Lower East Side History Project Tours

We went on the Saturday mafia tour with Eric and it was the our favorite thing we did in NY! Eric was a great guide with interesting stories and insight to the Mafia and how it came about. I would take this tour again just to listen to Eric talk! The whole tour was fascinating to me and most of us (there were 12 on our walking tour) wanted to keep going. I can’t say enough good things about Eric and his tour! The only thing that would have been better is if it were longer! Thanks Eric! Hope to see you again on my next trip to New York!

BOTTOM LINE: This is a great tour if you’re looking for a knowledgeable guide who has a personal connection to the area. It is truly the best historical tour of its kind in the city, perfect for history buffs and the passingly curious alike.
THE LONG VERSION: I took the Five Points/​Bowery tour today, and I had so much fun. Our tour guide was a longtime resident of the LES, and he made it feel as though we were getting an inside look at the neighborhood. I have taken dozens of walking tours in various cities, and I came away from this one feeling more enriched and informed than any other tour I’ve taken.
Our guide was very approachable, an entertaining storyteller, and great at handling an audience with varied levels of foreknowledge of the area and its history. He was attentive to what we were interested in and then made an effort to cover those topics along the way. I suspect that no two of his tours are exactly the same because he focuses on what each group is uniquely excited to see. In addition to his personal familiarity with the neighborhood, he was very knowledgeable about its history, dating back to Peter Stuyvesant, and he had an excellent command of the complex social history of the area.
From a practical perspective, it was easy to reserve a spot on the tour. If you decide to join less than 6 hours before the start of the tour, you call to reserve a spot. Someone promptly called us back to confirm after we left a message.

Great tour for any history enthusiast. Also helpful that he grew up in the neighborhood.

I did the Mafia tour with Eric and it was an excellent way to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday. It wasn’t so much a tour of the graphic «hits» but a real historic walkabout where he explains the birth of the Mafia 500 years ago and how the massive influx of immigrants created their own «mini countries» that changed block by block. It’s really a snapshot of the history of New York.
What’s really cool is that so many places we walk by everyday have deep, dark secrets. Hip clothing stores and shoe shops today were once speakeasy’s and members only clubs. Modern eateries and bars have replaced dens of gambling, counterfeiting, and drug distribution hotspots. All the illegal liquor flowing through the city during prohibition was bought and sold across the street of police HQ.
Modern NY is great, but to really appreciate it, you need to look at its DNA.

Through a careless search for the Lower East Side Tenement Museum website in late 2009, I came across the website for the Lower East Side History Project. Since that auspicious occasion, I’ve taken the Battery, Lower East Side, Mafia, Chinatown/​Five Points and Radical Spirits Bar Crawl tours. I’ve taken them in the rain and in the heat, and the tour guides’ energy never flagged.
And, whether the group has consisted of just me, or 20 people, the level of involvement and interest on the part of the tour guide has always been 100%.
I really enjoy the ability to ask questions, go off-​topic temporarily, and generally interact with the guide in a very positive way. They’ve always been friendly, passionate about the information they’re sharing and easy to talk to. There have even been offers to go over the stated limit, if the folks are into it!
I wouldn’t ever hesitate to recommend these tours, nor would I hesitate to repeat a tour, as I firmly believe that once is NEVER enough!

I was SUPER excited to take this tour. My brother came into town (his first time in New York, mind you) and I wanted to make his trip super special. He is quite the organized crime buff and I found this tour a month in advance and specifically got him hyped up about it and all of the reviews. Furthermore, I tried to make reservations and was told «No need.» We show up on the tour day, 20 minutes ahead of the listed time to make sure we knew where we were going. Needless to say, we (along with three other parties) waited over 45 minutes for the tour guide… outside… in 90 degree heat. I am sure that if we were able to go on this tour, I would have been impressed. However, I will never again waste my Saturday waiting outside for a tour guide that may or may not decide to show up. There needs to be a number to call to RSVP to guarantee a spot… and that there is an actual tour happening.
The tour guide gave us zero consideration, thus, we are giving you all this to consider.

Thanks to Unilocal,I found out about this non-​profit org. and went on the Gangster, Murders, and Weirdos walking tour of the Lower East Side last Sat. Got to Bowery Poetry Club lil shy of 2 pm, ordered an ice-​tea on the house. Luckily enough again, there were only 4 in my group and we had an amazing 3 hour tour of the LES!
I’m so bringing more friends on this tour.

I feel bad doing this because, honestly, I have never been on one of the tours. I tried. I walked over to The Gangsters, Murderers and Weirdos walking tour scheduled for this past Saturday at 11am where I waited with about 15 other people for 45 mins. No guide ever showed up.
I was bummed, it seemed like a pretty cool tour. There is a slight chance I will try again, and if it happens, I will change my review.