Dearly Departed Tours

We're a family group - children aged 14 & 11 yrs. They didn't know some of the older famous people that were mentioined on the tour but both knew enough to enjoy it. My husband and I thought it was great - really interesting stories. Our guide was Richard. His delivery of the stories was great - slighty dead-pan, ironic humour, which had me chuckling away for a lot of the tour. The stories are what make this tour so good - without them the tour would just be driving around looking at sights but the stories brought them to life. As well as Richard's commentary, there were snippets of music, 911 calls, interviews and other facts, which were interspersed with the commentary. We all had a folder of photos, which went along with the tour. We covered a lot of different areas of LA. If you like something slightly different. more individualised than the mass tour operators provide, then this is the tour for you. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Thanks, Richard - I'm still smiling when I think of some of your comments!

The tour was everything I expected and more. Brian was so energetic and very informed. My head was spinning with all the information. This is the tour you want to go on!

We went on the Dearly Departed Tour on January 22 2010. For most of the tour, it was pouring rain which added to the ambience. Richard was our tour guide and he was great. This tour far exceeded my expectations with the highlights being the Menendez house, Michael Jackson's last house and the Lo Bianca murders from the Manson era. I thoroughly enjoyed all the stars homes as well as we navigated through Beverly Hills. I am looking forward to the second Dearly Departed Tour and would love the Helter Skelter tour. Keep up the good work, this is truly a great fun day.

The tour guide, Scott, accurately self-described as having ADD, is hilarious and knows everything about Hollywood lore. We enjoyed every minute of the tour. You won't be sorry!

The tour guide (Scott Michaels) has put a lot of thought and effort into providing this informational historic tour. He knows his stuff! I highly recommend this tour (probably not for young children) and plan on taking the rest of them.

great!

Great overview of LA covering a lot of places; very informative and fun. Nice small van made it accessible to many areas and only a dozen people at a time on the tour seemed to make it easier. Meeting at the Farmers Market area was convenient. The tour seemed very well planned to maximize use of your time; always something interesting to see/hear about along the way. The tour was neither too long nor too short. And the information provided helped over my next few days in LA, as I noticed things I had seen on the tour, which helped me get my bearings. This is a great tour if you are a first time visitor and/or don't have a lot of time but want to see a lot and get a sense of the city. It is not as grim or morbid as some might think, but still shows some of the darker history of the city. On the tour I took, they had just added Michael Jackson's last residence.

My girlfriend and i both loved the tour. It was recomended by a friend that has been on it twice, she being from Chicago also. My suggestions for improvement would be I think it would be great if the van could pull through a couple of the cemetaries and maybe see a few celebrity graves. Maybe that's not legal? It just seems it would be interesting to see what I've seen on Find A Grave in person. I really liked having the book of photos and the recorded as well as live narration. The next time I'm in the area, I will deffinitly be back Thank you. Marc P.S. When we pulled back up to the meeting place on McCadden after the 1:00 tour on Sept. 12, there was a person laying on the street not moving. In fact, she looked dead. Does anyone know what happend? I was just curious.

My husband and I enjoyed the Tragical History Tour very much. It was great being driven around for over 3 hours in air conditioned luxury. We loved the special touch of the "soundtrack" he put together... it contained songs, actual 911 calls and other unique sound bites that corresponded to the tour. The other special touch was the binder of photos that matched up with the sights along the way. It was interesting to compare houses - then vs. now using the photos. The guide had a very pleasant, professional voice. There were many great stories and I learned a lot of great gossip. My husband wasn't sure about doing this tour but afterward he gave it very high marks. It was fun stopping at the infamous George Michaels restroom. We even got a photo of the urinal. I would recommend even a few more relevant songs to fill the down time during the drive. I wish I could've done the Manson Tour as well!

I like the thought that our guide really enjoyed what he was doing. He was very friendly and informative. You could tell he had done his research. I would highly recommend this tour, since there are so many that are total rip offs.

My partner and I enjoyed the tour very much, many thanks to Scott for being so accommodating, and to Brian for being a highly entertaining if slightly crazy tour guide. Comfortable buses, very informative commentary, great value for money, highly recommended. I will go again next time I'm in LA.

We (me/mom/aunt/, daughter 14 and niece 18) took this tour in June and enjoyed every minute of it! Scott does a fine job of providing bizarre tidbits of knowledge/juicy gossip mixed with a tour of stars' homes/death scenes/crime scenes. He also gives info regarding other areas of interest and, most impressively, is passionate about preserving Hollywood history. He's spent a lot of time researching the subject and Hollywood--seems to know everything about the area. Hard to believe he's not a native Californian. He's also very lively and fun to listen to. Anyone who's interested in Hollywood history, stars of today and notorious events of the past will love Scott's tour.

My husband, my 14 year old daughter and I went on the Dearly Departed Tour and all of us enjoyed it. The name suggests the subject of most of the tour but along with the names and places of many tragic events, participants also see other interesting places and learn many interesting things about the area that the tour encompasses. The guide is very approachable and friendly and really seems to love what he does.

I am 55 and had three 25 year olds with me. They didn't know who some of the stars were. Like George Burns, Bella Lugosi etc. But they had fun.. It could have been more morbid for us.. I don't know what that says about us..But none the less we will be booking the Manson tour very soon. And our guide Richard was great!!!! Very informative..Thanks ..Debbie Rhea..

This was my second time taking the tour. I had out of town guests with only 1 afternoon to sightsee. I felt that within 3 hours my guests could really get a feel of the geography, architecture, pop culture (past and present), and of course the tragical aspects from Hollywood's history. What I didn't realize is how the tour is a work in progress, with updated information included since my last tour. So although it was my second time around, much of where we went and what was discussed was new to me, which I appreciated. The middle of the tour, the time from the rest stop at the Will Rogers Park to the end of the tour was too long. I noticed a few people nodding off just from the motion of the bus for so long. I would recommend the stop in the middle of the time or two stops. Although the driver offered a second stop, no one took him up on it and in a group setting, some people are hesitant to speak up for what they would really prefer. My out of town guests loved the tour and were amazed at how much they learned. This was certainly easy on me as a host. Thank you. I felt that the cost of the tour provided very good value for the money. One more thing that was mentioned to me by my guests was that there were a few seats on the bus that didn't provide easy viewing; there was a wall instead of a window next to them so they had to cran their necks to see throughout most of the tour's mentions on one side of the bus. Zerve was also easy to use and not a costly fee.