Dearly Departed Tours

Being a locals we learned alot about local celebrities of the past, where they lived and sometimes how they died. Very interesting and entertaining.

This tour is informative, disturbing and hilarious! As an L.A. native it's so easy to overlook stuff like this, so it's fun to take out of town friends and learn something new while we're at it! This is not for the faint of heart...there is definitely some gruesome details/images and information about the scuzzy underbelly of L.A. that could be upsetting for some (as though just looking out the window at how gross Hollywood really is wouldn't be disturbing enough...). Having said that, our tour guide was really funny and well informed and the tour covers some really interesting territory. My ONLY suggestion to the folks who run the company would be to improve their audio system in their van...we had to endure a LOT of awful static and really loud pops and cracks during the tour and the audio level for the clips the guide was playing for us was not loud enough...other than that, I highly recommend!!

really enjoyed the tour who know so much stuff happened down"normal looking" streets richard was really informative and quite knowlegable about Hollywood . Went out of his way to make sure we got a great experiance . Looking forward on taking the helter skelter tour soon .Kudos to Scott and crew-- cp ontario ca

I've lived in L.A. for 25 years, yet still I learned a lot in this 2-and-a-half-hour cruise through the dark side of my city of angels. The tour has a little something for everyone, whether you want to see the mansion where the Mendez brothers murdered their parents, the bungalow at Chateau Marmont where Belushi overdosed, or the apartment building Mae West bought and lived in for many years. My guide Bryant was warm and amazingly enthusiastic, especially considering he's probably led the same tour hundreds of times. He brought a light-hearted spirit to the memory of spirits who left this world, often by violent means.

Tour Guide had interesting information thoughout the tour. Ready to take another DDT.

I was very excited to go on this tour and was very disappointed by the end of my experience. First off, they did not answer their phones even though they were supposed to open at 11:am. My cousin and I both tried calling many, MANY times and left multiple voicemails. We were told 2 tickets would be held for us but wanted to confirm. Because they never picked up or returned our call, the 2 other people who were supposed to be coming on the tour with our group did not end up coming. However, they lucked out! I would have probably left the tour before it ended if I had that option. It was absolutely not what I expected. The majority of it was a typical Hollywood tour; showing celebrity homes, hot spots, and typical tourists spots. I was hoping for and expecting more of the "dark side" of Hollywood...the crimes, deaths, etc., as that's what this tour is adveristed to be. Another huge issue I had with the tour was it's lack of disclaimer. It should be made clear that anyone below 50 would not know 80% of the celebrities they even discussed! The few crimes/deaths that were discussed in the tour were celebrities from 30+ years ago. My group and I who were between the ages off 22-30 had no clue who the tour guide was mentioning most of the time. I have never not tipped for any type of service in my life, and I did not tip for this tour. If you are looking for a tour consisting of more of the criminal/dark side of Hollywood and you are younger than 50, DO NOT GO ON THIS TOUR!

I chose this tour as a birthday present for my mother. We both thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The only thing I wished they provide, is a map of the route taken.

Fantastic! Enough death and darkness for those with a taste for gore, but plenty of interesting facts, anecdotes, sites, humor, etc. I highly recommend this tour for everyone. Our tour guide was fantastic, and his comments, interspersed with audio clips of actual interviews, 911 calls, etc., gave us way more info than I anticipated. We saw SO much, I would actually love to do the tour again (or version 2, which I understand is in the works). One thing I really liked was that there were no pauses or lulls in his commentary, so people on the bus did not feel inclined to add comments or carry on conversations, that was nice, everyone was quiet and let the tour guide do the tour!

Loved, loved, loved it. Want to go again and do the Helter Skelter tour next.

This is a great tour with a lot of character! Brian's impressive knowledge was only surpassed by his charm. A truly great experience for a couple locals and my visiting parents.

This was our second tour with Scott and again we were amazed at his knowledge of the events that took place. Scott is excellant at his interpretation of re-living what happened those 2 awful nights. I would highly recommend this tour for anyone who thought they knew what happened - Scott tells you everything you didn't and more.!! Go on this one!!

I went on the tour with my sixteen year old daughter, and we are both SoCal natives, and we had a great time on the tour. I would definitely recommend it to tourists and locals. The tour guide, Brian Donnelly was awesome and he also pointed out other interesting landmarks not just the ones about dead celebrities, which I thought was really cool. It is awesome learning more about my city and as Mr. Donnelly said getting a chance to see how your city is represented to the rest of the world. I would love to take another one of their tours especially the Manson tour, as I was very impressed with this one.

Good Tour

After seeing it featured on many TV shows and documentaries through the years, I have been wanting to take this tour for a long time! I finally was able to drag my husband and teenage son on it this summer. My husband was pleasantly surprised and I was ecstatic that I got to say "I told you so!" I knew they would love it! It's much more than just taking a van and driving by infamous sites of doom and gloom. Our tour guide, Brian Donnelly is a treaure trove of trivia about "everything Hollywood"!! We all thoroughly enjoyed the stories he recounted in an entertainingly witty fashion. I look forward to taking additional tours offered by this tour company. Their new storefront on Sunset also houses several pieces of Hollywood memorabilia and artifacts. The entire staff was super friendly and genuinely excited to share their knowledge with all of us on the tour. They made us all feel welcome and comfortable....very unlike some of those other phony and fake and sometimes sleezy tour companies. So...if you're from out of town or locals like us, Dearly Departed Tours is a great way to spend a couple of hours and listen to some interesting...and rather macabre stories of the Hollywood past and present!

The tour exceeded my expectations.