict industrial projects and minority housing in south Tel Aviv, the “Miami of the Middle East” is more than meets the eye from an architectural perspective.

Kiryat Melecha Tel Aviv Art Studio Crawl

Kiryat Melecha is Tel Aviv’s hidden gem where artists, designers, small business, and musicians work together and showcase their work in a sustainable structure that is a dying breed in today’s market-hungry artist landscape. Located in the heart of south Tel Aviv, Kiryat Melecha is a former Socialist worker complex built in Israel in the 1950’s that has been evolved as the city’s hotspot for artists and creatives, where rows of studios, galleries, workspaces and artistic enclaves lay side by side amidst towering buildings coated in massive murals by local street artists. Together with the Kiryat Melecha Artist Organization, Eager Tourist brings travelers into the very studios where these artists work and creative for direct engagements that discuss each artist’s works as well as the social-economic foundations that permeate within this ever-changing micro-metropolis on the Mediterranean.  

The Kiryat Melecha artist studio tour includes:

• Visits to six artist studios ranging from painting and sculpture to upcycle, graphic and installation 

• Interactions and conversations with the artists themselves in their own studios 

• A local artist as your guide who will escort you to each part of the complex and introduce to each artist within their studio 

• Preferred Eager Tourist rates on artworks and items purchased  

• Eager Tourist x Kiryat Melecha custom artist studio map 

With its pulsing dance music scene, intoxicating natural wine bars and exotic Eastern European flare, Tbilisi is a thriving urban gem that has been kept under wraps until now. Bringing you into the heart of the Georgian capital city’s buzzed about nightlife scene, Eager Tourist Tbilisi nightlife tour connects you with expert local nightowls and party-goers for a hyperlocal and custom crafted crawl that brings you to the best wine bars, local hangouts, nightclubs, music venues and private parties that aren’t advertised to foreigners. With our Tbilisi Local's Only Nightlife Tour, Eager Tourist brings the authentic and locally-known Tbilisi to your very fingertips.

The Eager Tourist Tbilisi nightlife tour includes:

*Visits to three or four establishments as curated by our Tbilisi nightlife ambassador, starting with chill and downtempo stops and ending with a party at whichever location is deemed best on any given night
*Expert guidance and insight about Tbilisi along the way led by a local Tbilisi native *Complimentary Georgian beer or natural wine at each location
*Selection of Small bites or tapas (Khachapuri, Sulguni cheese, Pkhali salad, Mchadi bread) at one of the locations along the way
*Walking through Tbilisi’s most vibrant neighborhoods at night, meeting locals along the way
*Complimentary beer, Georgian cha-cha or wine at each location visited

Length: Three hours

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With private studios, fashion houses of merit and ingenious design talent waiting to be discovering waiting around every corner, Eager Tourist’s Jaffa Design Hotspot Tour takes guests into the creative heart of Jaffa's multi-cultural creative scene with visits to studios, boutiques, workshops and private residences of locals, creating direct engagements and conversations with locals themselves. 

Beyond its reputation as a fishing port and industrial city, Setúbal is a majestic gem with a rich, seaside Portuguese culture that Setúbal was the most important center of Portugal's fishing industry since the 20th century. Boasting an abundance of friendly locals, deletable cuisine and not to mention a landscape steeped in history and natural wonders, Setúbal offer an authentic Portuguese experience led by local experts of Eager Tourist. With the Fortaleza de Sao Filipe to the Igreja de Jesus Church, the earliest example of the Manueline style of architecture, and excursions along the Praia do Creiro, a white-sand beach known to locals, our “A Day in Setúbal” itinerary offers the best of the coastal Portuguese town with expert-led activities, tours, workshops, and interactions with locals.

Despite its close proximity to Lisbon, Portugal’s capital city, Setubal keeps a rewarding distance, both physically and metaphysically. A small port city located where the river meets the Atlantic and sheltered by the mesmerizing Arrábida Mountain, if Setúbal was a person, she would be the daughter of an old fisherman, and she would invite you to embrace every moment, every smell, every sound. With some of the best fish and seafood in all of world, guests will embark on a day-visit through town leading up to a cooking workshop with one of the area’s home formidable young chefs. With seagulls gliding around and multicolored boats at the docked at the port, the first bottle of local wine would taste so good that you couldn’t resist asking for another one. You would want to walk with her through the old streets, paved with white stones and clothes hanging from the windows. And when you start to understand that every road leads to the old market, you get lost and found again as you enter it. You just need to get your spirit free and enjoy the simple things in life, here.

Our “A Day in Setúbal” excursion includes:

• Expert guidance with a local resident

• Insight about life in Setúbal including encounters and dialogues with locals working in creative fields

• Tasting of local delicacies and snacks in the Mercado do Livramento local farmer’s market

• Visits to private homes, art or design studios

• Coffee, tea or a glass of wine per person
  

Eager Tourist was born and bred in NYC in 2012, and the city with a forever beating heart of culture has always sat on a pedestal. Perhaps unbeknownst to most tourists to NYC is the fact that the city is a literal museum for architecture marvels, from its Victorian homes to Art Deco skyscrapers and contemporary colossuses. The vernacular of architecture in NYC is constantly evolving, and Eager Tourist is here to guide, explain and show you through our lens.

Using the streets as the classroom, each curated stop will explore themes about NYC's built landscape through the lenses of urban planning, building typologies, and exceptional architecture. 

This isn't your average sightseeing tour - guests will be guided by an NYC local architecture expert to dive deep into how and why buildings that might not look significant at first glance - indeed are. In addition to some landmarks, you’ll learn about the history and details of sites that are often overlooked in everyday life, and learn how buildings and public spaces have informed each other from the early 20th century until today, as well as how city denizens 2022 interact with said buildings and how it can effect the socio-culture.

Your experience will on average include visits to five different architectural points of interest, followed by a short break with five or so stops after for the second hour. At each stop, guests will learn and engage in a discussion about different themes of planning and architecture that will build upon the previous one,  threading together by the end of the tour. Topics he will introduce range from setbacks and air rights, to the city grid and  “starchitects,” whilst witnessing contemporary masterpieces by the likes of XX, XX, XX or historical marvels throughout the city.

Available tours throughout Manhattan, include:

1) Midtown 2) Chelsea/Meatpacking District 3) Lower East Side/SoHo/TriBeCa

Notes:

• The majority of the tour will consist of walking.

• Guests will have the opportunity for an indoor break at a designated time to buy any food or drinks along the way, with opportunities to use the bathroom. Seating will also be available indoors.

• Please be sure to dress appropriately for the weather, and bring a water bottle during the summer months.

• Strollers, wheelchairs, and dogs are allowed during the tour.

• The tour is not recommended for children under 10.