Starline Tours Hollywood

In a city as large as LA the hop on/​hop off bus was a great way to see all the sights in a double decker bus. This was my first time on a tourbus, it was a great experience!
I enjoyed the bus because we didn’t know where we were going, we got to see a lot of LA that we probably wouldn’t have been able to see otherwise, and it was a great way to spend a day just being a tourist and relaxing on the bus.
The hop on/​hop off stops are great you can hop on anywhere and as long as you have a confirmation, they print out a receipt for you when your 24 hours or 48 hours end. I recommend buying tickets online — you get a discount! Just make sure you dont lose your receipt/​ticket.
Some suggestions — Don’t go towards Venice in the afternoon — the afternoon sun will be right in your eyes and blinding! Also, bring your own headphones, they provide the cheapy headphones but the drivers say that some of them are wonky or don’t work. One of my headphones actually died and I didn’t get to hear some of the guided tour.
Overall, if you’re looking for a relaxing way to see all of the sites without having to drive around and find parking, this is a great option.

Terrible place when asked to speak to a Manager they had horrible attitude one of the employees were being racist towards couple of Über drivers outside of their Business I mean this place is joke DONT GO NEAR IT…

I have had nothing but terrible experiences with this company. One star feels too high in my opinion.
First, I took a star homes tour and the «tour guide» didn’t have any idea what he was talking about, didn’t take us to some of the promised places, either in the brochure or even some that he said he would show us. He honked at almost every person we passed on the road, even a group of people obviously having a business lunch. It was embarrassing and unnecessary. Worst of all, he repeated every SINGLE thing he said 5 – 15 times. After two hours, it was completely unbearable to listen to. I took my headphones out after I just couldn’t take it anymore. He obviously didn’t know much about the tour or he could’ve come up with something to say other than telling us each fact over and OVER. And when we turned around to return to the Chinese theater, he took us back the same route and told us the exact same facts again. So those things, we heard 15+ times. I wish I was exaggerating… There are literally thousands of things you could say about each part of town but he knew maybe 1 interesting fact for every half hour of the tour.
And then there’s the hop on/​hop off bus system. It never runs when it’s supposed to, some of the stops are not where they say they are and the drivers are terrible. We ran so many red lights, I couldn’t even count. Currently I’m wasting 48 minutes of my last day in town for a bus, according to their GPS website (which is never accurate) because the stop was a full block from where it was supposed to be AND the bus arrived 8 minutes early. So I was left behind to bake in the sun for almost an hour when buses are supposed to run every 20 – 30 minutes.
This tour company is one of the least expensive for a REASON! And I don’t feel that anything I’ve received is worth the $ 89 I paid.

Had a free afternoon in LA but nowhere to put my luggage while I explored. Phoned Starline to see if they could store it while I did the hop-​on, hop-​off circuit — the lady said it was fine to leave it behind the counter. Arrived and was told this was not the case… Very disappointing.

Not worth the money :(I was expecting a live tour host so there was some humor and personality. Ok fine, it’s recorded, and not that insightful. And so so so so so out of date! How hard can it be to re-​do a few things on the recording every now and then. Like um, maybe take out House of Blues? And the promo stuff was for tv shows premiering in October.
I want more fun facts!!! Not pauses or simple lists of shows filmed at a studio that can’t be seen bc the driver zoomed past at 40 mph. We missed a lot of stuff bc the audio didn’t match up.
Also, the bus was filthy. At the Dolby Theater stop, there were 2 busses with drivers doing nothing but playing on their phones. Couldn’t they clean up the trash? Including half eaten apples.

— Check what time your hop-​on hop-​off service ends; you can be left abandoned
— The bus audio systems need maintenance
The hop on hop off tour buses are great! Worldwide — a fantastic way to get to know a tourist destination — I was introduced to the «hoho» bus in Amsterdam and have been a fan ever since, except for this particular experience relating to the «double-​deck» red bus tour in Hollywood…
So trying to locate the «primary» ticket booth to avoid paying any service charges or commissions to the two dozen people selling hoho tickets in the immediate area; I asked a red jacket staff member «are you actually with the bus company itself or are you just selling tickets» the younger woman replied «we have tickets» (not understanding my question) she finished with «what a stupid question» as I turned to walk away. Oh, nice customer service…
Strike two came when we could not find a headphone outlet that worked on either of the buses we were on: I cannot begin to tell you how important narration is when you are taking a tour — DUH
The big one came (strike three) when we were in Santa Monica /​watched the sunset — went back to the shuttle stop to discover that the last shuttle left at 5:30 pm. What? So, we are forty five minutes away from Hollywood — and the taxi cost us sixty dollars. Shouldn’t that kind of information be clearly posted everywhere when you are selling a «24 hour» ticket?
Bottom line: your ticket may be good for twenty four hours but the buses only run in the daytime — something you would think they would make clear in that visual mess of a brochure they give you when you get your ticket; yes — the operation hours are buried in there.
Not much help on the resolution end: at least they seemed to care when we scurried up to the booth in front of the Chinese Theater with our tale of inconvenience.
These buses only run in the «daytime» hours (which is not the case in all other cities). Please maintain your audio systems; the information is critical when taking any sort of tour!
Ending on a positive note: I will say that the shuttle drivers navigate safely (very comfortable ride) and are friendly and knowledgeable. The GPS bus locator system is really cool /​helpful and the buses are remarkably clean for not having trash cans and at least they seem to be in great shape — mechanically, so you won’t get stuck in Santa Monica because of a break-​down. Hopefully. Thank you for reading me if you made it down this far.

We did the Hollywood Star Homes tour. While many factors such as the weather and traffic were out of Starline’s control, our tour guide was one disaster that could have completely been prevented…
The quality of information was mediocre at best, no interesting stories or historical tidbits. Our guides’ commentary was cringe worthy– and on loud blast for two torturous hours. The dynamic between the guide and the bus driver was also bizarre, as the guide bullied the bus driver (seriously) for not stopping in the correct places, which was extremely uncomfortable for the passengers to listen to.
The bus getting pulled over by the police was definitely the most entertaining and interesting part of the tour. Enough said…

Complete waste of money. The staff are rude especially the supervisors. Not at all recommend to view LA.

Pulled up to the Mulholland overlook giving my parents and grandfather a tour of LA. Only to hear this tour guide saying to the other tour guide from another company, the guy from star line was saying «where’s all the Americans? I’m so sick of all these Indians and Asians». Well sir, you are probably a washed up wannabe actor turned to an alcoholic, if you do not want to deal with foreigners you probably should do a different job. I took a pic him and went on my way. Would never recommend this piece of crap company to anyone if this tour guide reflects the company’s thoughts. His pic will be posted as well

I’m giving this tour line 1 star for 3 reasons. 1^st, the driver was late. 2^nd, at the end of the tour, I felt sick from the horrible driving. And 3^rd, I don’t like being told to tip your driver. Let alone, how much & by the by the person expecting the tip. Not worth the money folks.

Took a TMZ tour, it was great. I was on the look out for celebrities but no luck. There is parking on the side of the building

Take the Haunted Hollywood Tour and ask for Rob! I’m a Valley native and took this tour with our company as a team building activity, many of whom have lived in the area for quite some time, and we all saw a great amount of sights that we’d never seen in our day to day LA life. Los Angeles has so much history and Rob is extremely knowledgable in the history and events that occurred at all these various locations. You’ll never look at Beverly Hills the same way again. Absolutely a great time, we were treated very well and would definitely recommend this tour!

We have used them for the very first time for our tour of the homes of the famous and we enjoyed it very much. The guide was very friendly and well prepared. We would never have been able to go around and see what we have been able to enjoy today. Having had more time we would have had another tour.

The company should remove the word «Star» from their name as they don’t deserve 1 star.
The worst thing is, the buses are ALWAYS late! For $ 50, I waited for a bus that was 45 minutes late!!! Tourists enough to fill 3 buses were in the queue which snaked around the block. There were crying babies, rude people, and when the bus eventually came, the impatient people were stepping all over eachother and wheeling strollers over peoples’ feet to push onto the bus.
Luckily I got onto the bus but saw ²⁄₃ of the people stranded, left to fight their way onto another late running bus.
During an evening with no traffic, I travelled on the slow bus and it took 1 hour to get somewhere that out have otherwise taken 10 minutes.

Excellent way to see all the sights in LA and surroundings
Wir hatten ein Busticket (ca. 96.-€) mit einer Gültigkeit von 48-​Stunden.
Bei der Größe von LA mit Hollywood, Beverly Hills und Santa Monica, können wir nur empfehlen, für nur 15 $ mehr, ein 2 Tage Ticket zu kaufen. Es gibt allein ohne die Nachtfahrten (schwarze Route), 6 verschiedene Routen, wobei z. B. die Lila Strecke durch LA (Purple-​Route), mit ca. 38 km ohne auszusteigen, um die 2,5 Stunden dauert. Insgesamt hat man die Möglichkeit, an mehr als 70 Haltestellen auszusteigen, um die von «Starline» auf der «City Map» empfohlenen Attraktionen anzuschauen.
Auch sind auf der «City Map» diverse Gutscheine mit Rabattangeboten für lokale Geschäfte, Restaurants und diverse Museum vorhanden, die auch mit der jeweiligen Haltestelle gekennzeichnet sind. So ist z.B., auch der Eintritt bei «Madam Tussauds» in den Universal Studios Hollywood kostenlos, was man unbedingt wahrnehmen sollte.
Das bedeutet, das man an einem Tag nicht mehr als zwei Strecken schafft.
Auch sollte man wissen, dass der letzte Bus von Hollywood nach Downtown LA bereits um 18:30 Uhr fährt.
Über Kopfhörer gibt es jede Menge nützliche Infos (in vielen Sprachen wählbar), zu all den Sehenswürdigkeiten der Stadt und Umgebung (die wir selber, nie so einfach gefunden hätten).
Sehr nützlich ist, dass man über eine App fürs Smartphone (Info über die City Map von Starline) mithilfe eines GPS-​Programms auf dem Handy herausfinden kann, wann der nächste Bus kommt. So kann man die Tour noch genauer planen und den «Hop-​on/​Hop-​off-​Pass» noch besser nutzen.
Die roten Doppeldeckerbusse mit offenem Oberdeck (sehr gute 360-​Grad-​Sicht) und fahren alle 20 bis 40 Minuten. Obacht geben muss man in LA Downtown an der Doppelhaltestelle 31/​45, wenn man nach Hollywood will, da hier auch die LA Downtown Route beginnt.
Sehr gut gefallen hat uns auch, dass an den Umsteigehaltestellen für evtl. Fragen man immer Starline-​Mitarbeiter vorfindet, die sind sehr freundlich und gut informiert sind.
Für uns, eine City Sightseeing Tour of the First Rate, mit einem herausragenden
Preis-​Leistungs-​Verhältnis,
die wir ohne Bedenken Weiterempfehlen können.
Besser geht‘s nicht, wenn man LA und seine Umgebung wie Hollywood und Santa Monica, kennenlernen will.

We went on the Hollywood Stars Homes Tour. I would have given it 2 stars but I felt bad for our tour guide. He was a nice guy. He tried.
They took us to a lot of «gates» where stars allegedly live. The driver said he saw Hilary Duff driving. The Hollywood hills were beautiful and the scenic drive did not disappoint. We asked the driver to take us to see some specific stars and he said they lived too far away (which I’m not sure was true).
The van did not have shade so it was pretty hot. They give you headphones to listen to the drivers commentary. The speakers were horrible and kept cutting out. My mom couldn’t hear anything even after I switched her plugs a couple times. Only one of my headphones worked. The van was clean.
It’s not worth $ 47. MAYBE a groupon or some other deal, but I would recommend spending a little extra on a different tour.

This review is for the Grand Tour of Los Angeles. This review is NOT about our tour guide. He was a good guy. Knowledgable.
Let’s see — where to start?
This tour was NOT worth the money. The first hour was spent walking around Hollywood in the blistering sun and not even with the tour guide most of the time. We went to three gift shops. These are gift shops that people who even were in Hollywood for the first time could easily find.
Finally, after an hour of wailing around in the blistering hundred degree heat we got onto the bus.
Finally, I think to myself, we can get cooled off as we drive to some locations that I haven’t seen yet (I’ve lived here a year but try not to leave Burbank).
The air conditioning on the bus was not blowing cool air. Instead hot air. Everyone was covered in sweat. The driver said that we could open the windows which we had to HOLD open.
We stopped off to change busses. This took 25 minutes. This then caused us to miss part of the tour that we paid to see. Nope. Couldn’t stop we were out of time.
I hated every single second of this tour. Every step. Every second. Was miserable.
I will absolutely positively NEVER do this tour again with any friends and family.
I advise you never do it too. Just don’t. Your money would be better spent throwing it into the toilet, pooping on it and then flushing it down while you wave goodbye.
Don’t. Do. It.

Very poor tour guide Gail, she was the worst.
Than wants you to leave her a $ 10 tip.
Look for another tour.

This was a great tour. I’m a Detroit area movie blogger who was able to experience this yesterday and I was very impressed by Michael, our tour guide, and his wealth of knowledge.
It was fun to see clips up on the screen as we passed them by and I got a nice tour of LA as well, I had really only been in the Hollywood and north Hollywood areas so far.
Our tour was complimentary but I’d be willing to pay for this, it was a fun time. Be prepared to spend about three hours on the bus, but they stop for a bathroom break too about two hours in.

For as much as you think I love food (and I do), I have a much longer passion for the movies. I was the one against whom nobody wanted to play Silver Screen Trivial Pursuit because I am a font of useless trivia. When I was able to identify Donald Pleasence in a movie, a friend of mine asked me, «What piece of insight did you have to sacrifice to retain that piece of s#!&? Over the years, I’ve lost a lot of that s#!& since I’m convinced my brain has shriveled up but not my cinematic interest. Maybe that’s why when I saw on TV that Turner Classic Movies was offering a Movie Locations Tour through the Starline company (photo:
), I said to myself that could be fun when I’m in LA sometime.
Golly, I could be like Lucy Ricardo forcing Richard Widmark to autograph a grapefruit from his backyard. Well, with no fuss at all, I did make a reservation for Jamie W. and me to take the tour last Friday, and I have to admit that it appealed to the cinema geek in me, besides which it was a good way to reacquaint myself with greater Los Angeles without worrying where to park. We checked in at the forecourt of the Chinese Theater and congregated in a sugar-​coated shop called Sweets! on the second floor of the Hollywood & Highland Center next door. A group of us were taken to the specialty bus which was decked out with theater-​style seating and a high-​definition 65″-screen TV in front. Our tour guide Jon was the jovial type who clearly loves Hollywood and quizzed us tirelessly on our trivia knowledge (photo:
). Nailed it.
The tour started at 12:30PM and lasted for the better part of three hours, a bit overlong even for the trivia-​obsessed likes of me though worthy of the $ 55 ticket. There were clever juxtapositions between the locations we drove past and the corresponding film clips shown on the screen whether it’s a bit of «Catch Me If You Can» at the Roosevelt Hotel or a comic scene from «LA Story» at an Art Deco-​style gas station which has since been converted into a drive-​thru Starbucks (photo:
). The bus goes through the funkier neighborhoods like Echo Park and Silver Lake, and a good amount of time was spent in the downtown area with only two stops made. The first was at the classic Bradbury Building, the setting for scenes in movies as diverse as «Double Indemnity» and «The Artist» (photo:
).
The second longer stop was at the still-​spiffy Union Station where we were drowning in a swarm of travelers as we enjoyed the classic architecture (photo:
). What I appreciated was the genuine enthusiasm of the guide even as we were squinting our eyes to see the staircase in the distance where Laurel & Hardy comically lugged a stand-​up piano many times over. There were clips of well-​connected TCM host Ben Mankiewicz interspersed throughout as he explained the history of the various neighborhoods with credibility. I have to say the seamless tie-​in with TCM was quite savvy and not too intrusive, and I recommend the tour to any couch potato who watches the channel with any regularity. My guess is that kids may get pretty antsy since there was only one brief bathroom break over the marathon drive. Consider bringing a bedpan.

This review is for the 5 ½ hour grand tour of LA:
I was very impressed with this tour! We boarded a double decker coach bus with AC (thank God!) and throughout the tour we were able to get off at certain spots take photos, shop, & enjoy the scenary.
The lunch stop is excellent! You get an hour. They stop you at this super trendy farmer’s market that has every kind of food you can imagine and is surrounded by all kinds of shops and boutiques.
Our tour guide was such a pleasure! I wish I could remember his name. He was so warm and friendly and got off on all the designated stops with us and was very knowledgable about all the hot spots in LA.
If you’re coming to LA for the first time this is the tour to take. You will literally be able to see everything!
The only negatives are it is loooong and I almost fell asleep at one point. Sometimes the stops are too short to really shop or eat like you want to. You definitely have to hustle! I also really wish we could have gotten off at rodeo drive but our tour guide said the city no longer allows them to park there for stops.
But overall, I loved it! It was worth every penny.
Oh yea and they recommend you tip your driver (which we did) so beware.

Die Grand City Tour of LA von Star Line Tours ist eine totale Touristen Abzocke. Unser Hotel hat uns diese Tour empfohlen (wie wir im nach hinein erfahren haben kassiert das Hitel für jede erfolgreiche Vermittlung Geld).
Wir wurden pünktlich in der Früh um 8:15 abgeholt der Bus fuhr im anschluss 45 min und sammelte weitere Gäste ein. Im Anschluss ging es dann zum Hauptbüro von Star Line Tours wo wir uns anstellen mussten um unser Ticket zu bekommen dann hieß es 45 Min warten bis die Tour startet.
Nach 45 min warten um 10 Uhr kamm ein weiterer Bus der uns Dann weiter 45 min zum Walk of Fame fuhr wo wir dann endlich in den Hauptbus einstiegen.
Es wird versprochen das bei den angezeigten Haltestellen angehalten wird um sich die Sehenswürdigkeiten anzusehen und Fotos machen zu können. Die war allerdings nicht der Fall von 20 Sehenswürdigkeiten an denen angeblich angehalten wird, wird jediglich an 3 Angehalten!!! Und das auch noch an total uninteressanten stellen! Man muss sämtliche Fotos aus den Bus heraus knipsen (die Scheiben sind zudem noch verdunkelt).
Nach dem die Tour beendet ist wird man ins Hotel zurück gebracht wir haben allerdings nach dieser versauten Tour erstmals unsere eigene Tour auf dem Walk of Fame begonnen und auf den Heimfahrservice verzichtet. Die 150 $ für 2 Tickets hätte man deutlich besser investieren können.
Nach dem die Tour beendet ist wird vom Fahrer und Reiseguide Massiv auf Trinkgeld gegeiert sie erwähnen immer und immer wieder das 15% — 20% Trinkgeld angebracht wären. Für den versauten Tag gab es allerdings von mir 0 $.