This is the fourth tour I took with this company and experience was as good as always. The tour guide was very accommodating and welcoming. Hotels were as promised and twice we stayed in Marriott which was a resort. Itinerary is amazing, co..vered so much in 4 days and saw amazing places.Read full review
We really enjoyed our tour with tours for fun! The tour was well organized with a lot of the stops in San Fran that I would have wanted to go to and then some. Leo was our tour guide and he allowed for flexibility in the schedule for my fri..end and I to partake in our own adventures. Leo also told us a lot about the areas we were visiting.
We lucked out in that we were able to score tickets to Alcatraz on such a late notice however for other people interested in doing alcatraz tours this may not be the case. My major problem with tours for fun is that they were unable to provide me with a more detailed schedule for the San Francisco tour day and I was unable to purchase Alcatraz tickets in advance because I didn't know when free time would begin. I understand that times are flexible due to traffic etc... but there was no time even suggested for us to attempt purchasing tickets.
***(People interested in ALCATRAZ)This may help future people on this tour. If the tour runs on the schedule we were on it would be safe to book a tour at 12:30pm (we just made it at the 12pm one but that was in the off season). To do this you would be opting out of the optional bay cruise and optional extended city tour (your fellow tour friends are on these tours while you are at alcatraz). When you get dropped off at fishermans warf for lunch you depart the tour group and go right (north) up the coast to pier 33 (about 10min walk).Take your lunch on the alcatraz tour boat on the way there (they have giant sandwiches!) You will probably spend about 2hours on the island to see it all but its possible to do it quicker if you are pressed for time (we saw it all in two hours at a slow pace). On this schedule you will have till 4pm to rejoin our tour group at city hall. You can hangout around fishermans warf or go shopping for awhile and take a taxi to city hall (10min ride). or take a bus/trolley (20min ride but I would give yourself at least an hour for this because of walking time). A trolley is the way to go though in san fran so take the powell/market or powell/mason trolley (can't remember the exact name) it will take you from near fishermans warf to a few blocks from city hall. Ride the trolley from end to end. Ask the friendly trolley drivers if you need help!
I was also a bit disappointed at how little of the 17mile scenic route we saw (it felt like we were on it for less than 2miles and we didn't stop at any lookout points to get off the bus. IF you are sitting on the wrong side of the bus you barely see anything except pebble beach golf course. The stop at Monterey bay made up for it though. We chose not to go in the aquarium and instead we walked down the beach. It is so peaceful and beautiful there. This is the first place we encountered sea lions beached out.
Our last day we opted to do disneyland and we got split up from our group (should have known this but we were a bit unprepared). Be prepared for your luggage to be stored on a shuttle that does not stay anywhere near you. Tours for fun was trustworthy with our baggage but they recommend not leaving anything valuable. I know u will have to leave something valuable because taking it to a themepark also is a bad idea so just lock your bags. The tour through the themepark was guided but we again opted to go our own way and honestly its the fastest way if you do not speak Chinese because everything will then have to be translated/repeated.
OVERALL- I enjoyed the experience! Staff members were always friendly and helpful even when we were a bit diva-ish about making it the best trip ever! The convenience of the tour was worth the price. However I am not sure if missed experiences would be worth the convenience. There were opportunities for experiences and experiences that could have been missed due to the tour schedule. Therefore going your own way via rental car etc.could be more desirable.
Also the hotels they set you up in are all pretty nice :) and that was even with a super-saver package. For food they take you to areas where there are a lot of different options. Even though most guests go to Chinese buffet there are pizza places or wendy's etc for options.I recommend bringing a plethora of breakfast bars, granola bars and also drinks in your day bag. Since meals do not always come as soon as you want them and breakfast pretty much doesn't get done at all (we had to meet with our tour at 6:20am so i wasn't eating before that lol).
Thank you tours for fun! We will recommend you and consider you for future tour needs!
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