As the worldwide pandemic has continued to maintain it’s grip over our city we decided to pivot like so many of our restaurant partners, and launch self-guided food tours. Due to the size of many of our partner restaurants, it simply hasn’t made sense to reopen our in-person guided tours as we could potentially take up all of their indoor seating space and of course make it difficult to socially distance guests that were not all part of one family. By allowing our guests to do the tour on their own timeline and limited to their own small group, our restaurants won’t be overburdened by our guests, can maintain healthy distances, and can continue to serve their other patrons.
So how exactly do they work, and what is included?
We have priced each tour as a group fee in order to encourage people to get out inexpensively. The fee includes access to our online tour system that guides participants around the walking mall hitting historic stops with videos and written information, and then restaurant stops in-between through their cell phone. Guests are responsible for their own food purchases, giving them more control over their budget and individual food tastes, with suggestions at each restaurant from our experienced guides.
We have also included more restaurants than we would typically include in a guided tour in case guests plan to tour on a day when one or more may be closed. Tours are not limited to one or two days a week like our in-person guided tours, or a set time, allowing for maximum flexibility for locals and out of town guests! It also means the tour can be split into two or more days! You will have 15 days to complete the tour once you have made a purchase.
This will also allow us to create some tours we have always dreamed of doing but didn’t have the manpower to guide all at the same time! So keep a lookout for our upcoming planned launches including a Black History Tour, Architectural Tour, and a Lost Winchester Tour where we examine all of the grand buildings we lost over the years and what replaced them… plus potentially some driving tours to show off Frederick County and the restaurants further out from Old Town!
We hope you will join us on at least one tour whether you are a local or visiting the area! Click here to book your tour!