01/11/2026
6 reasons why you do NOT want to do that Tea Around Town experience you’ve been eyeing.
I don’t care how cute it looks or how Instagram-worthy the setup seems—run. Quickly. And hide your money. But if you still insist on spending the coins, let me manage your expectations.
We paid $150 per person for the “luxe” experience, and I promise you—it was anything but luxe. Not even worth the price of a Happy Meal.
Okay, let’s get into it.
The food was awful.
Stale tasting petit fours, stale tasting finger sandwiches, and pastries that were either extremely soggy or unbearably dry. Everything tasted like frozen, pre-packaged Walmart desserts. Nobody expected a full meal, but it was so bad we couldn’t even eat it!
The tea?? A sip. Literally. For $150.
I have neva—and I mean NEVA—been to a tea experience where you’re served one ounce of tea. A swallow… for $150. They say you get to “taste” up to three teas, and they mean taste. One ounce, babe. And all of them were cold. None served hot. Jail.
Inadequate staffing.
There was a singer who also narrated the tour, but we couldn’t hear anything she said over the normal chatter of about 40 women on a bus. Worse—and especially for the price—they were severely understaffed. There was ONE server for the entire bus. Sweet girl, but she was tasked with running up and down a moving bus serving tea, prepping food downstairs, bringing it upstairs, and refilling cups. Needless to say, during the 70-minute ride, we each got maybe two shots of room-temperature tea.
The “tour” is a joke.
It’s a quick drive-by loop around the National Monument and straight back to Pennsylvania Ave, the pickup location. That’s it. That’s the tour. If you want to actually see DC landmarks, babe—this ain’t it. Take the hop-on hop-off red bus instead.
Bus timing is unreliable.
You may find yourself standing on the sidewalk in heels, in the heat, questioning your life choices. Yes, you’re in the right spot—the bus is just late. Ironically, they warn guests not to be late or they’ll be left. We literally watched people running after the bus at the end.
What was worth it? Cute pics and a cute tumbler. Period.
