Tour guide Dante was fantastic! Wonderful, funny and fascinating storyteller with the perfect…read moretheatrical flair. Well done and highly recommend.

Our tour guide Clara was fantastic. I've done just about all the ghost tours San Diego has to offer…read moreand so far this was the best. Clara was incredibly well spoken and engaging the entire duration of the tour. (I loved her corny jokes) this tour was the best and for the price you really get your monies worth. Can't wait to do another tour that they offer soon !

We had Clara on our tour and she was knowledgeable l, funny and personable. Great experience, would…read morerecommend!

This tour was so close to boring me to death, I was about to be the only ghost you see that night…read more We signed up for the last tour of the day in Old Town San Diego. The meeting address stated on the email sent regarding the reservation was just a general one, so we had to walk around a bit to find the tour group. After circling the park for a bit, we noticed there's no large group of people congregating anywhere, no signs, no lights, no indicators of any kind of where the starting point was. I eventually overheard the conversation of a few people talking behind us and turned back to ask about the Ghost Tour. This woman confirmed that we were in the right place. I lightheartedly commented on how I'm glad we've found them and that we were on the lookout for a sign of some sort. Clara was unnecessarily rude in her response saying "Well, yeah. This is a public park, and uh, look at what I'm wearing." Super snarky. Very catty. Totally uncalled for. It is also very important to point out that she was wearing a burgundy maxi skirt with a black blouse. Excuse my fashion senses for assuming that's perfectly normal. There's literally people in our tour group that dressed up as what most would consider to be more outlandish than what she wore and tried to pass off as a costume. I didn't want to ruin the start of our evening, so I swept this incident under the rug until my partner brought it back up in the car and stated how extremely rude our tour guide was. That interaction clearly didn't just look like that to me but to witnesses as well. Although this initial interaction was unpleasant, I was willing to give it a pass if the rest of the tour had gone well. It did not. Clara continued to be unprofessional throughout the entire evening. I can't even remember the intro because she spent a huge chunk of it complaining about the mosquitos. It's not a great way to hype up the crowd for an exciting night when you're reminding them of these literal bloodsuckers that are out to get them. If you've ever been with a tour guide for any occasion, you would know that the storytelling component is one of the biggest parts of the entire experience. Clara is either brand new to the job, incompetent, or both. She constantly mixed up the stories, told events in an ineffective chronological order, and flipped words like someone who clearly just regurgitated words from a script that they never truly digested. It was obvious that she does not understand the history and context to the extent that a tour guide should. Such a bummer because when I attempted to call the business and the voicemail picked up, whoever was on it sounded a lot more animated and fun. Where was that guy at?! But instead, we got stuck with CLARA. Aside from the most significant factor of a quality storyteller falling short, there were other parts that made the whole experience lackluster as well. For one thing, we stayed in a tiny area consisting of a handful of homes for most of the tour. To make it even worse, all of the houses are under construction, so the fence and tarp was blocking the views almost entirely. The reasons I'm not flat out giving this business a one star is because I understand that depending on who your tour guide is and how they're feeling that day, you could have a completely different experience. I also enjoyed playing with the pendulum, dowsing rod, and EMF reader. Overall, I'm willing to give a lot of grace to someone underperforming due to an off day or the fact that they're exhausted at the end of the night. But kindness and respect cost nothing, yet our guide wasn't willing to spare any. There was no warmth to her, and the passion was nonexistent during her storytelling. It was not at all an immersive experience that I was hoping for. Even with the Groupon discount, this experience was most certainly not worth it. I truly feel for the unfortunate souls who paid full price if their experience was anything like mine.

My daughter and I we were lucky to be hosted by Charles who happened to be the live- in caretaker…read moreyears ago of the mansion. It was a fantastic experience as he walked us through the place I felt like I I was taken back in time. I was impressed of his rich knowledge of the history of the Villa Montezuma and how much he knows about Jesse Francis Shepard " the owner ". Thanks to Charles and Tess for letting us in and for your hospitality.

Wry disappointed in the customer service. We wanted to do a tour and take photos outside and the…read morevibe was light up until a staff member came out rudely and told us to keep it down as there were doing tours. We can understand that we might have been giggling loudly but there were so many better ways to ask us to tone it down since we were OUTSIDE. We never made it inside due to such rude behavior. If you don't want loud people then put a sign asking for c

What a fun evening doing a private Taste of Little Italy food walking tour with Adriana! We had…read moresuch a wonderful time learning the history of Little Italy and enjoying the food from 4 different places. Highly recommend doing it with your out of town guests or with your foodie friends. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/349327055627 We took our time and never felt rushed. Food was amazing! I've lived here for over 20 years and never knew much about the history of Little Italy. Adriana was such a fun guide and I already can't wait to go again!

Anthony gave a fantastic tour. There was plenty of amazing food, and we all thoroughly enjoyed the…read morehistory as well! All in all, this was a spectacular tour and the highlight of the trip for all of us!!

Antoinette made this an amazing experience. I'd leave 10 stars if I could! Her passion and…read moreknowledge make for an incredibly memorable experience and I will be back.

I had the opportunity to go last night and it was such a cool experience. My friend and I had the…read morepleasure of meeting Miss DOT. She is such a character that we almost thought she does acting for a living! Miss Dot made the whole experience very lively and enjoyable. We learned so much of the haunted history in our own hometown! We will definitely be back with more friends and hopefully get to have Miss Dot as our tour guide again!

my group and I had an absolutely delightful time on this tour, and Leila had an amazing sense of…read morehumor!!! I highly recommend! It is a walking tour and you do have to figure things out yourself, so I recommend not being TOO tipsy to start!

I enjoyed our time with Leila going around learning about DTSD and the murders that happened. She…read morewas engaging and fun. I definitely recommend doing this tour!

I love Old Town San Diego with it's Mexican flavor. Love the history. Love the dining and the…read moreshops. Beautiful day in San Diego. We dined, shopped for souvenirs and made fun memories until our next trip back to San Diego!

I visited Old Town San Diego for the first time since I was a child...it's very different from what…read moreI remembered, but that was about 15-20 years ago. It's still cool to see. Plenty of shops, museums, and historic sites to check out. Handful of restaurants had live music. Honestly, the highlight for me was probably the church and the free tortilla I got from the window near Casa de Reyes. Those lived up to the childhood memories I had there. Free parking is good. Walking around is nice. Just do it once to cross it off your bucket list. It's fun, just go with low/no expectations!

Our tour guide was nothing short of AMAZING. He was a knowledgeable comedian on wheels. The trolley…read morewas very comfortable. There was a trolley every 20 mins. We covered various places on the tour initially. We stayed on the trolley for the whole tour then took another trolley to areas we'd seen earlier. Old Town and the beach . Love our tour guide Vinny.

PURCHASE YOUR TICKETS DIRECTLY FROM THEIR SITE! Ok now that I've got your attention and am done…read moreyelling at you let's get to my rave review. This excursion is worth every penny. The drivers are hospitable, attentive, knowledgeable, and entertaining. As if the sights aren't enough the history lessons behind it all is fantastic. The ability to hop on and off is brilliant. Great way to check out San Diego! Definitely start early in the AM and get off the trolley at Coronado island and take a walk around and then take another trolley to Balboa Park and spend your time getting your fill of everything it has to offer. Then take your last trolley back. You won't be sorry.

These are fantastic walking tours of San Diego…read more The fact of the matter is, San Diego DOES have history ... you just have to look for it. And there are few people better than Patty (Ms. Urban Safari herself) to show it to you. Urban Safaris offers guided walking tours of different San Diego neighborhoods, ranging from urban centers like the Gaslamp Quarter and La Jolla to Balboa Park and the open canyons around town. Patty, a long-time San Diego resident, teacher and historian, knows more about the city than anyone I know. And she has a knack for noticing fascinating things that most of us pass every day without even a second's notice. Usually, there's a tour every weekend, leaving on Saturday at 10am and lasting about two hours. The specific location depends upon the neighborhood of the week, but you can find out by making a reservation with Patty on the website, by sending her an email, or even by calling the number. Space is usually limited to about 15, so it's good to make your reservations early. On the other hand, San Diegans are notorious un-curious about their city, and so the tours often (and unfortunately) have plenty of space. The best way to find out about the tours is through the website, although they are occasionally advertised in the San Diego Reader (under 'Local Events') and Patty can give you a paper schedule when you go on your first tour. They don't happen every weekend (because Patty travels and spends a lot of her time researching new tours); but there are 'seasons', and when a new schedule comes out it will usually list tours for weeks and even months in advance. Really, I can't say enough about these tours. I've learned a ton. Most of all, I've found a great, new way to appreciate the wonderful city we share. PS - The tours don't necessarily leave from Horton Plaza. I just put that there because Yelp required that I put a specific location. Really, this isn't the kind of thing that has a specific location -- it changes each week with the particular tour. Just go to the website to find out where the next tour is leaving from.

Think you know San Diego?…read more If you don't, definitely come on one of these walking tours. And even if you think you do, still come, because there may be a thing or three that you may very well learn and give you a greater appreciation for the community. Like Ethan said, these tours take you to various neighborhoods in San Diego: North Park, Hillcrest, Gaslamp, South Park, East Village, Mission Hills, etc. Each last between 1.5-2 hours. Along the way, Patty points you to various landmarks and oddities in each neighborhood and provides the history and background of each. In addition, she also shows some historical pictures in context to today's landscape. In addition to researching herself, many people have donated their knowledge and information that have gone on the walks themselves, adding even more rich history from people who actually have grown up and seen the changes in San Diego. Go!

I took day off bed by a,local native of San Diego and have been to old town over a thousand times I…read moredecide D to take San Diego trolley tour take in sights and get the early evening walking tour of Whaley house. The tour guide was informative and brought the history out . I did not know that the courtroom was an all encompassing room back in the,days. None of the whaley house members,were hired on the site. But there is a,cemetery down thestreet. When I took my first tour was back in like 1994 at night with the other trolley haunted tours. The house is,relatively small but filled with tons if historical pieces that creates frightful ambience.

I have lived almost all my life in San Diego and refused to take the Whaley House tour, just…read morebecause I've known the history of what happened on the grounds and was pretty scared as a kid. I've had some really weird incidents happen to me in Old Town and far too many occasions have felt a heaviness whenever I would pass by the old Whaley House, my old office was in Old Town. When my best friend wanted to check out the Whaley House for our birthday trip, I was hesitant but said yes. She was visiting from out of town and she loves all things scary and I wanted to make sure she had a good birthday too. We ended up getting a late night reservation which was pretty cool, it made for a lot less foot traffic and I was able to find parking right across the street. We checked in at the gift shop and waited for our turn. Our guide was Heather, she was so fantastic, super welcoming and gave us so much history of the Whaley family. She even told us her experiences, the house itself definitely feels lived in, there is so much energy in here, so if you're a little sensitive like me be ware. I felt like I wanted to cry more times, than I should. My one irk was that the group before us, their guide said, "Say hello to Violet Whaley for us," it seemed like a toss away statement but as you learn the history of the Whaley family I was just so disgusted at her words. Violet Whaley suffered from depression and took her own life on the grounds. It still irks me that a guide would say that to another group and then proceed to tell her group that ours just didn't know who Violet was yet. Uncool. Would definitely recommend anyone come to San Diego and wanting to check out the history to take the tour.