Highlights of DC

Hello, I'm Nigel and I look forward to sharing my hometown of Washington DC with you. I'm originally from the UK and I've lived in DC for the past 15 years. Before guiding and throughout my professional career, I had the pleasure to work in and visit more than 100 countries around the world. This gave me a fascination for richness of culture, which makes DC, with its more than 170 nationalities and ethnicities, the perfect place for me. It is said that you move for money or love. It was indeed my work which originally brought me to DC. My first visits in the early 1990s were for business and I was immediately swept away by the imposing grandeur of the place with its wide boulevards and big white buildings. I then moved here to work in 2009 and began to get to know the real DC and it's abundant history. This was also where the love part came in as I met my wife and we built our life together here. Washington DC is the only major city to be born purely from the minds of a people - its site chosen and shaped to be a beacon of freedom and democracy. This idealism has been sorely tested over the past 200 years and the city bears the scars; but in doing so tells us so much of the challenges we have faced as a nation and a world. Progress requires compromise, and compromise leads to paradox. That is the beautiful and rich complexity of the history of Washington, DC, from inception to the present day. And it's the fascinating stories of the people, places and events behind that history which I most enjoy uncovering with visitors. It was such stories which inspired me to become a tour guide - to share not merely the monuments and memorials, the gleaming buildings and grand avenues, but also the everyday tales of the people who have lived in and shaped this place. This is our city - all of us - and I hope to help you find your own part of it. My tour will introduce you to an array of heroes and villains and many who are a mix of both - I'll tell the stories and it'll be up to you to decide which is which. This city is so much more than presidents and politicians, the White House and the Capitol. As a family we love to travel, and I began guiding to pay forward some of the wonderful experiences we've been privileged to share with guides around the world. We always found that we enjoyed and learned the most from guides who took an active interest in us and what we wanted to see, rather than a "one size fits all" tour model. That is my mission now, as a guide myself showing visitors my hometown. I want to create an experience where every tour is different. We can spend as much time as you choose exploring the city at a leisurely pace - DC is definitely a walking city - so if this is your first time here or you are to go deeper in a place you already know I'd love to design the right tour for you. Licensed Washington DC tour guide BSc and PhD graduate Member of Washington DC History Center I offer walking tours but I can arrange a car if required. Unable to guide in public buildings eg White House and Capitol