During the pandemic I started to dig deeper and explore more San Fernando valley area where I live…read more Did you know that Tarzana was part of a ranch owned by author Edgar Rice Burroughs and named after its famous character Tarzan? A bit of Valley history here! When I found out about Tarzana Safari Walk I got excited. Unfortunately it's nothing exotic about the area. It's part of Ventura Blvd. with generic stores on it and chain coffee shop. Sometimes they might do a small street fair (maybe that was years ago). Now it's just a regular block in the Valley. No exotic walks or hikes. Just yiur regular urban jungle!

Today my kids and I enjoyed the annual Safari Walk/Sidewalk Fair in Tarzana. Many activities take…read moreplace while you dine and shop along Ventura Blvd at Yolanda Ave. Activities included: face painting, balloon twisting/animals, music, drum & dance performance, martial arts performance, lectures on Tarzana history & more! Face painting & balloons: it was super hot today so my son opted for having something painted on his arm other than his face and sweating it all off and looking crazy. He wanted a skull and the lady did a great job. She was very fast and you can tell she's been doing this for a while! My daughter got a flower on her leg and it was very pretty and done in literally 15 seconds. She also got a flower balloon bracelet that was really cool. Thanks to the 2 wonderful ladies working the booth :) Performances: Sensei Ash Martial arts performed and the kids showed off their martial arts skills. (I wish I took pictures) I noticed it was a mixture of all levels: green belt, orange, blue etc. I was super impressed and my 9 year old now wants to sign up and join. You can tell those kids carry great discipline and confidence as they were doing high kicks and karate chops as well as cool ninja rolling/tumbling on the mat. African Drum & Dancing: this was really fun! I love how they included and interacted with the crowd and taught us the meaning of their dance moves and some of us had the guts to get in front of everyone and dance along. We even learned the words to their chant but I can't remember anymore. They also let kids come up and play drums and other instruments. Pretty awesome :) Live animals: this was scheduled for 2:30pm so we arrived in front of Chase bank where it was taking place but had to wait a while because they were running late. Now when I heard "live animals" for some reason I thought elephants, lions, tigers and bears lol. My kids were pretty disappointed when the "animal show" showed up in storage bins. Reptiles and some birds I believe. After my son pet a snake we left. Oh well. Even though it was just super hot out today that didn't matter. You can see the families enjoying themselves and the kids were happy and having a great time. Looking forward to next year.

Very cool in every way even for locals and natives of L.A…read more The tours for Destination DTLA are no longer available, but a lot of similar groups have taken it upon themselves to emulate and offer great experiences. We stumbled into two and enjoy our day, but also made our own tour based on DDTLAT. Lot of amazing architecture, art, history, and fun/ From the Spring Arcade to Saint Vincent Court, views from the Westin, eats at Garo's, a stroll near Angel's Flight and loaded more. Your LA Tours seems to have taken over - but they also do tours throughout greater Los Angeles https://www.yourlatours.com/ Parking is easy with several paid lots throughout. If staying at a hotel or closeby you can't go wrong with getting some extra steps in to the start of the tours.

What a fabulous walking tour! I was doing a good friend a favor by taking his friend, who came to…read morevisit from New York, to walk around LA since my friend was working all day. I thought it would be a cool idea to do a walking tour in downtown since it has so much history and great restaurants. We met at the Arcade in the Spring Arcade Building. The tour was about two hours with a mini break at the grand central market. Our tour guide did such a great job at telling the history, of the beautiful buildings and streets around the downtown of LA. This tour was Totally worth it. Thank you Carmen for helping us set up our tour!

Our LA Street Art Tour was absolutely amazing. Our guide Sergio conveyed so much history, cultural…read morebackground, street art technique, and street art information, all in a great conversational style. He was cool, kind, and open to questions - just al all-around great person. Definitely take this tour if you are looking for fantastic information, cool art, and just an eye-opening look at some of the art in the Arts District. We also added-on a spray can workshop, which was also amazing. It was fun for our students to use some of the techniques Sergio had discussed in their own attempts at street art style. In addition to Sergio, ShanduOne showed up to help out with supplies and guidance. A+, Five Stars! If you're thinking of doing this street art tour, just do it!

Absolutely shocked and amazed by the amount of knowledge guide has. Incredible couple of hours full…read moreof laughter, learning and soaking in culture and history of Los Angeles. Highly recommend this tour to both locals and tourist.

My friend and I had a great time with Miles, the tour guide. He was extremely knowledgeable and it…read morewas a very fun time. It was nice and balmy out and my friend even had an experience! When Miles was talking about a ghost's strong smelling perfume, she immediately smelled it and then it went away. So we had a great time! Thank you so much.

To reply to your message, Candace, yes we did join your tour. Probably not the smartest idea to…read morethrough my real name out to write honest reviews, but people really do need to know. I can recall your memory by telling you that we had 6 people in our group, and 3 of them walk out half way, making me feel terrible for having them pay that much for some terrible dad jokes and a sad excuse for "factual" stories. Now I do apologize and will remove this post if I am indeed mistaken. Here's the dishonest review site that was emailed to me after the tour, and below is my email confirmation with purchase ID removed. https://pro.peek.com/reviews/sample/5907ae6893d2da304f00005b/1 Email confirmation: Thank you for making a purchase with Santa Monica Tour Company on 2017-10-18. Here is a receipt for your order. Please note that a separate confirmation email which includes details about the activity you booked will be sent separately. ORDER DETAILS: Purchase ID: xxxxxxxx Order Summary: Haunted Santa Monica Ghost Tours (6x Adults) Subtotal: $210.00 Taxes & Fees: $15.28 Discounts: $0.00 Total: $225.28 Thanks, Jeb --------------------------- This tour was run by Zack and Candace, two really friendly people. Zack is super energenic, threw dad jokes, and would be an awesome person for regular tours (not haunted tours), and Candace helped tell half the stories. Not sure how this averaged 5-stars. I would give it 0-stars if possible. Biggest disappointment and waste of money. Our group of 10 people all felt scammed. Wasn't what we expected at all. The places we went to were just too crowded to set the mood. Most of the "facts" that were described weren't delivered well to draw us into the stories. Good information on the buildings, but all the haunting stories didn't have any emotions behind it to create the atmosphere. That coupled with the noise and crowdedness of the entire tour just took everyone completely out of it. The whole tour was missing the Mystery aspect of a haunted tour. Delivery of the stories using "factual" statements such as "EMF" and "Séances" does not make it scary, mysterious, or convincing. Not even drugs or alcohol would make it close to what you would expect (Not to say there was any of that involved). TLDR; If your not doing this for your 5 year old kids, don't waste your money or time. Additionally, the tour sent me an email asking to rate my review from 1-5 stars. If you pick anything below 5-stars you get sent to a fake reviewing site that doesn't allow you to submit; Clicking 5-stars sends you to this Yelp page. That's just terrible. https://pro.peek.com/reviews/sample/5907ae6893d2da304f00005b/1

Went canyoneering with Pete and Kyle this past weekend plus another 11 people. I wasn't sure at…read morefirst because our meeting place was in a shopping complex. But after the briefing, we're told we were the most on time or even early group that arrived for many trips they had, even the day before, they started at 11.30, instead of 9.30am. The briefing took about 15-30minutes to make sure everyone knows about the safety and addressed any concerns that they might have before heading up to the mountain. We're then followed them to their car to get the gears for each person. Once everyone got their gears and everything is cleared, we all got our cars lined up behind their Honda Fit and drove up to Mt Baldy. We got there like around 9.30-9.45 ish, and started hiking around 10. It was a pretty steep hill to hike and lots of rocks, so better wear shoes with good grip. Also, this was actually a beginner canyoneering so don't worry about bringing your own rock climbing shoes. Just make sure you bring sunscreen, hat and make sure your bag is waterproof or water resistant, because you'd be going down a waterfall. After climbing for about maybe 45minutes or so, we finally reached the top of the San Antonio waterfalls and both Kyle and Pete started setting up the ropes. They also told us what we need to do and watch out for before sending the first person to go down. There were a total of 4 waterfall to traverse, but the 2nd and 4th were the best, we really got soaked!!! They were also the tallest ones, so if you have a gopro or camera, it would be best to take them during that 2 rappels. I got stuck on the last rappel and I wasn't scared or anything, just curious how to get down and somehow they managed to do something with the ropes, got me down safely. I would totally recommend them if you want some adventure around LA. They're very credible and they have many levels of canyoneering to try as well. They recommend us to try the second level, which is at Eaton Canyon but we have to hike about 10miles round trip, which made me guess myself if I want to go. At least if I'm looking for something fun to do, now I know who to look for. If they're nice and you feel they give you good service, please tip them. It was an awesome Sunday for me last week!

I'm (almost exclusively) an indoor, top-rope climber - not really the adventurous type. But a…read morefriend who is new to the sport wanted to try climbing outside. Since we don't own any gear we decided to try a guided trip. This was fun. The hike into the climbing area was easy and beautiful. The climbs were difficult but achievable. The day was just about perfect. I think my favorite thing was that the guides let us set the pace. Pete would give us options and say "What sounds like fun next?" There was no pressure to follow a specific agenda - and when one in our group was done climbing and just wanted to hang around - that was cool too. When I read some of the other reviews here about 200ft rappels I was worried I would be outside my comfort zone all day - I can be really difficult when I get scared - so I told them what I wanted and that's exactly what I got. An easy, fun day outside with some cool people and no pressure. The guides were friendly and funny, they were more than prepared, and they definitely made the day for me. Next time I go climbing outdoors - it'll be with So Cal Adventure Co. They know what they are doing.

My in laws were in town for the weekend, and one part of LA they hadn't seen yet was downtown. We…read morefigured this would be a good way to see DTLA, try a variety of tasty food, and learn a bit of history while we were at it. Check, check, and another big check! Our tour guide, Scarlet, was awesome. A local Angeleno, it was clear she really knows her stuff. She shared a ton of history with us, about downtown and Los Angeles in general. My favorite morsel was when the city was removing a bunch of trees from Pershing Square, Walt Disney took a bunch of them off the city's hands and used them for the Jungle Cruise! We started with an almond croissant from Pitchoun, then got pork belly skewers from Sari Sari Store at Grand Central Market, then we were on to Maccheroni Republic for some pumpkin ravioli, then tacos at Guisados, and finally donuts at Donut Friend. We walked 2 miles total, and enjoyed every step and every bite. Highly recommend!!

Our company scheduled the Venice Food Tour as a group bonding activity on our company retreat. We…read morewere told the tour would go on rain or shine, and sure enough, it was raining. Totally not the guide's fault, but there was a bit of huddling under awnings and leaping over puddles throughout the evening. Also, there were times we wished that the guides waited to tell stories when we were inside, instead of standing in the weather. We were a big group and they split us into two - we started in different places and met up halfway through. Several members of our group had food allergies. The best part of the evening was the diligence our guide took making sure he accommodated the special diet needs, including some bizarre allergies. There were no slip ups or mix ups, and there was a couple of things everyone could eat at each place. The stories we did hear were very interesting, although it was really limited to a couple of anecdotes here and there. There was more socializing and sampling than touring and learning the area's culinary history, which was fine. We felt like the delivery could have been more engaging and the tour more interactive but overall it was really enjoyable. Good variety of different restaurants, and this was one of the only tours we could find that could do an evening slot instead of just daytime. Food was pre-ordered, and all the choices were really good. A great way to learn about the area and try a lot of different things, while spending quality time with groupmates.

We had the pleasure of having EJ show us around the Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio located in…read moreNewhall, California. EJ was extremely informative, professional, humourous and loaded with tons of unique and interesting stories surrounding the Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio. It was absolutely amazing walking around the huge property and seeing building props and other nostalgic items from several of our favorite movies and television shows. Overall, it was an amazing afternoon, thanks to EJ!

Impressed doesn't even begin to describe our experience with EJ yesterday. He took my dad and I on…read morea tour of Melody Ranch, which was the highlight of my dads year, as my dad is a huge western fan. EJ is knowledgeable, friendly, and was very accommodating to our schedule. Melody Ranch has something for everyone, even if you're not a huge western fan, and I left knowing I gave my dad the best birthday present he could ask for. Sign up for a tour with EJ, and you will not be disappointed.

We booked a tour with Urban Adventures which was awesome! We had a really good time with our tour…read moreguide Jennie. We are all from southern Ca but decided it would be fun to play in our own back yard and it was the best! We leaned things about LA that we did not know! We got to ride the metro the bus and we were gonna ride a bike but we just ran out of time because we took so many pictures and stayed at the farmers market longer than we should have but that was ok because we were really enjoying ourselves. We also went to the LaBrea Tar Pits which was nice because I had never been there! All in All A very good time was held by everyone. We will definitely be signing up for more tours and hopefully Jennie will be out tour guide.

Born and raised in LA I thought I have seen it all. My family and I decided to do this little…read moreadventure to see our city from a different perspective. Well I'm so glad we did. So many things I have never noticed before. Things that I passed by hundreds of times and never paid attention to. Jenny was our tour guide and I could have not asked for a Better guide. I have gone on these types of tours in different cities and always felt very rushed. Jenny was awesome about time she didn't push us to make every location at a specific time. We did the entire tour except for the bike portion and our group was okay with not going that. So we ended up grabbing some dinner and drinks! I will be booking the different tours in the future!

COME HUNGRY! I live…read morein LA but this was a fun way to explore Manhattan Beach while eating delicious food. Amanda was our tour guide and she was fantastic! She shared some history and tips about MB I never would have known on my own. My bf and I were able to bring our dog, which was a huge plus. The town is dog friendly to begin with, so 6 out of the 7 places we stopped at we could bring our fur baby. Each stop, we ate something unique. By stop 4 I was stuffed, but the food was too good I couldn't stop eating. There was a wine tasting which was a great addition. I would definitely do this again and bring colleagues, friends or out-of-towners!

I absolutely loved the Manhattan Beach Food Tour. I went with my mom on a Friday and we thoroughly…read moreenjoyed every minute of the afternoon. Lauren and Amanda were our tour guides and from start to finish they blew us away with their knowledge of the city and the various eateries. Though this is primarily a food tour, I was very impressed with the time they also took to explain various unique spots throughout the city. From small shops to murals to writings on walls and the ground, they pointed it out and had unique tidbits about them. I could really tell that these ladies took their time to research to make sure this tour was exceptional and exceptional it truly was. I'm from the South Bay but I learned so much on this tour that I didn't know before! I also loved that they chose a variety of different restaurants. It was a very diverse offering and I thought this too was a great way to showcase the city. They really chose some family owned restaurants as well as restaurants that have a lot of history to the city. Everything we tried too was excellent. At the end they asked what our favorite was and I couldn't pick. Chicken wings, tacos, ice cream sandwiches...ahh I loved it all! I even loved some mahi sliders we got to try (and mind you I don't eat seafood but I made an exception for this tour because I trusted Lauren and Amanda's expertise and taste. I'm so glad I did because the sliders were delicious! Yes, if a tour can get me to eat seafood ...then it must be a good tour ;). I definitely would recommend this tour to both locals and visitors. You'll be sure to learn many things as well as get to eat some of the best cuisine in town.

Steven was very responsive with my numerous inquiries even prior to booking with him and he was…read morealways courteous, professional, and honest. I knew I had to book the bus at least 6 months in advance to make sure I got a great price and that the bus was available. The bus tour was one of our family activities for my 3-day family reunion in late July, consisting of 200 people. About 60 went on the bus tour. My family enjoyed the tour and had phrases of how great Steven and his team were. To top the great service we got, Steven even drove back to hotel that my family was staying in to bring back an iPad which one of my aunts left behind. Now that is beyond customer service! Steven, I thank you for taking great care of my family! I will definitely book again.

Impressive service! Called to get estimates for a company party, and after a few questions, I…read morereceived so much great information AND we determined a double decker wasn't going to serve my needs for this party. This was amazing because the level of time, energy and thoughtfulness I was given went beyond what some vendors provide even customers that wind up using them. LA Double Decker will stay on my list for future outings for sure!