This tour made me so happy. Kevin and Russ were enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and their passion (and…read morenerdiness) for the public arts was infectious and endearing. I'll never walk over another hatch cover the same again. I'm excited to go home and see what's beneath my feet there. I would highly recommend this off the beaten path tour to anyone and i'll be happy to do it again the next time i'm back in Seattle. Thanks guys!

I am always looking for low cost, less formal ways to learn about places I either live in or visit…read moreand have done many free tours both in Seattle and while traveling. I learned about this tour from a friend and I think it's fairly new. At any rate, interesting tour. Not your typical here's the city and these are some of the landmarks and here are some fun facts. The difference is this tour was focused around the public art that can be seen everyday along the streets and sidewalks, built into the infrastructure, in the form of manhole covers or hatches as they are referred to. The folks conducting the tour included information of the various artistic manhole covers, combining it with first hand information from the artists and discussed the history of the work and how it fits into the identity of Seattle. They also provide information on the history of the city and how Seattle became the city you see as you take the tour. Pretty neat concept exploring aspects of the city that folks often take for granted as they pass by. Another fun fact about this tour is that it evolved out of an art project. I thought that was particularly interesting. Some of the prints, etc are pretty cool and again not what you would typically expect or encounter from one of these free tours. I'd recommend this tour to anybody to who wants to learn more about the history of Seattle, who appreciates public art or art in general and who has a free hour or so on a Saturday morning.

This was my first ever tour, and I will admit I was nervous about everything. However, looking back…read moreon it all, I had nothing to worry about. The Shutter Tour of Snoqualmie Falls and the City of Seattle went absolutely amazing. From start to finish, we had a wonderful experience. Dale was our tour guide and he was THE BEST! He was hilarious and entertaining, making a ton of jokes and providing insightful commentary. He's also a photographer, so he showed us many tips and tricks on how to get amazing photos at our different stops. He even offered to take photos, had water bottles and granola bars, and was just so kind. The tour in itself, showcased and highlighted the many attractions and wonders of Seattle. There were a bunch of stops and you really get your money's worth visiting everywhere. My partner and I's favorite stops were Snoqualmie Falls and Kerry Park. Both were just breathtaking and made us fall more in love with the city. I highly suggest booking this tour, it was such a smooth and fun experience!

We did the half day Snoqualmie Falls and Seattle tour. Terry was our driver, he is personable,…read moreinformative and really made the trip interesting! Terry is a photographer and taught us some tricks on how to take good pictures We had a blast!!!

BIOPHILIA...Sponsored by PRIME.... never heard of it till…read morestumbling across this place. Located in the heart of downtown Seattle, an Amazon Company satellite office (i guess where Amazon Corporate employees can go when the need to connect with nature arises during work day)...cool concept, wish my job offer a green house. -lower level open to the public. Cool display of frogs and crystal shrimp. -Staff was knowledgeable and seem like they like their job and sphere concept. -Verdict: worth checking out when in the area....BIOPHILIA for LIFE......

There were plenty of street parking when we came on a week day. Parking was $1 per hour from 8AM to…read more11AM, $5.50 per hour from 11AM to 5PM, and $5.50 per hour from 5PM to 8PM. Wasn't sure what the place was about. We walked into the room and started looking around. There was an attendant who spoke about needing a reservation for visitors to enter the Sphere. The place was cool as there were tiny, poisonous frogs to look at.

We planned out a wine tour with a month out for a friends birthday and we never went to winery!…read moreThey were all tasting rooms. It was SO disappointing!

A group of friends and I used our living social deal yesterday for a 6 hour Wine, Cheese, and…read moreChocolate tour. All of the wineries were located in the warehouse area. The tour felt a bit rushed, but it was fun. I love wine, so it was enjoyable to try so many new wines, and the wines were great! Our first stop was a wine paired lunch at Covington, then we moved on to Daveport Cellars, Patterson Cellars, and then ended at Distefano Winery. We had some good wines paired perfectly with chocolates. I discovered a white wine that I really liked, and we learned a bit about the wine making process. Overall a good day! One other thing that was a big topic of conversation: The tour guide Janis is a bit intense. It felt like she was yelling at us when she spoke on the bus about the tour. "this is a wine tasting tour not a wine drinking tour". I respect that she takes her job seriously, and its clear she has a passion for the Woodinville wine community, but she came across pretty abrasive at times, saying things like "I don't know if you realize these people have what you would call 'real jobs' too". I don't know it just seemed unnecessary to lecture the group. Everyone there was just excited to try some wines and have a good time. I just wish we had a tour guide who was more positive. She was kind of a buzz kill.

Built for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, the monorail is the fastest way to travel between downtown…read moreSeattle (5th Avenue & Pine St.) and Seattle Center. It has 2 stations total and was never meant to be actual transit. After our visit to the Space Needle, my partner and I took this 1.2-mile elevated train system and got off Westlake for our next attraction, Pike Public Market. It saved quite a bit of walking with one-way $4. It is an iconic, historic piece of Seattle and still serves to connect downtown with the Seattle Center 60+ years later.

Connecting the busy Westlake light rail station to the touristy Seattle Center in downtown, the…read moreSeattle Monorail is 0.9 miles long, traveling on an elevated track, with the endpoints being the only stops. It takes about 3 minutes to travel between, costs $4 per one-way ride, and operates every 10 minutes. My wife and I took it twice during our one night trip to Seattle, and it was a good way to cut off a bit of a walk traveling from/to the airport and our hotel located at the Seattle Center. The monorail system was built in 1962 to take visitors to the World's Fair, which was being held at what is today the Seattle Center. It consists of 2 parallel single rail tracks, each with one train. After each 3 minute journey, the conductor has to walk the length of the train to get to the other forward facing 'locomotive' car, so there is a bit of time between the train arriving and the train leaving again (in the opposite direction). The two trains (Blue and Red) can run concurrently (often during high traffic times like during a Kraken hockey game), but I've only seen one of them run at a time. The space between the two tracks are where people boarding the train must wait, entering this space using an Orca card (tap-to-pay has yet to be implemented). There are no discounts for transfers to other Orca enabled transit. There is one seat on the locomotive car right next to the conductor, providing an unobstructed view facing forward. Would highly recommend doing that if riding it for the first time. It was my 4th time riding, but 1st time on that seat. Spoke to the conductor a little, and learned that for her, it's 42 round trips a day during her shift. Also noticed that the train passes right by the upper level windows of the Hyatt House hotel, so imaging guests in those rooms could get a cool view of the train as it zipped by.

What a wonderful way to learn about the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the issues they're…read moretackling. Everyone working there was so friendly and welcoming. The exhibits are interactive and fun for both adults and children. I attended one of their scheduled talks on the toilets and it was eye opening to learn about the issue and also the prototypes that have been built. Definitely worth a stop if you're in the area! Pro tip: If you're making a quick-ish visit, you can park at the QFC a block away after you do your groceries ;)

Small visitor center that is free and open to the public. It is staffed by very knowledgeable…read morepersonnel (take the tour) and offers interesting insight into the history and efforts of the foundation. It is interesting to see what causes they have chosen to focus on, and the strides that they've been able to make. There is some debate as to whether a private citizen should be dictating global policy, but there's a lot worse things that the Gates could be doing with all their money. I enjoyed the visit and thought it was worth the education.

Holy moly - the amount of food we had on this tour! Loved everything about this and learning about…read moreestablishments I've been passing by/thru for years. Part of the same staycation as the underground tour - made for a perfect weekend.

"Expectations- it's about comparison"…read more Now we have never been on a food tour before but some of our friends had been on one to Pikes Market but the tour our friends took turns out was not the one they thought they had tried last year and recommended to us. An honest mistake but was this a foretelling of what was to come? This walking food tour focused on Pike's Market and pretty much stayed in the area between Union all the way to Lenora St.. As you stroll through this historic waterfront area, our guide Jerry gave us many nuggets of trivia and information regarding the area both past and present. A highpoint of this tour (and the many competing tours in Seattle) is the food sampling from various shops in the market. From asian teas to samosas, from crumpets to chowder, from smoked salmon to pickle juice, from salmon burgers to gelato and more- this tour does give you a chance to sample the many edible delights of Pike's Market, and many are special samples you can only get on the tour. This tour offering was especially long, about 2.5 hours long. I understand most tours run about 1.5 hours long. I can't really say how this tour compares with others being offered but I would compare the samples being offered ( they can differ) and go with the one that has the goodies you'd like to try. We enjoyed this tour, our guide Jerry was a friendly, affable type of guy that made our "intimate" group of four enjoy our experience. The kicker for us was that we were able to use a group-on coupon so we only paid $29 per person instead of the usual $44. Because this is probably one of those kind of tours you would only go to once, I suggest you read the reviews (on Yelp of course) of the various companies, see if there are any discount coupons to be had, and make your choice. This company is one that should be kept in the mix as a possible choice.

I have spent my entire life traveling and being an adventure. I absolutely do not do the standard…read morebus tours, never have and never will. I thrive on unique adventures and experiences. Having said that for my 50th birthday, I decided to let somebody else do the work and have a once in a lifetime trip planned for me and my son. I made it very clear in the beginning that I did not want to be in a herd showed around from tourist trap to tourist trap. I wanted to go off the beaten path and explore the Amazon jungles in the Galapagos. I wanted to go scuba diving as well as see and experience, hiking, the native and first person's teachings and love of their land. Well, this company was pretty good at making changes to the itinerary. They completely failed and did not understand the assignment. This was the worst trip I have ever been on and my son asked me every day to never ever use somebody to plan a trip again. The value was deplorable. What was on the itinerary did not match up at all to what the actual activities were. Apparently the person that did my trip is obsessed with four or 5 AM. Wake ups every single day. This was never brought to my attention. There was only one morning, where she said that there would be an early wake up, I guess 3:30 in the morning is definitely an early wake up and puts the four and 5 AM wake ups to a better time? It is incredibly sad that a wake up for a dive boat is the morning you get to actually sleep in. There were amazing opportunities missed, and what we ended up on was paying for a private guide that took us around to all the sites where the buses were going. Things that sounded fantastic on paper were shells of AI writing out something that sounded great. The restaurants were extremely hit and miss. And the food choices were choice A or B, and some nights there was only a choice A. This is what you get to eat. I ended up paying to go to restaurants because I actually wanted a menu and found some amazing hole in the walls that were fantastic. The hotels were actually not bad. I will give them credit for that. However, the Amazon Lodge was a complete and utter total failure in absolutely every respect to what we were looking for. Needless to say the value of an American dollar out there goes incredibly far and the amount that I paid for this trip definitely funded this company's ability to go on a trip themselves. Itineraries were refused to be shared until you were on the trip and we didn't even get wake up times often until the night before until I threw an absolute tantrum and demanded to know what was scheduled for us. They won't tell you what airlines you're flying on or flight numbers, you don't know hotels in advance, you have no idea what companies are running the excursions and there is absolutely no way to change anything. I also found that major attractions were left off the itinerary and some really cool things to do were also left off. Overall, it was the biggest disappointment trip I have ever been on and it has completely scarred me from ever using a company again. I spent my lifetime saving up for this trip and if I had planned it, I probably would've paid half of what I paid here and actually had to have some amazing experiences. Instead, I ended up on a very vanilla bus filled tour like excursions. My suggestion is be very careful about getting prior details about scheduling ahead of time. That was the first clue that this was not going to be a bespoke custom tour to exactly what we were wanted. I would also look up places and be very cautious if you are looking to be adventuresome as they apparently do not know the difference between bus around and privately bus around versus an actual adventuresome experience. If you are not familiar with traveling in other countries and do not have the confidence to do so this might be an excellent choice. However, if you are used to traveling, this is absolutely not the company for you. Again the worst experience I've ever had and it is taking me weeks to start to deal with this. There's nothing like being on a trip and having it nothing like what you expect and to see the value for everything that you have saved for literally dumped down the drain.

Let this show that I think the American team/staff are mostly solid and organized. They could be…read moremore consultative/informative in helping differentiate between trips and options (in terms of scope and difficulty of trekking, of route options and add ons), but on the whole they organize a reliable trip. It was the guide we had in Peru, Juan, that has left some damaging scars. Both before and after our trip with Southern Explorations, we had and have done a myriad of both private and small group hikes on every continent save for Antartica. I have never had a guide be so disrespectful, unsolicitous and arrogant. He flat out and openly would condescend and mock us; give us a difficult time for "peeling too much skin off the apple and therefore wasting it"; reprimanded us for being unprepared when we asked how much longer we had on a given day. He would hike 100's of yards ahead of us for hours at a time and act annoyed that the altitude was getting to us. He also had us walk along a route that had been wiped out after mudslides in the off-season. One expects the unexpected when one is hiking; but the lack of thought about alternative routes etc. led to some very unsafe experiences. At one point, we took the "faster/less safe option" and our animals took the "safer" option as they couldn't physically fit on the narrow path we were on. Ok... But 2 of the animals fell off the mountain (to its sad death) scaling the "safer" route. Not only did this leave us unconfident in Juan and the trail; it also meant we went without dinner for a night and had less food the rest of the trip. We've have had phenomenal guides, elsewhere, and mediocre ones. But we've never had someone before or since so rude and expectant. It really felt awful to have to tip him at the end given the way he had treated us. So if you go to Peru and do the alternative Inca trail (or something there like) beware what Juan you get! The scenery remains so beautiful; but a bad guide can really sour the experience--to speak euphemistically.