Start by downloading the Action Tour Guide app, which will function as your personal tour guide, audio tour, and map. Note: This 0.1+mile-tour covers the essentials of Grand Central Terminal in 1-2 hours
Get to know Grand Central Terminal on this self-guided walking tour that takes you through the whole terminal, points out the most significant spots, and reveals the little-known history behind it all. Enjoy the flexibility of a tour taken via an app that functions as your personal guide, narrator, and map.
Arrive outside the terminal to start your tour. From here, you can admire the elegant entryway and learn about the statues that stand guard at its entrance.
Enter the station via Vanderbilt Hall, a beautiful space named after the station’s founders. Learn the facts on the unbelievably rich Vanderbilt family and a multimillion-dollar drama of rivalry between the Vanderbilts and the Rockefellers.
Continue to the Main Concourse, which you’ve likely seen in plenty of films and TV shows. This concourse is even more impressive in person, full of marble, crystal, and gold.
Next, visit the terminal’s famous clock and learn why it might just be worth $20 million. Learn how Grand Central practically invented time as we know it while crossing the vast concourse.
Turn your eyes skyward next, toward the sky ceiling. Learn the special meaning behind each constellation painted here. Plus, learn about the time NASA damaged the Main Concourse with a rocket.
Afterwards, unpack the hidden symbolism within the extravagant chandeliers and find out how the station’s employees get from place to place without having to cross the busy concourse.
Then, visit the often-overlooked Station Master’s Office and hear about how part of Grand Central was almost torn down by developers once.
Finally, finish off your tour by heading to the lower levels to visit the strange and wonderful Whispering Gallery and the lavish Oyster Bar where New York’s Roaring ’20s have been beautifully preserved.
After booking, you can check your email before downloading the Action Tour Guide app, enter your unique password, and access your tour. The preceding steps require good internet/wifi access. Simply follow the audio instructions and the route from there.
New, extra validity — now, it’s yours for an entire year! Use multiple times over multiple trips
This is not an entrance ticket to attractions along the route. Check opening hours before your visit.
Points of Interest along the Grand Central Terminal:
- 42nd Street Sculpture and Clock
- Vanderbilt Hall
- The Information Booth & Clock
- The Ticket Windows
- Tycoon Drama
- The Sky Ceiling
- Pegasus
- Aquarius
- Pisces
- Aries
- Taurus
- Orion
- Gemini
- Cancer
- The Chandeliers
- The Walls of Glass
- The West Staircase
- Vanderbilt Fortune
- The Station Master’s Office
- The New York Transit Museum
- Whispering Gallery
- Oyster Bar
Benefits Over Live Guides and Group Tours:
- This flexible, self-led tour works by sensing your location as you walk
- The in-depth audio narration plays as you walk
- The audio tour is valid for one year after download, and you can use it as often as you want within that time.
- Once it’s downloaded, the tour works completely offline
- Tour your way: choose when to start, stop, fast-forward, or rewind
- Ask for help from a real person anytime over call, chat, or email
