Begin with a private tour of the National Museum of American History, where your guide will give you an overview of American history, before exploring the exhibitions in more depth. - See several artefacts underpinning the American political and cultural landscape. - Explore exhibitions that focus on America’s triumphs, tragedies, wars, and protests. - Learn about American women's history, African American history, Latin American history, and any area you have particular interests in.
Enjoy a short break before heading to your next destination, the Museum of Natural History, one of the world’s largest collections of the natural world. - Explore the museum’s highlights, including the Hope Diamond donated by Harry Winston, a T-Rex fossil, and a short film depicting the history of mammals over 200 million years. - Immerse yourself in earth’s many ecosystems, including the Sant Ocean Hall, where you can see some of the smallest and largest animals in the oceans.
Kate was a great tour guide. She was so knowledgable and made each presentation interesting with lots of data and information and even small recreations of the costumes of that time period . all of the family found her very interesting
Very informative, thorough and well articulated. I would highly recommend for anyone interested in having a well guided private tour.
John Grant was the best tour guide we’ve ever had - he was thoughtful, super knowledgeable and was very dedicated to us having a great experience!
Jalesa was very informative and took us to the best highlights of both museums. Took the time to find out about our interests and made sure to include touring those.
I loved our guide, Stephen! It was formative and he was very knowledgeable. He kept a hood pace and provided lots of information we wouldn’t have known walking around solo.
We chose this tour as we were crunched for time and thought that a guide would be able to help us hit the highlights. Our guide was an older gentleman who was full of knowledge. However upon arrival he asked us what we wanted to see- we had not done much research before. He was good in taking us to things he thought we important. I would suggest you know what you want to see ahead of time. Of course it was a whirlwind and we could have had more time, but for the price it was decent. We would have been lost and wasting time if we had meandered around on our own.
Very busy hard to hear.. suggest maybe headphones and microphone to communicate . Other wise AWSOME place to visit.. First time in Washington
We had an excellent time! Our guide Stephen was funny, witty, engaging, and full of interesting anecdotes and facts. Highly recommend! Would have a seen and learned a third of what we did without our guide
Steven is highly knowledgeable and gave us memorable tours of the highlights of both the Museum of American History and the Museum of Natural History -- thank you!
I have been using Viator for all my travel for the past 15 years, this is the second time when after all of the confirmations they just didn't show up. So unless you have back up plans would not book with them. It was only when couldn't find the guide called the guide who stated that she was not on the tour. Again not hearing back from her called the company and they did call back without even an apology just said that there was a miscommunication between the guides and they are canceling it. Just a bit confused then what were all those confirmations for? Its one thing when you are home, but it's a lot worse when you are traveling and get stood up and all of your time and planning goes out of the window.
I love going to museums, but this was the first time I’d done a guided tour and boy have I been doing it wrong! This was the best way to really immerse yourself in the experience and SEE rather than spending your day reading descriptions that don’t even tell the whole story, unlike our guide who had so many little-known facts that were entirely fascinating and really memorialized the experience for me. 10/10 would recommend!
Waste of money. Museums free, didn’t avoid any lines Guide was sick and should have stayed home in bed
Stephan had tremendous knowledge and made the museum visits much richer and accommodated our special request to see a particular exhibit.
Jonah was a wonderful tour guide. He’s very personable and engaging. His knowledge about history and the pieces he highlighted was 👌🏻. I’d recommend the private tour to DC newbies like us.
Natural History Museum exhibits were the best and the war exhibits at the American History Museum. Our guide Jude was well informed and very nice.
Our tour guide John was amazing. He made our trip very informative and enjoyable. We had a great time.
John was excellent. We covered so much in just a few hours. Appreciated all his knowledge and guidance.
Our guide, John, was able to point out tidbits of information that we otherwise would have passed by. He also catered the tour to the areas that interested our party the most.
The tour guide “Chris” was excellent with great knowledge and a wonderful personality. He conducted himself very professionally and made our first trip to the two Smithsonian buildings very pleasant and memorable!
Felt rushed Was to be a 3 hr tour but was only 2 hrs Jonah was nerves Chis (apprentice) was nice but disheveled We asked multiple questions of things we were rushed by but neither knew answers and started to read plaques (which I could do)
Our guide Stephen was very knowledgeable and gave us information I’m sure would not of otherwise had. Very good experience
Amritha was great and very knowledgeable about the exhibits. She was a pleasure to work with. Very personable.
Our tour guide was wonderful. We only had one afternoon for sightseeing. I have a person in a wheelchair and would not have been able to see all the highlights and get description and stores of what we saw. She made our experience great. Highly recommend!
We had a wonderful time! Would highly recommend this tour. The museums are crowded and gigantic and it was our first time visiting. Our guide Jackson was extremely knowledgeable and engaging and he led us through both museums and shared interesting details and inspirational stories. He tailored the tour and stopped at different exhibits based on our interests. It was a great introduction to these amazing museums which we will definitely be visiting again!
We learned many interesting facts and saw several exhibits, however our guide would be better suited for adults.
We were trying to see the Smithsonian museums in a short time period and wanted to hit the highlights so this tour was great. Our tour guide did a great job getting us to really great exhibits and was knowledgeable about the museums.
Excellent tour! Our guide Annalyn was friendly and knowledgeable. The museums were great, particularly the Museum of American History. Would definitely recommend
John was a great guide! He wrangled 4 chatty adults and 3 energetic boys through the museums keeping us informed and engaged. If left by ourselves I’m pretty sure we would have missed 90% of what we accomplished with him as our guide. It was fast-paced but not rushed and we felt like we got to experience the best the museums had to offer. Definitely recommend.
Jalisa Carter was personable, extremely knowledgeable & had lots of interesting small facts to impart. She didnt rush us and she added another area to see during the tour of the American History museum because we mentioned it was of interest to us. We would recommend the private tour of the Smithsonian museums.
Stephen’s hygiene was poor and knowledge limited. He was a friendly person but seemed unprepared. Stephen did share a few humorous stories pertaining to the topics.
Kate has such a vast realm of knowledge. She explains all topics very methodically, concise and personable. Excellent tour guide.
Our guide was very friendly and knowledgeable, sharing little known facts and interacting with the kids to keep them engaged.
John was a very nice, positive, helpful tour guide. I wish the tour could go more places, but I enjoyed returning to both of these places after a long absence.
I’m so glad we hired a guide for the two big museums in DC. We’re a family with 2 teens. Kate knew exactly where all the exhibits were located and guided us right to them through some pretty heavy crowds. She was also very familiar with even the “temporary” exhibits. Kate had some fun surprises up her sleeve that brought the exhibits to life. She inquired to the exhibits we were most interested in seeing. My teens really related to the ways she brought the people behind the exhibits to life!! 5 stars all the way!!
The guide did not seem very knowledgeable about a lot of the museum. I feel I pain a lot of money for a tour I could have done with a head set from the museum. The guide called me and asked what I wanted to see in the museum and I explained I had never been so I was open to anything, but I wanted to see the Jewels in the Museum of NATURAL History. My expectation was he would at least try to put together highlights that he was knowledgeable about, but that did not seem to be the case during the tour. Very disappointing 😞
The Smithsonian museums are huge. Without our tour guide, John, it would have been overwhelming. John was very knowledgeable and focused. He really helped us get the most out of our visit. We walked our legs off, but thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
John was knowledgeable, friendly and very organized. We had a wonderful visit to two Smithsonian museums, and he made sure we saw all the highlights. And, we had a few laughs along the way, too.
Fantastic tour led by an incredible guide. Our guide was great with our kids and was so enjoyable throughout the tour
Incredible museums too much to see!! Went with family. Tour guide John helpful and covered the top things to see.
Truly awful experience with our guide Rick. Kept saying "well there's some stuff over here and some stuff over there" while bringing up his past personal life of how things use to be 60 years ago when he was a kid. Spent 30 minutes each at Julia Child exhibit and First Lady dress exhibit even though we had 12 year boys with us. Was so old and out of shape that we thought he was not going to be to finish...which would have been fine as we were ready to leave him after 20 minutes. It seemed as though he had been to museums maybe twice in his life and decided he could make money giving tours. Trip advisor and Viator should be ashamed they have this giving tours. Our morning guide for Library of Congress and US Capitol was excellent but our afternoon was complete waste of over $350. I guess it's a complete crap shoot as to what guide you get regardless of the actual place you are touring.
The command of interesting historical facts by Rick, our guide. Seeing the original Old Glory that gallantly waved over Fort McHenry in 1814 was emotional as was seeing the original documents, namely, Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and The Bill of Rights
What a wonderful experience! Stephen was amazing not only in telling the story/history but in contextualizing it. Highly recommended!
We have mixed reviews. Overall it was good but feel over priced. The tour guide was often difficult to hear as she walked and talked an we were behind her(BTW only 2 of us). There were times she offered unique information that added value. She kept looking at her phone and the time making it feel like she was overly concerned with time. She did ask about our interests so she could be sure to cover the highlights.
Great tour! Knowledgeable guide. Plenty of time to ask questions. Sensitive to my husband's disability and use of a wheelchair. Would recommend to friends.
This is a good tour if you are looking to see just the highlights. It was worth having the guide to Shepard our family around to what we were most interested in seeing as quickly as possible.
Having a personal guide to show us around was nice! He gave us info we wouldn’t have had otherwise. Rick shared his knowledge & made sure we saw what we wanted to.
Our tour guide was excellent. He was extremely knowledgable and personable. He answered all of our questions in an honest way.
This tour was perfect for taking our 12 yr old grandson on. With so much to see and not a lot of time, we were able to customize this private tour to our specific interests in these museums. MyKensie (our guide) was not only knowledgeable about all types of history but also knew where everything was located in these massive building. That really helped with saving time. We learned she set her sites on being a tour guide in Washington DC during a family trip at the age of 12 and is now fulfilling that dream. She’s had many interesting stories and tidbits that we would have never learned about on our own. Her knowledge spanned from the origins of man to the ruby red shoes of Dorothy from Kansas. We felt we got the best of the best out of both of these amazing places with this tour. It was definitely worth the money.
John was fantastic. We were communicating in advance which made finding each other very easy. He was very helpful and patient with my mother in law and our kids. Our tour was great!
The museums are sooo huge and it was super nice to have a guide to walk you thru them and tell you more background/significance of each exhibit! And that some of the tour was catered specifically to our professions and interests was even better!! Beats just roaming around for sure…especially if your attention wanders like mine! 😁
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