Experience the very best of Washington, DC, on a fully-customizable, 4 to 5 hours private tour with a personal van and driver. Create the perfect route for your interests, choosing from over fifty points of interest. See the city’s political, historical and scenic highlights, or focus on a single theme, with plenty of time to explore the sites that appeal to you most. Take in Capitol Hill and the Supreme Court, gardens, Presidential memorials, War Memorials and landmarks, or head outside the city to see Arlington National Cemetery and Mount Vernon Estate.

4 to 5 hours, personalized tour of Washington DC
Enjoy the flexibility of a private tour
Visit city landmarks and highlights
Get inside tips from your driver
Hotel pickup included
Great overview and orientation of the city

What's Included

Driver/guide
FREE PICKUP WITHIN 7KM RADIUS OF WASHINGTON DC
Private tour
Transport by private vehicle

Food and drinks, unless specified
Gratuities
Trolley Tickets for Arlington Cemetery.

Meeting And Pickup

You can head directly to the meeting point, or request pickup

Meeting point

400 New Jersey Ave NW
400 New Jersey Ave NW, Washington, DC 20001, USA
Hotel Lobby

Pickup points

Select a pickup point

Start time

10:00 am

End point

This activity ends back at the meeting point.

Pickup details

VACATION RENTALS,POINTS OF INTEREST WITHIN 7 KM RADIUS OF WASHINGTON DC.

What To Expect

Supreme Court (Pass By)

Lincoln Memorial

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Jefferson Memorial

20 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (Pass By)

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial

15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

United States Botanic Garden (Pass By)

National Academy of Sciences

15 minutes • Admission Ticket Included

National World War II Memorial

20 minutes • Admission Ticket Free

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Children must be accompanied by an adult
Operates in most weather conditions, please dress appropriately
Minimum of 4 people per booking is required
TOUR IS APPROXIMATELY 3HRS PLUS TIME OF TRAVELLING
Not wheelchair accessible

Stroller accessible
Near public transportation
No heart problems or other serious medical conditions
Most travellers can participate
This is a private tour/activity. Only your group will participate

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.

Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.
Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.

Traveller Photos

Reviews

4.5

51 reviews

Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews

Reviews by Viator travellers.

Showing 1-10 of 51 reviews

A fantastic tour

Margaret_S, June 2023

Ronald was wonderful. He was punctual and communicated details accurately. A private tour with friends is perfect. Ronald made suggestions but we could make requests. We all four enjoyed that we would get dropped off at a destination and we would call when are where to pick us up. The only comment was we would have appreciated more historical details as we drove to the locations or along the way. Ronald needs to express more confidence. But he was pleasant and very professional.

Response from Host, June 2023

Thanks for your business.

We had a wonderful tour...

eburns1234, Oct 2022

We had a wonderful tour of DC with Tunde from Viator! We were a family of four plus a very active toddler. Tunde picked us up at our hotel in his very clean & comfy van. He really knows everything about DC and its history. We all learned so much and appreciated his help in making sure we got to all the top sights. Everyone agreed that this tour with Tunde was the best of any tour we've taken!

Response from Host, Oct 2022

Thank you for selecting Tour Buy the Hour. We are glad you enjoyed the tour and look forward to seeing you again.

Booby trap with Bobby

Pat_Z, July 2021

Bobby was very unprofessional as a tour director. Most of his jokes we’re inappropriate. He took private phone calls when picking us up. On several occasions, prior to this trip, I inquired and stressed that we wanted to go to Arlington National Cemetery and Vietnam Memorial since this was to be a CUSTOMIZED private tour. When Bobby picked us up, he proceeded to tell us where we were going and our time limit at each place. This was to be a 4-5 hour tour. When I asked about Arlington National Cemetery, he said we didn’t have time for that since we only had a 3 hour time limit. He told us that we had to have a DDC, designated door closer. The door was difficult to open and close. Bobby’s driving skills scared us and his windshield was cracked. Makes me wonder if we got the wrong tour? On a positive note, he was informative with historical facts and provided us with small bottles of water. Definitely, did not get what we paid for. Disappointed!

Response from Host, July 2021

We appreciate your review and business,we promise to investigate this matter so that this doesn’t happen in the future.

Private tour DC

Kalpa_R, July 2021

Excellent trip wonderful driver as we had a short stay best way to see the city. Very informative and knowledgeable.

Response from Host, July 2021

Thanks for your review we appreciate your business.

DC tour

Gloria_M, June 2021

The Most memorable was seeing the monuments, capitol, Lincoln memorial, wwii memorial, and White House. The guide was the worst we have had with Viator. He was hard to understand. The guide gave us very little information of the City. The info we receive on tours is why we pay to do tours. He also told us at first it was a 2-hr tour. We had paid for a 4-hr tour. He did call company and yes it was a four hour tour!

Response from Host, June 2021

We’ve taken to account your concerns and we hope to improve on them. Thanks

Would definitely recommend this tour and guide!

Norene_B, June 2021

Driver was fun, knowledgeable, and very accommodating! We saw many great sights in 4 hours and learned a lot. Bobby was an excellent guide!

Response from Host, June 2021

Thanks very much we appreciate your Business and hope to see you again

Tour guide Bobby

Caprice_C, Dec 2019

Out tour guide Bobby told very inappropriate and crude joke throughout the tour and was not interested in anything that we had to say or ask questions about Washington. Very disappointed in this whole experience. Plus we had to call because no one showed up on time even though it was already charged to my credit card. Waited for 1 1/2 hours after scheduled pickup time.

Response from Host, Dec 2019

Thanks for sharing your experience,we have investigated and taking action so that no other customer had to go through the same experience.With immediate effect the guide has been released from our company . Moving forward we intend to do better and we promise someone from the management will be getting in touch with the customer.Sorry for the experience.

Marilyn McCloud 64th year young Birthday celebration

mac474789, Oct 2019

party of 4 we all was extremely pleased Tunde the guide was professional, knowledge, friendly, can operate any camera, request him you will be happy that you did, thank you Tunde, Be Bless

Response from Host, Oct 2019

Thanks so much for your business we hope to see you again.

Very good

David_B, Oct 2018

Our driver was very knowledgeable and did a very nice tour of Washington, DC. I've been to DC several times, but my lovely wife has been here only once before. She also enjoyed the tour. Our driver was also very pleasant and friendly, but her was somewhat difficult to understand due to his accent. That is our only complaint.

DC tour with Friends

Becky_A, Sept 2018

Awesome way to visit specific memorials! Traffic issues, lack of parking for handicap needs, directions ALL LEFT TO THE DRIVER!Comfortable ride, knowledgeable informative driver! Very attentive!Great way to truly enjoy DC!

Do not do this tour if you expect your...

Kaylene F, Aug 2018

Do not do this tour if you expect your guide to be informative and guide you around the monuments. It is nothing more than a pick up drop off service with limited commentary between sights. Our driver slept while we tried to negotiate the sights on our own and yawned his way through his less than average commentary all the while asking if we were listening as if we were school children and being very condescending and rude. Our tour lasted less than four hours while advertising a 5-6 hour tour not a professional company in our opinion.

One's tour experience is absolutely...

Carolyn_D, Aug 2018

One's tour experience is absolutely dependent on the guide you end up with. Unfortunately, our guide just wasn't up to par. I had previously had positive experience of a Viator private tour in Paris in 2016, so I paid the required 380 min 4 adults though there were only 3 of us: my son, grandson and me. Our tour started about 30 minutes late because our tour guide called from another hotel parking lot asking where we were. I had to hand my phone to the doorman to help the tour guide pick us up. Basically we were taken to and dropped off for photos and a quick walk through then picked up at about 7 sites. Either the guide was not comfortable with the material or was distracted, but we didn't learn anything more that we could have read in a brochure. The Vietnam memorial was confusing because we didn't know anything about how it was organized prior to walking through. My expectation was that we would have been given information prior to being dropped off. Our guide highly recommended a food court for lunch which Im guessing worked out better for her than for us. Needless to say it was extremely disappointing so we finished earlier than the 60 minutes set aside so we had to wait about 15-20 minutes for her to pick us up. We happily ended this tour early in favor of seeing a museum where we asked to be dropped off. All in all, our 6 hour tour ended up being about 4.5 hours, minus 1 hour for lunch and 15-20 minutes at each of the 5-6 sites where we were dropped off. Hop on Hop off or even Ubers would have been equally as good and certainly a great deal more satisfying and cheaper.

Wonderful Washington

drevie2018, July 2018

Don was terrific. He was polite, thoughtful and kind. He had good ideas as to what off the regular tour would appeal to my college aged grandson. He gave us perfect suggestions because he was a good listener. He was kind to me as I could not walk easily and he made approoriafe accommodations, we enjoyed our time with Don, and there are no complaints, Ge was great for us.

Washington DC

Edward K, July 2018

When we booked the tour we were told that the cost would include pickup at our hotel in Silver Springs. When the tour company called they said we had to pay an additional $40 to get picked up. At this point it was too late to change to a different tour so I paid the extra money. The driver was knowledgeable about the area and the historical significance of the buildings. Over all the tour was okay.

Make sure all costs are confirmed before you leave on this tour.

Lisa_B, June 2018

1st, if you wan't someone to take pictures for you at the attractions, they don't do this. 2nd, make sure you know all the charges before leaving. I got a surprise by the driver telling me that I owed an additional $85 because our pickup location was 2 miles out of the 7 mile radius!! An additional $21.25 per person for traveling and extra 2 miles?! I could have walked the 2 miles to meet them or called a cab and met somewhere for much less than that. After a phone call on speaker phone with the owner, I ended up paying an additional $40 for the 2 extra miles which was $10 more per person!! Still ridiculous 3rd, make sure you are prepared to tip. I gave our driver $20 at the start of the tour, another $20 for his lunch and at the end we only gave him an additional $20 because of having to pay the extra $40. Well, he wasn't happy making $60 in tips that day! He actually looked at the $20 like he was looking for more and make a scoffing noise and was on his way. At the beginning of the trip I was definitely going to book another tour with this company when we came back to DC in a few months. Now, not so sure, probably will find another company.

What can I say - dexter is the man...

Marie_T, Feb 2018

What can I say - dexter is the man! What s great guy and guide he was. He listened to our requests and did exactly what we wanted. If you have limited time and want to get the most out of your time - make sure you book this tour with dexter. We had a great time with my husband and two boys 18 and 20!

Seen most of the main landmark, tour...

Siew Hoon H, Jan 2018

Seen most of the main landmark, tour guide is informative

As others note, this must be the...

Peter_W, Jan 2018

As others note, this must be the essential contact for a visit to DC. Totally flexible and a wish to see your requests met - all without a rip-off price-tag. We had very niche sites we wanted to see and Dexter was patience itself. My one piece of advice for anyone visiting DC - contact Dexter!

The tour was a mix of our choices...

richard s, Nov 2017

The tour was a mix of our choices and the guide's recommendations. we visited all the places on our own wish list and Dexter was expert in organising the route and the visits and fitting them in within the timescale. Dexter was also very knowledgeable and was happy to answer our questions. It was an excellent day in a beautiful city and we enjoyed it thoroughly. Many thanks to Dexter.

We were extremely pleased being...

Carol O, Oct 2017

We were extremely pleased being dropped off and picked up close to sites. And especially happy with Dexter. He loves his subject Washington, DC and was very knowledgeable. And enthusiastic. And a patriot. He loves the USA as we do.