We had been traveling the California Coast and loved every moment of it....until we went on our Los Angeles tour with American Riviera Tours. Our guide, Vladimir, was a nice guy, but not a good tour guide. He not only made several wrong turns, but seemed lost at times. He did not even know the city very well. He had a few rehearsed stories to tell, but we have been on other tours and the guides knew the city. We had many awkward silent moments, where we were trying to start conversation. Not what I want in a tour. The icing on the cake is that he seemed to want to give us an out of the box tour with the predetermined stops that he was familiar with. Although, the reason we booked this tour is that it is advertised as personalized. With our initial e-mail to the company, I asked to see several things including the La Brea Tar Pits. (this was one of our must sees!) On our tour, Vladimir had no intention on taking us to the tar pits. When I asked him, he stated that it was very far away and he could not take us there. So, I googled it, and it was only 5 minutes away. I told him that and he said, ok I will take you, tell me how to get there. So, we had a guide that did not know the city, and only rehearsed talking points. I read all the other great reviews. I really wish I would have received a guide that would have given us one of the tours the reviews talked about! I may never be back to LA, and I am so sad that I may never have a good tour of the city!!
