Dearly Departed Tours

My wife and I took the tour with our adult children and loved it. It was fortunate for us that we had the bus to ourselves. Richard, our tour guide, was knowledgeable of Hollywood lore and was entertaining to boot. He answered my questions and gave us personalized service. The tour itself is much better than strictly seeing where the Stars live. We were given factual information about the crime scenes that was not given to the general public. When I saw the article about Dearly Departed Tours in Rue Morgue Magazine, I knew I had to experience it myself. All four of us rated the Tour as a must see.

Brian is a gem! The real thing when it comes to knowing everything HOLLYWOOD. Brian goes into depth with every story - and welcomes tidbits from the tourists as well. Plus, he cleverly and conveniently provides a restroom stop with a photo opp! I recommend this tour for Los Angelenos - not just out-of-towners! PS My friend was having difficulty walking due to having had a cast removed - and Brian was kind enough to take us to the Kodak Center for our car afterward. How many people would go out of their way to do that?! Thanks, Brian!

My teenage son and I had a one day stopover in LA. Looking for something a bit different to do, I found this tour and thought it would interest my movie-mad son. Boy, did it surpass expectations! Our guide and driver, Brian, felt like our best friend withing minutes of meeting him. Over the next couple of hours, we were entertained and educated on movie and TV locations throughout the Hollywood area. The concept of showing the actual movie clips on the screen, and relating them to the what you could see out the window, was just great. As a travel consultant, I am always on the look out for something different. Frankly, this tour was a gem. So much better than your run-of-the-mill, see-the-stars-homes-tours. I hope to be back to do the other tours someday. Keep up the good work, guys, we'll be back!

I thought this tour would be like the movie Titanic. 500 people telling you HOW GREAT it is and then you experience it ... the movie--- eh... the tour was absolutely GREAT... really... our 2.5 hour tour became 3.5 hours because no one was on a schedule. It was just so cool! we had a few side trips that came up because people were asking questions about things and our tour guy could easily answer or show by turning a corner. He even took us to the Hollywood sign... up crazy winding roads we would have never braved on our own!! I think I will be back to take the other tours they offer. It was sooooooooo worth the money. I woulda paid TWICE the price!

Our tour guide phil was very knowledgable and you could tell he enjoyed his work, good variety of things to see ranging from sites of scandal, places of death, and also celebrity homes. A few of the people and places mentioned i didn't know but the tour guide explained the back story etc. overall a great experience and would meet again. P.S you begin tour at a really cool bookstore, if you are looking for any movie related books you will find it there.

The tour was alot of fun and the guide was great. The length of time of the tour was just right. Very young children may not be able to be engaged enough.

We had the privilege of Brian as our tour driver/guide.....what a fantastic afternoon! We was so sad when our tour ended. Brian loves his job and therefore you can't help but love his tours. His tours are jam-packed with nuggets of details about each site or celeb, all delivered with relish and humor along the way. The bathroom break spot is golden too!

Entertaining look into the seamier side of Hollywood. Bryon, our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable, very articulate and above all ENTHUSIASTIC. I would highly recommend this most fascinating trip to anyone.

I have always been interested in crime and Hollywood, so this tour was of great interest to me. I did feel there were some infamous crime scenes and locations that were left out, but overall it was a good time. I would recommend the tour. I plan to take the Manson tour the next time I am in LA.

I lived in Los Angeles for 52 years before moving away, worked for the L.A. County Coroner's office, and have been haunting cemeteries since I was a kid. But our Dearly Departed tour had all kinds of interesting tidbits that I had never known. Brian was a great tour guide and our entire group had a great time. I can highly recommend Dearly Departed's Tragical History tour to all who have a "unique" sense of humor and really enjoy some slightly macabre history.

what a great way to spend a few hours learning about hollywood and having a blast at the same time. our tour guide brian was outstanding and added his special touch and knowledge through out.

Even if you've read up on the case, there is nothing like being right there LOOKING at where it all happened. Get A first hand experience as you are taken the very route that the Manson minions took on the nights of august 8th & 9th 1969! Listen to recordings of Manson's music efforts, the killers own accounts of what went on, Vincent bugliosi, and see rare sharon tate , Jay Sebring footage. Rare autopsy photos. look down into where Sharon tate's front yard was. You will see where they had their last supper, where they worked, -Even Abigale Folger's shrink office. There are quite a few more surprises along the way that I won't divulge here because I want others to have the same experience I had. The tour guide has a better than average knowlege of the case and has a lot of crazy inside info that you just don't get out of a book! This is no 'G ' rated Disney ride folks! -It's a once in a lifetime experience.

Scott was great and the tour was very interesting. We plan on taking Scott's "Dearly Departed" tour in the very near future.

Educational if you are into this kind of thing - it is not morbid by any means. Entertaining - definitely. We had Brian - I can't say enough about his humor and knowledge (we wanted him to come to dinner with us so we could pick his brain). It is a small tour bus so you get a comfortable and inviting feeling. Brian really got us all involved and interacting with each other. If you get some of the answers correctly you get ....tootsie rolls!!! You can tell that Brian really loves his job, because he gets excited about answering any questions you may have and the love in his voice - yes Love! - when he is telling stories about certain things (ex: Ella Fitzgerald or his 47th birthday - you'll have to take the tour for that one!, etc...). I really had the feeling that they have done extensive research into each of the "death locations", plus he had such a knowledge about a TON of other information regarding old/new Hollywood that was not on the tour. The tour is suppose to be appx. 2-1/2 hrs, we thought we might get bored (we even had an exit strategy if we did). It actually lasted about 3 -1/2 hrs. You didn't even think of getting bored!! I wish it was longer or they had a part two or three. I could go on, but I will just finish it by saying...Take the tour, it was worth it.

I thought Brian was great and his love of Hollywood history made the tour so much more exciting cuz his enthusiasm was contagious. It was interesting to hear about all the deaths of people we didn't even know about outside of the famous ones we all hear about. I also appreciated looking at some of the great architecturally designed buildings from the old days. My only complaint was that we were crammed in the back row, all 5 of us. Think the back row should accomodate 4 max, 5 was pushing it. Lucky for me, I was tiny or else we would definitely not have fit! And I sat on the right side of the van, so any reference to anything on the left was hard to see. Perhaps look into getting a van that is open so we can see from all directions. I would though still definitely recommend this tour and look forward to doing the Helter Skelter one next time!