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"For many, the words \"New York City tour\" bring to mind panic-inducing red buses packed with tourists in Times Square. It's not exactly a positive thought.\nThose CitySights NY buses have their advantages; one resourceful tourist said she used an all-day pass instead of paying for the subway or any taxis. But it's not an attraction any local is likely to consider. There's no better way to scream \"tourist\" than sitting atop the deck of a bus in front of a Mamma Mia! billboard.\nSee also: Take an Incredible Bird's-Eye Tour of Manhattan\nBut as a New Yorker, I recognize that there are many things about the city I don't know. There are lots of other options for guided tours in the city, which are tailored to any possible topic you can Google. With the help of the New York Travel Festival and the NYC Tours and Attractions Group, I've been joining niche tours for the past month. And it turns out that all tours aren't completely miserable.\nThe pizza tour\nNot only is there a tour devoted entirely to pizza in New York City \u2014 there are several.\nA Slice of Brooklyn offers pizza as a window into the history of the borough. The tour starts in Manhattan, near Union Square, then heads to Brooklyn by way of the Manhattan Bridge to Grimaldi's in DUMBO, and finally to L&amp;B Spumoni Gardens in Bay Ridge.\nBoth pizzerias are famous, although the latter is lesser known to out-of-towners. Grimaldi's has a coal-burning oven (a rare-ish item in the city) and is known for its coal-fired Neopolitan pies.\nDespite living about a mile away, I had never been to Grimaldi's for one reason: There is always a line. If the coal-fired pizza is on your to-do list, this is a great reason to consider the tour, since we strolled right by the people waiting in line, who looked on resentfully.\nL&amp;B Spumoni Gardens, started in 1939, is less known outside of New York but a downright institution in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. It's unlikely a tourist would head to the neighborhood on his own, which makes it a great candidate for a tour. The pizza here is Sicilian, and the ices, which come in flavors of pistachio, vanilla and more, are worth the trip. The tour price includes four slices of pizza, which was just about perfect for the four-hour trip.\nEveryone on the tour that I spoke to was from out of state, and a group from Nebraska had never even ventured into Brooklyn before. \nDespite the prevalent role of pizza, the tour is really about Brooklyn. The guides are locals and they have more than cursory knowledge of the borough's history, including all the gossip.\nDuration: 4.5 hoursCost: $80/adults, $70/children under 12Booking and more: A Slice of Brooklyn\nThe shopping tour\nThe walls of many shops in midtown Manhattan are adorned with clothing and accessories \u2014 but clothes and accessories that you won't be able to buy. The items in the windows are wholesale.\nUnless, that is, you're visiting with a shopping tour, in which case the owner has agreed to sell items at wholesale prices to the group.\n\nA stop on the Shop Gotham tour in the Garment District, in New York City.Image: Mashable,  Jessica PlautzProject Runway and Fashion Star may have given us a peek into where fashion is made, but Shop Gotham is the real deal. The tour includes visits with a few different designers, and gives you plenty of time to shop.\nMarla Hander, the president of Shop Gotham, said that most of the people who take this tours are women, and the tour I went on was no exception.\nThis tour is less about history and more about current fashions. Particularly memorable were the visits to studios to talk to designers, who shared a bit about the process behind their lines.\nDuration: 3 hoursCost: $64Booking and more: Shop Gotham\nThe neighborhood eats tour\nFood is an excellent theme for a tour in this city. \nIt didn't hurt that the guide who led my Urban Oyster Neighborhood Eats tour is now my favorite person in New York City. Her name is Karen, and both her parents were from Brooklyn; she has the personal connections to give you an in-depth view of a neighborhood with a rich history.\n\nImage: Flickr, Premshree PillaiThis Brooklyn tour started at a cheese shop on Smith Street and ended at a soda fountain, with so much food that you should probably skip breakfast ahead of time.\nThe tour showed off the local flavor of south Brooklyn while also highlighting the international influences (French, Italian, Middle Eastern and New American) of the cuisine.\nThe small size of the group also added to the charm, since it provided more opportunity for chatting with the store proprietors. \nDuration: 3 hoursCost: $60Booking and more: Urban Oyster Neighborhood Eats\nThe film tour\nTCM Classic Films' On Location tour explores locations across New York that have been immortalized on film. The more obvious ones, like the Empire State Building, have been used in films for decades.\nSee also: 10 Famous Film Locations Revisited in Google Street View\nBut the tour also points out the lesser known locations, like the exact subway grate where Marilyn Monroe's white dress flipped up, and Zabar's grocery.\nOn Location also offers walking tours through Central Park, where more than 200 films have been shot. Although the park claims the title of most-filmed location on the planet, the tour makes it clear that it would be difficult to go more than a block or so before reaching a spot in the city that has been graced by cameras.\nDuration: 3 hoursCost: $43/adults, $27/childrenBooking and more: TCM Classic Film Tour\nIt's easy for New Yorkers to see tourists as outsiders in the city, riding buses and taking a million photos (sometimes even using iPads). But the ultimate highlight tours was getting to know people who were still excited to see the Empire State Building or have a slice at Grimaldi's. \nPlus, the tours were great ways to meet some real local characters \u2014 none of whom were in Elmo costumes.\nBONUS: Pin this image to easily share on Pinterest.\n\nHave something to add to this story? Share it in the comments."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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