Affiliate Disclosure
The short version: when you book a tour through a link here, the site earns a small commission and you pay the same price. No operator can buy a better position. Exploring DC's monuments and haunted streets on your own earns it nothing.
A Comparison Site, Not An Operator
This site compares moonlight trolley rides, ghost walks, haunted pub crawls, night cruises and evening bike tours, and that is all it does. No lantern is carried here, no story told in person, no pint poured. The companies behind the fifteen cards, Historic Tours of America, DC by Foot, US Ghost Adventures, Nightly Spirits, City Cruises and the rest, are separate businesses. Reservations, payments and cancellations are handled entirely on each operator's live booking page.
Where The Money Comes From
Every booking button on a tour card leads to a live listing that carries this site's partner code. The fifteen tours compared here, from the Monuments by Moonlight trolley to the ghost walks and haunted pub crawls, are reserved through live listings on Viator and GetYourGuide. When a reader books through a tagged link, the platform passes along part of its fee. The checkout total does not change: you pay exactly what you would pay finding the same listing on your own. Display ads, hotel links and sponsored placements play no part on these pages.
Commission on bookings is the sole income source. A tagged link that turns into a reservation pays this site a small percentage, and the tour price you pay is unchanged. No banner ads, sponsored write-ups or paid placements appear anywhere on these pages. The networks in use are Viator and GetYourGuide, and any addition gets named here before its first link goes live.
Monuments You Can See For Free
Much of the scenery on these tours costs nothing to see. The National Mall memorials are open around the clock and lit at night, so walking past the Lincoln Memorial or pausing at the Jefferson after dark is free, and the tours largely show these same exteriors from the sidewalk or the water. Where a site charges admission, that purchase is between you and the attraction alone. Tours with no live listing to check against never earn a card here, and when a free option genuinely beats a paid one, the free option gets the mention.
What No Payment Buys Here
- Listing. A card only appears if the tour is currently bookable, run by an operator working in Washington, DC, and shown with the same rating and review count its live listing carries.
- Ranking. Position is never sold. Cards sit in their categories by review count, which is why the Monuments by Moonlight trolley, with 4,198 reviews, heads the monuments section. No operator can pay to climb the page.
- What we say about them. The Monuments by Moonlight trolley carries 4,198 reviews and the Monuments and Memorials night walk carries 5, and both figures appear exactly as the live listing publishes them. Where a listing does not state an operator, the card says so instead of inventing one.
- What gets cut. Copycat listings trading on near-identical names, tours too new to have earned a review history worth judging, and operators whose ratings would make a recommendation hard to defend. Fifteen tours across five categories survived the cut.
Where Every Figure Comes From
Ratings, review counts and durations come from each tour's live listing, printed exactly as the listing shows them. Nothing is rounded, weighted or nudged to flatter a favorite. Prices move with dates and ticket options, so the live booking page is where to check the current price before you reserve.
Numbers You Can Check Yourself
Every operator is named on its card, Historic Tours of America, DC by Foot, D.C. Crawling and the rest, so any tour can be traced to its source and booked straight from there. The FAQ and the guides hold up whether or not a booking link is ever used.
Spotted a mistake or want to argue a case: email us. How the picks are made lives on the about page.