The tour gives a fascinating look at the history of the OTR neighborhood. We moved away from Cincinnati in 2022 before the OTR revitalization effort started. Never would I have guess we would be going on such an interesting tour and having a wonderful meal after the tour in this area. So good to see this progress. Our tour guide was Laura and while she gave useful historical facts she definitely left us with less than a hospitable feeling and that it was a bit of a drag to be giving the same tour over and over. Maybe this is the norm or maybe she was having an off day but if you are busking for tips at the tour it is a good idea to pretend to enjoy your job. Still glad we did the tour and it left us wanting for even more information on the OTR area. read more

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We took the Ultimate Underground Queen City tour, with Linda on the day the Keys went missing. We had a lovely walk, listening to the history of the bars and breweries of the Queen's City. I adore hearing the old stories about the cities I visit and this one, is one of the better tours I've been on. Linda clearly LOVES leading the tours, She knows what she's talking about and no question threw her. She had a great sense of humor and even let us know about other tours for later in the evening. I will take the other tours that you have in the future when I visit for longer times. These are great! read more

Miranda knocked it out of the park! She was funny, knowledgable, let us know the rules, kept us safe, all while teaching us random facts about Cincinnati. The stories I repeated multiple times include the dumping out of chamber pots and how this relates to not opening your umbrellas inside the house and why men historically stood on the side closest to the road. I loved all the details of the Germans in the area, completely loved the 30 foot underground tunnels, so cool during the hot day and so fun to imagine how life was like when this was deemed necessary in order to brew beer. Highly recommended! read more

Great tour with Cade as a guide. Lagering tunnels are fascinating and OTR sites are interesting Anna's informative. Worth a visit!

What an incredible tour by Julie. We've lived in Cincinnati for 23 years and learned so much about this city we never knew. Just her enthusiasm talking about the city's history was quite intoxicating . The history of brewing and the underground caverns are impressive. This is a tour that I wouldn't mind if it last an extra hour of two. Even thought the tour is 2 hours, it went by so very fast as we just kept moving and leaving about how Cincinnati played a vital roll in beer manufacturing. read more

Super fun! Full of information and fun facts. Tour guide (Miranda) was adorable, funny and very knowledgeable. Walked about a total of two blocks. Saw cute local art, fun buildings. The crypt was absolutely interesting with their headstones. Then the distillery was amazing. The walk through and facts were just amazing. I don't think it's appropriate for small children. Not creepy at all but just felt like the underground part of the tour was a little steep for small children maybe 5 and under. read more

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This tour was so informative of the Queen city! Our tour guide, Miranda the crazy little Australian in the photo below,had us laughing all the way through the tour with her humor and insight. It was a delightful walk through history and a beautiful day at that!! read more

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Very Informative! Tracy our guide was excellent! She kept the pace really well yet an easy walk for older visitors. Her side story's were great and she added a very personal edge to the tour! I'm so glad we took the tour and would recommend it highly. read more

Miranda, Munchkin or the "Blond Aussie Chick"(as she was described by a previous reviewer)did a fabulous job showing us the Over The Rhine area of Cincinnati. Fun facts and historical tidbits made this tour so enjoyable. She had a wonderful personality and and a great relationship with people(we tourists and many locals)that she interacted with during the tour. Just by listening to and watching her, you could tell that she enjoyed doing this and loved sharing her knowledge of the city. If we return to Cincinnati we will definitely do another tour and most definitely ask for Miranda! read more

We went on Ultimate Queen City Underground tour. The above ground tour was about 80 percent of the tour so the name is misleading. The above ground tour provided a decent history of Over the Rhine. Our Guide was very knowledgeable and friendly. He answered all questions. The underground portion was not special. We went into the basement of a building. It was more of an cellar. The steps were steep and narrow. It was difficult to navigate. I wish the guide would have asked if we want to wait above as my wife had trouble navigating up the steps. read more

Three letters: WOW! Definitely worth trying. My husband and I attended the Queen City Underground Tour through OTR, our absolutely favourite neighbourhood in Ohio. Our tour guides were AMAZING, witty, funny, well informed, well organized. We got to see some places we never paid attention to before and learnt a lot about the history of the district itself and Cincinnati. One of the guides was a Cincinnatian and his dedication to the recovery of OTR and his passion for history made the tour very special, genuine, informative and interesting! Big plus for the guides' outfits! :) One tip: the tour will take you underground, however most of the 2 hours is above the ground :) read more

Queen City Underground - Real underground experience! - Tours Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

At the end of July I bought discounted admission tickets through Groupon to the Queen City Underground tour. Tickets are regularly $20 each if you buy them online, but the Groupon gave us buy one get one free admission. After the tour you can also buy tickets for any future tours for $10. So I would not pay full price as half price tickets should be easy to come by. My parents bought tickets as well and we all decided to check it out this past Sunday. This is a walking tour along historic Vine Street in the Over the Rhine neighborhood. The tour lasts between 90 minutes and 2 hours and is probably about 1 mile walking. Along the way our 2 tour guides provided a lot of historical information on the neighborhood and various buildings along the walk. We also go the chance to go into a few different buildings, the highlight of which had to be the old lagering cellars of the Kauffman Brewery, which shut down at the time of prohibition. These old cellars sat 70 feet underground, undiscovered for years. Also on the tour was an old beer garden, Weilert's Beer Hall. The first floor of this building was most recently a gothic club, and is uninteresting. The neat part of this building is the beer hall that is up above street level. A set of old stairs leads up to this space which has been relatively untouched for decades. We were also able to see inside some old housing units. With a good imagination I could see and feel what life could have been like in the late 1800s and early 1900s in this neighborhood. I would easily recommend the tour for anyone looking for a little education and adventure on a Saturday of Sunday afternoon. One thing to note is that the Saturday tours go into the crypt below St. Francis, which I have already seen separately. I think this is much cooler than the old housing units that we were showed instead, so you may want to catch a Saturday tour if possible. We all enjoyed the tour enough to buy additional tickets to the Newport Gangster Tour, which I hope to use soon. read more

Thank you Groupon! I never knew these tours existed. I suppose I'm a typical local. As soon as I saw the Groupon I decided, "We are doing this!". I bought a gift for our friends and we planned to go together. First, I love Cincy Haus. The have some fantastic Cincinnati centric art available. I will most likely return to purchase a piece of Rookwood and a MAYDAK. The tour was full of interesting history about Over the Rhine. I learned a lot. We had two guides and they were both engaging, interesting and funny. We had a very large group and they made sure everyone was able to hear and participate. We certainly saw a lot of things I would never have known about otherwise. Underground breweries and an an old brew haus, haunted no less! The tour lasted @ two hours and I enjoyed every minute. read more

We've been on vacation for a week and this was the best tour we have been on. Miranda was knowledgeable, funny, engaging and really seemed to enjoy her job. She even remembered our names. We learned a lot about the area and the tunnels. I highly recommend this tour. read more

I really enjoyed this tour and recommend it to both residents and tourists alike. The tour guide was knowledgeable and gave us access to buildings that normally one wouldn't be able to enter. My favorite place was the Kaufmann brewery: you enter at this nondescript 20th century commercial building that hides this vaulted 19th century interior. There were wonderful modern sculptures inside made from materials from this old church that had burned down. Then, the tour descended this steep and tight staircase to the lagering tunnels below. The tunnels were nice and cool and were filled with rubble from the excavation and remnants of its use in the old pre-prohibition brewing days of Cincinnati. As a museum professional, I would love for these spaces to be opened to the public with greater levels of interpretation and programming! For instance, the barrels were brought up to the street level by way of 19th century hydraulic elevator: the experience would greatly benefit from interpretive signage with a diagram, if not an actual recreation of this machinery. read more

Queen City Underground - Kaufmann brewery - Tours Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

Laura and Cathryn did a great job. I love history and they were great in explaining history that I did not know about. I can't wait till the next tour. We started the tour at the Queen City Underground office right next to the Hoffman's donuts so if you come early you can pick up some donuts. The walking tour started to go towards downtown and then back north. There is a lot of walking and you will be going down some steep steps so be prepared for it. We liked Laura and Cathryn a lot and they did such a great job going back and forth giving the tour. The tour ended at the Moerlein Tap Room so we decided to stay to relax and have a couple of beers. I am not downtown all the time so maybe other people felt more comfortable than I did but when we left the tap room we were one of the last ones there and I did not feel real comfortable walking back with my wife to Findley market (where we parked). The tap room isolated and not near all the places on Vine street or Findley market. read more

I LOVED this tour! Whenever I go on vacations, one of my favorite things to do is take tours, visit museums, etc. I was so happy to find out that there was a tour of OTR, which is one of my favorite areas. I am a frequent visitor to OTR and the tour guides pointed out things that I'd never noticed before. They shared historical information about the area and were very entertaining at the same time. They were also willing to answer any questions. There were a lot of people there for the tour on the day we went, but the tour guides handled it well by splitting into smaller groups. Although the group was still large, the tour still felt personal and I did not feel like I missed out on anything. The tour lasted approximately 90 minutes and did require a fair amount of walking. My fiance and I are in good health so we did not have any issues but it did appear that some members of the group that were not in good physical shape were having some difficulty. The coolest part of the tour was going down into man-made caverns. As a warning, getting down there could prove difficult to some. Once again though, we did not have any issues with this. It was definitely worth the tight squeeze and steep stairs! Make sure to wear comfortable shoes when you go on this tour (gym shoes) for both comfort and safety reasons. There were some not-so-smart women on our tour in heels. I bet they were pretty uncomfortable by the end of the tour! Every aspect of this tour was interesting to me. Aislinn H's review beautifully summarized all of the sights you will get to see on the tour, so I will not repeat it. I highly recommend this tour and will definitely be a returning customer for their other tours! The only thing that could have made this tour better...beer! I mean, all of the brewery stories really get you in the mood for a cold beer :) read more

This is a must for anyone living or visiting Cincinnati! To fully understand the Queen City's History you need to go on this tour! I saw the tours walking past my new apartment each weekend. I always wondered if they could see me standing in my underwear sipping coffee. I went on the tour with my boyfriend and his parents who were visiting from Chicago. The tour starts at their storefront located in the 13th Block of Vine Street. You can hang out in their store and view local arts and crafts prior to beginning. The tour lasted about 2 hours. It was directed by two tour guides who had a good understanding and knowledge of Cincinnati and OTR history. They cracked silly jokes and claimed that the chicken dance was invented at the corner of 13th and Vine. They did a good job controlling the group and could be easily heard. The buildings are the best part of the tour. You get to go into old basements and subbasements, German tenements, and old German dance halls. It was amazing that all of this history is sitting quietly along all the redevelopment happening in the Gateway Quarter of OTR. This tour is GREAT! Side note: Don't wear flip flops. I would recommend walking shoes & stopping for a beer at The Lackman after! read more

If you claim to be a Cincinnatian and have not taken this tour, you aren't a Cincinnatian. Bold enough? A great afternoon with the center of the tour being essentially Vine and Liberty. That's right, Vine and Liberty. Interesting tour and presented well. Big props. Go. read more

I have been wanting to take an underground tour of the city for a long time. Never too the time to look around for what is available. Then, I saw tickets for the Queen City Underground available on Groupon. I bought them immediately..... Wow, what a cool tour of Over The Rhine. I have lived in Cincinnati all of my life. Our tour guide taught us things I never knew about the city. Went with my wife and 2 of my kids kids, ages 9 & 6. The 9 year old loved learning about the history. The 6 year old might have been a little too young. But he enjoyed himself anyway. Never realized all of the history still alive inside of the buildings that you drive past. We toured an old German Bier Haus that is still in tact from the 1860's, went down into some of the old brewery tunnels where beer was brewed, visited a set of houses that showed you how the people in that area lived back during that time period. Our tour guide was great. Very funny and very informative. I look forward to taking additional tours in the future. read more

I was visiting my daughter in Cincinatti. She suggested that we take a tour with Queen City Underground. Our tour guide was Laura. She was entertaining, informative and full of great stories about the history of Cincinnati. I highly recommend Queen City Underground tours, especially with Laura as your guide. If only history teachers and history classes could be this much fun! read more

This is what I'm telling out-of-towners to do when they visit. The guides were professional but relaxed. They were educational without being didactic (or boring). I've visted the neighborhood (Over-the-Rhine) weekly for years and these guys pointed out things (like looking up) that I'd never noticed before. We visited old ballrooms, they showed us a building renovation where out of curiosity a hole was punched in the floor and massive man-made caverns were found. We visited the graveyard INSIDE St. Francis Church. It was a great hour and a half. These guys are so good that on our tour there were 40 suburbanites in the heart of OTR - who else can do that? Not city council. One sour note This may be a function of it being the weekend before the election. At the end of the guide, the guy giving the tour spouted off a bit about his politics and insulted the person I was with and - from the faces I saw - a good part of the crowd. I'd love it if there was some place that was politics free. read more

The tour itself is great, but only one of our two guides was any good. I loved every stop on the tour, all of the history being told, and all of the great photo ops throughout. Seeing the old basement brewery was really awesome and for the price, this tour is a steal! However, one of our tour guides was far too quiet, even after some people in our group asked him to speak up. The girl we had (I wish I remembered her name!) was fantastic though - she spoke well, had funny jokes, and totally up-staged her counterpart. I'm just going to assume that the guy was being trained by her or something; we still gave them a good tip and enjoyed the tour anyway! read more

Laura was as entertaining as she was knowledgeable on our tour of the Underground. I grew up in Cincy and never knew any of what we learned on the tour. OTR is such a special place, and Laura embraces just how special it is in a very genuine way. I can't recommend the tour enough. I wish we had time on this trip for another, but will for sure be back in the future. read more

This tour was wonderful! Not being from Cincinnati, we did not have clue of the fascinating history of the city. The tour was lead by both John and Claire, both who were very knowledgeable of Cincinnati's history, had fun and exciting attitudes, and are both very passionate about their job. We learned a lot on the tour and saw things that we would not have seen nor noticed, and went places in OTR that we would not have been able to. We highly recommend this tour. :) read more

Took some family members on the Queen City Underground brewery history tour shortly after Thanksgiving. Although it was super chilly that day, our tour guide took care to minimize the amount of time we spent outside. During our visit, we stopped by a building that's been gutted and waiting for a buyer to renovate, the sanctuary and basement of St Francis Seraph, and the underground tunnel beneath the Guildhaus. My only quibble is that the tour guide provides a somewhat sanitized version of development in OTR. But if you think of it as more of an architectural tour than a fully contextualized historical tour, it's a pretty good time. read more

My boyfriend grabbed this deal on Groupon and I'm so glad he did. Our tour guides John and Craig were hilarious and gave a lot of really interesting info. Now I want to go on their gangster tour! read more

Queen City Underground - Some cool old buildings! - Tours Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

What a great way to get to know the city you live in. I've only lived in Cincinnati for about three and a half years but taking this tour was very educational and FUN. Our tour guides were animated, knowledgeable and you could tell they were history nerds. They said it themselves. But I think that quirk added to the charm of this tour and to the area we visited. Walking through OTR, a place where most people are afraid to go, especially at night was eye opening. We learned the history of why it's called Over the Rhine, heard stories of famous Cincinnatians, found out historical significance to a lot of the buildings still standing and saw underground tunnels where the beer was fermented back in the day when Cincinnati was a great place to make and drink beer. My boyfriend and I love history and love hearing what happened here and there especially at places were drive/walk by all the time. I thoroughly enjoyed the tour and look forward to taking another one with them soon maybe with a different theme. if you like history, beer and Cincinnati - do it. It's a good time. I highly recommend it. read more

I went on the Queen City is Haunted tour last night and it was amazing. The tour guides were affable and excellent at delivering stories and answering questions. The history and buildings themselves were the real stars of the show, but this is by far the most engaging, informative and scariest way to experience local history. I brought my 8 year old daughter and she was able to keep up, get a little scare and talk with me along the way about the stories. Definitely a great way to get (mature enough) kids into their community's history. Keep up the good work. read more

Our tour guide Alex was absolutley amazing! You could tell that he really had a passion for what he was doing and it seemed more like a hobby than a job for him. 10/10 I would go on a tour about watching grass grow if he was the guide! read more

I brought a group of 11 from CA, and we thoroughly enjoyed the full tour. Our guide Alex was knowledgeable about the City and seemed to care that we were all enjoying ourselves. You could tell he loves his City. read more

Really enjoyed the Underground Tour of the Over The Rhine area. Guide Laura did a nice job and was knowledgable and provide a nice historical perspective of the area. Would recommend. read more

My girlfriend and I went on the Ultimate Underground Tour this past weekend. The regular underground tour was sold out, and my groupon was expiring, so I paid the extra $$ for the "Ultimate" tour which takes you into 3 additional buildings instead of letting my groupon expire. It was a 2 hr walking tour, although their are many stops for explanations of history, stories, etc. Our two tour guides were great. John was very lively and kept people interested with his sense of humor and the interesting history of OTR. We went 70 ft below ground, into some tunnels/passageways whose main section was 30 ft high arches with other rooms attached. Very cool! The guides also provided us with lots of good information that made that area a lot of fun. We also walked through a couple other parts of OTR, had a talk from the guardian of the St. Francis church on the corner of liberty and vine, went inside there, went inside a couple abandoned buildings whose structures have been resupported. Learned a lot about OTR history. This included how the immigrants came to OTR, how they lived, why and how they drank so much beer, how beer was a huge industry in OTR, how prohibition brought the neighborhood to its knees, and a bunch of other stuff. My girlfriend left and said she had a new respect for this city after going on the tour. Very well worth checking out! I plan on going back for either the Haunted tour or the Gangs/Mob/Mafia tour of Newport read more

Everytime I go I'm more blown away not only by the history of OTR but of the pure passion from the guides. Seriously- Im pretty sure he had us all tearing up about how much he loves this city. Definitely a must and you can regularly find discounts on discount sites. Its 90 minutes of history, adventure, and deeper meaning of the buildings we pass by everyday. Great for out of town guests, my parents loved it (perfect for suburbanites who shutter at the 3 letters of OTR)! read more

If you're a nerd, the tours aren't going to give you a bunch of information you didn't know, but if you're new to the city, or visiting, it's a great way to get to know some of the cooler history of this town (Central parkway was a river? get out!) They have a wide variety of tours, so while the walks may be similar, the stories are not, and they push that on you, a lot, but in a lighthearted way. They offer discounts to repeat offenders, I mean, visitors, and we have done 2, with a 3rd on the way. Get some knowledge! read more

We absolutely loved the tour around Over the Rhine and ending at the Morlein Brewery. It was outstanding! So glad someone had the vision to do this. Deano read more

We had a fantastic time on the tour this morning. Our tour guide, John, was animated and humorous while displaying an obvious and infectious passion for the neighborhood. It was especially great to hear all the great work being done in the neighborhood while also understanding the challenges. He never left us bored or waiting for more information. We got to see several things at the street level and underground. Plus you end at a fantastic brewery! read more

We really enjoyed our tour. Dean and George were very knowledgeable and engaging! We highly recommend this to anyone interested in Cincinnati history and/or brewing, or just looking for an enjoyable afternoon! read more

The Ultimate Queen City Underground tour was informative and entertaining. The historical knowledge that our tour guide, John, imparted was amazing. We will definitely take another tour with this company! read more

I went on their Cincinnati Underground tour with a friend after buying tickets via Groupon. We had a blast. The tour guides were knowledgeable about the local history and quite entertaining. It was a hot day and some of the buildings were pretty warm inside but they provided bottles of water ($1) to anyone that wanted them. I plan on taking some more of their tours in the future. A great way to get some local history up close and personal. read more