3 hours
E-voucher
English
Take in the sights, mesmerizing aromas, and mouthwatering noshes of the Lower East Side as you are guided through this historic neighborhood where eating great food is a tradition. Since the early 1800’s, this area has been home to immigrants starting a new life in America who have made key cultural, economic, and epicurean contributions to New York City.
Operated by
Ben's Bagel Tours
34 traveller ratings
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Francescag5, Dec 2025
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.
stephc2014, Aug 2025
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.
louis_c, May 2025
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
Response from Host, Jun 2025
I am sorry you had a bad experience. I find it strange that there were sites that were closed. I don't conduct tours when such is the case.
Rachel R, Feb 2025
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.
Response from Host, Jun 2025
Please note that that is the description of the tour. Jewish History of the Lower East Side with noshes along the way. I call it bagel tours because the bagel is the ultimate symbol of New York.
This is a walking tour of the Lower East Side of New York.
Famous establishments to be visited with mouth watering nosh/tastes are Yonah Shimmel's Knish Bakery, Russ & Daughters, Katz's Deli, Economy Candy, The Essex Street Retail Market, The Pickle Guy and Kossar's Bialys.
See historic synagogues, museums and historic markers of what made this neighborhood a legend throughout New York City and America.
Remember, all tour participants start off with a fresh bagel! - The Iconic Symbol of New York!
English
A full refund will apply if you cancel more than 24 hours before the activity start time.
No refund is possible if you cancel less than 24 hours before the activity start time.