big onion walking tours schedule

"Best Place To Take Out Of Town Guests" - The Village Voice, 2014

"Great way to experience the city" - TripAdvisor Review, May 2016

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Tour Schedule

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We offer tours year-round with new dates added 3-4 months in advance.

Public Tours

A walk through one of the most dynamic and diverse areas in Manhattan, the bustling Union Square and the serene neighboring Gramercy Park!

A tour of the Jewish Lower East Side on Easter Sunday

A celebration in the multi-ethnic Lower East Side...with food!

Explore how New York City has shaped the American Cultural Landscape.

A walking tour across the Brooklyn Bridge and into the city's first landmark district.

America's first suburb and New York's first landmark district all in one!

A walking tour of Manhattan's 843 acre "backyard!"

Explore the history & architecture of Chelsea with a walk along the High Line.

A Christmas tour combining the history of Christmas in New York and the legendary Greenwich Village.

A walking tour of the dynamic DUMBO & Vinegar Hill neighborhoods of Brooklyn.

A walk exploring the world of hippies, hipsters & immigrants.

Come explore the history behind Wall Street.

One of Brooklyn's most ethnically diverse neighborhoods surround a park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux.

This history of the legendary Five Points. A guided walking tour created in partnership with the film "Gangs of New York".

Stroll through one of New York’s most picturesque and historic neighborhoods.

Emphasizing the Harlem Renaissance, this guided walking tour looks at the history, architecture & people of this remarkable neighborhood.

Explore a historic Hudson River Valley town

Walk the streets of Chinatown, Little Italy & the former Five Points.

Stroll through historic and religious sites, politics and people of what was once the largest Jewish community in the world.

Join us as we talk about the workers and labor movement that built New York.

Explore a century of ethnic and architectural change on the Lower East Side.

Walk in the footsteps of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton & others on this broad-reaching tour of today's Financial District.

A walking tour of Historic Harlem to celebrate the many African Americans who have fought for equal rights.

A special Mother's Day walk exploring the history and foods of the multi-ethnic Lower East Side.

This tour combines the history of the diverse Lower East Side with food sampling from local shops & markets!

A tour of Brooklyn's emerald jewel and possibly Olmsted & Vaux's greatest achievement.

Join us as we explore the role New York City played in the American Revolution and founding of America

Explore 200+ years of Social Justice History in the Village

Between the Brooklyn Bridge & Financial District lies one of New York's oldest and most interesting neighborhoods!

A walking tour exploring the splendor and history of the East 60s & 70s.

A special Central Park tour on the almost shortest day of the year.

A walking tour focused on the history of Prohibition in the Central & West Villages.

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Big Onion Walking Tours

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Big Onion Walking Tours - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

Big Onion Walking Tours Newsletter

Big Onion Walking Tours — Spring 2022 Newsletter

“I like New York in the spring and in the fall. It's one of the best cities to walk that I've ever been in.”

- Terry O’Quinn, Actor

NOTE FROM SETH

April showers bring May flowers…and really nice walking tour weather!! Big Onion is ready to greet the season!

A number of our seasonal tours are returning to the calendar. Our Brooklyn Bridge & Heights as well as Central Park tours have returned. Historic Hudson begins Memorial Day weekend, and Prospect Park will then follow in June!

We very much appreciate everyone's patience as we slowly rebuild our team and tour schedule.  Most of our walks have resumed for private bookings, and we are doing our best to keep the rotating schedule of public in person tours fresh and not too repetitive.   

Last Spring, after years of planning, I launched a new tour company in Upstate New York: Hudson Valley Rover Tours . These half and full-day driving and walking tours are the culmination of a longtime dream to introduce people to the amazing history, architecture, people, farms, and craft beverages of the Hudson Valley and Northern Catskills.   

I am so proud that, in our first year, we have been nominated for a “Chronogrammy” - a best of award from Chronogram Magazine. Winning the award requires support from our friends and fans, so we ask you all to please help us win by voting for Hudson Valley Rover Tours. Daily voting is allowed and encouraged!!

You can vote for us once a day. Hudson Valley Rover Tours is in the Family Fun Category under Tours. 

All the best,

Tour Highlight — NYC History through Our Eyes & Steps

We will be discussing the word “Radical” quite a bit during May Day Weekend.

Saturday, April 30th, is the 224th anniversary of the inauguration of George Washington as the first American President.  This event was a culmination of John Locke’s philosophy on the radical theory of liberal government — that is, that the governed are sovereign and have the right to replace a dysfunctional, tyrannical government when needed.  The American Revolution was a tremendously radical event that has transformed the Western political world!  Our in person walking tour “Revolutionary New York: Hamilton, Washington, and War” on Saturday, April 30th at 1:00 p.m.will explore the Colonial, Revolutionary, and Early Republic along the streets of Lower Manhattan.

Revolutionary New York

The next day, Sunday, May 1st, is May Day. A different form of Radicalism will be explored on our 1 p.m. in person “Labor History Tour: We Built New York” outing.   On this tour, walking from Washington Square Park to Union Square, we will dive into the history of trade unions, workers rights, and sites associated with the struggle to obtain much of what is today taken for granted: fire escapes, a minimum wage, and the end of child labor in America.

Labor History Tour

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The Big Onion Walking Tours Newsletter

Big Onion Walking Tours – May 2021 Newsletter

“London is satisfied, Paris is resigned, but New York is always hopeful. Always it believes that something good is about to come off, and it must hurry to meet it.”

― Dorothy Parker 

NOTES FROM SETH

Genuine optimism.

Not the “hang in there and we will be alright” kind. There is a sense of optimism in the City. The City Streets program has been extended, allowing for a wide variety of outdoor dining. Museums, theaters, and cultural sites are emerging from hibernation. And let’s not forget it is also Spring!

New York is taking steps forward to welcome locals and visitors back onto our streets. And we here at Big Onion are doing our part, too. Over the coming months we will be increasing the variety and frequency of the person walking tours we are offering. We will also continue to present our Virtual Adventures once a week as well. Visit our website for schedule and tour details! Our online calendar is updated through July 31.   

We hope to see you soon!

Big Onion Tour Schedule

MAY TOUR HIGHLIGHT

Our out-of-the-City walking tour, Historic Hudson , resumes on May 15th! Located in Columbia County and founded by Quaker whalers in 1785, today the City of Hudson is an architectural and historic gem. Our in person walking tour (Saturday, May 15th & May 29th) and virtual adventure (Monday, May 24) shows examples of every major American architectural style...and an array of minor ones, too! In 1820, with a population of 5,310 residents, Hudson was the fourth largest city in New York State. While the population in the rest of the state may have grown much more over the past 200 years, today, with approximately 7,000 residents, the population of the City of Hudson is not a far cry from the early 19th century.

Over the past two centuries, Hudson has welcomed such luminaries as Henry Ward Beecher, Thomas Jefferson and Jacob Riis. Not just a place for a brief visit, society leaders Caroline Whitney Phoenix and Frances Chester White Hartley as well as General William Jenkins Worth called Hudson “Home.” As did artists Frederic Church, Henry Ary and John Ashbery.

Join us for a remarkable walking tour in one of the most visitable cities in New York! Only two hours from Penn Station by Amtrak or a lovely drive along the Taconic Parkway.

A NEW YORK HISTORY ‘FUN FACT’

One hundred years ago this month, on May 3, 1921, the term “The Big Apple” became popular as a New York City descriptor. Sportswriter John J Fitz Gerald made a passing reference to “the Big Apple” in an horse racing article in the New York Morning Telegraph that day. Starting in 1924, he wrote a racing column called “Around the Big Apple.” Fitz Gerald reportedly first heard "The Big Apple" used to describe New York's racetracks by two African American stable hands at the New Orleans Fair Grounds in early 1920.  

By the mid-1920s “Big Apple” was used in songs, on stage, and at a Harlem nightclub founded in 1934 by Bertram Errol Hicks. Considered out of date by the 1950s, the nickname was revitalized in the 1970s to attract tourists. But we have to note that the first known usage did not put our city in the best light.  In his 1909 book, The Wayfarer in New York , Edward S. Martin wrote, “Kansas is apt to see in New York a greedy city ... It inclines to think that the big apple gets a disproportionate share of the national sap.”

We give Martin a “Bronx Cheer” for that one!

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Big Onion Walking Tours

Review Highlights

“ Every one of the tour guides here are PhD candidates in history or a related discipline so they know their stuff! ” in 5 reviews

“ My mom came to visit over Memorial Day and we did the Lower East Side eating tour. ” in 4 reviews

“ We took a tour of Central Park from another company the day before and could barely hear the guide. ” in 3 reviews

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Serving Brooklyn Area

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About the Business

Business owner information

Business Owner

Since 1991, Big Onion offers tours of New York's historic districts & ethnic neighborhoods. We offer public "show up" tours year round and an advance schedule can be found on our website www.bigonion.com. In fact, we offer public walks every day of the year! All our guides are graduate students or recent Phd's with teaching experience and great personalities. All guides are licensed New York City tour guides. Big Onion has been named the "Best Walking Tours in New York" by New York Magazine. In August 2010, we were declared "one of the best urban walking tours in the world" by Forbes.com. Called "Best Place to Take Out-of-Town Guests", The Village Voice, 2014. Multi-year "Award of Excellence" on TripAdvisor. …

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Overall rating

I have been on a lot of walking tours on both hemispheres and I have been to The Big Apple many times over. The funny thing is that I have never done a Big Onion Walking Tour before. I have been wanting to do it for a long time since it was listed in my '1000 Places to See Before You Die Book'. I looked at the different tours that were listed for the day I wanted and luckily the Ethnic Food Tour was on that day! I scored! I know there are a lot of people who do not like group tours and want to do it themselves. I am yes and no with that thought. I believe in freedom to wander but I also believe in educating oneself when you come across a great walking tour company. The guides are all PhD students working their way through the last years of their degrees, so you know you are going to have a brilliant mind leading you around the city. If the Ethnic Food Walking Tour lands on a day that you choose, take it! Not only do you get to eat different foods, you learn about the ever changing demographics of New York. It is educational and you walk off the food that you eat! We ate everything from kosher garlic pickles, onion bialys, pickled pineapple, plantains, Mongolian beef jerkey, Italian cheese and salami, canolis, etc. I go to NYC every couple years and I definitely want to take the other tours that they offer. I like learning about cities, not just taking photos and leaving. As for this food tour it was an incredible couple hours of eat, learn, walk it off, repeat. So worth it!

See all photos from Trixie N. for Big Onion Walking Tours

Nov 1, 2018

Trixie Thank you for your wonderful review & sharing photographs of the tour "noshes". We are very pleased to read that, with your extensive traveling, you felt our tour was enjoyable and worthwhile enough to (hopefully) come back for another tour on your next visit. Seth Kamil, President

We just took a Big Onion virtual tour of the Brooklyn Bridge from the comfort of our home. It was fantastic!! The speaker, whose name I'm sorry I can't remember, did a superb job of tying together the different and fascinating elements of the story of this bridge and she had us on the edge of our chairs - all in one hour. With excellent visuals, she clearly put a lot of work into the talk, which we thoroughly enjoyed. We will definitely sign up for more virtuals.

I always love to go on walking tours when I'm in a new city. It is not only a great way to dive deep into a part of the history it the geography or the culture of the city as well as meet fellow travelers who have had similar ideas. This is why we were excited to join the big onion walking tour of a couple of different spots in the lower East side. Big onion is great their emails and reservations were all prompt and efficient. I'd expect at least that if you're not a free tour. I've gone on a few free and paid walking tours in a few countries and really the experience carries dramatically by the time if your guide you get but they all tend to be informative. So on that score big onion was definitely great with lots of local food tastings and information. For the ones that we went on I think it would've been good to have a bit more of a personal connection and personal stories to bring the neighborhood to life. But other than that everything was professionally done. If you are the kind that likes walking tours I definitely recommend. If not you should still try it but you can also try other tour modalities.

My husband, son, and I attended the "Gangs of New York" walking tour. It was pouring down rain through most of it, but our guide couldn't have been a better trouper finding us cover in the area to talk about the movie and the history it portrayed. We had a wonderful group of people from Ireland, England and the States and had wonderful discussions with different perspectives. I'm sure the tour is better in dry weather, but I couldn't be more pleased considering the elements our poor tour guide had to deal with. Go! You will not be disappointed :-)

Friendly people. Greatly enjoyed the DUMBO walking tour, I learned a ton. The guide (Zach), was very friendly. They also offer some food/booze-related walking tours. I'd definitely recommend this company, and will likely return soon. Check out my dope pics from the tour on inztaGrm (drewby222). Perhaps some upgrade ideas: -Pamphlets explaining the area's history -Go inside some buildings (tough, I know) Cheers!

The Chelsea/Highline Tour. Very misleading - the tour guide squeezed in the Highline the last 10mins. Experienced a few new facts. If you want to take this Chelsea/High Line tour - do not take it if you want to go to the Highline. We stand for 15 minutes, then walk for 2 minutes..stand again.. Tour Guide - Adrian. Talked mostly with her eyes closed. Laughed every 5 minutes. Valley girl voice, out of town student. Goes off on tangents. A 20-something European girl in the group was bored. A 50-something out-of-state man was on his phone for a little bit. When you ask the tour guide a question, it takes her a few minutes to get to the point, or she'll laugh and have a glazed look - "I don't know.." (somebody would whisper, "just google it") She talks about something else entirely that has nothing to do with what we are looking at right now. She does not deviate from her information that she got from her professor or books. When we tell her some fun fact...she laughs...glazed look..."fantastic!". She points out a building or sign..but we can't pictures because we are across the street or down the block from it. Get a resident or a person who has lived in the area for a while. Divide the tour into 2 separate tours - one Highline, one Chelsea. We need to stand right at the building or sign that the tour guide is talking about.

Jun 3, 2016

Donna, Thank you for walking the Brooklyn Bridge with us! Very glad you enjoyed the outing with Kelly and we hope to see you again soon. You might run into Kelly - she leads a bunch of our tours - including: The East Village, the Multi-Ethnic Eating Tour and Historic Fort Greene. UPDATED OCT 7 2017: Sorry you did not enjoy the Chelsea & High Line walk. Please carefully read the descriptions of our tours. We say the outing is a tour of Chelsea with a short walk on the High Line. We spend about 90 minutes in Chelsea and then about 30'ish on the High Line - which you point out in the second paragraph after earlier stating in was only 10 minutes. All our guides are doctoral candidates in history or related fields at local universities most of us are from somewhere else - myself included. She is getting a PhD is 19th century history and has great teaching experience. We are proud to hire based on ability and knowledge rather than place of birth, or speech patterns. Seth Kamil, President

"Brooklyn Bridge Walking Tour (and Heights)" You actually walk on the Brooklyn Bridge. Only $20 for 2 hours. (great deal!) "Kelly" the tour guide was very informative talking about the history of the bridge. Fantastic views! Bring your camera and comfortable shoes. About 20 minutes left in the tour walking around Brooklyn Heights. I would not recommend young kids or older folks because it's a lot of walking.

Super accomodating. Sharp! Thank you..............('Kyle') The upper Eastside tour was enjoyable. Certainly not bipartisian...which made it just that much more fun! Thanks for the memories.

This tour is an absolute must for history nerds!! I took the tour of the financial district--I can't recommend it enough. My tour guide, Erica, was so great! I loved hearing about the little things like why there are pock marks on the side of the JP Morgan building, why buildings in the area tend to narrow at the top, and that Hillary wasn't the first woman to run for president. There were so many great architecture fun facts and overall just really fabulous story telling! If you're a fan of the tenement museum & looking for a quality walking tour, Big Onion is a must. I'll be back every time I come to the city. Can't wait to take the Five Points tour :)

Jun 25, 2018

Thank you for joining our Financial District walk. Very glad you enjoyed the outing with Erica. We look forward to seeing you again soon - you may run into Erica as well. She also leads The Upper East Side & TriBeCa Seth Kamil, President

Did the black history tour for mlk day and was pleased with the entire service. It's a walking tour and was cold but despite the weather our guide remained upbeat and was extremely informative. I will take more with this group for sure I learned so much!

Jun 26, 2018

Lelee, Apologies for taking so long to respond. Thank you for joining our Dr Martin Luther King Jr Day in Historic Harlem walk. Very glad you enjoyed it. Look forward to seeing you again soon. Seth Kamil, President

Our guide, Kieran, who has a masters in urban planning, gave us a truly fantastic tour, themed on art, sex and rock n roll. He was so knowledgeable and friendly. I learned a lot about a city I've lived in my entire life. I highly recommend this to tourists or New Yorkers alike, it is a great way to explore different neighbors.

Nov 28, 2017

Antoinette, Thank you for joining a Big Onion walk on your recent visit to New York. We are so glad you enjoyed the tour! Apologies for the delay in responding. We look forward to seeing you again soon! Seth Kamil, President Big Onion Walking Tours

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