I accompanied some of my company's new hires on a tour yesterday. Because I'm a native of San…read moreFrancisco, I contemplated lying about where I'm from just to see if I could catch our guide sharing inaccurate or exaggerated stories. Suffice to say that I was completely blown away by Stuart's deeply researched knowledge, family history in the city, and passion - so much so that I am planning to recommend this tour to my own friends and family who have also lived here their whole lives. My colleagues even commented afterwards that they probably know more about San Francisco now than their own hometowns.

Great tour by Stuart this past Saturday. I was impressed with his friendliness and deep knowledge…read moreof San Francisco, but esp with his 'our of the box' thinking when it comes to how he runs his tours. I also loved the small group size and that he provides some pictures of what this city looked like at specific points in time. Highly recommend it!

I was suppose to take the Italian food tour today with 4 other family members but the tour guide,…read moreBrian, never turned up. After waiting for two hours we decided that enough was enough and left. I don't know what exactly happened to Brian, and to give him the benefit of the doubt, for a while we thought, maybe he had some sort of emergency. And to be honest we would have been less irritated if he told us earlier on that he could not make the tour and needed to cancel, because shit happens in life. What we really didn't appreciate was the fact that he strung us along for two hours. Tour was suppose to start at 11:00. At 11:15 we were told, another 10 minutes. So we waited. Then we were asked to move to the next venue. So we waited for another 30 mins. Another call from Brian to the venue and asking us to wait another 10 mins. This kept going on until we waited for almost 2 hours. Throughout this whole time the main operator was apologetic and to be fair, offered us a refund and vouchers. They were also trying to get a hold of Brian, but couldn't. The problem was that Brian was clearly avoiding phone calls from his employer, because if he really had no signal he wouldn't have been able to call the venue and keep telling us to wait another ten minutes! I am all up for giving people a second chance. Maybe Brian has his reasons. Maybe his alarm didn't work and he forgot to wake up on time. But he needs a quick reality check in basic client management - don't over promise, and don't avoid confrontation because one cannot face delivering bad news. Because things surely will deteriorate quickly once people realise they are being lied to.

Excellent tour of North Beach exploring hidden gems by Jim; and we're locals! A total of 7…read moredelightful food stops including a unique hand rolled gnocchi dish, handmade chocolates, to die for pizza, focaccia and cheese, cannoli, tiramisu, and pasta! Such fascinating history and fun facts! The best was discovering the La Porziuncola Nuova, a scaled replica of Saint Francis's Porziuncola in Assisi! Also, while other tours will cancel if there aren't enough people, Tastebuds has no minimum so we ended up having a private tour!! We did the Chicago Tastebuds tour a few years ago, and five stars again for a memorable day with my son on his spring break!

10/10 would recommend this tour. We started the day at 8am with Amber. After a full day with her I…read morecan say you HAVE to come here. We visited 3 winery's, 2 that we wanted to go to, the other she recommended. I would recommend going with her recommendations since it was my favorite winery's of the day. She picked us up on time (8am, she was there early) from our hotel and we headed out the the Muir Woods. The woods are so magical with the amazing redwood trees that were HUGE. After the woods we headed to our first winery. Stagsly vineyards is a bigger winery with some great Cabernets. Their tasting room was beautiful and overlooked the massive vineyards. Next we went for lunch at Gotts. This place had some seriously delicious burgers and tacos. Everyone in my family got burgers and I got shrimp tacos that were very fresh and tasty. Their special Mexican street corn was also one of our favorites. After we went to Ambers winery recommendation that was soldero. This was a smaller boutique type vineyard. We started our tasting with a tour of the property and their new rose that will be launching in July. The rose was our favorite. We were also able to go down on the vineyard and see the plants which I thought was very cool. The staff was friendly and sat chatting with us down in their tasting room. Finally we stopped by Cuvason which had such a classy atmosphere. Beautiful indoor and outdoor tasting. They started us off with a complimentary rose champagne. After we tasted a savigon Blanc, another rose, and 2 Cabernets. Again would recommend the rose, however I still think the new one from our second stop was best. All in all we had an amazing time with amber she was a fantastic tour guide and helped us to not only learn about wine country and the Muir Woods but also new wines.

I would highly recommend the private wine tour with Jensen. He picked us up at our hotel in a…read moreLincoln Navigator. He selected 3 wineries that fit our group beautifully!! He was very patient with us as we spent time at wine tastings and enjoying the beautiful views at each winery. He was very knowledgeable about wine and the wine country and gave us alot of information on the ride to and in between wineries. Jensen is vey personable. So if you are looking for a personalized wine tour, look no further. We also took the city tour in the open top vehicle. BEST way to tour San Francisco. Jensen gave us alot of information on the city and significant places throughout the tour. Jensen is great at reading his customers and altered our tour to include a trip across the Golden Gate bridge into the city of Sausalito. He caters to his customers and makes the experience truly personal and memorable.

Ted B was AWESOME! We did the Chinatown food tour, super easy to book, and easy meet up…read more He was very well spoken, he had a voice amplifier and always made sure we were all safe and accounted for. He also had a large iPad where he showed pictures of the things he was talking about which was so nice. I have been on other tours and they usually have a binder and you're flipping through pictures that are old and everyone has been touching it. He was very professional and the food was all good! He was funny and gave lots of great info of the area. I learned so much

This was a wonderful tour! Ted B is so knowledgeable and funny! He did a great job of asking…read morequestions to include everyone and got everyone on the tour engaged and joking with one another! We had delicious, ample tastings and you will leave happily full! It was great learning the history of the area. My only suggestion is to get us to the guest tasting a bit faster as I was a hungry girl in waiting! Loved the dumplings, noodles, shumai and duck!

This was one of the best things. I love walking tours. The host was knowledgeable and…read moreentertaining. The group was small enough to make it seem cozy. It's a must do.

Christian our guide was amazing! Awesome presentation of stories; you could tell he had done his…read moreresearch and really enjoys sharing what he's learned and heard. Along with the 4-5 ghost stories you hear, you will also get some San Francisco history and architectural tidbits. What was challenging on our tour, specifically, was just the other people in our tour group. One was a loud, over enthusiastic 18 year old who seemed to have never learned volume control or any kind of social graces. I would expect this kind of behavior from someone younger - it was distracting for us and from the slamming of neighborhood windows, it was just as annoying to the residents. I'm not sure how many people are allowed in the walking group, but just know you dont get to pick the maturity level of strangers. All in all, I would recommend!

Took the MUIR WOODS TOUR on 9/14/2021 with GEORGE as our driver and guide. He is a very friendly,…read moreinformative, funny and a good driver. UNFORTUNATELY he doesn't understand how to wear a mask. His MASK WAS ON HIS CHIN not covering his mouth or nose NOT ONCE! We took city buses everywhere all over the city for nine days and every driver and every rider was properly wearing their masks. We were impressed with this. Way to go San Francisco. MUIR WOODS is a must to visit. You truly need more than 90 minutes though. We were told by GEORGE that the staircase to the right in the trail is an hour walk. We must of misunderstood him, for that trail is a few hours and we turned around when we asked other hikers how much further. They said it was not an hour trail and to turn around. We did and barely made it back within our 90 minutes. So don't take the long right staircase unless you plan on turning around. It was quiet and gorgeous and we were alone most of the time on the trail. Seems the tour lost two international travelers. They never came back. GEORGE called the company to inform them of who was missing. He waited at least 15 minutes or more past the time we were to leave. We hope they made it back safe.

The tour guide Marco was very good, gave us lots of information about the address and it's history…read moreand wineries. It was nice to go on a winery tour and not worry about driving or tasting fees etc

Just know what you're getting yourself into…read more We did this on a Sunday, tour company owner as guide** They arrived late, overbooked and made one couple not come on the tour after texting at 1030pm trying to get 4 to cancel, I guess they got 2. Anyway after they made one couple take a hike we piled in an 8 person van. You can't really see out of the windows and our guide just sort of talks to himself, only sometimes using the microphone (I preferred silence to his banter though). Van smells like a unkempt zoo. You drive around and listen to him and not see anything for about 1.5 hours, a couple stops though for pics. Then you get to the golden gate park area which is very nice, good spot for pics on the SF side. Then across the bridge, but again you cannot see anything cause the van is garbage. Other side of bridge again stop for pics, nice. Very windy road on the next stint, starting to be aggravating in the van. Now Muir Woods which was really cool but you only get 1 hour, I could have spent 3. He tell us to meet him there in 1 hour (1140 in this case) it's pouring by the end and he is late by 5 mins of us just standing in the rain. Now lunch stop on the way back, just pulls into a health food store and lets us out, we have no idea of if we are eating there or what, we are, kind of like a Whole Foods situation, no seating, many stand to eat. He is kind of mad at me because he was waiting outside but we had no idea he was even there lol. Back across the bridge, painted lady stuff and a stop on the top of a lookout point which was neat. At this point I am unable to get back into the van, it smells like a hamster cage in there and I have been nauseated for 2h. I Uber back. I wish I would have known this stuff... tough day of 'vacation'

Zero stars should be a thing…read more If you read no more, read this: DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY! My best friend and I traveled to San Francisco as the first stop on our tour of California. We booked the city tour over a month in advance via Groupon (a company I've used for years). We didn't rent a car while staying in San Fran because the city is so accessible through public transportation. So, this tour was perfect because we were so excited to see the hot spots of San Francisco. The tour on the computer at Groupon.com and though I received email verification from Groupon, no communications were received from Left Coast tours. First red flag. Due to the fact that no customer to company direct communication, the initial meet up location and process was quite confusing. The address listed was 5th & Market Street. We arrived and didn't see any signage, groups waiting or anything that could confirm this was where we should be. And though we called while in route to the above location just to make sure we were heading to correct local we received no indication that we were heading in the wrong direction. Everything listed on the Groupon and the company website was contradictory so we called again to get clarification. We called at least 9 times with no answer. We walked to another address that as listed on Google, which was another hotel (not listed on the company website). At this point, it was 15 minutes beyond the time when the tour was to begin. To say we were frustrated would be an understatement. After half an hour we got ahold of the administer at the home base of Left Coast Tour office. He explained he would track down the driver and get back to us. He did not. We called. And called. And called. Only to be directed to another hotel which we needed to cab to. We obliged not wanted to waste an entire afternoon for nothing. When we arrived, still, no driver. The only man to answer the contact info listed said "he could not locate the driver", "this never happens" and "he's been calling him for 45 mins". What kind of tour company cannot find their tour driver, I asked? We were then given the DRIVER's number who we called at least 20 combined times between the both of us. Nothing. No answer whatsoever. This situation was handled extremely unprofessional and upset that my time and money was wasted. This company is a shame and left a bad taste in my mouth and was 100% not worth the frustration. Our fix: Go to the official visitor center and have them guide you to any of the many reputable sites and tours the city has to offer. They are open regular business hours and will help you for free. If they're closed, Union square has multiple companies running at all times from the bus port. Bottom line: LEFT COAST TOURS IS WASTE OF MONEY/TIME/ENERGY

My wife and I along with four friends were all entertained by this tour. We were regaled with…read more colorful stories of colorful criminals from San Francisco's Barbary Coast. But what really made it fun was the tour guide's dynamic style of story-telling which reflects her training in musical theater. And she can sing! I'd say don't miss this great tour. Oh, and we got a kick out of the prizes for correctly answering questions!

The good: The stories are interesting. It's nice to meet at the Ferry Building - since there's so…read moremuch to do there, and you can go early and wander around (and eat) and not worry about being late. You do meet at Pete's in the Ferry Building (1). There isn't a lot of walking, but there is a lot of standing. If you have foot problems, the standing might be an issue, imo. You see the pier- and the guide talks about the history of the waterfront. That was interesting- I didn't realize people lived under the piers, and the murder on the harbor (a lady scorned!) was very dramatic. The visit to the vigilante plaque, and the Barbary Coast talk was also good. Both my husband and I enjoyed it. The bad- if you had a large group it would be hard to hear, but the guide really tries to speak up- however I cannot imagine a group of 50 going on this (as one person mentioned). The guide is a little disorganized- that doesn't bother me, but it might bother some people. There aren't a lot of crimes- just a few really sensational ones- and I liked that. I learned a lot, and I liked being able to associate what I learned with the physical location. As I had a Groupon, I certainly felt I got my money's worth. But the criticisms by the folks who gave low ratings are fair- so take your preferences in to account if you decide to do this.