Everything you need to know about Central Park Pedicab Rides
Central Park is one of the largest urban parks in the world and the biggest in New York City. Central Park is dwarfed in comparison with Bosque de la Primavera at Guadalajara in Mexico or the Table Mountain at Cape Town in South Africa. Pedra Branca at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Losiny Ostrov at Moscow in Russia and Borivali National Park at Mumbai in India are three to four times the size of Central Park. However, you cannot really compare the urban park in the Big Apple with others, including the likes of McDowell Sonoran at Scottsdale in Arizona or Bayou Sauvage at New Orleans in Louisiana. This is because they are not at the heart of one of the largest, most populous and busiest metropolises in the world. Many of them are more nature preserves, state or national parks with lots of pasture and forests without much human habitation nearby.
Central Park can be compared with Hyde Park in London and it is more than two hundred acres larger, even if you include Kensington Gardens while measuring the acreage of the latter. It is absolutely possible to explore Central Park on foot. Most locals do that anyway. People jog, stroll, walk and spend leisurely hours, mostly during spring and summer but also through fall. The footfall dips significantly in winter. When you are visiting New York City, you will need to make the most of your time. Central Park is around eight hundred and forty acres and there are scores of attractions. The zoo, the museums, the mall, the ponds and lakes, the gardens and various iconic hotspots will take a while for you to explore. If you have to spend hours on crisscrossing the park to cover all the places on your checklist, then you may not have much time left to do anything for the day.
Fortunately, you can opt for Central Park pedicab rides. They are convenient, comfortable and well paced. You would save time, you would not exhaust yourself to get from one place to another and then to the others, you can spend more time at places of interest than on walking hither and thither, you can opt for standard tours that will cover some predetermined places or you can choose custom tours, you may opt for some themed tours that will have a docent or guide and you could opt for some combos that may include brunch, lunch or dinner, perhaps some additional attractions beyond the park.
What to Expect from Central Park Pedicab Rides
Central Park pedicab rides are usually scheduled. You would be able to check their hourly or half hourly schedules and you can choose the convenient time for your tour. Alternatively, you can opt for a personalized schedule. The latter may or may not be costlier depending on the tour operator you choose. Typically, Central Park pedicab rides last an hour, two hours or three hours. There are rarely any tours that last longer than three hours. You don’t need four or five hours as you wouldn’t be exploring every nook and corner of the park. Those who take half a day or longer to explore Central Park actually walk across a landscape that is half a mile wide and two and a half miles long.
Whether an hour would be sufficient or you should go for the longer tours of two hours will depend on the number of places you wish to explore. One hour tours can include the Pond, Carousel, Dairy, Grand Army Plaza, Victorian Gardens, Chess and Checkers House, Wollman Ice Rink, Mall, Loeb Boathouse, Children’s Zoo, Alice in Wonderland, Summer Stage, Conservatory Waters, Bethesda Terrace and Bethesda Fountain, Naumburg Bandshell, The Lake, Cherry Fountain and Cherry Hill, Bow Bride, Dakota Building, Falconer, Ghostbuster Building, Strawberry Fields, San Remo, Imagine Mosaic, Heckscher Playground and Sheep Meadow.
Two hour Central Park pedicab rides would typically include all the aforementioned attractions. In addition to those, you would get to explore Belvedere Castle, Swedish Cottage, Great Lawn, Turtle Pond, Shakespeare Garden, Jacqueline Kennedy Reservoir, Ladies Pavillion, Romeo & Juliet, Delacorte Theater, The Tempest, Wagner Cove, Oak Bridge, Museum of Natural History, Baresford, NY Historical Society, Heckscher Ballfields, Ramble and Seneca Village among others. Three hour Central Park pedicab rides will include more attractions. These places are for indicative or informative purposes only. The exact number of places and what they are for a specific tour may vary. You will have the liberty to skip a place or several of them and include alternatives if those interest you.
How to Find the Best Central Park Pedicab Rides
Look for Central Park pedicab rides that are naturally designed for your needs. You may be traveling with your partner, you may be with your friends or you may have your entire family. Some pedicabs are perfect for couples, some are great for friends and some are suitable for families. It doesn’t have much to do about the size or the type of pedicab but the type of service a tour operator typically offers. You will find some tours where there isn’t any substantial charge for kids as the operators account for the parents and two or three children up to a certain age tag along. This approach or policy doesn’t apply to a group of adults. Likewise, some tours may be more romantic than others, thus fitting for couples. You need to attend to your specific need and you should be able to find the best Central Park pedicab ride.
Pay heed to the origin and destination of the tour. Many tours will start and end at the same place. Some may pick you up at one end of the park and drop you off at another end. Make sure you choose a convenient pickup and drop-off. Central Park is huge. It welcomes more than forty million people every year so you will come across some throngs of people. You don’t want to navigate your way through the crowd if you are running late and you would not want to be dropped off farther from your hotel or next stop for the evening.