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York’s Original & Most Popular

Free Walking Tour

Join a TourGuided Tour Route
PreviousNext

York’s Original & Most Popular

Free Walking Tour

Join a TourGuided Tour Route

The State Funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II

As a mark of respect for the State Funeral of our late Queen all tours are suspended on Monday 19th September 2022

Welcome

The Association of Voluntary Guides to the City of York (AVG) offer daily free 2-hour walking tours to visitors from all over the world.

We have been offering complimentary guided tours around York since 1951.

Our team of 80+ local expert guides take great pleasure in showcasing our beautiful city, and we look forward to welcoming you on one of our regular twice-daily tours.

Tours begin at 10.30am & 1.15pm and run every day except Christmas Day.

Our tours are free; there is no need to offer a tip.

PRE-BOOKING IS RECOMMENDED

Book Here

Joining Our Tours

Our daily tours begin at 10.30am & 1.15pm

For the enjoyment and safety of our visitors, tour numbers are limited to 25 visitors per tour and so pre-booking is recommended.

BOOK YOUR TOUR HERE

Our complimentary tours are intended for individuals, couples and small groups of family/friends, and tickets are limited to a maximum of 6 people per booking. Our tours are NOT available for commercial tour groups – other commercial tour guide services can be found via the VisitYork website.

Organised bonafide educational tour groups can book in advance using the Group Booking Form.

Wheelchair users are very welcome but please check with your guide on duty about the route as there are some areas especially on the City Walls where access may be difficult or impossible. Guides will be as flexible as possible about accommodating you. Please also note, dogs are not allowed on the City Walls.

On some days there is just one guide who can take up to a maximum of 25 people. On busier days there are two guides on duty for each of our twice-daily tours, and we typically split the full group into two smaller tours. Please try to arrive 5 minutes before the start of your tour, so our guides have time to greet you and arrange the tour groups.

Please note: We reserve the right to cancel the tour should circumstances, in the judgement of the guides on duty, be such that it is not safe to undertake it, for example in severe weather conditions. We also reserve the right to refuse any individual who cannot or will not observe the safety precautions.

Tour Start Point

All our tours depart from outside York City Art Gallery in Exhibition Square and last approximately 2 hours.

PRE-BOOKING IS RECOMMENDED

Meet your guide between the William Etty statue, and Kings Manor Entrance Gates in front of the Art Gallery, look out for our Tour Times ‘A’ Board which is the starting point and located near the entrance to Kings Manor.

View Map

Tour End Point
The final part of the tour takes us to York’s oldest street, the Shambles.

Our daily tours are absolutely FREE and, unlike some other advertised tours, there’s really no need for a tip at the end!

Our daily tours are intended for individuals, couples and small groups of family/friends only.

Organised tour groups should not just turn up to our daily tours. We offer tours designed for larger educational groups, (NOT commercial operators) so please book ahead using our Group Booking Form on our Contact Us page or use the button below.

Group Bookings

Are you interested in becoming a Guide with the AVG?

The Association of Voluntary Guides (AVG) has been offering free tours of the City of York for over 70 years and to ensure we can continue to offer this service well into the future, we are always interested in welcoming new members to join our team of Guides.

Find out more...

or use the QR code with your mobile device

A few of our Tour Highlights

Multangular Tower

Museum Gardens

St. Mary’s Abbey

The Kings Manor

Bootham Bar

The Bar Walls

Monk Bar

Treasurer’s House

York Minster

St. William’s College

Holy Trinity Goodramgate

The Shambles

600,000+ Visitors

have experienced our tours

70 Years

of touring the City of York

100+ Nationalities

have participated in our tours

80+ Trained Guides

leading our tours 364 days a year

Some of our most Frequently Asked Questions

Tour numbers are limited per guide, so we recommend that tours be booked in advance at this link Book Online.  Once you have your ticket (there’s no need to print it out, a mobile version is fine), please arrive at the meeting point at Exhibition Square at least 5 minutes before the designated start time.

If you were not able to pre-book, you may turn at the meeting point up at the start of a tour and, subject to availability, we will try to accommodate you on a tour.

Book Here

All tours depart from outside York City Art Gallery in Exhibition Square.

Simply meet your guide by our ‘tour times’ board next to the William Etty statue and the fountains outside the Art Gallery.

Don’t forget your face mask.

The final part of the tour takes us to York’s oldest street, the Shambles. (During Covid-19 restrictions the end point will vary depending on circumstances on the day, your guide will advise).

The tours are FREE and entirely without charge, the volunteer’s reward is showing the beauty of the City to as many people as possible.

Read more FAQs

Some of our most recent feedback

We did a tour on Saturday afternoon with Mick (sorry if it is not the correct name) and I want to give a big thank you to him and the association. We are used to visit cities, book a tour and a person show the city but this is far away of what we expect. The guide was really friendly, open to questions, full of knowledge about the city. Nothing like a local person who sharer the secrets of his city with that passion:)

Vicente Giraldez Alvarez

04-05-2025

We had a very interesting and entertaining tour with Mike. He has a profound knowledge of English history and a great sense of humour. We saw lots of lovely places we wouldn’t have found on our own and learned a lot of interesting details about the city. Thank you very much!

Hanna Kunkler

10-06-2025

Thank you for providing and hosting such an informative tour! We really appreciate Mike to be our tour guide and gave us a long, clear history of York. He is very good at telling stories, showing fun facts and sharing personal experience of this city. Mike’s sharing brought me closer attachment to this beautiful, historical city. Thank you for being the ambassador to York!

Vickie

10/06/2025

Never knew I could learn so much on a 2-hour walking tour and stay so engaged the whole time! The tour was packed with so many fun facts that made you go aha! – I was not bored the whole time. Our guide was Mike, and his deep knowledge of history and presentation of the stories made it so so enjoyable! And definitely inspired me to go read up on more facts about York and the English history.

Lisa W

10-06-2025

Such an informative tour. I have travelled the world and paid top dollar for city tours, and this was head and shoulders above the rest and FREE. Amazing. Thank you so much.

Yvonne

02-06-2025

Amazing tour! Wendy was great! Red really enjoyed it!

Manuela

26-05-2025

Read more reviews

The TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence designation recognizes attractions that consistently earn great TripAdvisor reviews from travellers. The Certificate of Excellence accounts for the quality, quantity and recency of reviews submitted by travellers on TripAdvisor over a 12-month period.

Our Tours Start Here

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Tour start address

York City Art Gallery
Exhibition Square
York  YO1 7EW

Where to meet

Meet your tour guide outside City Art Gallery next to the William Etty statue.