Urban Adventures Washington DC — Local services in Washington

I was staying in DC for a long weekend to celebrate my 3 year anniversary. I booked a DC Craft Cocktail experience. Every single aspect of the experience was a disaster and a disappointment after that. It was literally impossible to find the meet up location. I spent 20 minutes circling around looking for it. No one I asked or my Uber driver knew what it was. I called customer service and it took over 20 minutes to get in contact with someone. We had to take a car to meet the group at the first bar. The first bar was a trashy dive bar I found not pleasure being inside of. The group had already finished most of their “craft drink” which from the looks of I did not miss out on much. I had visited several nice craft bars before this experiment in DC, there was nothing special about this one. The whole purpose of this tour was supposed to be to learn about how prohibition influenced DC and go to historic bars. The first bar’s only relevant history was being a failed night club turned bar. The description was very misleading. The tour guide was rude, unwelcoming, and barely said I word the 15 minutes we were with our group. He seemed more worried about finishing his drink. Nothing about him reflected being a trained tour guide or knowing anything historically relevant. There was also nothing about learning to and practicing how to make unique craft cocktails, which was a huge selling point of the tour that also failed to be met. The next bar were were supposed to go to looked worse than the first. At this point we called customer service for a refund as this experience was an absolute joke, waste of time, and waste of money. It was pouring rain (actually record rain fall for DC) and no umbrellas offered or transportation offered. It’s like they never heard of the term hospitality. The guide genuinely expected us to walk 3 blocks in down pouring rain. I find this ridiculous considering the description explicitly instructed us to dress nice for a night out in DC. They had no consideration for their guests.

The best part of the tour was when we got in our Uber and went back to our hotel whose bar is actually stellar. I would never book another experience through this company again. I will give them credit for giving me a full refund, but it did not fix us wasting 3 hours of our trip’s Saturday evening. I would recommend this to...

Just did the Politics and Pints tour as part of our Washington DC explorer pass, and it was a complete waste of time and money. First, this is the only “attraction” for the Explorer Pass that requires a reservation. The website would not accept the passcode so I had to call and make thenresverstion over the phone. Finally the day came to take the tour. The street corner when this is supposed to start isnvery hard to find. In fact, the tour guide was standing across the street from our group for at least 10 minutes past the start of the tour. A member of our group had to call the main office to figure out where he was. Once the tour started, half the people left because the tour description was very misleading. We embarked on the tour anyway, but the guide we had seemed to not be trained at all as a guide. He walked in front out our group the entire time and some group members couldn’t hear much of what he was saying. He explicitly told us he knew nothing about architecture or the history of most of the houses and buildings on the tour, which was very disappointing since he was a tour of a neighborhood. Additionally, part of this tour was supposed be include, “Engage in a lively discussion and debate about historic and current American politics, all lead by a local guide.” That did not happen at all. At all! He took us through Eastern Market which had pretty much nothing going on and it seemed to be somewhat of a moneycgtab as he said we could stop and buy whatever we wanted. We’re tourists, staying at a downtown hotel... we have literally no use for raw steaks. Anyways, the tour was supposed to culminate at Molly Malone’s. It did not. The bar he ended at was something else and it wasn’t even open. Also he surprised us and told us all “pints” were on our own dime. This was not explicitly stated when we made the tour reservation. This tour should also not be called Politics and Pints if that is the case. It is total false advertisement. We just told him to forget it and left. The tour was supposed to last two hours but it really only lasted about an hour. This tour did not add to our experience at all We are very disappointed and would love our money back. This was a waste of time. We recommend everyone avoid this tour. Use your Explorer Passes for something better. Urban Adventures...

Annifreed and Montie provided the most enjoyable four hours one could hope for on an overcast/light rain mid-day adventure in DC. Starting out at the Library of Congress both young guides shared their love of history and passion for details found in this spectacularly stunning building. Plenty of time to ask questions, gain knowledge, and be entertained while perusing Thomas Jefferson's collection (uniquely divided into three categories), the valuable Guttenberg Bible, and artwork everywhere (don't forget to take in the ceilings, floors, lower level hallways, etc) After this tourist spot we headed off the beaten path and became acquainted with different neighborhoods, starting in Capitol Hill. We wound up at Hawk and Dove for an IPA refreshment break - you could almost feel the history where movers and shakers decompressed. Continuing our trek we made our way to Seventh Hill Pizza so we could create our own pizza with ingredients we chose - a uniquely positive experience included in your tour! Great fun! Onto the Eastern Market, where we found a resource we all would love to have available in our backyards! The third generation owner of Bower's Fancy Cheese not only took the time to give us his family's history but also was a fountain of information on the actual construction and reconstruction of the Market. Additionally, we all enjoyed tasting several of his highly recommended cheeses and are happy to say we bought some as a gift and to bring home to MA. Our tour yesterday was during the peak days of the Cherry Blossoms so a stop at Ted's Bulletin earned us a shortbread treat actually called a "cherry blossom" pop tart! A short ride on the Circulator drove us through the Barracks and over to the Navy Yard for our last stop of the day. The wine tastings at District Winery were all carefully chosen, very flavorful, and distinctive. Stacy, our tasting coordinator, was most knowledgeable about the grapes origins and provided us with a relaxing way to end this tour with our new DC besties, Annifreed and Montie! Hats off to Urban Adventures for choosing such intelligent, warm, and caring guides who are proud to show off their hometown! So glad we saw this tour in...