Seven coaches leave Midtown for the same dozen Brooklyn blocks, from $45 a seat. Every one of them includes an hour on foot, because coaches are not allowed into the display streets — so what you are really choosing between is where you start, where you finish and who walks you round. A Dyker Heights Christmas Lights bus tour is the cheapest guided way to do this if you are one or two people.
You meet at a published corner in Midtown at a fixed time. A coach takes you over to Brooklyn with a guide talking, parks near the display, and walks you in. You get an hour on the blocks, then the same coach brings you back — usually to somewhere better than where you started.
The hour on foot is not optional and it is not an add-on. Coaches are not permitted into the decorated streets, which are narrow residential blocks, so every seat you can buy includes a walk. That is the single most useful thing to know before you pick one.
Since everyone has to walk anyway, you may as well walk with a guide who knows which two streets are worth your first twenty minutes. That is what you are buying: not a lift, but somebody's judgement about a dozen blocks you have never seen.
Fares run from $45 to $95 a seat and you know the number before you book. If you are one or two people, that is the cheapest guided way to do this by a distance.
The drive out is forty minutes to an hour each way and it is heated. Several of these coaches carry a toilet on board, which on a four-hour December evening is worth more than it sounds.
You do not park, you do not navigate, and you do not stand on a platform at nine o'clock waiting for a train. On the busiest nights of the season that is most of the value.
The honest comparison, because they are not really competing on price:
Four people in a car and six seats on a coach cost roughly the same. Below four, the coach wins on price; above it, the car usually does.
| Bus tour | Private car | |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay | Per person, $45 to $95 | Per vehicle, $399 to $999 |
| Where it collects you | A published Midtown corner, at a fixed time | Your own hotel or address, at a time you agree |
| Walking | About an hour, on every departure | Optional — the car can drive the streets |
| Who is with you | Up to 40, 50 or 150 other people | Nobody outside your party |
| Best for | One or two travellers, first visit, fixed budget | Four or more, small children, or anyone who would rather not walk |
Check availability — the most-booked coach departure
The full arithmetic is in bus tour or private car, and the vehicles themselves are on the private tours page.
Meeting points are street corners rather than buildings, and they are spread across Midtown between 41st and 51st Streets. Where the evening ends matters more than most people expect, because it decides what you do next.
10th Avenue at 41st Street: ends at a Midtown winter market.
West 32nd Street, behind Greeley Square: ends beside the Rockefeller
Center tree.
1651 Broadway at 51st Street: ends in the greater Times Square area.
8th Avenue at 49th and at 51st: one ends at Rockefeller Center, one at the
winter market.
Worldwide Plaza, West 49th Street: ends near Rockefeller Center.
Always included: return coach travel, a guide, and the hour in the
neighbourhood.
Usually included: a heated vehicle, and on several of them a toilet on
board.
Never included: gratuities. Every one of these listings excludes them, and
tipping a guide is customary here.
Not included on any coach: hotel pickup. Two listings say so explicitly;
the rest simply meet you on a corner.
Not included anywhere: food and drink. Bring cash for the hot chocolate.
One operator states it in its own itinerary: buses are not allowed in Dyker Heights because of the narrow streets. Your coach parks, and your guide walks you to the two most illuminated streets and orients you before letting you wander.
Expect gently sloping pavements, no benches and a crowd. Wear a hat and gloves, because you will be standing still far more than walking. If that hour is the part you want to avoid, you want a car rather than a cheaper seat.
When to book: a week ahead for a weekday, two for a mid-December
weekend.
What it costs: $45 to $95 a seat, and the cheapest runs in Portuguese and
Spanish.
How long: three and a half to four hours, or six on the one that takes in
the Bronx and Queens first.
What time: departures run from 4:15 to 7:00 p.m. The earlier ones travel
out in the last of the daylight.
Cancelling: free up to 24 hours before you travel, on all of them.
Which week you pick is a bigger decision than which coach. The dates page has every operator's published window for this season.
Book something else if walking for an hour on uneven pavement is a problem for anyone in your party. Reviewers who brought a parent or a grandparent say so plainly afterwards, and a private vehicle solves it completely — you stay in the car and still see the streets.
Skip it too if you are a party of four or more, where the per-vehicle price is often the better number, or if you want to set your own pace with a small child. And if you are staying in Brooklyn already, or you simply enjoy working a city out yourself, the subway and the route page will do the job for the price of two fares.
Still weighing it up? Dyker Heights Christmas Lights Tours lists every departure side by side, and what the evening involves is the same whichever you pick.
Between three and a half and four hours for the coach trips, and six hours for the one that takes in the Bronx and Queens first. The private cars run three and a half to four hours. In every case about an hour of that is in Dyker Heights itself and most of the rest is the drive there and back.
A bus tour is a per-person fare from a published Midtown corner at a fixed time, and it always includes an hour on foot — coaches are not allowed into the display streets, so everyone walks. A private tour is a per-vehicle price, it collects you from your own address, and the car can drive the streets, so nobody has to walk if they would rather not. The full comparison is on the bus tours and private tours pages.
About an hour on foot, on every coach tour, because buses are not allowed into the display streets. The blocks are gently uphill — the neighbourhood sits on a hill that rises to about 110 feet — and there is nowhere to sit down. If that is a problem, a private car can stay in the streets with you inside it.
There are none on the display streets — it is a residential neighbourhood, not a venue. Several of the coaches have a restroom on board and one stops for a break on the way out, which is worth checking on the listing before you book. Plan on going before you leave Midtown.
Only on the private vehicles. All three of them collect you from an address you choose, one of them anywhere in the five boroughs and one within Manhattan with an extra charge beyond it. Every coach tour meets at a published street corner instead, and two of them list hotel pickup explicitly as excluded.
It is customary in New York and every single listing here excludes gratuities from the fare. Ten to twenty per cent of the ticket price is the usual range for a guided tour. Carry small notes, because there is nowhere to draw cash on the route.
The volume leader, and the one with a restroom on board. A guide walks you to the two brightest streets, then leaves you loose for the rest of the hour.
From $63 per person
Daily through the season, in English or in Spanish, and the only one of these that walks Bay Ridge as well. Sets you down in the greater Times Square area.
From $55 per person
The widest circuit here: the High Line, the harbour, Washington Square and the Rockefeller tree around your hour in Dyker Heights. Smallest coach, capped at 40.
From $95 per person
Hudson Yards and the 9/11 Memorial on the way out, a full hour on the blocks, and the tree at Rockefeller Center to finish. Capped at 48.
From $75 per person
Three neighbourhoods on foot rather than one, with a dedicated guide who travels separately from the driver. Ends at the Midtown winter market and its rink.
From $75 per person
A 4:30 start buys you sunset over the Hudson before anything is lit. English and German departures. The largest coach group of the seven, at up to 150 seats.
From $69 per person
The cheapest seat here, guided in Portuguese and Spanish. The Vessel, an hour in Dyker Heights and the DUMBO viewpoint in three and a half hours.
From $45 per person