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Brooklyn Walking Tours

Updated: March 23, 2023

This post will provide details about the best tours available in Brooklyn, New York.

In addition to our pay-what-you-wish walking tours, we’ll also include details about the popular bus, bike, and food tours you can take in this historic neighborhood.


BROOKLYN WALKING TOURS

The following section will include details about various walking tours you can take in Brooklyn, in particular, our pay-what-you-wish options.

You could go directly to our schedule of tours to see what we have available for you, but we detail our Brooklyn tours below.

If our tours don't suffice, you can take a look at the many for-fee tours available in Brooklyn.


Free Tours By Foot

We offer an ever-expanding selection of walking tours, including free, self-guided walks, throughout Brooklyn’s neighborhoods (not to mention in Manhattan).

Most of our Brooklyn tours are pay-what-you-want, which means that you get to decide how much to pay for the experience.

The only caveat is that you will need to make reservations ahead of time in order to ensure your spot.

Free Tours by Foot Brooklyn Tours

Our most popular tour is our 3-hour Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn Heights, and DUMBO Tour (see the video above).

The outing begins with a walk over the famous bridge and continues on to explore two different neighborhoods in Brooklyn.

This walking tour is usually available at least once per day. 

If you’re looking for a shorter version, you can also discover America’s first suburb on our Brooklyn Heights Walking Tour.

On this tour, you will see some of the city’s best residential architecture and arguably the best views of Manhattan’s skyline. 75% of this tour is covered on the 3-hour version.

For those with an independent streak and a passion for art and creativity, take a look at our Bushwick Graffiti and Street Art Tour.

You can also check out the hipster capital of the nation and one of Brooklyn’s most culturally diverse hoods on our Williamsburg Walking Tour.

If you’re visiting during the winter, you may also want to consider our Dyker Heights holiday lights tour.

This tour only runs during the month of December. It's festive, colorful, and very affordable.

Brooklyn is also a foodie destination thanks to the sheer number of immigrants that have called (or still call) Brooklyn home.

For more details on this tour, check out our Brooklyn Food Tours section below. 


Self-Guided Options 

In addition to our fully guided tours, we also provide free self-guided tours for anyone who would rather explore Brooklyn on their own.

The following guides include noteworthy information about major sites in each of the areas they discuss, as well as provide directions to help you find your way.

We also offer self-guided tours throughout NYC.


Brooklyn-Bridge-pedestrian-view

Brooklyn Audio Tours

If you don’t feel like reading a self-guided tour, you may want to consider our free audio tours instead.

We currently offer an audio tour of the Brooklyn Bridge, one of DUMBO, and another of Brooklyn Heights.

For more details on this option, make sure to read our post about audio tours of New York City.

We will soon offer more self-guided tours and GPS-enabled audio tours of Brooklyn neighborhoods


Additional Walking Tours

There are far too many Brooklyn walking tours to cover them all in great detail.

If you can think of the area you want to visit or the kind of places you want to see, chances are you’ll find a tour guide to take you there.


TIP: Many of the New York tourist discount passes include Brooklyn walking tours for free.

Read our post about NYC attraction passes and how they can save you between 20-50% off ticket prices. 


Some of the more popular excursions include trips across the Brooklyn Bridge, brewery tours, an experience in Red Hook, and more.

Ticket prices typically fall in the $15-$25 range. You can expect your tour to last anywhere from 1-3 hours or more depending on the subject and location.

If you’re willing to spend a bit more, you might want to consider a private walking tour instead.

These outings can run you over $100, but you won’t have to share your tour guide with anyone and you may even have the opportunity to dictate which neighborhoods you want to visit.

Click here as well as here for an extensive list of Brooklyn walking tours. 


BROOKLYN BUS TOURS

This section will provide information about bus tours that are available in Brooklyn.

Along with descriptions of what you can expect on each tour, we will also include details about prices, availability, the tour length, and more.

TIP: Several NYC tourist discount passes include some form of a Brooklyn bus tour.

If you are considering one of these passes, be sure to read what they include before purchasing a separate ticket.

If our choices below aren’t sufficient, then check out this extensive list of Brooklyn bus tours for more information. 

We go into greater detail on the companies listed below in our NYC bus tours comparison post.


Hop-on-Hop-Off Bus Tours

Each of the major hop-on-hop-off bus tour companies offers a Brooklyn tour as part of their service.

The easiest and most affordable way to take one of these tours is simply to buy a 2-day ticket from either City Sightseeing or Big Bus, both covered below. 


City Sightseeing

Unlike their competition below, you can actually take City Sightseeing's Brooklyn bus tour separately with this service.

Brooklyn Bus tour City Sightseeing

That said, you might want to consider getting an All Around Town ticket instead because it’s only a few dollars more and it actually includes the Brooklyn tour for free.

This tour is approximately 1 ½ hours in length and it will cover 9 different stops along the way.


TIP: The Brooklyn Tour is also available as part of the New York Sightseeing Pass.

Alternatively, you can get the All Around Town Tour for free with the Big Apple Pass.  

Check our NYC Attraction Pass post for more information. 


Brooklyn Tour

  • 1-day hop-on-hop-off service
  • $49/Adults | $45/Children

All Around Town Tour

  • 2-Day Hop-on, Hop-off Bus Tour
  • Includes Downtown & Uptown Tour
  • Also includes Night & Brooklyn Tour
  • Integrates Hop-on, Hop-off Ferry
  • Free Museum ticket included
  • $75/Adults | $70/Children

Click here to buy tickets or for more information


Big Bus Tours

Big Bus Brooklyn

Both the Premium and Deluxe tickets include a Brooklyn bus tour along with their Manhattan tours.

The Premium ticket is only $14 more than their Classic ticket ($48/Adults | $40/Children) which only gives you one day of hop-on-hop-off bus service.

The Deluxe ticket includes tours of downtown NYC, Harlem, and Brooklyn, a night tour, and a sightseeing cruise.

Premium Ticket

  • 2-day Hop-on, Hop-off Bus Tour
  • Includes Brooklyn Bus Tour
  • $64/Adults | $56/Children

Deluxe Ticket

  • 2-Day Hop-on, Hop-off Bus Tour
  • Includes Brooklyn Bus Tour
  • Also includes Harlem and Night Tour
  • Free Cruise with every ticket
  • $80/Adults | $72/Children

Click here to buy tickets or for more information 


A Slice of Brooklyn

If you want to take a Brooklyn bus tour but you’re also interested in learning more about the food in this town, consider this combination of the two.

Although A Slice of Brooklyn started out offering pizza tours in New York, they expanded their service to include chocolate tours, neighborhood tours, and Christmas lights tours.

All of their tours focus on Brooklyn, and their bus includes audio/visual presentations with historical information about the area.

Most of their services include at least one food item, so it’s essentially a food tour on wheels!


Original Pizza Tour

  • $95/Adults | $85/Children (under 12)
  • Availability: 5 days a week at 11 am
  • Duration: 4 ½ hours
  • 2 slices of pizza & soft drink at 2 pizzerias included
  • More info or to book

Chocolate Tour

  • $60/Adults | $50/Children (under 12)
  • Availability: Mon/Wed/Fri at 11 am
  • Duration: 4 ½ hours
  • 2-5 chocolate samples included from 4 shops
  • More info or to book

Christmas Lights Tour

  • $55/Adults | $45/Children (under 12)
  • Availability: December 1st-23rd & 26th-30th
  • Duration: 3 ½ hours
  • More info or to book

Additional Bus Tours

If the options above didn’t sound like your kind of tour, you may want to consider one of the many additional options out there.

You’ll find that there are several companies offering Brooklyn bus tours, and they’re not all the same.

Depending on which type of bus tour you choose, ticket prices will typically range from $30-$150 or more.

Needless to say, private tours are going to cost more, but you might prefer that experience over a crowded bus tour.

Most outings will run from 2-3 hours in length, but there might be a few that last even longer.

Check out this extensive list of Brooklyn bus tours for more information. 


BROOKLYN BIKE TOURS

In this section, we provide information about bike tours you can take in Brooklyn.

Further details include some of the different attractions these tours will visit, prices for each service, tour duration, and availability.

We also list a few options for bike rentals.

Brooklyn Bike Tours

Giro Bike Tours 

This company provides several bike tours in and around Brooklyn. Some excursions include a visit to the waterfront or a trip over the Brooklyn Bridge.

Their main tour will take you to over 20 different neighborhoods including Prospect Park, Fort Greene, DUMBO, Brooklyn Heights, Red Hook, South Slope, Downtown, Cobble Hill, and more.


The Brooklyn Tour

  • $88 per rider
  • Duration: 3 hours
  • Availability: Daily at 11 am/ 2 pm

Brooklyn Waterfront Tour

  • $68 per rider
  • Duration: 3 hours
  • Availability: Mon-Sat at 8 am/3 pm/5 pm
  • Includes views of the Brooklyn Bridge

Ride the Bridges

  • $68 per rider
  • Duration: 2.5 hours
  • Availability: Daily at 11 am/2 pm
  • Includes trip over the Brooklyn Bridge

A Day in Brooklyn

  • $118 per rider
  • Duration: 5-6 Hours
  • Availability: Daily at 11 am
  • Includes breakfast & lunch stops

Additional Bike Tours

If you’re looking to take a bike tour of Brooklyn, there are several different services to consider.

Some companies offer a basic overview of the borough, but others will provide a more in-depth look at specific neighborhoods and locations.

Many bike tours offered in Brooklyn are also available through tourist passes such as the New York Sightseeing Pass, the New York Pass, and the Explorer Pass.

You can also receive discounts for bike tours with the Big Apple Pass.

Most Brooklyn bike tours will run you $30-$60 per ticket and include a free bike rental/helmet. Private and exclusive tours can cost up to $100 or more.

A majority of these services are between 2-4 hours in length, but some will last for 6+ hours.

Here are a few of the more popular Brooklyn bike tours you can take:

  • Brooklyn Bridge
  • Brooklyn Waterfront
  • Coney Island
  • Graffiti/Street Art

Click here for an extensive list of Brooklyn bike tours. 


Brooklyn Bike Rentals

Whether you’re interested in a self-guided tour or an audio tour, you may want to consider combining either option with a bike rental.

Most of the bike tour companies in Brooklyn offer rentals, and there are also companies in NYC that specialize in bike rental services.

This is usually a pretty affordable way to get around the city with prices ranging from $5-$10 per hour.

We have a deal with Brooklyn Bridge Sightseeing. Use promo code FTBF and get 20% off your bike rental.

The New York Sightseeing Pass, New York Pass, and Explorer Pass all offer free Brooklyn bike rentals while the Big Apple Pass includes a discount.

Read our post that compares these different discount passes.

If you don’t feel like getting a tourist pass, check this list of Brooklyn bike rental services instead. 


BROOKLYN FOOD TOURS

This section will provide information about a variety of different food tours that are available in Brooklyn.

In addition to describing the tours, we’ll also include details about pricing, availability, duration, and the types of food you will eat on each outing. 


Free Tours By Foot

In addition to our walking tours, we also provide a few food tours which take place in Brooklyn.

Our most frequent opportunity is in Williamsburg, but we offer a trip through Flatbush every now and then as well.

Each of our Brooklyn food tours is pay-what-you-wish, which means you’ll be in control of deciding how much your trip is worth.

We also offer a few self-guided tours that might be of interest, one focusing on the best bagels in the city while the other will introduce you to historic bars in New York City.

Both tours are free, but you’ll obviously want to set aside some money for food at some of the stops you will visit!


Grimaldi's Pizza

A Slice of Brooklyn

This company actually offers a combination of a food and bus tour.

In addition to trying a variety of foods from restaurants around the borough, you’ll also get a bus tour of Brooklyn which includes an audio/visual display with historical details about the area.

A Slice of Brooklyn has three different food tours with different themes and samples available for each service.


Original Pizza Tour

  • $95/Adults | $85/Children
  • Availability: 5 days a week at 11 am
  • Duration: 4 ½ hours
  • 2 slices of pizza & soft drink at 2 pizzerias included
  • More info or to book

Chocolate Tour

  • $60/Adults | $50/Children
  • Availability: Mon/Wed/Fri at 11 am
  • Duration: 4 hours
  • 2-5 chocolate samples included from 4 shops
  • More info or to book

Additional Food Tours

If you’re looking for a different kind of food tour, you may want to consider these options instead.

In addition to popular foods such as pizza, you’ll also have the opportunity to experience samples such as pierogies, chocolate, beer, BBQ, cookies, and more.

Whether you just want to get a taste of Brooklyn or you want to discover some of the best restaurants in the area, there’s probably a tour company that can help out.

The New York Sightseeing Pass offers a Brooklyn food tour for free.

Alternatively, you can choose their Food on Foot tour as one of several attractions on their Flex Pass.

Learn more about both options on our New York Tourist Pass post.

Depending on which tour you select, you can expect an average price anywhere from $35-$60 per person. Some private tours will run you for more than $100 for a ticket.

Duration for these tours is usually between 2 ½ - 5 hours in length, so plan on setting aside a reasonable amount of time for the experience.

Look through this list to find a Brooklyn food tour that fits both your schedule and expectations.


TOP 10 BROOKLYN DISCOUNTS

In this section, we will provide a list of the best discounts you can get in Brooklyn.

For more information about all of the ways, you can save on activities and attractions in NYC, check our full post on New York tourist passes.

You should also check websites like Groupon, which offer up to 50% off things to do in Brooklyn.


1) Brooklyn Waterfront Food Tour

Offered by New York Sightseeing Pass, this Food on Foot tour will provide several samples of excellent food that you can find in Brooklyn.

This tour is available through either the all-inclusive or flex pass.


2) City Sightseeing Brooklyn Bus Tour

This service is available via the New York Sightseeing Pass (all-inclusive or flex).


3) Brooklyn Bridge Tours

Both the New York Pass and the Explorer Pass provide a Brooklyn Bridge bike tour, a walking tour, and a bike rental.

Of course, you could also pay what you wish on one of our tours.


4) Graffiti & Street Art Tour

Take a look at some of the most unique artwork in Brooklyn on this walking tour which is available to anyone with a New York Sightseeing Pass, New York Pass, or Explorer Pass.

Of course, you could also pay what you wish on one of our tours.


5) Best of Brooklyn Walking Tour

If you want a more general overview of Brooklyn and its neighborhoods, one of these tours will be available through the New York Sightseeing Pass, New York Pass, and Explorer Pass.


6) Brooklyn Nets Ticket Discounts

The New York Sightseeing Pass can be used to get an extra 10% off tickets to all regular season home games for the Brooklyn Nets.


7) Brooklyn Gospel Walking Tour 

Discover the history of Gospel music in Brooklyn on this tour provided for free with the New York Pass.


8) Brooklyn Museum/Botanical Garden 

If you want to do more during your trip to Brooklyn than just take a tour, tickets to the Brooklyn Museum and Botanical Garden are included with the Explorer Pass.

You can also get tickets to just the Botanical Garden with either the New York Pass or the New York Sightseeing Pass.


9) Luna Park 24 Ride Pass 

Although Coney Island is all the way at the southern end of Brooklyn, anyone heading down there might want to keep in mind that the Explorer Pass includes a 24-ride ticket to Luna Park.


10) Brooklyn Historical Society

If you want to learn more about the history of Brooklyn, you’ll be happy to know that tickets for the historical society are included with both the all-inclusive and flex versions of the New York Sightseeing Pass.


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About The Author

Courtney Shapiro

Courtney is a lifelong New Yorker fascinated with the city’s history, culture and cuisine. She loves exploring the world, as well as sharing her travel expertise with others. She joined the Free Tours by Foot team in 2011, first as a guide and then as a writer. She has a law degree, a teaching degree and a worn-out passport. Her motto is “Have backpack, will travel”. READ MORE...
Updated: March 23rd, 2023
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