The City Tour

I wish I would have read the warnings of this place ahead of time. Bought 2 living social deals with this so called «company.» Never got them redeemed. First there was a problem with scheduling, they couldn’t acomodate, so dates were changed multiple times. Then when we finally secured a date, the location was changed. Then to top it off, the big storm Derecho hit DC. Tried emailing with phone & calling to find out what the deal was since there was system wide power outages. Never returned calls or emails. I understand there was no power but you could at least call people later after the power was turned on. Was RIPPED OFF with this company. Never got a refund or anything. It’s like they simply took the money and left town. This really deserves O stars and a call to Better Business Bureau.

L A M E!
Purchased two vouchers from The Capitol Deal and was looking forward to doing a food tour with The City Tour. I initially booked a food tour in Alexandria and was supposed to get details a few days before. I didn’t hear anything until the day of AND they decided to change the tour from Alexandria to Adams Morgan, which I wasn’t interested in, since they couldn’t confirm restaurants in Alexandira. I immediately contacted customer service to let them know and they gladly said I could reschedule to another tour. Sweet. I couldn’t make any of the current tours that were up on the site and my vouchers were expiring. I contacted customer service again (which BTW can only be reached by email, their phone lines were always busy or no one ever picked up) and ask about the possibility of extending my vouchers. They happily extended it several months past the expiration date. Score. When the date finally came to go on the tour, again, no word about the meeting location, restaurants we will be visiting, etc. On the day of, I went to their website to find the following messages:
Washington, DC tours: We are no longer offering tours in Washington D.C.
Contact Us: The City Tour has ceased operations. If you have an unused and unexpired ticket or voucher then please contact your credit card provider to seek a refund.
Are you freaking serious?! I totally should have known better! The warning signs were and for some reason I didn’t even bother to check on Unilocal for any reviews. Bah. So freaking lame! Totally got scammed. Hopefully I can get a refund from The Capitol Deal.

Echoing the sentiment of others, but it bears repeating. DO NOT purchase a tour with these people. It is a SCAM.
I purchased seven Living Social vouchers for City Tour (Washington DC) back in January, which put me out a little over $ 200. I immediately booked a tour for April for Dupont Circle, and in February received noticed that the tour we signed up for was being discontinued due to «lack of interest.» So, I re-​booked us for a tour in May for Old Town. Three days before that tour was to take place, I received an email stating that one was being discontinued as well. Because our vouchers were set to expire in a week, I called Living Social. They recommended I request City Tour extend our vouchers and try one more time, so that’s what I did.
City Tour said they would extend our vouchers through September, so I re-​booked us for a tour on July 14^th. Interesting enough, the original tour we had signed up for that was not generating enough interest was back on the list, so I signed us up for that one… again. On July 14^th our party met at the fountain in Dupont Circle, and guess what? No tour guide. City Tour pulled a complete no-​show on us. Living Social is issuing me a refund as I type this.
I cannot state this clearly enough. Do not purchase a tour with City Tour in ANY city. The reviews for their tours in other cities are nearly identical to these.

Definitely zero stars. My original tour scheduled for Crystal City was canceled with 3 days notice. My rescheduled tour is for tomorrow. No information has been sent. My emails and phone calls have been unanswered. There website no longer lists a phone number and no tours are listed for any city. Obviously this company no longer exists. By the previous reviews I can see why. We will be contacting Groupon for a refund.

The reviews about this company’s poor coordination, communication and logistics are right on target! After booking our tour and receving a confirmation that it was done, the only other communication was an email a few days prior to our tour that they were making a last minute substitution of restaurants, but that they would be in touch the next day with details on where/​when to meet up with the tour.
That was the last communication we have had from them.
I called and emailed each five times, prior to and after the supposed tour date and have not heard a thing.
This company, while it at one time may have been a living, breathing one, is as dead as a doornail. Do NOT waste your money on the hope and dream that they will deliver on your payment!!!
Buyer beware.

I have to agree with the other reviewers: City Tour is a waste of time, a rip-​off and likely a complete scam.
We were originally signed up for a tour in Georgetown. On the day of the tour, we still had no contact information and no idea when/​where we were supposed to meet. My boyfriend contacted someone at the company and they said the tour had been canceled. Disappointing lack of communication, but we decided to give them a second chance and re-​booked a DuPont Circle tour for yesterday.
On Thursday, we received a poorly written email (the same one Chad S. referred to in his review) stating that one restaurant had dropped out, they were looking for a replacement, but the tour would go on and we’d receive information shortly on where/​when to meet. Of course by yesterday morning, we still had no information. My boyfriend half-​heartedly tried to contact them, knowing we’d never hear back (which we haven’t so far).
We will definitely be getting a refund from LivingSocial for this fraud. Not only were we excited about the tour (it’s a great idea in theory!), but we cleared our schedules twice for no reason. Stay away. Spend your money on more worthwhile dining experiences.

Looks like we ran into the same problem as everyone else. We booked the DuPont tour weeks ago and haven’t heard any information since. All I received is the same email everyone seems to be getting saying «One of our restaurants in the tour is unable to see us due to private event so we are in the process of finding a replacement and deciding our tour route and the restaurant rotation within it. We should have this confirmed by tomorrow and we will then be sending you another email with relevant information on the tour such as the meeting time and place as well as contact information for your tour guide.»
I happened to check Unilocal after not hearing any updates and unfortunately my suspicions were confirmed. Stay far away from this company as it is clearly a scam.

ZERO STARS! DO NOT BOOK A TOUR!
HEED MY REVIEW AS WELL AS EVERYONE ELSE’S
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
I originally purchased an Old Town Alexandria tour. I had to wait for at least two months to even book the appointment because they did not update their website as they kept saying they would with new dates and times for tours. Finally, after their website was updated, I was able to schedule a tour date, but it wasnt for three months later, which is ridiculous. Four days before the tour, I received an email stating that they were no longer participating in tours with Old Town Alexandria and that our vouchers would be reinstated to book another tour. Of course my voucher was not reinstated, so I had to call in and have it done. After booking the next tour for a whole different section of the city, which fortunately, was only a week out, I never received the email that you are supposed to receive a few days before the scheduled date that gives all the pertinent information, and because my tour was on a Sunday, I had no one to call to find out what happened. Needless to say, my husband and I were furious that we were left hanging on Father’s Day, of all days, and when I attempted to call that following Monday for an explanation, their phone system would only accept voicemails. I left two voicemails to no return call, sent an email explicitly requesting a call back only to receive a curt email asking me for my card information to issue a refund. I have responded to that email twice now with the requested information, and have yet to receive a response. At the end of this week, if I have not received a response from them, I will be contacting my credit card company to initiate a dispute and have my money refunded immediately.
DO NOT BOOK A TOUR! YOU WILL REGRET IT!

EVERYTHING that the others have written is what happened to us. And they deserve 0 stars.
Don’t bother registering a complaint to the Better Business Bureau – there was no response to that (and I cited the main office –based in Denver).
I do commend Groupon for returning our money.

I’m going to confirm Cedric P’s review, because I was also a part of the same group that decided to leave after our tour guide was decidedly an hour late. Not only were we hungry enough to eat a horse, we were also frying in the hot sun because our meeting location was at the Dupont Circle metro post. And it’s not like we didn’t try calling our tour guide multiple times, leaving message after message. The only times we talked to her was when she said yes that we were in the right place and that she’d «look for us» and when she accidentally butt-​dialed us! And even before the day of the tour we got 2 poorly constructed emails saying that there were restaurant cancellations for our tour, one for Dupont (which is what we signed up for) and another one for Adams Morgan (which we did NOT sign up for).
Overall I think this company has some serious management issues and I’m simply amazed that they’re even still in business. Their only saving grace was their hookup with Living Social which is the ONLY reason why we even signed up for a tour, but hopefully these reviews will help save people time, money, and frustration. Luckly I’ve gotten a refund back from Living Social but hopefully they’ll get smart and drop these guys like a hot potato.

Zero Stars! Don’t go, it was a total sham.
Like other posters on this page, our original tour of Old Town was cancelled due to restaurants «no longer participating». We rescheduled a tour of Dupont Circle for June 9^th.
We live out in Chantilly, and with Pride Weekend going on, it took some planning to get all the way out to DC and to Dupont Circle while fighting the crowds of people. There was also a Girl Scout national event going on, so there were also tons of 10 year olds running around. The tour email that we had received the night before the tour instructed us to meet at the Dupont Circle Metro stop. Really? Meet at the busiest part of the neighborhood with thousands of people walking by in 90+ degree weather?
The email instructed us that the guide would be there from 2:15 to 3:15 and to NOT BE LATE or the tour would leave without us. We got there at 2:30 but didn’t see any guide, so we walked around and came back at 3:00. Still no guide. We tried to call her and it went straight to voicemail.
As other people arrived, they said that they were trying to reach her by phone as well. One guy said he talked to her and she said she was running a few minutes late. With the packed Metro trains and the tons of people in the neighborhood, we gave her the benefit of the doubt and waited on the hot sidewalk until 4pm. At that point, our group of 20 people up and left.
We were hungry and hot, and walked to a nearby restaurant to eat. All in all, with travel time and waiting around, we spent 5 hours in the city for nothing. And we were so grouchy that we couldn’t even enjoy our afternoon.
We got our money back from Groupon but have not heard anything back from the company or the guide that we left several messages and emails with. They simply don’t care. We wonder if the guide just decided it wasn’t worth having 20 grumpy people when she arrived and didn’t bother coming, or if she was ever coming at all.
Total sham.

I wish there was a ZERO STAR choice.
Like everyone else, DO NOT buy tickets for this tour company in any city… especially DC. We had originally signed up in March for a tour for Georgetown in May. About a week before the G’Town tour, the company emailed me saying that due to canceled restaurants, the tour was canceled. We were able to go schedule a new tour, and we selected the Dupont Circle tour on June 9^th.
The email we received the day before the tour told us to meet at the appointed location (outside a metro stop, picture was given to confirm the site), between 215 and 315, along with the name and number of the tour guide.
The entire tour group was there at 315, but no sign of the tour guide. We all tried to contact the tour guide via phone and text, but no response. At 4pm, we all decided to leave.
I’ve since emailed the company asking for an explanation and resolution to the missed tour, but have yet to receive a response. I’ve contacted Living Social, and received a credit for the purchase however.
Do not use this tour company for any reason. It’s not worth the trouble or the money you won’t see again.

Do NOT waste your money and go on a tour with them! My friends and I signed up for a Dupont Circle tour for this past weekend. The e-​mail with information claimed the tour guide would be there from 2:15 to 3:15 to gather people. We got there around 3 and didn’t see the guide. One of my friends called the guide who said she was coming and would find us. After the one answer, we were never able to get a hold of her. Neither were the other folks we met who were all waiting on the tour. We tried calling the company (just got a pre-​recorded message), texting and calling the guide, and e-​mailing the company. None of this worked, so the collective group of us left at 4. We planned our day around this tour and ended up sitting around for no reason during the afternoon. Thankfully since we purchased the deals through LivingSocial, we got credited. We still have not heard anything from the company.

UPDATE on the UPDATE: Rescheduling Georgetown tour to Dupont Circle, I’ve updated my 1 start to 1.5 star because I had a different tour guide this time who was more organized. We went to (in the order of where I would want to go back) ***Panache, ***Café Citron and ***Maiwah Chinese, ***Malaysia Kopitiam. Again out of 4 stars are my food rating. The food portions at the Chinese place were pretty much a full meal. Citron gave mojitos and demo, appetizer tastings. Panache a sampling of a lot of their tapas and 1 desert. For whatever reason, this Dupont tour was much more improved. The guide did not give information about the area, history etc also but he just got us in and out pretty quickly with each place. Much smoother. And the places were slightly farther away so there was more walking. I had a better time probably because we had our money’s worth of food. Still can’t give City Tours itself a good recommendation but I will recommend the Dupont Circle tour as I found some restaurants I liked to go back to.

Booked a tour in Old Town, VA and they canceled it on us. We rescheduled to go on the Dupont Circle tour and then canceled that one on us. The excuse for Old Town is the restaurants weren’t cooperating with them. The excuse for Dupont Circle is the restaurants didn’t want to participate because it was on Cinco de Mayo. Poor organization and planning all round. They provided us a complimentary voucher for another tour. Why would I want an additional voucher when I still haven’t been on my first tour after 2 attempts in a 3 month period?! Good luck to you if you decide to try this.

What a joke. These people are unprofessional, unorganized and provide horrific customer service.
I booked a tour for four people 2.5 months in advance, got an email the week of my scheduled tour letting me know it had been canceled and that we needed to pick a different neighborhood AND weekend. When I explained I had family friends in town and couldn’t reschedule, they were completely unaccommodating and unapologetic.
Will not be participating in any future tours and definitely wouldn’t recommend anyone else doing so.

This is a review for DUPONT CIRCLE
Weeks in advance my boyfriend and I made a reservation to go to the Georgetown tour. Two days before the tour, we received an email informing us that the tour had been pushed back in hour (from 2 to 3) and that two restaurants in Georgetown had cancelled and City Tour had been unable to find «worthy replacements» so they had moved our tour to Dupoint Circle. Our group was so big that we had two tour guides, but one of the guides arrived late and we did not leave until 20 minutes later than we were supposed to (at about 3:20).
We went to four restaurants: Malaysia Kopitiam, Mad Hatters, Café Citron, and Panache. At Malaysia Kopitiam we had a tasty mango salad, dumpling-​like food made of potato with chicken, and some chicken in soy sauce. Overall it was fairly good. Then we went to Mad Hatters where we had a taste of crab cakes, shrimp, and sliders. The shrimp by far was my favorite of the entire tour. At Café Citron we had a taste of the mojitos (only alcohol served the entire tour), ceviche shrimp, fried shrimp, and a choice of chicken or beef quesadillas. I had the chicken quesadillas and was not impressed by any of the food at café citron. However, the mojito and the atmosphere were good and my bf enjoyed the beef quesadilla. Finally, we went to Panache where they assorted numerous appetizers for us to serve ourselves and told us they could bring out more. The appetizers were bread, scallions, beef on skewers, and tuna tartare. I was least impressed with Panache which may have been because I was least hungry or the food was just not very impressive.
Overall, the food was decent and it was fun to go around to different restaurants. Our tour guide was nice. However, these positives do not make up for the last minute delay, the tardy guide, and the change in location. Furthermore, my friend who also signed up for a Georgetown tour which was scheduled a few weeks prior also had her tour cancelled and did not have it replaced with another tour.