While (almost) everyone has heard of the ‘Sex and the City’ New York City tours, a secret ‘Gossip Girl’ tour flies under the radar. Fans can explore the Lotte New York Palace, a prominent hotel in the show but the tour isn’t advertised at check-in for the hotel or online. The only way to find out about it is through word of mouth.
Maurice Legere has been a security officer at the Lotte New York Palace in Downtown Manhattan for the past decade and in addition to his security role, he has been giving tours of the hotel to loyal fans of the television show Gossip Girl, showing them places where scenes were filmed.
The hotel was home to Serena Van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) and Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) during the six seasons of the show. The characters referred to the hotel as ‘the palace’.
Mr Legere started his side business as a tour operator when he noticed fans were tickled by the fact that they were staying in the ‘Gossip Girl hotel’, he then offered to show them the most Gossip Girl-linked spots.
The tour begins in the lobby where Mr Legere points out a gold balcony featured in the 2007 pilot. Fans will know that this is the spot where Serena (Blake Lively) stands in a gold dress looking down at her date, Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley).
Amazingly, Mr Legere doesn’t charge for his hotel tour and it is not included with the official ‘Gossip Girl Getaway’ offered by Lotte Palace, which includes a small box of macarons, gummy bears and two beverages at the hotel’s bar ‘Trouble’s Trust’.
