Dyker Heights Christmas Lights Guided Tour
Restroom on boardLicensed guideHeated vehicle
From $63 per person
Getting to the Dyker Heights Christmas Lights
Dyker Heights is one of the few neighbourhoods in Brooklyn that the subway does not reach. Every route ends in a walk of ten to fifteen minutes, and that single fact decides more about this evening than anything else — it is why the coaches exist, why the parking is impossible, and why a fifteen-minute stroll in the cold is part of doing it yourself.
The subway does not go to Dyker Heights
There is no station in the neighbourhood. The lines run along its edges and stop short: the R along Fourth Avenue in Bay Ridge to the west, the D and the N along New Utrecht Avenue to the east. Between those tracks and the decorated blocks sits about three quarters of a mile of residential Brooklyn, uphill.
That is not a complaint about the transit map. It is the reason the display stayed a neighbourhood thing for as long as it did, and it is the reason more than a hundred thousand people a year now arrive on a coach. A Dyker Heights Christmas Lights bus tour exists to solve exactly this problem and nothing else.
Four ways in, and the last one is the only one where the walk is the point rather than the price.
| How you get there | From Midtown | What it costs | The walk at the far end |
|---|---|---|---|
| D train to 79th Street | 45–55 minutes | One subway fare each way | 10–15 minutes, uphill |
| R train to 86th Street | 50–60 minutes | One subway fare each way | 10–15 minutes, uphill |
| Driving yourself | 40–90 minutes, traffic dependent | Fuel, tolls and a parking space you may not find | Whatever you park from |
| Taxi or rideshare | 35–60 minutes | Surge pricing on December evenings | None either way |
| Guided coach from Midtown | Collected at a fixed corner | From $45 per person, return | The guided hour is the walk |
The D train to 79th Street
Where you get off: 79th Street on New Utrecht Avenue, an elevated
station on the eastern edge of the neighbourhood.
Which way you walk: west and slightly downhill at first, then up. Aim for
the corner of 12th Avenue and 84th Street.
How long: ten to fifteen minutes at a normal pace, longer in a crowd.
Coming back: the same station, and it is busy from about eight o'clock
onwards.
The D is usually the quicker of the two from Midtown because it runs express for much of the way. The 71st Street station on the same line is a similar walk and drops you nearer the northern blocks.
The R train to 86th Street
Where you get off: 86th Street in Bay Ridge, on Fourth Avenue.
Which way you walk: east along 86th Street, straight and simple, for about
two thirds of a mile.
How long: ten to fifteen minutes, gently uphill the whole way.
Coming back: the same walk in reverse, downhill, which is easier than it
sounds after an hour standing still.
The R is a local train and slower, but the walk is the easiest of the two to follow because it is one street in one direction. If you are navigating for other people in the dark, take the R.
The buses that do reach the blocks
Eight routes serve Dyker Heights: the B1, B4, B8, B16, B64 and B70, plus the X28 and X38 express services. The B1 along 86th Street and the B64 along 13th Avenue are the two that put you closest to the display, and either turns the subway walk into a couple of blocks.
What the buses do not solve is the journey out of Manhattan, which still means a train first. They are worth knowing about mainly on the way home, when a bus to the subway beats a fifteen-minute walk in the cold.
Driving, and the parking problem
You can drive, and on a quiet weeknight in early December it is fine. On a Saturday in mid-December it is the worst way to do this. The streets are residential, the spaces belong to people who live there, and the through roads carry heavy traffic from five o'clock onwards. The city puts extra traffic control on the neighbourhood for the season, which tells you how much of it is needed.
If you are driving anyway, park further out than feels necessary — 14th or 15th Avenue, or the streets between 79th and 86th — and walk the last few blocks. You will lose less time than circling.
Parking is the reason most people give up on driving. It is also the reason the coach fare looks reasonable once you have priced a December evening of circling. The bus tours page sets out what each departure covers.
Taxi, rideshare and what the fare buys
A car from Midtown to Dyker Heights takes between thirty-five minutes and an hour depending on the night, and it drops you exactly where you ask. That is the one thing no other option does. What it does not buy is the way back: at nine o'clock on a Saturday you are competing for a car with several thousand other visitors, and the surge pricing knows it.
Booking the return in advance solves that, which is essentially what a private vehicle is — a car that waits.
When a guided trip is simply cheaper
Do the arithmetic honestly. Two subway fares each way for two people is a few dollars, and that is genuinely the cheapest way to see the lights. Add a rideshare home because it is cold and dark, and the gap closes fast. Add a third or fourth person and a per-person coach fare from $45 starts to look like the sensible option rather than the lazy one.
The other half of it is not money. On a coach somebody knows which four blocks are worth your hour, and reviewers who considered the subway and booked anyway say the same thing afterwards. If you would rather work it out yourself, the route page and going without a tour tell you how.
Skip the transfer and the walk from the station
Every departure below collects you at a published Midtown corner and brings you back to one. Compare what each covers before you decide.
Once you know how you are getting there, what the evening involves and which nights to pick are the next two decisions. Every departure is listed on Dyker Heights Christmas Lights Tours.
Tours that solve the getting there entirely
Dyker Heights Christmas Lights and NYC Skyline View Bus Tour
Licensed guideCoach travelMax 150
From $69 per person
Christmas Lights Tour in New York City Dyker Heights
Portuguese & SpanishHeated vehicleWiFi on board
From $45 per person