Lower East Side Bagel Tour

Our tour of the Lower East Side with Ben was like walking the old neighborhood with your favorite Uncle. As a life long New Yorker, Ben shared historical facts and personal stories about the area and at all of our stops. He had photos of each of the stops in their hey day which added context and discussion. It was easy to find Ben at our designated start point and he communicated well prior to the tour. The pace was pleasant and efficient. I highly recommend this tour.

I’ve waited 48 hours to write this review because I wanted time to reflect to make sure my review wasn’t a knee jerk reaction to our tour. I booked months in advance and was looking forward to a food tour so thought the ‘eat everything bagel tour’ would be a great tour for our family. Katz was on my list of places to visit and eat so I thought this tour would kill two birds with one stone. This tour was NOT what was advertised. The title wqs an eat everything tour. Whilst we were given a bagel in the street when we arrived, there weren’t any seated stops apart from the biali place at the end. My husband had to request multiple times if we could get a coffee and only near the end did that happen. When we stopped outside Katz we were told the queue was too long for us to go in. We were encouraged to look through the window and come back in our own time. We shouldn’t have been so British and should have insisted that we went in. I’m furious because we have come back and the queue is easily over 200 people whilst when we were here the other day there were only about ten people queuing in front of us. So so disappointing. I’m actually really angry about it. Ben should have asked us if we wanted to wait twenty mins (because that’s all it would have been) to get a takeaway but instead made us wait on the sidewalk whilst he told us all about Katz. There were many opportunities to make up any ‘wasted’ queuing time along the way. I know Ben will reply to this review and say it was described as a LES tour but I didn’t find the history to be very informative either. Just a description of local shops and how they have changed over time. There could have been a lot more facts and figures. Either advertise it as a food tour and stop at Katz or call it a LES tour. I feel like I wasted a lot of money and more importantly our time when it was at a premium on our NY trip. Would not recommend.

We loved Ben and found the tour to be super interesting and informative. We expected a bagel tasting tour, and we did try some food which was all delicious! But it was more of a history tour of the LES than a bagel tour. I would do this tour again for personal fun, just might have done something different for a bachelor party.

Avoid at all costs!!! Only 2/8 of places were open One of the places had been closed for years Not sure but seemed like a scam as the price was high

We enjoyed the tour but the title is misleading. It says it’s a bagel tour, so we expected to go to several bagel places and try several bagels. That is not what happened. We tried a few different foods… pastrami, pickles, and one bagel. But it was mostly history of the Jewish history of the lower east side.

I have a two star rating because we received a full refund. The tour is, unfortunately, not a good tour focusing on bagels. It is a historical tour of the Lower East side of Manhattan. We expected to visit 4 or 5 bagel shops to taste bagels and get a little history of the area as it relates bagels and maybe the Jewish community. Our guide quickly dove into excruciating detail (which needed editing) on the neighborhoods we were walking through pointing to pictures on an iPad that had chunks is something on the screen). After about 45 minutes on the tour, we asked him about our bagel stops. He said there were none so we ended the tour and he agreed to get us a full refund which was generous.

Great tour, very in-depth and informative. A true native New Yorker who yearns for the LES of the past, and brings his personal story and remembrance to an unforgettable experience. Would of appreciated perhaps a break in the middle (in the new Market) as a respite from the cold, and walking further south into Canal and District streets. Thanks for a great time and fond memories.

As a guide, Ben was great -- he had a lovely blend of personal knowledge of the area and well-researched history. The pace of the walk was really good: a combination of indoors and out doors. Thanks to Ben, the Lower East Side came alive for us, with all its cultures and resilience. Highly recommended!

Ben is the best! If you need to know about the Lower East Side's history, he's your guy. Ben is smart, very well-informed and his tour is beautifully organized to cover the neighborhood with lots of fun (and delicious) stops. We had a great time and learned so much. Thank you, Ben!

I learned a lot from Ben's tour! He pointed out so many things I would have missed going to the neighborhood without a guide, and he had great stories, too, which really brought the history alive. Highly recommend!