This was a bucket list item. I have always, ALWAYS wanted to take a guided carriage ride through Central Park, but I always felt silly doing it when I was an actual resident of NYC. Fast forward almost 10 years later, and taking my 8-year-old twins to Central Park for the first time in their young lives provided the perfect opportunity to do it.
Our guide was Toby and our horse was Leo, and they were both fabulous!!! Toby was SO sweet and knowledgeable and kind to our whole family. He showed us where they filmed all the iconic movies in the park and took so many amazing picture of us in the carriage, at Bethesda Fountains, in front of the San Remo, feeding Leo, etc. He was an excellent photographer, and we will probably use one of the photos for our holiday card!
We signed up for the 45-minute ride, which provided two stops and a really expansive tour of the park. It was the perfect amount of time. Toby was such a gentleman and made our kids feel so comfortable (especially my one daughter who is scared of horses - she ended up petting Leo at the end because Toby made her feel so at ease!) Even my very skeptical husband said the tour was wonderful and well worth the money!
It was not cheesy or touristy at all - it was just classic and perfect. I will definitely do it again one day. We got a winter discount (even though it was March) and $130 (plus a nice, well-deserved tip) for four people was well worth the money, in my opinion.