The Bottom Line
Pros
- Highlights over 40 'Gossip Girl' filming locations around New York City.
- Enthusiastic, fun tour guide really knows 'Gossip Girl' trivia and facts.
- Tour covers New York City's east side from the Upper East Side to the Lower East Side.
- Stops feature great opportunities for photographs, as well as some shopping.
- Strongly geared toward 'Gossip Girl fans.
Cons
- Most locations are "drive-by" viewings -- the tour stops about six times.
- If you're not familiar with 'Gossip Girl', it might not be much fun.
Description
- Gossip Girl Sites Tour offered Fridays and Sundays at noon.
- Tickets: $40 (+$2 ticket fee)
Children 9-15 must be accompanied by someone over 15 (no one under 9 allowed)
Book Tickets Online with Viator - Meeting Point: New York Palace Hotel
- Gossip Girl Sites Tour Length: approximately 3-3.5 hours
- Accessibility: Due to stairs along the tour, this tour is not accessible to guests in wheelchairs.
- Gossip Girl Sites Tour is also available by appointment for private tours and groups.
- Gossip Girl Sites Tour Tips:
- Have an early lunch -- most stops only offer sweets
- Be ready to shop!
- Dress for pictures
- On Location Tours:
Guide Review - Gossip Girl Sites Tour with On Location Tours
Our tour guide, Megan, was friendly and enthusiastic, and was very familiar with Gossip Girl, as well as the sites that we encountered along the way. In between seeing the sites, Megan showed us Gossip Girl clips featuring the various locations. Interestingly, many locations appear much bigger in the show than they do in real life due to the way scenes are shot.
On our way uptown, we saw St. James Church (where Nate's cousin gets married), as well as the Vera Wang and Missoni Boutiques. We drove by the Synod of Bishops Russian Church (used for shooting scenes in the school courtyard) before stopping at the Museum of the City of New York to pose for pictures on the steps, which are used as the school's front entrance in Gossip Girl.
Heading down Fifth Avenue, we saw Central Park, the exterior of the Waldorf family home and the Cooper Hewitt Museum (used for the Van der Woodson/Bass wedding), before stopping at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The museum steps are where Blair and the girls often gather for lunch, and many tour participants enjoyed having their picture taken there.
Heading further downtown, we drove by the location used as the Archibald home and Hunter College where the Gossip Girl students took their SATs, before stopping at Dylan's Candy Bar for a short shopping break.
After seeing several midtown locations used during filming, our next stop was Henri Bendel, where we had about 20 minutes to shop and take advantage of a 20% off coupon for tour participants.
The bus took us downtown to the Lower East Side, where our final stop had us visiting four different locations (all within just a few blocks) -- Barrio Chino and Babycakes NYC which are both featured in a Thanksgiving flashback scene where Dan and Serena bump into each other (literally), as well as Tory Burch and Cafe Habana. Megan pointed out two more locations -- the Bleecker Street subway stop and Butter, before the tour concluded at Union Square.
Fans of the show will certainly enjoy the Gossip Girl Sites Tour -- it's exciting to see many of the locations in real life after seeing them on the show, and the tour guide's enthusiasm and energy make the tour fun.
