Private Washington DC Tours
We love private group tours (and they love us)! Whether you represent a group, a business, or a large family, our tours are perfect for any group visit. We customize each tour depending on our audience. Our guides can go anywhere in D.C. and beyond. Need wheels? We can help! Want to entertain younger kids? We got that!
Why choose us for your private Washington DC tours?
Because we are fun and knowledgeable! We employ only the best, brightest and most energetic tour guides in the city. All of our guides are licensed, professional tour guides. We’re amongst the highest rated tour companies for a reason – we’re great at what we do! Click here to see the reviews.
We can also combine our award winning walking tours into your itinerary (e.g. Lincoln Assassination and the Ghosts of Georgetown).
Private Tour Details & Pricing
- Private Walking Tour:
Any tour listed on our website is available as a private option, subject to guide availability. We can also customize a tour to suit what you want to see during a trip to DC.
In order to provide a quote and availability we need to know:
- the size of the group
- the date and time
- which of our tours you want or if you want a curated tour, what you want to see! Read about our TOUR OPTIONS below.
Contact us at info@dcbyfoot.com for rates and availability. Private tours are booked via email only.
- Luxury Tours
If you want just a bit more to your tour – a certified professional tour guide who is dressed to impress with flexibility to take you … wherever! We’ve partnered with Visit DC tours to offer custom luxury tours of DC.
- DC History Speaker’s Bureau
You can also hire one of our local expert guides to provide a historical talk or author talk at your event – whether that is a corporate mixer trivia night, conference event, or a group of friends who would rather sit and listen to ghost tour stories at a bar than go on a walking tour. Find out more here.
- Bus and Van Tours
Private bus tours include the following:
Licensed DC tour guide accompanies you throughout your tour. Guides will not meet/drop off groups outside of Washington DC but the bus can take your group there!
Pick-up at hotel, office, airport (DCA/National only)- pick up/drop off outside the Beltway occurs additional costs.
All tours are priced for four hour minimums, including transportation time.
Contact us at info@dcbyfoot.com for rates and availability. Private tours are booked via email only.
Private Tour FAQ
- Do you have a minimum/maximum number of guests?
Not really. Well, minimum is 1. We find that groups larger than 45 are to cumbersome for one guide. For our Georgetown tours, we have a flexible maximum of 30 due to smaller street sizes. - What tours do you offer?
Any! Read about our general tours below to see what set routes we already have developed. - Are your rates per person or per guide?
Our private tour rates are based on the number of guides rather than number of guests. Our rates don’t change unless you have enough guests to warrant more than one guide. - Are your tours customizable?
YES! You hire a guide, not a tour. Our guides and administration staff help you work out an itinerary that will suit your schedule and interests. Sometimes not everything you want to see is within walking distance or can fit in your requested time frame, but we do our best to show you all DC has to offer! - Can you get us tickets to Ford’s Theater/Archives/Capitol?
We can not arrange tickets to many private or ticketed attractions for your group unless it is part of your tour itinerary with us. Our guides can also assist with logistics on the ground such as timing, security procedures, directions and how to best experience the sites if you must arranged the tickets direct with the attraction or through your congressperson. - Can you provide transportation
We can! We have coaches for hire for groups only. Our smallest coach is 14 person van. Our largest is 55 person coach. We cannot provide tours for groups in private cars. - Do I have to pay in advance?
Yes, we request payment in order to confirm a guide. We accept checks and credit cards. - What is your cancellation policy?
Tours canceled with less that 48 hours notice are non-refundable. Tours canceled with less that 14 days notice are subject to 50% cancellation fee. Tours unpaid with less than 3 weeks or less before the tour are unconfirmed and subject to guide availability. In the event of guide cancellation, you will receive a full refund. Our tours are rain or shine, but if it is severe/unsafe weather we can arrange a refund or reschedule.
WHAT PRIVATE TOURS DO YOU OFFER?
Keep in mind, we can customize tours to suit you, within reason. Let us know what you want to do and we can help figure it out.
For highly customized tours, you may want to check out the luxury option through VisitDC Tours where we can arrange more options including tickets to attractions, black car rides between sites, and lessons on using the Metro!
Tour rates vary unless indicated below, please contact us for more.
For our already developed tours, read more below to find the best option.
- Walking Tours
- Food Tours
- Bus Tours
WALKING TOURS
Iconic DC / Must See
Memorials on the National Mall & Tidal Basin
This is our most popular tour option.
NATIONAL MALL TOUR:
The 2 hour version visits WWII, Vietnam, Korean and Lincoln Memorials with a view of the Washington Monument from afar.
We can customise it to include only the memorials you want and to start /end at specific memorials based on what you want to do before/after a tour. Due to the linear nature of the memorials, sometimes customizations don’t work well but let us know what you want and we’ll offer some options.
We also offer a kids scavenger hunt version of this tour for small groups/families. It is 1.5 hour and visits WWII, Vietnam, Korean and Lincoln Memorials. It is best for kids ages 7-12 and cannot be done with school groups. We offer this special kids focused National Mall tour for school groups, as well, but it does not include scavenger hunt materials due to large size of school groups.
The National Mall tour can be made longer by adding MLK, FDR and/or Thomas Jefferson. To visit all of them is a 3-4 hour tour.
- 2 – 4 hours
- Ideal Group size is 30 people per guide or less. Larger school groups can be accommodated.
Blossoms on the Basin/Tidal Basin Tour
This tour is only offered in Spring during the peak Cherry Blossoms where we spend time focusing on the famed trees, plus MLK, FDR and Jefferson Memorials. We can offer this tour at any time of year but its best run during the Spring. As we have no control over the trees, we can never guarantee blossoms will be in bloom.
- 1.5 hours
- Up to 30 people per guide, though recommended smaller groups during peak bloom
Our ANC tour not only visits Kennedy Memorials, Arlington House, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers, we’ll tell you the stories of some of the brave men and women buried here. Our guides will bring you to the Tomb of the Unknown Solider to view the Changing of the Guard ceremony performed by the 3rd Regiment of the US Army. We can customize the tour if there are other topics/themes or persons you’d like to cover. We do offer a women’s history of Arlington Cemetery walking tour, as well.
- 2.5 hours – this tour does require security checks.
- Ideal Group size is 30 people per guide or less. Larger school groups can be accommodated.
- This tour does involve uphill walking, stairs and unpaved walkways. As a private option it can be rerouted to be handicap accessible.
Capitol Hill & Library of Congress
To really learn about this federal district (we are not a state!) and the United States government, we take you to the center of it all – literally. You’ll learn how D.C. came to be and view the grandeur of the iconic Capitol Building from the outside. Across the street, we’ll see the outside of the Supreme Court and finally take you on a tour inside the Library of Congress – a hidden jewel in the city.
- 2 hours – this tour does require securitychecks.
- Ideal Group size is 30 people per guide or less. Larger school groups can be accommodated.
- With enough notice, we can try to arrange Capitol building tickets for after our tour. If tickets are not available and you have a small group, the guide will help you try to get walk up tickets for this docent led tour of inside the Capitol. Doing this docent led Capitol tour will add another 1 to the tour time, but the guide will leave after our portion of the tour.
We’ll take you back in time on a story-telling walk through the sites and sounds that Abraham Lincoln would have witnessed on his final trip from the White House that fateful night April 14, 1865 to Ford’s Theatre. We do not go inside any buildings but we’ll wander Lincoln’s Washington and hear the sad tale of the Booth conspirators.
- 2 hours
- Ideal Group size is 30 people per guide or less. Larger school groups can be accommodated.
- With enough notice, we can arrange tickets to tour inside Ford’s Theatre after our tour. There is an additional fee for this.
Embassy Row and Dupont Circle History
A tour that covers the history of this far northwest part of the original Federal City, we’ll see Woodrow Wilson’s post-presidential house, some of the last Victorian mansions and of course the Embassy’s along what we now call Embassy Row – from Indonesian to Indian, these beautiful buildings used to be the mansions of the Gilded Age built by the nouveau riche.
- 2 hour
- Up to 20 people per guide
- We offer two versions of this tour – a circular tour that covers the neighborhood as well and a linear tour that is meant for school groups or those really interested in the embassies. The linear tour ends 1 mile from where it begins and would require a coach pick up (or taxi, or walk back to starting point!)
- We also have a nighttime Adults Only version focusing more on the scandals!
This a small group, private tour option where we bring you off the Mall and into one or more of the museums (American History, Natural History, National Gallery of Art, National Archives, National Portrait Gallery). We generally offer 45 minute to 1 hour highlight tours of one museum to be followed by a second museum (2 musuems, 2.5 hours) but can do longer single museum tour in some cases or a full day of 3 or more museums!
- Up to 5 people
- We are not offering Air and Space Museum tours due to exhibit closures and renovations at this time.
- We get tickets the same way you do so cannot offer tours if tickets are sold out on museum website.
Local Neighborhood Tours
Visit this pre-revolutionary town, set apart from the city proper and view its historic homes and cobbled streets. From the a house built in 1760s to Kennedy’s Camelot two centuries later, Georgetown’s tales give you a sense of the famed neighborhood as well as what life today is like living in the Capital.
- 2 hours
- Up to 20 people per guide
- We can customize this to include specific themes/people or to start/ end at a particular restaurant.
LeDroit Park
This hidden gem feels downtown today, but it was founded as a suburb! You’ll find tree lined streets, detached homes and beautiful gardens. The history of LeDroit Park may have started with its instagram famous archway, but there is much more as you walk into the neighborhood to talk about Anna Cooper, Walter Washington, Mary Church Terrell, Paul Dunbar and more.
- 1.5 hours
- Up to 20 people per guide
Tour one of DC’s first suburbs, founded in the mid 19th century as Uniontown. Join a local east of the river resident to explore the historic district of this vibrant community to talk about architecture, historic churches, The Big Chair, Frederick Douglass and more.
- 1.5 hours
- Up to 20 people per guide
Visit a neighborhood that was called “Black Broadway” before there was a Harlem. The famed Ben’s Chili Bowl is good food and better history. We’ll talk about the history, growth and change from Duke Ellington’s boyhood home to the site of the 1968 Riots after the assassination of Dr. King. We make a special stop at one of our favourite eateries for a taste of the neighborhood.This tour can be customized to start and end anywhere in the 14th and U Street area.
- 2 hours
- Up to 12 people or less (larger groups that are mostly students can possibly be accommodated)
- This tour is $195-$295 depending on group size. We are unable to offer semi-private tours or accommodate additional guests joining an already booked private tour,
From its founding in 1749, you’ll learn about this pre- Revolutionary home where George Washington worshipped and occasionally stayed, Robert E. Lee grew up, and other stories of this historic town. End the tour at the Waterfront for some great seafood lunch or ice cream and a bit of boardwalk charm.
- 2 hours
- Up to 20 people
Southwest Waterfront | The Wharf
While the Wharf has been in the news for its 2017 Grand Opening, it’s been a part of the DC landscape since the very beginning – and even before that. Learn about Native American settlements on the Historic Southwest Waterfront to how the area grew into the glittery development of today. Not be confused with the Georgetown Waterfront, this area of Southwest DC is not far from the National Mall or L’Enfant Plaza. Join DC by Foot as we learn about the Wharf’s history and then explore the sights, sounds, and most importantly, the foods of today.
- 2 hours
- Up to 20 people
Women’s History Focused Tours
Wild Women of Georgetown
A stroll through the historic neighborhood focusing on the stories of the women who helped build it, run it, and celebrate it. We’ll discuss women from all centuries and from all walks of life.
- 2 hours
- Up to 30 people
The Women Buried at Arlington National Cemetery
A tour of this hallowed ground focusing on the women who have served, whether on the front lines or on the home front.
- 2 hours
- Up to 30 people
Wild Women of Washington DC
This is a tour of downtown DC that focuses on Women’s history from the 1800s-1900s. Wild Women who wore pants and tried to vote!
- 2 hours
- Up to 30 people
NIGHT TOURS | True Crime & Ghosts
With the exception of Capitol Hill & Library of Congress and Smithsonian Museum tours, any of the tours above can run in the evening. We do not usually run tours past 1030pm.
We can run the below tours during the day, but they are best at night!
Known as Tragedy Square, this area on the north side of the White House has seen its fair share of violent murders. From scorned lovers to fateful duels, our historians will tell you the true stories behind these most haunted houses.
- 1.5 hours
- Up to 20 people
a dark version of our neighborhood tour, we tell you the tales of murder, eerie coincidences and curses. Walk the dark streets of the neighborhood with us… if you dare. More history and humor than horror, this is a tour for all ages. This is a ghost tour that includes the Exorcist Steps.
- 1.5 hours
- Up to 20 people
The tragedy of Embassy Row and Georgetown’s darker side encompasses international intrigue and oldest neighborhood in DC with local legends and true crime events from its past. This is not a ghost tour – but true crimes, murder, affairs and cemeteries and does not include the Exorcist steps.
- 2 hours
- Up to 20 people ADULTS ONLY (We don’t set an age limit but this is mature content)
If you’re looking for a bit of both from our Ghosts of Georgetown and Wicked Georgetown tours, we can do that, just let us know!
Our newest addition to the dark side walking tours, explore Capitol Hill with your guide to talk about the scandals that have rocked the nation’s capitol. From assassinations to affairs, from impeachment to impropriety, the buildings on Capitol Hill have stories to tell! Our Capitol Hill Scandals Tour is a walking tour intended to provide guests with the sordid history of politicians, public figures, and more. The guides will discuss the deaths, misdeeds & often violent figures and events of Capitol Hill.
- 1.5 hours
- Up to 30 people – ADULTS ONLY (We don’t set an age limit but this is mature content)
White House at Night: Secrets and Scandals
A history of the government’s scandalous side – who would’ve thought they had one! – our guide will regale you with stories of affairs and government misdoings.
- 1.5 hours
- Up to 30 people – ADULTS ONLY (We don’t set an age limit but this is mature content)
Embassy Row & Dupont Circle Scandals
A history of the government’s scandalous side – who would’ve thought they had one! – our guide will regale you with stories of affairs and government misdoings.
- 2 hours
- Up to 30 people – ADULTS ONLY (We don’t set an age limit but this is mature content)
FOOD TOURS
Eastern Market History and Dessert
The only remaining market left in DC this neighborhood used to be called Navy Yard and has grown up around an immigrant, middle class base. Today it is one of the nicest neighborhoods in the city known for their local restaurants- featuring homemade poptarts, donuts and award winning macarons. We’ll wander down 8th St SE known as Barracks Row to check out the men and women in uniform at the Marine Barracks and see the oldest estate still standing on the Hill.
- 1.5 hours.
- up to 15 people
- We prefer to run this tour as food not included so guests can decide what and how much to try but we can arrange tastings in advance if needed.
Georgetown Cupcakes & Desserts
this is a tour for foodies. Our historic Georgetown and Ghosts of Georgetown focus on the history and the darker side, but this tour visits sweet shops along the canal and commercial streets of Georgetown. We’ll taste the delights and hear stories of historic flour mills, dinner parties, and more!
- 1.5 hours.
- Up to 15 people (very limited availabilty)
- We prefer to run this tour as food not included so guests can decide what and how much to try but we can arrange tastings in advance if needed.
BUS TOURS
We can help arrange bus hire for larger groups, but we don’t have coaches ourselves. In order to offer availability and quotes, we will need the date, time, pick up and drop off locations.
- Coach: 54 people
- Mini Coach: 35 people
- Smallest Coach: 30 people
While the coach can pick up and drop off most anywhere in the DC Metro Area – the guide may only meet / leave in downtown DC. There is an extra charge for pick up/drop off outside the Beltway.
What can we see by bus?
Really the only tour we offer that can be done by bus is a customized DC highlights tour that visits a combination of memorials, White House, Capitol, and further afield memorials like Iwo Jima Marine Corps and Air Force Memorials.
Due to the nature of security, bus drop offs, traffic, and where things are we recommend walking tours – having a bus on the National Mall won’t save you any walking! We recommend doing a tour on foot if possible but sometimes a coach is needed to get to and from a tour!