There are houses in Brooklyn that spend more on December decorations than most people spend on their entire trip to New York. The Dyker Heights Christmas Lights Tour takes you there every afternoon with a single departure at 4:00 PM, by private coach and with a live guide for four hours, starting from $78. It runs from December 1st to January 3rd and is one of the most requested experiences among our New York guided tours.
The Dyker Heights Christmas lights tour at a glance
- Price: adults from $78, children aged 3 to 12 from $65
- Duration: 4 hours
- Departure: every day at 4:00 PM, from the Times Square area
- Drop off: Bryant Park, at 40th Street and 6th Avenue
- Season: December 1st to January 3rd
- Where: Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, between 11th and 13th Avenues and 83rd to 86th Streets
- Transport: private coach bus with a guaranteed seat
- Guide: live guide on board, commentary in Italian, tour may be multilingual
- Cancellation: free with full refund up to 48 hours before the selected date
- Good for: families with children and anyone who would rather not walk in the cold
Below you will find everything you need before booking: how much the tour costs and what it covers, exactly where the displays are, how a guided tour compares with going on your own, and the practical details on late arrivals, weather and accessibility.
How Much the Dyker Heights Christmas Lights Tour Costs
The tour starts at $78 per adult and $65 for children aged 3 to 12. The price covers the round trip transfer by private coach, a guaranteed seat and a live guide for the full four hours. There are no hidden fees at checkout: you pick your date, enter the number of travellers and receive your confirmation by email.
Book the Smart Way
December is when Dyker Heights receives tens of thousands of visitors, and seats sell out weeks in advance, especially on mid December weekends and between Christmas and New Year. Booking early means choosing the date you want instead of taking whatever is left. You also get customer support before and after purchase, a physical office a short walk from Times Square at 324 W 47th St, and an email confirmation that works as your ticket to board the coach.
What the Dyker Heights Tour Includes
- Guided visit of the Dyker Heights neighbourhood, including a walking stop among the decorated houses
- Private transfer by coach bus, round trip from Manhattan
- Live guide on board for the full four hours
- Guaranteed seat on the coach for every participant
- Free time for photos among the displays, with no rush to head back
Hotel pick up and drop off are not included, since departure is a group meeting point in the Times Square area, and neither is the tip for the guide, which is customary in the United States and left entirely to you: $5 per person is a common figure.
One point worth stating clearly: the live commentary on this tour is delivered in Italian, and on some dates the guide alternates between languages. If you need a tour narrated in English throughout, this is not the right product and our team can point you to a better fit before you book.
Where the Dyker Heights Lights Actually Are
The displays are concentrated in a handful of streets, between 11th and 13th Avenues and from 83rd to 86th Street, in south west Brooklyn. The tradition goes back to the 1980s, when local resident Lucy Spata began decorating her house on 84th Street in memory of her mother, who loved Christmas. The neighbourhood turned the habit into an unofficial competition: many homeowners now hire professional decorating companies, and the largest installations can cost between $10,000 and $20,000 for a single season.
The result is block after block of facades wrapped in lights, life size nutcrackers, animated nativity scenes, sleighs on the rooftops and carols playing from garden speakers. Walking the main streets takes roughly an hour, which is the time the tour sets aside for the stroll before heading back to Manhattan.
Our tip
Dyker Heights is a residential neighbourhood, not a theme park: there are no public restrooms and no indoor spaces to warm up on the decorated streets. Use the restroom before boarding and dress in layers, because the best part of the evening happens outdoors on foot.
Guided Tour or Visiting Dyker Heights on Your Own
Seeing the lights is free: the houses sit on public streets and nobody sells tickets. The real question is not the price of admission but what it costs you to get there and back on a December evening.
On your own you travel by subway: the R train to 86th Street, or the D train to 79th Street, followed by a 15 to 20 minute walk on a slightly hilly stretch, usually in the dark and around freezing. Door to door from Midtown Manhattan the round trip takes about an hour and a half, waiting time aside. Drivers face heavy traffic and almost no parking during peak hours.
The organised tour removes exactly that part: you leave from Manhattan, sit on a heated coach, arrive right by the houses without the walk from the subway, and come back to central Manhattan without hunting for the right line late in the evening with tired children. If you are travelling as a family or have only a couple of evenings in the city, that is the difference between seeing the lights and spending half the night reaching them. If you have time, travel light and already move comfortably on the subway, going independently is a perfectly reasonable choice and costs nothing.
What to Know Before Booking
- Arrive 15 minutes early: the coach leaves at 4:00 PM and cannot wait for latecomers
- The meeting point is in the Times Square area and the exact address is on the voucher you receive by email
- The tour runs in rain or snow, so check the forecast in advance if you want to move your date
- You are not dropped at your hotel but at Bryant Park, at 40th Street and 6th Avenue, in central Manhattan
- The tour is not accessible to wheelchair users or anyone unable to board and leave the coach unaided
- Seats are guaranteed but not assigned: the guide arranges groups by availability and seating together cannot be promised
- Smoking is not allowed on board, including electronic cigarettes and similar devices
- The tour may be multilingual on some dates, with the guide alternating between languages
Many visitors pair the Dyker Heights lights with the city's most traditional holiday show, which runs in the afternoon or early evening: if that appeals, look at the Radio City Rockettes Christmas Spectacular tickets for a different date, so the two do not overlap.
The rest of our winter experiences, from observation decks to museums, sit alongside this tour among the New York attraction tickets.
Important
After booking you will receive an automatic confirmation by email that serves as your ticket for the tour. Please check your spam folder too, as the confirmation sometimes ends up there. The tour can be cancelled with a full refund up to 48 hours before the selected date by writing to info@ilmioviaggioanewyork.com; after that deadline, and in case of a no show, no refund is issued. The itinerary may vary on public holidays or during special events. If the minimum number of participants is not reached, we contact you within 12 hours of departure to reschedule or issue a full refund. The displays are put up by private residents and change from year to year: Il Mio Viaggio a New York takes visitors to Dyker Heights every December and adjusts the route to what the neighbourhood offers each season.
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