New York Tours visiting FAO Schwarz
Explore New York City through its famous TV & movie locations!
Tours visiting FAO Schwarz
New York TV & Movie Tour
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- Rated 4.4 out of 5 stars
All UNEDITED customer reviews
Sex & the City Hotspots Tour
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- Rated 4.6 out of 5 stars
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What People are Saying
Customer Reviews“A great way to spend a Sunday morning viewing New York, especially when it dropped us off in front of FAO Schwartz *insert big smile here*”
- Female, Age 20-29, Domestic Tourist
“Climbing the Statue of Liberty or catching the view from the Empire State Building are still top New York attractions but tourists are also scrambling to see where their favorite TV shows are filmed.”
-MSNBC Entertainment, Nov. 2009
Flanked by a giant FAO bear in the front entrance, FAO Schwarz (“Toy Bazaar”) is located on 767 Fifth Avenue and 58th Street. It is not just any toy store, it’s “the” toy store. Originally started as a regular toy store in 1870 by Frederick August Otto Schwarz in Baltimore, and after experiencing numerous failures and ownerships by different people, it has now prospered to a successful toy empire on Fifth Avenue!
From 3-story clock tower singing “Welcome to Our World of Toys” to life-size famous stuffed animals, the robot elevator named GO-2-FLOOR-2 will take you on an unforgettable journey throughout the store.
Other entertainments include endangered species stuffed animals sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History, a fun Puppet Park, a gigantic board games area, cool displays of Star Wars merchandise including a limited edition life-sized Darth Vader, Barbie and dolls department, children’s favorite pictures books, Legos and more!
While we don't visit FAO Schwarz on the tour, several of our tours, including The New York TV & Movie Tour and the Sex and the City Hotspots Tour, will take you right past the doorstep of the world's most famous toy store so that you can return for family fun later in your visit.
FAO Schwarz’s On-Screen Popularity
FAO Schwarz was featured in the final scene of Woody Allen's Mighty Aphrodite, where main characters Lenny Weinrib (Woody Allen) and Linda (Mira Sorvino) have a chance encounter, and in Big Business, where Bette Midler's character runs into her sister's husband and son unexpectedly. Shop where Diane Keaton goes on her shopping spree to buy toys for her new daughter in Baby Boom.
Other related references to this classic toy chain store include Home Alone 2, where Macaulay Culkin's character visits a fictional toy store called Duncan's Toy Chest, based on FAO Schwarz. The store is also featured in a Nickelodeon series where The Fairly Odd Parents' Timmy is seen reading a DOA Shmirz catalog, a word play on FAO Schwarz. In Arrested Development, Tony Hale's character is given a job at an Iraqi-owned toy store in Orange County called F.A.O. al-Jubaaly Muhammed a-Abat!
And of course, a visit to this iconic toy store would not be complete without hitting the keys of the store’s signature 22-foot piano where Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia played “Heart & Soul” and “Chopsticks” in the 1988 famous film Big!
Other than this piano recognition from Big, FAO Schwarz has also become the top choice for kids and family fun. Many celebrities, including Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Cindy Crawford and Angelina Jolie, bring their kids here to enjoy a fun family time with lots of entertainments for everyone.
Don’t miss the chance to visit the famous NYC toy store on Fifth Avenue and have the best playtime ever!
* In an effort to stay current, we are constantly updating our tours with new locations and cannot guarantee the presence of locations mentioned on our site. If you have a particular interest in locations from a specific TV show or movie, please let your tour guide know and we will do our best to accomodate your request.
Advance purchase required - tours usually sell out in advance!
Get more information, check availability, and buy tickets online:
On Location TV & Movie Tours
Or to purchase tickets by phone, call Zerve at (212) 209-3370.