- Restaurants |
- Nightlife |
- Shopping |
- Movies |
- All
Big Onion Walking Tours
Rating Details »
Neighborhood: Park Slope
476 13th St
(between 8th Ave & W Prospect Park)
Brooklyn, NY 11215
(212) 439-1090
476 13th St
(between 8th Ave & W Prospect Park)
Brooklyn, NY 11215
(212) 439-1090
- Nearest Transit:
-
15th St (F)
12 reviews for Big Onion Walking Tours
Love these walking tours once the weather turns sunny and warm to complement the event.
If you love the history and culture of NYC, you'll love these tours. The guides are very knowledgeable and bring old photos of what the city used to look like.
My favorite so far was the Brooklyn Bridge/Brooklyn Heights Historical tour. Fantastic history of the bridge and the area!
We've also taken the Historic Lower Manhattan tour and would love to take the multi-ethnic eating tour.
Check out the website for schedules. You won't be disappointed.
People thought this was:
- Useful (1)
- Cool (1)
Took a tour of Green-wood cemetery today. Was a great experience - learned a lot not only about the cemetery but about some fascinating moments in early NYC history. Guide was very knowledgeable, prepared and handled our large group very well. Touched on the unsolved murder of Mary Rogers, Henry Bergh (founder of the ASPCA), Henry Ward Beecher, DeWitt Cllinton, Elias Howe (and his dog Fannie)... basically people I've never heard of until today. Love that!
People thought this was:
- Useful (3)
- Cool (2)
Big Onion Tours are such a great, inexpensive activity at $15 ($12 for students and seniors). The fact that their regular walking tours don't require reservations makes it easy to attend on a whim. Even though I live in NYC and have visited most neighborhoods, I learned a lot from my guide on the Brooklyn Bridge / Brooklyn Heights twilight tour. We did certainly skip over some of the historic spots in these neighborhoods, but I guess you can't really cover everything in only 2 hours. Our tour ended in Brooklyn Heights and the guide was especially helpful getting the tourists to the necessary subway lines so they could get back to Manhattan.
People thought this was:
- Useful (1)
- Cool (1)
In general, I love the Big Onion walking tours. The guides are all beyond knowledgeable and are able to give you lovely tidbits of information that your average guide might not have. We have taken several tours with Big Onion while in New York, and I'd say most of them were just wonderful.
One thing though, beware of the Multi-Ethnic Eating Tour. The history part of the tour was as expected (wonderful) but the eating part was a bit of a joke. Truly, if you are looking for a food tour check out the Foods of NY tours....they can't be beat for New York food tours. For history, most definitely seek out the Big Onion tours.
Took the Brooklyn Bridge and Greenwich Village walking tour with the Big Onion company. They employ Columbia history graduate students, so you really get some great history lessons on the walks.
The walks are 2 hours long and very interesting. I liked both, but really enjoyed the Brooklyn Bridge tour as we met near Boss Tweed's Courthouse and then actually walked across the bridge stopping frequently to learn of more historical facts from the guide. The building of this bridge is quite the story.
Greenwich Village tour was nice, and certain homes were pointed out. Great author's living locations were noted, as well as the building of the Triangle Shirt Waist Factory Fire that was the spark that changed working conditions forever in the US.
Cost is $15. Check out their website, as the tours rotate each day.
Very historical and very interesting.
People thought this was:
- Useful (3)
- Cool (1)
Big Onion was mentioned in some NYT wkd story so I signed up as an activity on which to take my visiting mom. Now, I have lived here for 6 years but we took the LES tour and every street we walked on was new!! It was great. The guide had a PhD in history and was super into the tour, answered questions etc. There were some tourists on the tour who I think wouldve benefited from taking a more generic tour as these almost assume you know SOMETHING, not a lot, just some.
I intend to go on another one this weekened if its any testament to what I thought.
Highly recommend. You just show up- no need to reserve except for the eating tour (after which I was full). Pay when you get there in cash.
People thought this was:
- Useful (1)
- Cool (1)
I recently went on the Lower East Side eating tour with a few friends. Our guide, a PhD student, was very energetic and knowledgeable, and they had enough guides to split us into manageable groups. We'd walk a few blocks, stop for the guide to tell us a little about LES history, and then she handed out tasty snacks representing the different ethnic groups in the area (including the best rugelach I've ever had).
What could be more enjoyable? A guy came out of the Chinese restaurant when we walked up, bearing a tray of dim sum, and asked if any of us knew what "dim sum" meant. The lovely Audra M, perhaps carried away by the excitement of it all, shouted out "DELIGHTFUL TREAT!" the dim sum guy said that was close enough. At another point I had to be held back from dunking my face in the pickle barrels.
You have to call ahead to reserve for the eating tour, but you don't have to pay in advance, and for the other tours you just show up. This would be a great activity to do with out of town guests, but even for our little group of new yorkers it was great.
People thought this was:
- Useful (1)
- Funny (1)
- Cool (2)
Took the lower east side food history tour. It was ok, not great. The history was spotty and tended to center more on New York and US in broad terms than the LES. But the guide was very knowledgeable and friendly and it was nice to get a more informed view of the neighborhood so that made it worthwhile. I guess I was expecting a little more food history but all in all worth doing.
We did a Central Park tour and it was pretty good. I feel like as a first timer, I wouldn't have known what to look at first so this was a good way to get started. It was about a 2 hour tour but we still only saw a tiny portion of the park. Our guide was a native New Yorker and PhD student in history. He had tons of information and most of it was really interesting. I think we were just so excited to be there that we stopped paying a lot of attention but it was great to get an overview of everything.
I wish he had mentioned more things about what else was in the park so we would have an idea of other areas to explore after the tour. We missed out on Strawberry Fields and I had no idea what it was until a few days later and by this time we didn't have time to go back to the park before our trip was over.
There was definitely a number of locals taking the tour that offered additional information and that was cool. Our guide refused to tell us what he felt like was safe and unsafe in the park and other locals spoke up. That was a little annoying though.
I love Big Onion! I found it randomly while looking for a fun weekend activity and it was definitely worth it. We did the food tour in the Lower East side and the tour guide was peppy and knowledgeable - plus we got to eat a wide variety of ethnic foodie goodness, from fresh made mozzarella to cannolis to sour pickles. The tour is very historical and you learn a lot about the different groups that have settled over the years in the LES and it is amazing to see all the layers of different culture that have accumulated over time. Every one of the tour guides here are PhD candidates in history or a related discipline so they know their stuff! Plus the tours are inexpensive and a great group activity.
People thought this was:
- Useful (1)
Yes Big Onion Tours are awesome! More New Yorkers should get over themselves and go find out something new about their city. I believe all the tour guides are Phd students and all have different specializations so you could possibly go on the same tour and get a totally different perspective.
I went on the Harlem Tour years ago so I don't really remember it but
I also recently went on the LES eating tour. The Pickle Guys are awesome and I want to go back and try some of the more unusual pickled items.
Our guide was cute and informative. Be prepared to still be hungry at the end of the tour though, this was not a full on meal.
Hopefully I will go back and do the Five Points Tour someday...
I'm not sure how I came across Big Onion tours but I'm glad I did. We took the Downtown Walking Tour and our guide was very knowledgable! He explained the history of Battery Park, Bowling Green, the US Customs House (now the American Indian museum), walked to Francois Tavern, the Federal Building, NYSE, Trinity Church, to say the least. Our guide was pleasant and always willing to answer questions. He was not a jerk or pompous like some tours I've taken before. Next time i'm in NYC, I will definitely look them up again as they have several other tours available. Best of all, it was free! But it should be a good idea to tip though. =)
