Dyker Heights - Informative guide, fun group, fun Christmas displays and the cookie and hot chocolate were a nice bonus! We had a great time!

Dyker Heights Great was to start the holidays, super guide very luxurious experience - This was such a pleasure. We arrived in times square and checked in. We received hot chocolate and the best sugar cookies. It was a great start to a Christmas holiday. There was traffic the driver did great to get us to Dyker Heights. The guide joined us off the bus and a I have to say I couldn't believe how beautiful the decor was. It was from the movies. 100% recommend this. Great way to start the holiday. Tour guide was incredible and very knowledgable.

Enjoyed the bus journey to the destination but a little deflated once there - Good trip but maybe not quite what we were expecting . The houses that are decorated are further apart than expected and there are not so many decorated as we thought there might be. Pre trip meet up instructions not clear and lots of confused people- tell people they are expected to go in the deli to meet the host and get their chocolate and cookie it would save a lot of anxiety

Over the TOP!! - It was a lovely evening as we stroll through the neighborhoods in Dyker. I have never seen so many beautiful Christmas and holiday cheer decorations, so tastefully done. Not only were the decorations, beautiful, but the homes were extraordinary.. One better than the other.

PASTRY SHOP DERAIL, OFF TOPIC GUIDE AND DISREGARDED FALL EQUALS A DISAPPOINTING TRIP - The Brooklyn Delicatessen was wonderful. They supplied hot chocolate and a cookie to everyone attending the trip, and it was delicious. That is the only reason I am giving this 2 stars. The tour guide did pretty good on the bus trip to Brooklyn until she had no more information to share and decided to play some Christmas music. Nice idea, until it became so loud our ears were bleeding! Several attempts were made from people on the bus to ask her to lower the volume. Only once she cut in to speak on the microphone was I able to speak over her to tell her the music was too loud, to which she asked everyone else and received a resounding yes. She then said, "Well, we're almost to our destination anyway." 10 minutes of silence. We liked the music. We just didn't want to become deaf listening to it. We pull in to where the bus is going to be parked, and we received our instructions. We were walking up to this pastry shop to meet 2 other tour participants, and should we get separated from her, we could either return to the pastry shop or to the bus location at 7:15pm. We arrived at the bakery. Before even checking to see if the new members of our group were there, she started pumping up this bakery and told everyone to go inside to check it out. She then checked for the new participants and again encouraged everyone to go into the pastry shop, to that I spoke up and said "excuse me, I didn't pay to ride to Brooklyn and visit a pastry shop, I paid to come and see the Christmas lights." She responded that this was part of the tour and that we wouldn't be long. I replied " i paid for a 2 hr. guided walking tour to see the lights, it's already 6pm and we're to be back at the bus by 7:15pm. That is only 1hr 15min and there's people still in the pastry shop. I didn't pay to stand in front of or to visit a pastry shop. She said" Don't worry, there's still plenty of time, you'll see lots of great things, well only be here 4 min." I said " we've already been here 6min. I'll give you 4 more, but then we're going without you." She replied " Well, you certainly can do that, but only I know the best route." We waited 4 more min. (10 min total), then my friends and I left to see the lights on our own. Later we ran into a mother and daughter from our bus. They informed us that they too ended up leaving the guide to do the tour alone because the tour guide was rambling about other things not relevant to the tour. We finished seeing the lights and returned to the bus (we were told the driver stayed with the bus), the bus was dark and no driver to be found. My friends stood in front of the bus while I walked down the street and back. Finally, I went up and knocked on the bus door, thinking maybe he was in one of the seats taking a nap. Nope, he came walking from above the bus. He watched my friend pull herself up the bus steps, then when we asked about the bathroom, he said, no bathroom on the bus, but you can walk down to the store a couple blocks away and maybe use that bathroom. We were joined by two other women about 5 min later. They said that they had gotten separated from the tour guide. They returned to the pastry shop at the indicated time and waited, no one was there, so they decided to walk to the bus. One of the women had gotten injured while walking on the tour when a boy ran in front of her and she tripped and fell hitting her nose and mouth on the ground (she said her front teeth seemed loose). We told her she should inform the tour guide and ask about doing an incident report for the liability insurance that the company should have. Then, when she talked to the tour guide about it, the tour guide never even expressed concern. She did not ask the woman if she was ok, she just said she didn't know if the company had insurance, that she would have to contact them directly,to which she turned around and walked away. I would NOT recommend using this company for this trip. There were other guides we passed with groups, I suggest you use a different tour company. The lights were fun to see, and as I said, the Brooklyn Delicatessen was great, but this company and this guide did NOT deliver what was advertised and showed no regard or concern for the tour participants.

Not a good tour could be better - Was Looking forward to going on this tour,But felt disappointment The tour guide had no knowledge of Dyker heights spent all the tour taking her own photos and left 4 people behind. Never got a fee hot chocolate as they were all gone It was so unorganised Enjoyed seeing the houses it would have been a better tour with a guide who did not people behind and knew what was going on

Bad Tour - This was a huge disappointment. The tour guide had no knowledge of the Dyker Heights Experience, she spent the entire tour taking her own pictures, and she even knowingly left 4 guests somewhere in the neighborhood . ( She said, I can’t call them. They have foreign numbers. It would cost me a fortune.) She was 20 minutes late to the meet up stop and the bus was in a different place to leave for the trip home than it had been for the drop off. We had to wait 25 minutes standing in front of a closed pastry shop waiting for people who never showed up. I have toured Dyker Heights before and have always enjoyed the experience. This one was so unorganized and haphazard. She kept asking the bus driver for things she should have known- like “Have we passed Canal Street”. Most of her commentary consisted of “ Look, aren’t those lights over the top?” She complained about having to buy a toy so we could follow her, complained about her arm hurting because she had to hold up the toy, then complained about her back when back on the bus. Perhaps she should look for other work.

Better options. - Online it appeared that you couldn’t just uber or train over to walk the neighborhood, but you could. Which would take less time and money.

Very Disappointed! - This tour should never have even been sold this early. For years I've wanted to see the lights in Dyker Heights and I thought well if viatour is selling the tour they must all be up. There were only a minimal amount of houses decorated, some folks were up on ladders while we were there. Our tour guide had no knowledge of the area or even that we were supposed to walk around and see the lights. She was trying to drive by and have us look through the steamed up windows on the bus. I basically paid this price tag for a ride to Dyker Heights. We didn't learn any tidbit's about nyc or dyker heights. She didn't even know which direction to go.