{"id":233639,"date":"2026-05-16T11:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T11:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/233639\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T11:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T11:17:08","slug":"nycs-weirdest-walking-tours-rats-ghosts-mobsters-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/233639\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC\u2019s weirdest walking tours: rats, ghosts, mobsters, more"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Yorkers will stand in line for anything \u2014 cronuts, cold plunges, chaos \u2014 so naturally, the city\u2019s walking tours have officially gone off the rails<\/a> in the best possible way.<\/p>\n

Forget the basic Statue of Liberty selfie circuit. Across the five boroughs, tourists and locals alike are shelling out to stalk celebrity hotspots, descend into candlelit catacombs, chase Broadway ghosts and even learn the intimate sex lives of rats.<\/p>\n

From mobsters and Marvel heroes to bodega cats and glazed doughnuts, these bizarre Big Apple excursions <\/a>are turning NYC itself into the main character.<\/p>\n

Here are eight of the weirdest \u2014 and most wonderfully New York \u2014 walking tours prowling the city right now.<\/p>\n

Purr-fectly unhinged history lessons<\/p>\n

Cat lovers are clawing their way through the city, thanks to \u201cCats About Town<\/a>,\u201d NYC\u2019s first-ever feline-focused historical walking tours created by writer and guide Peggy Gavan.<\/p>\n

Each two-hour tour costs $45 and dives deep into Gotham\u2019s surprisingly cat-filled past. <\/a><\/p>\n

The Cats About Town tour uncovers the city\u2019s forgotten, furry history. catsabouttowntours.com<\/p>\n

The \u201cBrooklyn Heights Cat Tour\u201d explores America\u2019s first suburb through legendary local felines<\/a> \u2014 including the Brooklyn Bridge\u2019s own cat supervisor and celebrity cats beloved by literary elites.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Financial District tour digs into the city\u2019s gritty waterfront history, where ship cats once prowled New York Harbor, and one heroic Wall Street kitty reportedly saved priceless documents during the Great Fire of 1835.<\/p>\n

Over on the Lower East Side tour, guests learn how immigrant families lived alongside cats in cramped tenements \u2014 and how today\u2019s iconic bodega cat tradition<\/a> was born.<\/p>\n

For animal lovers with champagne taste, the \u201cDogs & Cats on Fifth Avenue Tour\u201d strolls from Madison Square Park to the Plaza Hotel while unpacking pet gossip from the Gilded Age elite.<\/p>\n

Taylor-made for Swifties<\/p>\n

Swifties are apparently willing to turn Manhattan into one giant Easter egg hunt.<\/a><\/p>\n

For $40, fans can spend two hours retracing Taylor Swift\u2019s NYC era on a walking tour <\/a>that hits some of the singer-songwriter\u2019s most famous downtown stomping grounds.<\/p>\n

A young fan appreciated a Taylor Swift shirt she discovered while taking the walking tour of the popular singer\u2019s NYC haunts. J.C. Rice<\/p>\n

\u201cTaylor Swift\u2019s New York: A Walking Tour\u201d\u00a0<\/a>kicks off at Cornelia Street in the West Village \u2014 yes, that Cornelia Street \u2014 before winding through Tribeca and SoHo with stops tied to the Grammy winner\u2019s New York life, lyrics and lore.<\/p>\n

Fans will also swing by Electric Lady Studios and browse through spots like Housing Works Bookstore, where the multi-hyphenate filmed \u201cAll Too Well: The Short Film.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s basically a real-life \u201cWelcome to New York\u201d montage.<\/p>\n

Trash talk has never been this popular<\/p>\n

Turns out one man\u2019s garbage is another tourist attraction.<\/p>\n

Suzanne Reisman has great enthusiasm as the self-described \u201crat whisperer\u201d of New York CIty. Stephen Yang<\/p>\n

Curious visitors are paying $45 to roam FiDi\u2019s filthiest corners on the wildly popular \u201cGarbage and Rats in NYC<\/a>\u201d guided jaunt, led by self-described \u201crat whisperer\u201d Suzanne Reisman.<\/p>\n

The two-and-a-half-hour trek dives into the city\u2019s dirty underbelly \u2014 literally \u2014 covering everything<\/a> from rat mating habits and sanitation strikes to corruption scandals, public health crises and the endless war between New Yorkers and overflowing trash bags.<\/p>\n

Less \u201cSex and the City\u201d \u2014 more pests and the city.<\/p>\n

Fuhgeddaboudit \u2014 there\u2019s pasta involved<\/p>\n

True crime junkies are eating this one up \u2014 quite literally.<\/p>\n

This mob-themed East Village and Little Italy walking tour<\/a>, led by retired NYPD detectives, mixes Mafia lore <\/a>with old-school Italian comfort food for a $79 ticket price.<\/p>\n

Guests hear real stories about the Gambino crime family and notorious mob boss John Gotti while wandering Mulberry Street and other former Mafia strongholds.<\/a><\/p>\n

Luis, a retired NYPD detective, is one of the guides for the mob-themed walking tour.<\/p>\n

Stops include the Liz Christy Bowery Houston Community Garden, where guides unpack ties to La Cosa Nostra<\/a>, plus a cannoli pit stop at La Bella Ferrara.<\/p>\n

Nothing says organized crime like dessert.<\/p>\n

Marvel at the madness<\/p>\n

Superhero fans are assembling across Manhattan for this comic-book-fueled deep dive<\/a> into the city that inspired everyone<\/a> from Spider-Man to Superman.<\/p>\n

For $39, guests spend two hours visiting iconic filming locations and comic-book landmarks that helped shape the superhero universe as part of the \u201cSuperheroes in New York Walking Tour.<\/a>\u201c<\/p>\n

A scene from an Avengers installment is placed over the real New York location where filming took place. <\/p>\n

Stops include the famed Daily News Building in Midtown East \u2014 recognizable to DC fans as the Daily Planet from Superman films \u2014 along with the Chrysler Building, which has appeared in countless Marvel adaptations, including Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and Avengers films.<\/p>\n

Basically Comic-Con, but cardio.<\/p>\n

NYC\u2019s creepiest basement tour<\/p>\n

If candlelit crypts and centuries-old graves<\/a> sound like a relaxing evening, NYC has you covered.<\/p>\n

The Basilica of St. Patrick\u2019s Old Cathedral is the rather spooky setting for \u201cCatacombs by Candlelight.\u201d Chad Rachman\/New York Post<\/p>\n

The \u201cCatacombs by Candlelight<\/a>\u201d tour at Nolita\u2019s Basilica of St. Patrick\u2019s Old Cathedral gives brave guests exclusive access to off-limits catacombs, cemeteries and hidden passageways beneath one of the city\u2019s oldest Catholic landmarks.<\/p>\n

The eerie, 80-minute experience starts at $36 and explores the church\u2019s sprawling underground resting places, where some of New York\u2019s most prominent families have been buried for more than 200 years.<\/p>\n

Part history lesson, part horror movie set.<\/p>\n

Glazed and confused<\/p>\n

Forget fine dining \u2014 tourists are now carb-loading their way<\/a> across Manhattan one doughnut at a time.<\/a><\/p>\n

You donut want to turn down this tour of the city\u2019s prime pastry shops, including the treats (above) at Moe\u2019s Doughs in Brooklyn. @moesdoughs<\/p>\n

The wildly indulgent \u201cUnderground Donut Tour\u201c<\/a> takes guests on sugary strolls through some of NYC\u2019s best pastry spots, with tickets starting at $60.<\/p>\n

The company offers five different themed tours, including routes through Downtown Brooklyn and Williamsburg, the East Village, Union Square and Times Square.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s even a seasonal Midtown Holiday Donut Tour operating during November, December and January for anyone looking to combine festive cheer with a medically concerning amount of fried dough.<\/p>\n

Breakfast of champions!<\/p>\n

Broadway\u2019s ghosts are still waiting in the wings<\/p>\n

The theater district apparently isn\u2019t just packed with understudies \u2014 it\u2019s packed with ghosts, too.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re smiling now, but these victims \u2026 sorry, visitors \u2026 on the \u201cHaunted Broadway Ghostlight Tour\u201d may not realize the spooky scenarios that are in store for them. @broadwayupclose<\/p>\n

The \u201cHaunted Broadway Ghostlight Tour<\/a>\u201d explores Times Square\u2019s spookiest stage legends, cursed theaters and paranormal backstage lore during a 1-hour, 45-minute nighttime walk through the Theater District.<\/p>\n

Inspired by the long-running Broadway superstition of leaving a single \u201cghostlight\u201d glowing onstage overnight, guides from Green Team Tours share chilling tales<\/a> of phantom actors, dead playwrights, haunted dressing rooms, and eerie sightings still whispered about backstage today.<\/p>\n

Using iPads loaded with rare photos, videos and old newspaper clippings, the guides bring Broadway\u2019s haunted history back to life<\/a> \u2014 or perhaps afterlife.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, in New York, even a casual stroll now comes with ghosts, gangsters, glazed doughnuts or at least a 50% chance of hearing disturbing facts about rats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Yorkers will stand in line for anything \u2014 cronuts, cold plunges, chaos \u2014 so naturally, the city\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[68,232,9,24,56,63,65,64,6315,13942,5356],"class_list":["post-233639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-exclusive","tag-lifestyle","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-tourism","tag-tourists","tag-walking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}