The Emperor's tour is informative, fun, funny, and memorable…read more He is a delightful, knowledgeable gentleman.

All hail Emperor Norton and his Fantastic Time Machine! One of the best things I've ever done in…read moreSan Francisco -- and the way I came across this tour was by total chance! I happened to be walking through Union Square one weekend morning and saw a gentleman dressed as Emperor Norton. I thought he was a street performer, but boy was I surprised to find out he was about to lead a walking tour! Being a history nerd and someone who was already familiar with the Emperor, I bought a ticket for the downtown tour on the spot, and had such a good experience the next day I bought a ticket for the waterfront tour. It's an enjoyable, leisurely stroll through San Francisco -- full of fun facts and trivia about the city, and Joseph is a delightful host and guide. I feel he lives up to the ideals and sentiments of both Emperor Norton and the city of San Francisco itself, and this is my #1 recommendation whenever a friend tells me they're going to visit SF (although, of course, I'm always sure to NEVER refer to it as "Frisco").

Rooftop Tour- Exceeded my Exceptions! We went to 5 different places, each one with breathtaking…read moreviews of the city and easy walking distances from one location to another. I had no idea that some of these places even existed. Jonathan was a great host, always making sure that everything ran smoothly, while providing us with interesting historical facts. The tour was fun, upbeat, and the afternoon flew right by before we knew it. Can't wait to go back again!

From the owner: Visit hidden rooftop gardens. Tours are every other Friday. Our acclaimed SF Rooftop History & Lore…read moretours have been leading groups to the city's hidden rooftop gardens since 2016. All ticket income goes to support our 501c3 nonprofit organization.

Jay, the founder of Victoria Home Walk, has the perfect personality to be a tour guide. He clearly…read moreloves his adopted city of San Francisco and we learned so much about the architecture and history of the neighborhoods. We lived in Silicon Valley for five years and used to come into the city for events, dining, and live music. This tour gave us an appreciation of the flair and vibe of one of our great American cities. Highly recommend this tour. Jay is generous and knowledgeable and you won't be disappointed.

This is exactly what I was hoping for in a Victorian home tour and even more. Jay was friendly,…read morepersonable, and very knowledgeable about his community. I highly recommend his tour. It was absolutely amazing.

My experience was the same as K H. It's great to see such a beautiful work of art and George is…read morevery generous to share his home and time. (He shared that tours help with cost of maintenance.) It is however mostly a tour of his life and not a lot of information on the house. Since it's his home and guided, your time in each room depends on how long his story is.

On the plane exiting at SFO and the girl in front of us was talking about the blue painted lady…read moretour by George Horsfall. It is his private residence and tours are given everyday he is home at 4:00 for $30. George is an notable figure in the area walking his 2 golden retrievers daily. His family has owned the house for years and he hosts charity events, music recitals, movie set cast parties and dinner parties for his friend in his historical home. The decor downstairs is a blast from the past with in tact stenciling, wall paper, and turn off the century original detail. He freely shares so much history and detail of the area, historical development and decline in the area. The wealth of knowledge here is abundant. If you want to be enchanted by really good stories told by an interesting educator and learn historical information of the area, invest time in the 90 minutes with George and the magical stories about the blue painted ladies. It is time really well spent. A GREAT TOUR!

Had a great tour of Japantown yesterday with Ian of San Francisco City Guides. Ian is smart,…read morefunny, knowledgeable, and a compelling storyteller. He made good use of photos to bring history to life. Highly recommend.

I have been on quite a few SF City Guides tours and I have learned some pretty cool stuff about San…read moreFrancisco and all the different neighborhoods. My favorite tours have been Chinatown, The Haight, the Fairmont Hotel, and the Rincon Center. I like that the tour guides bring their own flavor and experience to the tours. How cool is it that we can go on all these different tours for free? I like to donate online before I go on the tour. They give you the option in person but I have never felt like they were pushy or annoying about it. They have a very robust schedule with days of the week and times to fit with your life. Get out of the house and enjoy one of these tours!

This was so much fun! My husband, teenager and I did the Embarcadero quest (there are 2 different…read moreones in SF). It is all done on your phone...think "AMAZING RACE" where you have to solve clues/puzzles to move on. You end up seeing things that you may not have ever known about. We only paused the game once to take a snack break so it took about 2 hours not counting the break. Got to spend a lot of time outside and also got some amazing pictures along the way. Perfect for families and adults. I cannot wait to try another one in many of the cities that are available. You just purchase on your phone and start it when you get to the 1st challenge location.

This was a total blast!! Did this with my husband and teenage son. There were some key parts that…read morewe had to improvise on because of Covid. I don't want to give anything away but know that even with some unexpected closures, we were still able to get to the end and even ranked #7/30 for the last month of teams in San Francisco. It took us almost 6 hours but we did it all by walking and also did some shopping in there as well. This is such a fun way to see a city, learn a little history, and engage your brain in fun and unexpected ways. Be sure to bring a pen and paper...somethings are easier that way than on a phone. Enjoy!

If we had any regrets about things we did during our vacation, this was it…read more We booked the Saturday night Notorious SF: Ghost and Crime Tour. Our guide, John, was extremely hard to hear (he kept moving around so if you thought you found a good spot, you'd quickly realize you did not), did not really seem to have a knack for storytelling (I was really invested in this and still had a hard time paying attention to him), and after telling him we needed to find a spot for a bathroom, he walked us several blocks to a cash only cafe that had the most claustrophobic, humid bathroom we could've found. It seems that we skipped the cocktail bar stops (or maybe they occurred once we left, which was approximately at 7:30). While six in the group stuck it out, that was the tipping point for two of us and we left the tour early. According to what was listed on the website, we were expecting something engaging, fun, and spooky: This was NOT as advertised.

I went to San Francisco with my boyfriend and he booked the ghost and crime tour for the Saturday…read morenight. It was a really interesting blend of true crime, history and some seriously scary ghost stories. In other words perfect entertainment for the night. The tour stopped in a historical bar midway through the tour for a quick cocktail and then ended at the oldest pub in the city. It was our first night in SF and the guide was really helpful with recommendations for the rest of our stay. We'd definitely give it 5 out of 5!

Very informative walking tour, even for a San Francisco native. Our group was very small (8 total,…read moreincluding our docent, Lois) compared to the other Chinatown walking tour groups that we saw along the way. Our docent customized the tour to what each person of the group wanted to hear/learn more about which I thought was very cool. Our tour was also accompanied by print outs of articles and photographs which were helpful aids. Though they say to arrive 10-15 minutes prior to the tour to check in, on Saturdays, when the tour begins at 10am, it is not quite as necessary to arrive earlier. The Chinese Culture Center is not open until 10am and the docents don't arrive until 10am either. We parked at Portsmouth ($4/hour) since we wanted to arrive earlier to check-in, but we actually had enough time to park at the (farther) garage that the Chinese Culture Center validates.

Fun and Informative! We're San Franciscan natives and some friends decided to take this tour…read morethrough the Chinese Culture Center. Esther, the docent, had in-depth knowledge of the history, culture and struggles of Chinese in America! She provided us with many "gems" and "tidbits" of history that we were not even aware of, i,e., learning what living in an *'8x8ft" Single Room Occupancy (SRO) would be like (-wow), visiting the oldest temple in Chinatown, various plaques in and around and on the streets in Chinatown. We had a great time and we recommend taking the 2 hour Chinatown Walking Tour through the Chinese Culture Center!!

We went on a tour of the Palace Hotel by the SF Historical Society and it was great. Very informed…read moreand interesting. We knew a fair amount about the hotel but definitely learned more. A lot of SF history there. We also heard a lecture two weeks ago about the Ferry building that was excellent. I definitely recommend joining this group and visiting their museum and events. Informative and fun.

This is a great place to spend about an hour learning about the history of San Francisco. If you…read morehave friends or relatives visiting who like museums or learning about local history, this is the place to bring them. The museum was renovated about a year ago. Displays from the Wells Fargo museum, which is now closed, are now shown here. Many people don't know that during the Gold Rush, sailors left their ships so that they could prospect for gold. This left many abandoned vessels in the Bay, which became landfill for many areas of the city. There is a picture that shows the abandoned ships and a map of where many known ships are buried today. The docents are really nice, and do a great job of explaining this and other interesting historical information about the City and the Mint that was located at the building. Admission is free, and donations are encouraged. If you like learning about the City, this is a great place to visit.

Lisi was a fun and engaging tour guide. We are SF locals, but often go on ghost tours in other…read morecities. We decided we should do one in our own town for the hell of it. We enjoyed the history tales around the gold rush, earthquake, and Chinatown, mixed in with fun horror stories. Also a fun evening out for our two pups, who got to join along. Well done.

Really entertaining evening with great guides who kept it engaging and just the right balance of…read morespookiness. We learned a lot of SF history too.