Summer in New York City moves fast — but if you ask the guests who spent it walking our streets with a Like A Local Tours guide, a few moments always stand out: the first bite of Lower East Side pizza, a story about a building they’d walked past a hundred times without noticing, and a High Line sunset that makes the whole city look different. This summer, those moments added up to a 4.93-star average across every reviewable booking platform — and they’re a good excuse to look back at what made the season work.
A Summer Rated 4.93 Stars, One Walking Tour at a Time
At Like A Local Tours, we’ve always believed the best way to experience New York City isn’t from a bus window or a scripted script — it’s on foot, with someone who actually lives here. That belief is easy to say and harder to prove, so we let our guests do the talking. Across our food and history walking tours this summer, from the cobblestones of the Meatpacking District to the elevated greenery of the High Line, guest reviews averaged 4.93 out of 5 stars. For a company built entirely on small-group, guide-led experiences, that rating is the clearest signal we have that the formula works: real neighborhoods, real food, and guides who know both inside and out.
Our Lower East Side Pizza Tour’s Perfect Season
If one tour defined the summer, it was our Lower East Side Pizza Tour. Between June and August, it didn’t just perform well, it posted a perfect 100% five-star rating, with every single review landing at 5.0.
What makes the Lower East Side such fertile ground for a pizza tour is the neighborhood itself. It’s one of the most historically layered corners of Manhattan, and the pizzerias along its streets carry decades of immigrant history, family ownership, and neighborhood loyalty. Our guides use that backdrop to turn a slice into a story, pairing each stop with the history of the block it sits on. Guests leave full, but they also leave with a much better answer to “where’s the best pizza in NYC” than they walked in with.
Meet the Guides Behind the Stories
Every tour is only as good as the person leading it, and this summer three guides in particular stood out in guest feedback.
Justin closed the season with a perfect 100% five-star record, earning praise for pacing history and humor so well that even lifelong New Yorkers said they learned something new about their own city. Seth, nicknamed our “Top Historian” by guests, is known for going deep — pointing out everything from architectural details to, memorably, the neighborhood’s bodega cats. Michele brings a different kind of energy, using vintage photographs to bring the history of local markets and the High Line to life in a way guests consistently describe as immersive.
Guides like these are the real differentiator for a walking tour company. Itineraries can be copied; storytelling can’t.
The Surprise Guests Didn’t Expect: NYC’s Architecture and History
Here’s a data point that surprised even us: 70% of guests said the neighborhood’s history and architecture surprised them even more than the food did. Given that food is often the headline of our tours, that’s a meaningful signal about what guests actually value most once they’re on the street.
Food is the reason people book a tour, but the context around it is what turns a good meal into a memorable afternoon. We love explaining why a building has a certain facade, what a block used to be before it was what it is now, and which storefronts have survived decades of change. It’s also exactly the kind of detail that’s hard to find without a local guide, which is part of why “hidden gems in NYC” and “off the beaten path New York City” remain some of the most searched phrases among travelers planning a trip here.
What’s Next: Fall Tours Are Now Open for Booking
Summer set the bar high, and now our fall calendar is live. Cooler weather, thinner crowds, and some of the best light New York City sees all year make autumn an ideal season for a walking tour.
Spots on our most popular tours, including the Lower East Side Pizza Tour, tend to fill up quickly once the weather turns. If summer’s reviews are any indication, now’s the time to book.
