Hollywood Night Tour with Griffith Observatory Stop

Love the cool evening temps and views of the city. It was a full moon so magical! The traffic was heavy due to a concert but they didn’t take away the promised time from the observatory visit. They just worked late.

The tour it itself is very simple and exactly what we were after- an open air bus that goes up and back to the Observatory. Unfortunately our guide (Larry) was our worst we have had after many tours this vacation. The bus is relatively small, however he chose to use the microphone at full volume so the people on the street could hear him.. we asked him to reduce the volume, and he refused as he needed to project his voice… So this resulted in us listening to him screaming for the whole trip up there. I’m sure some of the information he provided was informative, within the dribble we endured.. the other guides seem to have good feedback, but this was certainly not our experience

Deciding to do something different, we booked the Hollywood Night Tour with Griffith Observatory Stop. Our guide Darren made the experience memorable. He was funny, engaging, and clearly loves what he does. On the drive through Hollywood, he pointed out landmarks and dropped fun facts that kept everyone on the bus entertained the whole ride. He even had the bus sing happy birthday to my wife (-: The Griffith Observatory was the real surprise of the night; I had no idea. We were given about 45 minutes to self-explore both inside and out, which was plenty of time to take in the stunning city views, wander through the science exhibits, and appreciate the beautiful architecture, though honestly, we could have easily stayed longer. Reasonably priced for an LA adventure. Great tour, great guide, great night. Recommended!

Nice tour with Darren who had a great sense of humor and knowledgeable of the area. Trip was completely full and bus was crowded and almost didn’t get to sit with my daughter but nice folks shifted so we could fit together.

Informative and gorgeous, if you’re on the fence, just do it. You also get to skip the traffic that inevitably lines up as the sun sets.

Our guide, Brian, was great. Told a lot of fun facts about the area while on the bus. Very funny and friendly. The sights from the Observatory were awesome. We had a nice, clear night. Unfortunately, due to concerts, we missed the sunset and seeing the Hollywood sign, but looking over LA and the night lights was very nice.

Could not recommend this tour highly enough! Brian, our guide, was so knowledgeable and entertaining. We got to see some of the city as well as climbing up into the Hollywood Hill to visit the Observatory itself. The views were amazing and the overall experience was definitely a highlight of our trip. Can't wait to come back and do it again!

What we expected was a cool nighttime tour of Hollywood. Instead we got a ride to and from the observatory with a guy who just liked to hear himself talk. He went into detail on how unsafe the area got at night (this is a nighttime tour by the way) and spent more time heckling passerbys and complaining about traffic than providing info on the area. On the rare occasion facts were shared, they ended up being half formed thoughts with no direction or elaboration. Literally, we had no idea where we were supposed to be looking. The observatory was very cool and we even got to see a meteor. There were lots of opportunities to talk to astrologists and use their telescopes to view the sky. While we understand there are events and traffic can be tight, this should NOT be advertised as an one hour and 30 minute tour. Not only did the tour start late, we ended up being out for two hours and 30 minutes, and almost missed the last metro back to our hotel. On a good note, the meeting point is very easy to find and close to public transit, so we made it in time.

The toilet stunk at the back of the bus The van windows filthy Not enough time at the observatory Very crowded

Great trip to the Griffith observatory whilst staying in LA for our family holiday. Brian the tour guide was full of facts and trivia whilst we were on the tour.