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!
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).
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:
Contact us at info@dcbyfoot.com for rates and availability. Private tours are booked via email only.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
ALL IN ONE TOUR:
The National Mall tour can be made longer by adding MLK, FDR and/or Thomas Jefferson.To visit all of them is a 4 hour tour.
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.
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.
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 Arlinton Cemetery walking tour, as well.
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.
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.
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 noveaux riche.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
This tour includes a guided tour of the National Mall, a ride on the DC Metro system, lunch break at the US Capitol Visitor Center Cafeteria, tickets to tour inside the Capitol – as well as a guide to tell you all the stories about sites you see along the way and reserved entry time to the National Archives.
This tour includes reserved entrance to tour the US Capitol Building and National Archives (subject to availability based on your date request)
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.
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.
Women of Capitol Hill
A take on those who made it to the top of the Hill, from our current Supreme Court Justice and Librarian of Congress to the women who paved the way for them.
First Ladies
A historic and sometimes scandalous take on the first ladies of years past as we wander the grounds around the White House.
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.
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.
Wicked Embassy Row & Georgetown
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!