Don’t just take our word for it
Visitor Feedback & Reviews
It has been great to discover the city of York with Mike on our first day in town! He has shared so many interesting facts about the city and. Highly recommended!
Javier
This is one of the best walking tours I’ve ever been on. And it’s free. Our guide was Fraser and he was so knowledgeable. Pre booking is recommended but not required. Definitely recommend!
Donna
Today I did a walking tour with Richard he is engaging, funny, and knowledgeable. You can tell he genuinely loves the city and its history, and he brought everything to life with stories I’d never have discovered on my own.
From medieval streets to hidden details I would have walked straight past, he made every stop interesting and memorable. Easily one of the best walking tours I’ve done. Highly recommend if you’re visiting York!
Kendy Carmona
We had a fantastic walking tour of York with Jim today and couldn’t recommend him highly enough. He struck the perfect balance between being incredibly informative and genuinely entertaining — full of fascinating historical insights, but delivered with great humour throughout.
Jim brought York’s history to life in such an engaging way, and it was clear how knowledgeable and passionate he is. The time absolutely flew by, and we came away having learned so much.
If you’re visiting York, definitely try to get on one of Jim’s tours — you won’t regret it!
Claire
The tour is absolutely wonderful and was the highlight of our trip. Glyn, our guide, gave us a bird’s eye view of York’s history full of fun facts and anecdotes. The content of the tour was very informative without being overwhelming. Highly recommend! Thanks a lot again.
Adrià and Stavroula
Fantastic tour – Richard was an excellent guide through the beautiful city of York. He transported us through thousands of years of history with engaging and fun storytelling. Highly recommend and a big thanks to AVG York!
Tamara
Excellent tour led by Richard, with commentary that was entertaining and highly educational. Included sights (e.g., Holy Trinity Goodramgate) that we would never have seen without joining the tour.
James Aldred
Nick was entertaining knowledgeable and interesting! The tour was nicely paced and we learnt a lot. Thank you!. ……from the Blackpool gang!
JudeSB
What an absolute treat today with Debbie. Such a wonderful experience. Debbie’s knowledge and humour was spot on. We learnt such a lot and would recommend this tour to anyone visiting York. Thank you Debbie. David and Ann.
Ann Grundy
Tour highly recommended! Kevin guided us through the history and some nice facts about York, all with warmth and expertise.
Grazia
Glyn enhanced my visit to York immensely. His style was that of an old friend rather than a teacher. Highly recommended.
alex white
Absolutely fantastic! Richard’s guided tour of York was an great experience! He shared fascinating stories and anecdotes, making the tour both informative and entertaining. Would highly recommend Richard as a guide. Many thanks for this tour.
Patricia Marian
A great guide, Glyn, who gave an informative and entertaining tour of York. Thoroughly recommend.
Sally
Glyn was a perfect tour guide, hugely knowledgeable yet presented his knowledge lightly and with gentle humour. Every step was a joy, every stop an opportunity to learn and enjoy the history of this remarkable city. Superb and highly recommended.
Angela and Paul Barker
I went on a tour today which was lead by Fraser. He was a fantastic guide; enthusiastic, funny, knowledgeable and clearly very proud of his city. I’d been on an AVG tour a couple of years ago but what I loved was that even though we revisited some places, there were others I had not seen before. On every corner Fraser could tell us some fascinating snippet of history. The difference between these tours and the paid ones are that the guides are clearly there because they love the city and its rich history and want to share it. Bravo. Highly recommend!
Sinead Hayes
Great tour with Grant yesterday, and absolute mine of knowledge about York, all presented in an interesting and accessible way. Thank you.
Gary Kelly
Had the most incredible tour with Richard. His love of history shone through and we discovered parts of York we’ve never seen before. We thoroughly enjoyed it all and couldn’t get enough of the knowledge he was imparting. We were blown away and loved every minute of the tour. Thank you for this free tour showcasing your amazing historical City, it’s truly appreciated.
Janice
Had the most incredible tour with Richard. His love of history shone through and we discovered parts of York we’ve never seen before. We thoroughly enjoyed it all and couldn’t get enough of the knowledge he was imparting. We were blown away and loved every minute of the tour. Thank you for this free tour showcasing your amazing historical City, it’s truly appreciated.
Janice
I really enjoyed this walking tour in York. The guide was excellent (unfortunately I don’t remember his name), very knowledgeable and engaging. The tour beautifully retraced the history of York, from the Roman settlement all the way to the medieval period, highlighting the most important stages of the city’s development.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t walk on the medieval walls because they were closed, but the guide handled it very well and quickly improvised an alternative route, showing us other interesting places and sharing additional insights.
I highly recommend this type of guided tour to anyone who enjoys history and wants to discover hidden gems and interesting details about the city they are visiting. I had previously done a ghost tour in York which I didn’t enjoy as much, but this one was truly excellent.
Considering that the tour is free and run by volunteers, it is absolutely worth it. The volunteer association is doing a fantastic job, and I believe they deserve a lot of appreciation for their work.
Vale
We had a great getting to know York walk guided by the wonderful Mick. He knows the city in and out and obviously loves his town very much.
The walk had a great balance between history and anecdotes. Just the right amount of detail. We had a splendid time.
Wholeheartedly recommended!
Anne
Thankyou Nick for an excellent tour yesterday. I would totally recommend an AVG tour…informative, really interesting,and engaging, despite the weather!!
Richard
Superb, relaxed and highly informative tour with guide Richard.Many thanks for imparting your knowledge and enthusiasm.
Louise Appleyard
Our tour today with Richard, was wonderful. We’ve visited York many times as we live quite close by in Grimsby. We learned so much today, and saw many sites we hadn’t seen before. Richard made everything come to life with his genuine honest knowledge and charm. Thanks and praise to everyone involved in this fabulous voluntary organisation.
Lorraine Garnett
Richard was amazing. His enthusiasm and fun storytelling made the history come alive. It was wonderful to learn so much in such an engaging and enjoyable way.
Also writing on behalf of a lovely elderly lady in our group of 3 who isn’t very tech-savvy but truly loved the tour. And wanted to drop a review for Richard.
Sakshi from London (28/01/26)
Sakshi
My friend and I went on a walking tour with Richard, and it was an excellent experience from start to finish. The tour lasted around two hours and took us through the Abbey Gardens, York Minster, and the Shambles. Richard was very knowledgeable and engaging, bringing the history of the city to life with interesting stories and insights. The pace was comfortable, and we learned so much while enjoying some of York’s most beautiful spots. I would highly recommend this tour to anyone visiting the city.
Arvind
Richard was awesome!
Great tour, kept us all entertained and informed.
Highly recommended.
Liam Greene
A thoroughly interesting and engaging tour with Judy. Her knowledge of the very chequered history of York was extensive and her delivery was enthusiastic. She answered endless questions and took us to corners of the city we would never have found otherwise. First class.
Dick Lumsden
Thank you to Richard for an excellent and brilliantly informative tour of York. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I know my two fellow walkers did too. I have made several day visits to York over the years and thought I had seen many if not most of the areas of historical interest but was really surprised at the extra places that Richard included and the number of small and amusing details he added that so enhanced the tour and greatly increased my knowledge of York.
Valerie Pirie
A warm thankyou to Fraser for sharing his time to show us around the beautiful town of York. Fraser is incredibly knowledgeable and passionate, this is evident as each location he shared the story with such enthusiasm and respect for the history, whilst still making the tour fun. Highly recommend for everyone looking to gain a deeper understanding of York!
Christopher
We were so lucky! Firstly, to not have the forecast rain but to have a dry, sunny, cold day. Secondly, to have Judy for our guide.
Our group was large for the time of year – 16 people, but we could all hear clearly the knowledge and enthusiasm Judy had for her city.
Thank you Judy for all the hidden gems you showed us – especially the box pews in Holy Trinity church – stunning! I have seen box pews before but never on this scale.
Thank you Judy 🙂
Philip Coward
We had a brilliant tour last week. Our guide was Judy, who was very knowledgeable and passionate about the City of York. She walked us through 2000 years of history in a clear an interesting way and took us to see some of her personal best sites.
We can thoroughly recommend Judy and AVG?
Thank you Judy
Sandra and friends
Sandra Coward
Our guide Fraser was an amazing guide and held a wealth of knowledge on the history and geography of York. It was both entertaining and insightful. He also expertly adapted to the ongoing construction and route closures to ensure we were comfortable and still saw the sights of the city. We gladly recommend this tour to others!
Flick & Cathy
We had such a gorgeous time on Pete’s tour! So friendly, entertaining and informative, he guided us round both iconic and more unusual York landmarks with enthusiasm and expertise. It was so lovely to be shown a city by someone with so much love for it! Thanks Pete 🙂
Ruth and Indigo
We had a fantastic tour with Richard of York today. An easy pace going back though time giving us historical background with many interesting facts and stories of events through history. Would highly recommend this tour.
Caroline
We really enjoyed the tour with Neil. He is incredibly knowledgeable and you can tell he is really passionate about York and its history. He was also very entertaining. This was truly one of our best walking tours. Thank you so much.
Sarah
We really enjoyed the tour with Neil. He is incredibly knowledgeable and you can tell he is really passionate about York and its history. He was also very entertaining. This was truly one of our best walking tours. Thank you so much.
Sarah
We enjoyer this walking tour very much! Our guide, Frazier, was very knowledgeable and pleasant. The walking tour encompassed a majority of the significant historical sites in York. We learned a lot from Frazier. I highly recommend this tour.
Keith Zimmerman
Had a brilliant tour with Neil. We are fairly familiar with York but Neil taught us a lot that we didn’t know and took us to areas of the city that we had not seen before. Very interesting and informative. Thank you Frank & Rita
Rita Spencer
Amazing free tour with Ken. He was very knowledgeable, easygoing and engaging on a nice sunny but cold day. It was the right decision to do this walking tour upon arrival to York because it definitely helped us gain our footing and learn about York’s past and present. Thank you AVG!
Hannah
We had a wonderful tour with Glyn. It was fun and easy to understand and follow. He was very kind, we really enjoyed this tour! Thanks a lot!!
Eduardo, Morena and Adriana
No better way to start the year than discovering York through an AVG tour! I was lucky enough to do it with Glyn and he was amazing: witty, engaging, interesting, and making us understand and surprise ourselves at the history of the places we visited. Not even the freezing cold made me lose attention! Thank you very much for the wonderful work 🙂
Pablo
Glyn was a fantastic guide. He really brought the history alive, in an interesting and often witty way. He answered questions readily and was very knowledgeable.
The tour in general gave us a great insight into York and it’s history. Thank you for offering this for free!
Mark
Fine tour today with Joanna in the winter sun. Well-paced with a good mix of facts and anecdotes. She succeeded in transmitting her passion for the city to her listeners and we now see the city with new eyes!
Mike and Katja
Many thanks to Kevin for providing an excellent historic tour of York. It was most enjoyable and interesting.
I would highly recommend this tour to anyone who wants to know more about the nanny fascinating buildings in the city.
Sharon Gest
Great tour today by Kevin. He brought York alive, sharing really interesting knowledge and facts about the city. Would highly recommend this tour for anyone who wants to know more about the history of the city. Thanks for such a wonderful afternoon – it was worth braving the cold weather!
Lauren Gest
The tour was a very interesting and enjoyable experience. Nick took us on a journey through York’s history and its beautiful scenery, and proved both a knowledgeable and cheerful guide. Thank you for the visit!
Aurore & Louis
Wonderful tour with Jim. Learned a lot about York history and looking forward to visiting again. Thanks for making this service available!
Victoria
We had an amazing guide Johana,
extraordinary woman full of love and passion for the city. Her love of York is contagious, makes you fall in love with this amazing city instantly, thank you so much.
