New York City Walking Tours

RESERVATIONS

The majority of our walking tours do not require reservations. Please feel free just to show up and join us. We do require reservations for our Multi-Ethnic Eating Tour. Reservations can be made via email or phone. Please leave your name, the number in party and a contact number. We do not require pre-payment.

FEES

All tours cost $15 for adults, $12 for seniors, and $10 for full-time students and members of the New-York Historical Society. There is an additional charge of $5 per person for the noshing stops on our Multi-Ethnic Eating Tour. If a walker chooses to leave a tour in progress Big Onion will not provide refunds.

MEETING SITES & DIRECTIONS

Meeting sites and subway directions for public "show up" tours can be found with the tour descriptions. All tours begin at or near subway stations. Most tours do not conclude where they began. Our guides will provide directions to subways, local sites, or back to the meeting point at the end of the tour.

TIME & DISTANCE

All tours last approximately two hours. We walk between one and two miles during these two hours. We maintain a moderate walking pace, stopping at various sites along the tour.

TOUR HOTLINE

Our main number, (212) 439-1090, is a voicemail system. Big Onion does not maintain operator service on this number. Please leave your name & number - we cannot return a call if a message is not left! We will return your call.

RAIN/INCLEMENT WEATHER

Big Onion generally presents tours rain or shine. In the event of inclement weather please call our hotline (212-439-1090 extension 1), on the morning of the tour, after 9:30 a.m., to confirm our schedule. Big Onion reserves the right to cancel tours in the event of potentially dangerous weather.

WHO ARE THE BIG ONION GUIDES?

Big Onion has the finest group of tour guides in the city. We are not your traditional tour guides. Most of us are full-time graduate students researching and writing doctoral dissertations in history. Big Onion guides have high school or college teaching experience and are quite often researching topics relevant to the tours they are leading. All our guides work exclusively for Big Onion and have completed our rigorous in-house training program. Our guides are passionate about the history, architecture and people of New York. We have been called "brilliant", "hilarious", "outstanding", and "irreverent". Most of our guides, upon completion of studies, move on to successful teaching careers. Big Onion alumni hold and have held professorships and post-doctoral fellowships at: Cal State Northridge, Dartmouth, Harvard, Holy Cross, Lewis & Clark College, the New School, Princeton, Union College, the University of London, the University of Massachusetts (both Amherst and Boston), UC Santa Barbara, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Yale. All our guides are licensed by the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs.

HOW WILL I RECOGNIZE THE GUIDE?

All guides carry an 8x11 sign that says "Big Onion Walking Tours".

HOW THE SCHEDULE WORKS

Big Onion maintains an up-to-date schedule listing all public "show up" tours on our website and in our paper brochure. We offer public tours year-round, but adjust the number of tours seasonally so that every week we offer a variety of different tours that explore a variety of neighborhoods or communities.

PRIVATE TOURS

All tours are available for private bookings. Private tours can be scheduled morning, afternoon or evening. We have lead tours for as few as a single person or as many as 300 people. There are fee minimums for private walks. For more information, or to schedule a private walk, please email us or call Seth Kamil at (718) 499-3001.

VIDEO/AUDIO TAPING and NOTE TAKING

Big Onion does not permit video or audio taping of any kind. We strongly discourage extensive note taking. When taking still photographs please be considerate of others in group as well as those you are photographing.

CHILDREN

Children of all ages are welcome to join our tours. Some streets and sidewalks are narrow and may be difficult to navigate with a stroller. Some tours, for example, The Bowery, Greenwich Village, and The "Official" Gangs of New York tours have some adult content. We do not charge for children younger than school-age on public tours.

DOGS

Well behaved and leashed dogs are welcome on our walking tours. If someone does object, however, the dog owner will not be permitted to bring the dog on the tour. Dogs are not allowed in Green-Wood Cemetery.

SMOKING

Although our tours are outdoors, we request that smokers step far enough away from our groups so no one in the group is affected by smoking.

TIPS

Gratuities are always appreciated, but never expected.

CELL PHONES & PAGERS

Please turn ringers and alerts to silent mode or turn them off so as not to disturb others on the tour.

WHEELCHAIRS

Big Onion does not provide wheelchairs for tour-takers. Most of our tours are wheelchair accessible. Big Onion cannot guarantee that all curbs will have ADA compliant ramps.

BATHROOMS

Unfortunately, we do not stop for bathroom breaks during our tours. However, most of our tours do begin near public bathrooms or restaurants in which there are bathrooms.

Additional Information