Harlem Walking Tour: Mount Morris Park Historic District w/ Lunch

Tour was advertised as being “immersive” but was anything but. Not as described. Avoid. Our guide was friendly, but had little to no knowledge of the area that we were visiting. The tour description promised a deeper insight into Harlem,NY, but we got nothing of the sort. In fact, the guide spent the majority of her time looking information up on her mobile! Why were we paying $$ for someone advertised as being well versed in the locations, information and history of Harlem who clearly did not have this knowledge. Instead it basically was what WE could have looked up on our own. We were quite literally watching the guide on her phone looking everything up! We hired and paid so we could learn, not stand on corners while guide looked up things on her mobile. (From their listing): This tour was described as being “a captivating journey through the heart of Harlem's cultural heritage, led by a local guide”. The description went on to say “Step into the world of literary giant Langston Hughes at his historic home, gaining insight into his profound impact on American literature.” (The guide had ever even heard of Langston Hughes) And: “Explore the cultural reservoirs of the Schomburg Center and the National Jazz Museum” (we did not make it to either of these places) Finally the description says: “This guided tour promises an immersive and enlightening experience, offering a deeper understanding of Harlem's rich tapestry of culture and heritage” No, there was nothing immersive OR enlightening about this. I can’t stress enough that the guide was looking everything up real time. Literally, this was ridiculous. Tour guide was friendly enough, but that is definitely NOT enough to make up for the misleading advertising. Get Your Guide should do a better job vetting new vendors. Their company’s guides seem to work primarily in Europe so perhaps that explains the lack of expertise here? However this doesn’t make up for my paying (x2 people) for this. When I shared this experience with get your guide, they refunded me 25% of the total. This was shocking to me that they would not stand behind the customer when the experience was clearly not as described. So the bottom line is: We didn’t get what was advertised, and after alerting the company they did not provide a refund or appear in any way interesting in the issue. Harlem is a beautiful place. I wish we had gotten more of what was promised.

The tour guide was very knowledgeable about Harlem. It was a solo adventure for me- with a group of four; however, they all made me feel apart of the group ! It was an amazing experience for me.

The local knowledge of the tour operators as people who have lived in the neighborhood their whole lives.