The Statue of Liberty is scheduled to reopen to the public on July 4, after being closed since the 9/11 attacks.
Ferries to Liberty Island will depart from Battery Park from 8:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.
Access to Lady Liberty’s crown requires advance reservations, which can only be made online or by phone. Crown reservations are not available at the ticket office.
Statue Cruises, the Statue of Liberty’s ferry transportation provider, is the official source for crown reservations. For more info and to make a reservation, go to statuecruises.com or nps.gov/stli.
While you’re downtown, consider a walking tour of the Lower East Side, where many of the "tired and poor" welcomed to our shores by the statue made their first home.
New York-based Urban Oysters has made a deal to take over the New York City operations of Urban Adventures, and is rolling out a series of new tours over the next six month. First up is this new walking-and-eating tour of the Lower East Side.
The Tenements, Tastings, and Tales tour, launching this month, takes visitors and groups on a journey through the historic and multicultural lower tip of Manhattan.
The three-hour tour through the Lower East Side, Chinatown, and Little Italy gives a glimpse into New York’s Dutch, German, Italian, Jewish, Latin and black immigrant heritage, focusing on "how they lived their lives, ate, and how they still are shaping the New York of today," the company says.
Starting at City Hall, the tour includes still-operating synagogues and Jewish clothing stores in the garment center, the Latin culture of the Essex St. market, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, and the African Burial Ground. On the menu are knishes, dim sum, and tacos.
Urban Adventures is a joint venture of Intrepid Travel and WHL, a global tour company that offers uniquely designed tours by local operators in 80 cities.
The Tenements, Tastings, and Tales tour runs seven days a week starting at 11 a.m. Tickets are $65 a person.
