Walking Tour The American Revolution And Alexandria

The tour was accommodating beyond expectation. We learned so much. Answers to questions came before I ever asked. We learned so much, and gained an appreciation of Alexandria and the Revolution and various participants that would not have been possible on our own. It was a great experience.

Loved it - the guide was knowledgeable and personable. Tour length was good. Locations selected for tour were interesting.

We thoroughly enjoyed the walking tour with John. He is very knowledgeable about the area and explained things so well. We enjoyed learning about the history of the area and seeing the historic buildings. When the tour was done, John made sure everyone knew how to get to the bus and how to get back to their car if applicable. He was a wonderful tour guide.

Tim is an exceptional historical guide. I have booked his tours numerous times when I have company visit. He has always exceeded my expectations in knowledge and ability to engage his guests!

Trent was a wonderful, engaging guide who is extremely knowledgable about the history of both Alexandria and the American Revolution. My daughter and I are both history buffs and we still walked away learning so much. One of the best tours I've had anywhere and will be booking again with more family in the fall. Book without hesitation, well worth every dime!

Highly recommend! Tim was very knowledgeable and my son and I learned many things we were not aware of. The tour is at a reasonable walking pace.

Eye-opening tour that lets you walk in the steps of our nation’s heroes amidst Alexandria’s rise and the Revolution. Tim kept us engaged with thought-provoking questions, incisive answers, visual aids and a masterful command of Alexandria and Revolutionary War facts, figures and connections (reflecting that our guide is a military history buff, former Marine and, as I later realized, has written an entire book on Alexandria and the Revolution). My highlight/goosebumps moment was visiting George Washington’s very own box pew at Christ Church. I’ve been on many tours, and this one is a rare gem that’s a bit like jazz - combining the technicality of subject matter expertise; infusing passion, relatability and just enough humor to keep tour-goers excited; and agility that hits all the right notes while skillfully improvising on the curveballs of conversation + environment (Tim maximized shaded spots and cold water for us during a heat wave!). Highly recommend.

This was an excellent tour. Tim was a fabulous guide. His passion and knowledge was awesome.

Excellent tour and experience, thank you!

We really enjoyed this very informative tour of the founding and history of Alexandria: the people (like George Washington), the places (like Christ Church), and the events (like the American Revolution) that shaped this town. Tim is an excellent storyteller and able to answer any of the questions our group threw at him. We even found his book (George Washington and Alexandria: A Founding Friendship) in one of the shops later in the day. Highly recommend this tour!

Tim and Trent make American history come alive. They are very passionate about their subject and will keep you spellbound. There's a wonderful, spine-tingling surprise at the end of the tour. A must for history buffs.

Tim is the owner and gave us the tour. Super knowledgeable and you can tell he does a lot of research to constantly provide new, relevant information! Would absolutely schedule another tour with him!

Wayne was a terrific guide! He was knowledgeable and had great stories. He was sensitive to the needs of the group. We would tour with him again.

John was a very experienced and knowledgeable tour guide. We really enjoyed walking around Alexandria and seeing the highlights of the city that involved George Washington and the Revolutionary War.

Wayne was an excellent tour guide. I walk slowly and he waited until I caught up to the group before starting the the talk about each stop. Good use of visuals!

Our guide, Tim, was wonderful! He was so knowledgeable and informative. We learned so much and really enjoyed our tour. We highly recommend Tim with Alexandria History Tours!!!

We Highly recommend this tour.

Our guides, Tim and Trent were gracious and knowledgeable in the history of Old Alexandria and utilized a notebook of pictures and drawings as was appropriate at our various stops. I especially appreciated their welcoming attitude toward all our questions, even those that went outside the topic of the American Revolution! An important note on parking: if you have a vehicle over 6’ high you can’t fit into parking garages, and street-side parking is typically 2 hrs. Even though the tour length is 1.5 hrs, you may exceed 2 hours overall.

Excellent tour. John was very friendly and knowledgeable and helped us with our further plans. Highly recommended!!

Fantastic tour. Tim is knowledgeable and passionate about the local history

Tim is incredibly knowledgeable and skillfully connects broader American history to local Alexandria and the greater DC area through the stories of the people who lived there. His genuine appreciation for the subject really comes through - the 1.5-hour tour flew by. I’ve lived in the DC area for years and took this tour with visiting family, and I’d absolutely take future guests on the tour (even repeating it myself!).

Wayne was an excellent guide!

Tim is great! Very informative and highly enjoyable!

A fun and informative trip around key sites in Alexandria's Revolutionary War history. Guide shared information about George Washington, John Carlyle, and other key figures while interspersing with humorous anecdotes. You could be just curious about history or have a strong background and still come away learning something.

Our tour guide was excellent. He was very knowledgable, friendly and very informative. His voice projected perfectly for our group. He was passionate about George Washington and had a lot of interesting stories about it- we loved it!! Would definitely pick him again

This tour truly brought the American Revolution to life in my mind. Seeing and being able to touch these important historical places was priceless. I now have a feel for this important time period. I was humbled by my lack of knowledge about the reality of the American Revolution.

It was a massive wealth of information that gave me a true view of what life was like for George Washington in Alexandria. I now have a clearer understanding of the American Revolution.

Did this historic tour with my family. Tim is a such a great personable guy he makes you feel comfortable asking dumb questions. We learned so much I would do it again on a heartbeat. Do not miss this tour if you love this time period in history.!

Wayne was excellent, personable and very knowledgeable. I would highly recommend this tour. We had a mixture of locals and out of towners and everyone learned new information.

tl;dr - This is absolutely worth $30, for sure. But know that 1) it's not a private tour 2) the emphasis on the Revolution is dependent on whether Tim gives the tour or not and 3) if it's not Tim, it can be a lot details thrown at you while fast-paced walking. Long version: My group appreciated this tour, but were a little disappointing for a few reasons. I think having Tim as our guide would have changed our experience. My husband and I are ardent Rev.War fans, and were hoping to dig into that. First, note that this is not a private tour. It's not a huge deal (it was just embarrassing to me because I had billed it as such to my group of 5). Just note that this isn't called out on the Tripadvisor page as a public tour. Maybe it's my inexperience. When I asked our tour guide (who was not Tim) about it, her response was "Well, you should have known. It's clearly spelled out on the website that it's a public tour". Unfortunately, many people who book through TripAdvisor don't actually dig to find the main tour website. It's a shame, because if I had, I actually would have paid the surcharge for the private tour. The second part of the tour was the tour guide and how she handled the tour. Eileen was very knowledgeable, and clearly passionate about the history of Old Town Alexandria. But if you think that you're going to learn a lot about OT Alexandria's role in the Revolutionary War - you won't. She opened the tour with "Well, Alexandria only had 2 main crossovers with the War, and we won't be discussing them today" - and instead, led a tour that was largely focused on the life and times of George Washington - which is not the same as a tour on the American Revolution. It was interesting (when we weren't being overwhelmed), but it wasn't really about the Revolution, it was a story arc that mostly covered Washington's life - before and after the War. It shed new light on Washington (and puts him in a more human light). From time to time she'll branch out a bit from him and superficially cover other events that happened around that time, but won't stray far. A good example is Carlyle house. What she covered there is about *half* of what Tim covers in his video on the same stop - leaving out most of the military campaign aspects, and a few other interesting stories. In terms of the tour, she ran long and indicated that she usually does. At the beginning of the tour she said "I'll stop at 2:30, wherever we are, and let you know so we can make a decision on whether or not to continue". Again, not a big deal - except that her length of tour is not because she's giving us a lot of detail and stories at the stops we make, but it's because we make so many stops. Looking at the itinerary, I think we stopped probably at 2-3x the number of places that are listed. That would be great for a 2.5-3 hour tour. But for a 90m tour the experience comes off as a firehose of details with very little time to engage in the history about any of the stops, take pictures or ask questions. Halfway through the tour it was clear our job was to walk fast and listen. We ended about 15m late, at an apothecary shop across from the visitor's center. All in - my group appreciated what we had learned. Eileen is knowledgeable, passionate and cares about delivering an educational experience. It just wasn't quite what we were expecting.

Really enjoyed this tour. Tim was fantastic — super knowledgeable and clearly passionate about the history of Alexandria and the Revolution. This is the only tour company in town focused purely on history. Learned a ton and had a great time doing it.

Our guide Wayne was very knowledgeable and entertaining. He added anecdotes to help make the knowledge easier to understand.

This is honestly the best tour I have ever been on. Tim is a wealth of knowledge and had my grandsons ( ages 9 and 12) and me completely absorbed. I went into the tour hoping to learn about George Washington and Alexandria’s relationship to the Revolutionary War, especially since we live nearby in Arlington. Not only was that goal met, but I now feel a personal relationship with George and many of Alexandria’s key players. What an amazing group of people! What an amazing history Alexandria has! And Tim, I have already viewed your YouTube videos and am looking forward to more. Thank you so much! Michele

Very informative! Tim did a great job of engaging the range of ages (13 to 81) we had in our group. A must for Revolutionary era history buffs! I especially appreciated his thoughtfulness in making sure the walking pace of the tour and the volume for those with hearing difficulties met our needs.

We have had the pleasure of visiting Washington, DC on several occasions and have been eager to explore other towns and cities in the surrounding area. The tour we participated in was exceptionally informative and engaging, allowing us to share delightful moments and reflections on our enriched experiences and newfound knowledge.

John was a great guide, very knowledgeable. We even got caught in a rain storm and he had a plan to get us to cover.

We had a great afternoon on this tour. Tim our guide was very knowledgable and great fun. The tour was just right, the right pace, the right history, and lots of time to ask questions. We would highly recommend this tour. Thanks for a great afternoon.

Excellent tour of Alexandria! Tim is so knowledgeable of the area and shared extensive historical information. Well paced walk, very accommodating on a fairly warm day. Thoroughly enjoyed our time with Tim and highly recommend the tours he leads in lovely Alexandria!!

Tim, the owner, led our walking tour. Talk about knowledgeable!! It’s obvious that he has a passion, and the facts to back it up, when talking about history in Old Alexandria. One of the most impressive things on the tour was Tim’s folder. As a visual learner, it was really helpful to have documents, land surveys, descriptions and drawings of properties, bodies of water, etc. all in his folder so that I could connect the spoken word with the visual information. We would highly recommend taking a tour, and if we’re ever back in Old Alexandria, we’ll be joining Tim’s company on another tour.

Great tour and great tour guide Wayne! We learned so many things about the Revolutionary War, George Washington, and the part Alexandria played in the start of our country. Wayne had photos to share and lots of interesting facts that brought the history to life. Recommend this tour.

Tim was great with lots of good stories. He even took a little detour to show us the old Elks Lodge building since we elks. Good exercise.

We enjoyed the 90 minute walking tour of Alexandria during the Revolution. John pointed out many homes and their owners who were influential at the time. Many were friends of GeorgecWashington. I highly recommend this tour. I learned so much about the buildings I was walking by each day.

Tim was an excellent guide. He had very good knowledge of local history and a passion for the subject. He took a person interest in everyone on the walking tour and ensured everyone’s interests were addressed. The pace and scope of the tour was ideal and I am inspired to read up more and hopefully visit again.

My friends and I agreed that this was an excellent tour that ended in Christ Church, where we sat in George Washington's family seats. Our guide, Tim, told the history of Alexandria in a conversational way that was easy to remember. He was very knowledgeable, with 'just enough, not too much' historical background and good stories about important places in the city. It was a great overview that left us interested in discovering more.

Tim our guide was great. Great knowledge of local history and connection of Alexandria with George Washington and other historical figures. He also talked about structural history of buildings that are of significance. I recommend Tim as a guide for anyone who are looking for tour of Alexandria. My 10 year old son loved his tour so much that he wanted to get another tour from him.

My daughter and I did the American Revolution history tour with Wayne and it was FABULOUS. My daughter is a history major, I'm a science geek so there's no way I thought this was going to be interesting to me, but I absolutely loved it. Wayne made it interesting for everyone, made 2 minute side stops that brought it all together. I have no idea how anyone keeps all that random information in their head, but it was amazing to see the history come to life. One of the best tours we've been on in a long time. Book it!

Wonderful and informative tour. Learned so many things about Alexandria that we didn't know before taking the tour. I would highly recommend it.

Great tour and fantastic guide. Filled with interesting facts from someone who has obviously spent years researching the founding and history of Alexandria. Guide spent ample time at each site, expounding by answering group questions. Even as the tour went slightly over time, they continued to provide great information. We were even taken into the fial church, which was an extra, and very special.

Tim was very knowledgeable and gave us a lot of interesting in-depth stories. We enjoyed having only us on the tour. Thanks