Tours - Seeing Coney Island

* POSTPONED * Due to the pandemic, the Coney Island History Project is postponing in-person walking tours from March 14, 2020 until further notice.  Please visit the events section of our blog for information on our free virtual tours and Zoom activities.

Stroll through Coney past, present and future with the Coney Island History Project Walking Tour! Our unique walking tours are based on History Project Director Charles Denson's award-winning book "Coney Island: Lost and Found," the interviews from CIHP's Oral History Archive, and other primary sources. The 1-1/2 hour walking tour is approximately 1 mile in length and is wheelchair accessible. 

Tours are offered year-round. Advance purchase of tickets via Eventbrite 24 hours in advance of the tour is required. Please visit our our reservation page on Eventbrite to see the walking tour schedule and purchase advance tickets online. Tickets are $25 and help support the free programming of the Coney Island History Project, a 501c3 not-for-profit organization.  If you have a question or to arrange a group tour, please e-mail events@coneyislandhistory.org.

Walking tours are led by History Project staff including historian Charles Denson or poet/teaching artist Amanda Deutch, who have over 100 years of family history in Coney Island! All tours begin outside the Coney Island History Project, which is located under the Wonder Wheel's iconic entrance sign on Denos D. Vourderis Place (West 12th Street), just a few steps off the Boardwalk.

Coney Island History Project Walking tours are offered year-round on Saturdays and Sundays. From April through Labor Day, Coney Island History Project Walking Tours are offered at 2:00 pm.  After Labor Day through the fall and winter, tours start at 12:30 pm. A tour is confirmed when we have a minimum of 3 reservations. Advance purchase of tickets through our event reservation website is required since tours are limited to 20 people.

Throughout the year, individuals and groups may schedule a walking tour on a weekend or weekday.

Tour Guides

Charles Denson is executive director of the nonprofit Coney Island History Project, which has created an oral history archive and sponsors educational exhibits, school programs and performances. He is the author of "Coney Island: Lost and Found," named 2002 New York Book of the Year by the New York Society Library. Mr. Denson grew up in Coney Island and began documenting his neighborhood as a boy, a passion that continues to this day. A writer, photographer and art director, he began his career in 1971 as a photographer for New York magazine and has since worked as art director for numerous publications. In 1999 he was awarded a Chronicle journalism fellowship at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2013 the New York State Marine Education Association presented the Herman Melville Award to Mr. Denson for his environmental advocacy on behalf of Coney Island Creek.

Amanda Deutch is a native New Yorker, whose mother and grandparents lived in Coney Island. She has worked with the Coney Island History Project  since 2008 and is also a teaching artist and poet. Her poetry is published in dozens of literary journals and her poem "30,000 City Windows" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. In 2009, she founded Parachute Literary Arts which celebrates the literature of Coney Island through site-specific readings and events in iconic Coney Island locations, writing workshops and lending libraries. Her passions include impressing bystanders with her Skee-Ball skills and riding the Wonder Wheel.

Tricia Vita spent the first 17 years of her life traveling with a carnival, where her first job was picking up darts and replacing busted balloons in her mother's dart game. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, she has worked as a writer, translator and book scout in New York. As administrative director of the Coney Island History Project since 2007, she helps plan programming and manage a multilingual oral history project, year-round walking tours, and a free exhibit center. She has a Certificate in Reminiscence and Life Story from the University of Wisconsin--Superior and creates reminiscence activities at senior centers for the History Project.