FOOT! fun walking tours

For quite a while my wife and I thought about taking a guided tour through the Castro and when some friends had recommended FOOTtours (and after checking the internet for ourselves) we decided to be part of the "Come Out To The Castro"-Tour. And guess what? We loved it! We had a hilarious, funny and educating tour through the district, a great guide who gave us an "insight" view of life in the Castro throughout the ages and even quite a few "up-to-date - what's in at the moment" tips. I will definitely check out other tours by FOOTtours as well because this one was simply perfect. THANKS!

I have lived in the Bay Area for some 30+ years, but my 16-year-old niece was visiting from Arizona so I took off a Thursday and arranged to go with her on the Nuts and Bolts tour -- since it was not too long nor too hilly and we were worried that it might rain. When we got to the Union Square meeting point, we were surprised to find that no one else was waiting and then, when our guide finally arrived, we were told that we were the only two on the tour. As such, we got plenty of attention (maybe too much) and had a chance to talk with our guide at some length. It turned out that not only was he not a comedian (which became even more obvious as the tour went on), but also that he was not all that familiar with this particular tour and therefore spent a lot of time shuffling through his cards and his binder materials. Nevertheless, he tried hard to make the best of the situation and he did show us and tell us about a few things I hadn't known about before. On the other hand, I also told him a few things that he didn't know about (but should have) such as the fact that President Harding died in the Sheraton Palace Hotel. I think that my niece also found my comments to be more amusing than the comments of our guide, who spoke in such a low voice that it was often difficult to hear him over the street traffic. He also ended the supposed two-hour tour after only 90 minutes, which was probably best insofar as all of us were concerned. I have spoken to others since our tour who have gone on other walking tours of San Francisco, and their experiences have been much better because they went on other tours and went at night. Since this company does not offer night tours, I can infer only that they went on tours offered by other companies.

Really enjoyed our tour. Very fun and informative. Very prof. guide.

I, a local, had never been on this type of tour and thought it looked interesting when looking for activities for my two visiting nephews (age 19). We all thoroughly enjoyed the tour - it was fun, educational, and a great and different way to view and explore (parts of) the city. Our guide was knowledgeable, funny, easy to follow, and interesting. The tour - history-wise - focused mainly on the original settling of the city plus the rebuilding of the city after the 1906 earthquake/fire. Not that this wasn't interesting, but I think I was expecting a bit more comprehensive historical perspective (like what's been going on over the last 100 years?). I may have misinterpreted the description of the tour... and/or maybe three hours just isn't enough time to cover 160 years ;) I would recommend this tour to anyone - and I'll keep it at the top of my list for all future visitors.

My adult daughter and I were very entertained - and learned a lot, too! Tom was a great tour guide. We had so much fun with the small group we were with that we continued on our own down to the wharf afterwards and had a late lunch together. Would definitely do it again!

We so enjoyed our Out in the Castro Tour with Kim Larsen. We've tried similar tours in other cities and never had the satisfaction we'd hoped for, but today, we were overly impressed by the quality, quantity and queer sensibility of the Come Out to the Castro tour. Kim was so personable and warm. He really knows his stuff about the Castro. Kim involved everyone in the tour group numerous times throughout the afternoon. He was funny and more importantly, he made the rest of us feel funny, too! Kim had that perfect mix of "I know what I'm talking about" and "I'll verify that" (when he wasn't sure without checking), as well as "What do you know about this?" he was very open to hearing about our relevant experiences, too. Thanks so much for the opportunity to participate in the Come Out to the Castro tour.

I am fan of walking tours. Attended lots of good ones in the US and Europe. This wasn't one of them. Stories are too general, superficious. Talking about the gold rush in general...? Details that one remembers were missing. Has a short "expiry date".

I've lived in the Bay Area my whole life and found this tour both fascinating and fun. Our guide, Kurt, was very knowledgeable on the local hippie history, and it was really interesting to see things like how close the Grateful Dead's house was to the headquarters of the Hell's Angels, all while playing fun games, answering hippie trivia, and even breaking into a "Hippie Dance" competition. Would definitely recommend the tour to locals as well as tourists--it'll make you see the Haight in a new light!

Had a great time, Kim had a lot of information I would have missed out on bu touring Castro myself. If you are interested in the background and history of this neighbourhood I can highly r,eccomend it

it was fun...but i expected more ground to be covered as far as walking...there is lots to see....but our guide could have taken us many places thru out the downtown core...there was only 4 of us...so more areas could have been covered...such as Telegraph Hill....we had enough time.to do more...our guide certainly knew here food...we really liked the food in China Town....i just thought more walking would have been done

Very good tour to get familiar with the city. See a lot of different attractions and learn about the history of San Farncisco.

This was a really great tour - lots of information that I wouldn't have found out exploring the neighbourhood on my own. The guide was friendly, knowledgeable and personable. I would recommend this to anybody wanting to know more than the typical tourist facts about San Francisco.

To start with I have to say, that I liked the tour in general. Also the idea that every tour guide is a stand up comedian seemed to be a ingenious innovation. However, in my mind the tour could not live up to what it promised. Yes, there were games we played, yes, some of us got to perform for the rest of the group a little and ,yes, there was chocolate as a reward. On the negative side, all the jokes seemed to be rehearsed and learned by heart instead of granting the tour guide/comedian a little more intellectual freedom to come up with his/her own ideas which would have made the experience livelier. About the visited locatoins and the given information, though, I cannot say anything negative - these were as expected. Taking into consideration that the city offers free tours to these places and that the comedy-factor is not really that distinguishing my conlusion is that the tour does not have a good value-for-money proportion. Thus, I would not recommend it to my friends or anybody!

our guide was very knowledgeable and entertaining with lots of information that you do not find in a book. had a great time while learning a lot about San Francisco.

very informative!