Admission and Guided Tour of Mount Vernon and Old Town Alexandria

The guide was great, Mt Vernon was great. The van did not have seat belts for every seat. I work at a trauma center and was very uncomfortable not having a seat belt on for a 30 minute drive. Will not take a tour with this company again.

Tour guide was great and very informative. No markings or identification on vehicle at pickup so very confusing. Disappointed when most of mansion was not accessible due to construction. Would have been nice to know ahead of time. Rest of tour was great and just the right amount of time.

It was our first event of the family trip. Bobby was a great guide, very knowledgeable, and showed a great appreciation and love for history. He was a great storyteller and even got the riders involved by interlacing some historical trivia Q&A into the journey. The only negative of the event was not his fault but something I wish was required of all these tour companies, and that is that they inform us AHEAD OF TIME that a site is under repair. Much of the mansion was under renovation, so we only visited two of the many rooms (the rest being viewed in a glass-encased model). We were informed of this limit once we all were seated on the bus, so that seems a little...well, late and rather non-transparent of the tour company not to mention. Nonetheless, we learned a lot and can say we got to "see Mt. Vernon under renovation," if I were to put a silver lining on it. :) There wasn't much of a line, so any sort of skip-the-line benefit wasn't necessary. Maybe on a weekend it would be? (We were there on a Tuesday). But it was still nice to have the tour guide, Bobby, get us all our tickets. The grounds are sprawling, and there was still plenty to see. The slave quarters were well-presented, there was an actress portraying Mrs. Washington and telling stories in the first-person which we found unexpectedly entertaining, the revolutionary soldier actor spilled a lot of interesting info about encampment life, and there was helpful tram service between the tomb, the wharf, and the visitor center. Admittedly, there wasn't a lot of spare time to see it all, so there is the possibility that if you have the time to spend there, it is better just to take a taxi and head out there yourself so you can leave on your own schedule. While the drive through Alexandria was fine, I think less time on the journey and more time at Mt. Vernon would have satisfied us more. On the ride back we stopped off to get a distant view of a fort (Ft. Washington, I think?) and take a photo. Most people were wiser than we and remained on the bus as it didn't end up being much of a photo opportunity, but still, it was something to break up the return ride. (I also would add that the return ride was dedicated to listening to classic rock n'roll on the radio. Our guide was quite the fan, which he interlaced well with his tour offerings on the way up [the tour began with a drive through Alexandria, slowing down for a few historical buildings, which we appreciated]. He was so entertaining on the way up that we kind of missed him continuing his relating of historical facts and stories on the return ride, so listening to a radio station was a bit anticlimactic. Didn't ruin anything, just a preference note that we all discussed amongst the family later on.) In the end, Mt. Vernon should not be missed. Will be better when it's renovated by the end of the year or whenever and you can actually tour the mansion, but still not to be missed if you're going to be visiting. Again, the more I write this, I'm thinking that if you are already familiar with history and don't mind the taxi/rideshare fee (maybe there's a bus?), a straight-shot past Alexandria and right to Mt. Vernon is probably preferable. -- (Although you will miss viewing [from the bus] Washington's old home in Alexandria.)

Our tour was supposed to include a 1 hour walking tour of old town Alexandra. We didn't get that, the driver said he drove by on the expressway and was all.

The tour of Mt Vernon was great but given by Mt Vernon staff. The overall tour was one hour less then advertised, the tour of Alexandria was a drive by, and the tourguide driver provided very little historical commentary.