It is getting ever more difficult to get an original present for someone at Christmas. I had the brainwave to get my wife a helicopter flight as a surprise during our projected New York trip in February. I booked it through Trailfinders who were magnificent in keeping the secret, sending all documentation to me in plain envelopes! Before we had even landed at JFK they emailed me to say the day for which we had booked the flight was forecast to be a snowstorm and did I want them to try to rearrange things? I thanked them, but 'phoned the Helicopter company first thing the following morning myself.They were brilliant and rescheduled the flight for that very afternoon. It made my wife's holiday. Great service,professional personnel and a once in a lifetime's experience. Coupled with the hop on hop off bus and the Civitatis New York Contrasts tour of the erstwhile rough areas of the city I reckon this combination along with the guided Statue of Liberty cruise is probably the best way a rookie can see as much of New York as is possible to do in 4 or 5 days.

We were brought 2 tickets for the grand tour, the most expensive tour New York Helicopters do as a Christmas present. We were so excited and knew it would be the most important experience of our time in NYC. When arriving into the city our booking was changed twice, he weather wasn’t great so we understood and agreed to change on both occasions. Finally after waiting all week we managed to get our tour, the 3pm tour on 21st February 2019. We arrived as requested just before 2:30pm and left almost immediately alongside two other couples. We were barely given any information onboard the flight. We booked this tour specifically so we could see places like the Yankee stadium (as we had no plans to physically visit) yet this wasn’t pointed out to us. In fact the only places pointed out where the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge - places we already knew! The tour didn’t even last the full 25 minutes and then we were charged for our photos afterwards. Like almost $1000 wasn’t already enough? We honestly thought this was a must do in NYC but it’s really not. The tour isn’t personal, the customer service is shocking and above all my husbands an aircraft engineer and said the rotors were off balance causing the helicopter to constantly shudder and drop when flying - something he looked at when we landed. Won’t be recommending this tour at all. Such a shame this is such a huge disappointment after being so excited for it!!!!

Nice experience, nice stuff, wonderful view of Manhattan, Verrazano bridge, the Statue of Liberty, the pilot is also a good tour guide