Big Onion Walking Tours
Big Onion Walking Tours
5
Cultural Tours • Historical & Heritage Tours • Walking Tours • Private Tours
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9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Monday
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Tuesday
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Wednesday
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Thursday
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Friday
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Saturday
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Sunday
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Full view

About
Big Onion offers both In Person and Virtual Tours! All programs outing are listed on our website and are open to the public. We have an advance schedule of outings and detailed descriptions. Since 1991, Big Onion has been leading informative, award-winning, and innovative walking tours in the historic districts and ethnic neighborhoods of Brooklyn, Manhattan and the City of Hudson (Upstate NY). All tours are lead by PhD candidates in American history or a related field. Big Onion has been called "The Best Walking Tour in New York" by New York Magazine; "Best Place to Take Out-of-Town Guests" by The Village Voice; and "One of the best urban walking tours in the world" by Forbes. Big Onion is an approved educational vendor for the NYC Department of Education and a Programming Partner with a number of different local institutions. Our In Person tours are presented with limited participants and we adhere to CDC & New York Covid health and safety protocols.
New York City, New York
Awards
Travelers' Choice
2022
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Big Onion Walking Tours
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(91 reviews)
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Detailed Reviews: Reviews order informed by descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as cleanliness, atmosphere, general tips and location information.
Popular mentions
5.0
1,102 reviews
Excellent
962
Very good
95
Average
15
Poor
20
Terrible
10
Margaret G
1 contribution
Mar 2023
Every time I go on a big onion tour I learn something new. Often a lot new. They are all historians and so very knowledgeable. Plus I believe they are all headed to a university classroom so the presentation is high quality. It's like reliving a mobile class with your favorite professor!
Written March 21, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Caatherine S
Paris, France13 contributions
Feb 2023
Being a New Yorker I was thrilled to learn so many things I did not know.
Loved walking the 5points.
Watched the movie before and the tour brought it al together.
Justine was enthusiastic,fun,knowledgeable. We all enjoyed the tour !
Loved walking the 5points.
Watched the movie before and the tour brought it al together.
Justine was enthusiastic,fun,knowledgeable. We all enjoyed the tour !
Written February 20, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
MJ S
1 contribution
Jan 2023 • Couples
Tour guide was Adam, a true historian. He was extremely knowledgeable and engaging. The food choices were very good and each had significance to the history of the area. The service of Big Onion tours is beyond compare. I highly recommend this tour. I have been on others by Big Onion and I am never disappointed. Make time for this!
Written January 28, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Meredith S
1 contribution
Jan 2023
We thoroughly enjoyed our tour through lower Manhattan and the Financial District.
The area is rich with history and our guide, Drew, was extremely knowledgeable, patient with our questions, friendly and personable. We were thrilled to discover so much information and history which was never taught in school. As native New Yorkers, we thought we had a pretty good understanding of NYC history but were happily surprised to find that there was so much more to learn.
Seth at Big Onion was very accommodating when I needed to reschedule due to illness. Am looking forward to booking another tour with them.
The area is rich with history and our guide, Drew, was extremely knowledgeable, patient with our questions, friendly and personable. We were thrilled to discover so much information and history which was never taught in school. As native New Yorkers, we thought we had a pretty good understanding of NYC history but were happily surprised to find that there was so much more to learn.
Seth at Big Onion was very accommodating when I needed to reschedule due to illness. Am looking forward to booking another tour with them.
Written January 23, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Robin H
1 contribution
Dec 2022
Went on two NYC walking tours, during our stay - Historic Harlem and Lower Manhattan - they were both wonderful. The guides are all graduate students - very knowledgeable, terrific storytellers and teachers. We loved this!
Written January 2, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
hazi012
Southampton, UK21 contributions
Jan 2023 • Couples
Justine was such a great tour guide very knowledgeable, I would highly recommend this tour company to anyone visiting New York for a few days.
Written January 2, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
hannahbQ3482HG
Muttenz, Switzerland4 contributions
Nov 2022 • Solo
The Lower Manhattan Tour with Drew was fantastic! A lot of high quality content packed in 2 hours, I loved it. Thank you Drew and Big Onion!
Written November 5, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Elizabeth S
1 contribution
Oct 2022
We had an absolutely outstanding experience on the Immigrant, NY Big Onion Tour of lower Manhattan on Sunday, October 16. I believe our tour guide's name was Adam. a PHD candidate currently teaching in the CUNY system. We were delighted to learn from him that all of the Big Onion Tour guides are academics. The depth and breadth of Adam's knowledge was surpassed only by his clear interest and enthusiasm in his subject matter. Three of four of us had worked in lower Manhattan for many years and we learned much about our former workplace. Not only do we look forward to enjoying more tours but we are eager to share Big Onion with our family and friends as we are sure they will enjoy the experience as much as we did.
Written October 20, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
452eleanorh
San Bruno, CA3 contributions
Oct 2022
Our tour guide leader was very nice, well informed and gave us an organized story of the architecture on the upper east side. We learned all about the background of owners who built these fabulous houses and buildings. And the backstory of people who wheeled and dealed back then was fascinating.
Love these tours and shall come back again for another one soon!
Love these tours and shall come back again for another one soon!
Written October 16, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
sophie h
Paris, France33 contributions
Sep 2022
Very good visit of Harlem , with Stephanie , very interesting guide , eager to share her knowledge about history , the city , the neighborhood with anecdoctes making even more concrete the facts . I could not join the group right at the beginning because of traffic , but I joined the hotline who told me where to reach the group 15' later . I thought I would miss the tour , but no ; what a relief !
thanks for this efficient organisation !
Small group (8) and very good price value
thanks for this efficient organisation !
Small group (8) and very good price value
Written October 10, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
rodneywollam
Columbus, OH226 contributions
Hi. Where does your Historic Harlem Tour end up? I'm trying to figure out what to do for two hours afterwards...
bigonion
New York City, NY177 contributions
Sorry for the delay in responding! The Harlem tour usually ends either near the Apollo Theater on West 125th Street, or, we end back where we start - in front of the Schomburg Center at 135th Street. It really depends on what is happening in the neighborhood that day.
Please note: the tour does NOT start near City Hall Park!!
Seth Kamil, Big Onion Tours
psfaranda
Carmel, NY5 contributions
I will be taking your tour this month. I know you walk at a moderate pace. Do you stop frequently for discussion? I have no problem walking but I have to stop often for mini rest periods.
bigonion
New York City, NY177 contributions
Thanks for your note. We walk between stops but do stop when addressing tour participants. Can not guarantee places to sit however.
All walks run two hours and we cover roughly two miles in that time.
Also, as noted on our website, Central Park and The Brooklyn Bridge and Heights outings involve the longest distance.
Hope that helps
Seth @ Big Onion Walking Tours
Paola11A
Rodano, Italy8 contributions
Hi. I'm interested in taking part to one tour of yours in August, but we are Italian and I fear we will have difficult in understanding the explanation in English, maybe because you talk too quickly...
bigonion
New York City, NY177 contributions
Thank you for your note. Our walks are lead in the English language. All our guides have extensive teaching backgrounds and generally do not speak very quickly and are happy to answer questions or offer further explanations. We often have many non-native English speakers on our walks. Hope you join us! Seth Kamil, President Big Onion Walking Tours
rejoyce550
New York City, NY6 contributions
How do,you sign up for one of the big onion tours.
Thank you
bigonion
New York City, NY177 contributions
Thank you for reaching out to us via TripAdvisor. We do recommend advance reservations, but the only tours that require them are the Multi-Ethnic Eating Tour and the America’s Museum Tour. Reservations can be made via the green “Book Now” button this is with each tour description page on our website. We have attempted to make our website (TripAdvisor won't allow me to say our site address) user-friendly with a series of tabs to access specific tour information. Big Onion does not offer every tour every day. For an accurate schedule of upcoming public tours please click the “Schedule” icon. This will give a day-by-day calendar of upcoming tours over the next few months. Please click the “Tours” icon for brief descriptions of tours along with meeting site, subway directions & a “map” option to graphically show the meeting site. Our tours are searchable based on geography and theme as well.
Our tours are given rain or shine. We do reserve the right to cancel tours for extreme or dangerous weather. Any & all schedule updates will appear on our hotline (888) 606-WALK by 9:00 a.m. the morning of any given date.
If you have specific questions that cannot be answered by our website please do not hesitate to email again.
Best, Seth Kamil, President
lewellden
Paris, France14 contributions
Greetings Big Onion from Paris....
I've been trying, without success, to open your website. Is your website open to foreign countries? My husband and I will be in New York from April 11 - 18 and would be greatly interested in taking a couple of your tours.
Thank you kindly for your response.
Diana and Pascal
bigonion
New York City, NY177 contributions
Thank you for your note. Our website works world-wide. On occasion our server/host does overnight upgrades that may take our site offline for a short time. Please retry our site - perhaps going directly to our site at bigonion. Followed by "com", rather than through trip advisor? In April we offer public walking tours daily, with multiple tours a day Friday through Monday.
Best, Seth Kamil, President
663eric
Rugby, UK
We are visiting New York at the end of August ,looking for a walk over Brooklyn Bridge /Brooklyn .When will your schedule be available?
bigonion
New York City, NY177 contributions
Thanks for your note. We generally set our public tour calendar about 4 months in advance. I anticipate August being added in mid to late April. You are welcome to email me through our website with your travel dates and, if possible, can try to schedule that walk during your visit. Cannot guarantee but certainly happy to try.
Seth Kamil, President
Rosemary R
Auckland, New Zealand20 contributions
Visiting New York City in September 2015 - Staying Mid-Town. want to do some walking tours....... all over manhatten. Will check out the tours for September when the Dates are published...... Very interested in History of Manhatten.. Staying at the Hilton Mid-Town.
Rosemary Robertson. Facebook.
bigonion
New York City, NY177 contributions
Thank you for your note. We will be offering public "show up" walking tours daily all year long. Our schedule is added to our website about four months in advance. Walks last about two hours and we take a moderate walking pace.
We look forward to having you join us on a tour!
Seth Kamil, President