Skip the Tour Bus, Hire a Personal Guide

	Get the Royal Treatment

Guided tour or a cattle drive -- on most big-city tours, it's impossible to tell the difference.

There you are, shoehorned into a bus with dozens of total strangers, whizzing by local landmarks as cameras click, babies scream and a tour guide drones on like an android auctioneer. The only thing missing is the theme from Rawhide.

Want to break free of the herd?

Hire a personal tour guide, and you'll be able to see the sites you want at your own speed, without having to traipse after someone waving an umbrella in the air.

New York Behind the Scenes

"People take a private tour because it's dedicated to them," says Linda Sarrel, who heads up Rent a New Yorker, a tour service based in the city that never sleeps. "You go where you want, when you want, and you do what you want. With a large group of people, it's a set itinerary and you don't have the same level of input."

A native New Yorker, Sarrel, who charges $50 an hour for a private tour, definitely knows her hometown. Whether it's Little Italy, Chinatown or Coney Island, Sarrel uses her street smarts to get tourists to the very core of the Big Apple.

If a client wants to go to the Statue of Liberty, for instance, Sarrel might warn about the extremely long wait and suggest an alternative. "You can just as easily see it on the Staten Island Ferry," she says. "There's no waiting on line, no security. You can do something New Yorkers really do."

Want more? Check out TheStreet.com TV video. Rob Lenihan absorbs the beachside sights and sounds of Brooklyn's famous Coney Island.

Hungry for some local cuisine? Whether it's kosher goodies on the Lower East Side or Russian delicacies in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, Sarrel takes your taste buds out on the town.

"I know food, baby," she says. "I've spent many, many years researching food in New York."