Despite the Pandemic, Esotouric Still Brings Cultural Vitality to Los Angeles.
In Brazil’s Universo Online, Fernanda Ezabella reports on dark tourism at the Cecil Hotel, and our tours that use historic true crime stories to explore the cultural history of Downtown Los Angeles.
How Downtown L.A.’s Cecil Hotel Went From Lively Destination To “Hell On Earth.”
Pandemic Brings Changes, Closures for LA Tour Companies.
The Journal of Alta California: Santi Elijah Holley takes the Charles Bukowski tour to find out what fans take away from the writer’s work today.
Alta: Mystery novelist Denise Hamilton joins us on the Mansonland tour, just one stop on a deep dive into the Charles Manson Industry.
Los Angeles Magazine: From Hip-Hop History to Haunted Places, These Offbeat L.A. Tours Aren’t Just for Tourists. Daniel Smith finds our Pasadena Confidential “an intensely dark and deeply researched experience.”
Spectrum News 1 video: Tag along on Detective Mike Digby’s occasional tour about the 1910 Los Angeles Times bombing, and the sprawling nationwide investigation that changed labor, California and the newspaper forever.
Spectrum News 1 video: A sneak peek of some of the sites that flesh out the lost world of psychedelic Los Angeles, as featured on our new Mansonland true crime tour.
SoCal Pulse: A tour with Esotouric is like being in a Thin Man movie, minus the booze.
Los Angeles Magazine: Where Laypeople Learn About L.A.’s Most Gruesome Crimes – Esotouric’s Forensic Science Seminars are not for the faint of heart.
Los Angeles Magazine: Enjoy the Most Eccentric Tour of the City – From literary hot spots to scenes of the crimes, this one is not for the average tourist!
LA’s Most Notorious Crimes with Kim Cooper – Citizine interview.
The Lady Novelist meets the Black Dahlia, finds it a refreshingly respectful tour.
Our dark Downtown crime tours are featured in the Lonely Planet guide to quirky LA.
“At Last, an L.A. Tour Company For the Morbidly Curious.” – Travel + Leisure digs our atypical excursions.
Esotouric’s Kim Cooper & Richard Schave talk with the 99% Invisible podcast about the magical Bradbury Building.
Emma E. Kemp gets under the hood of David Smay’s Tom Waits tour.
L.A. Morgue Files digs the Wild Wild Westside tour.
Pasadena Weekly says our Route 66 tour is “the closest thing to a day with the late great Huell Howser that California travel buffs will ever have.”
BOOM Magazine writes of literary shrines, and calls our Richard Schave “a perfect guide to the world of Bukowski, Cain, Chandler, and Fante.”
On our Raymond Chandler tour for L.A. Review of Books, Tyler Dilts is “struck by how thoroughly and effectively the tour has deconstructed Chandler the writer and replaced him with Chandler the man.”
A. Wolfe says our Pasadena Confidential tour is “a full-immersion campfire story.”
Esotouric’s Kim Cooper discovers a lost comic operetta by Raymond Chandler, gives TheGuardian the scoop.
Michelle Mills gets her kicks talking about our Route 66 tour.
Esotouric’s Kim Cooper and Richard Schave shared some L.A. lore on the Delta Bravo video podcast.
Reed College alums dig us: “Esotouric changed my life. Owners Kim Cooper and Richard Schave are art historians, archivists, writers, and information detectives. Their brains are encyclopedias; they know everything about Los Angeles, much of it arcane, all of it fascinating. They are serious about their subjects (crime, noir, art, architecture, city planning), but present it with flair, style, and humor.”
Complex City Guide calls Esotouric one of L.A.’s coolest first date spots.
At Maximum Fun, Colin Marshall tunes in to our podcast, and finds that “for seemingly every square mile in and just beyond greater Los Angeles, no matter how marginal, they know a story uniting the historical, political, social, and architectural layers that lay sometimes above but mostly beneath it.”
Which Way, LA?’s Lisa Napoli takes our Skid Row history tour.
Kate Linthicum of the Los Angeles Timestakes our Boyle Heights & San Gabriel Valley cultural melting pots tour.
Carlton Davis recommends our Raymond Chandler tour “If you love LA, or are just interested by this shining, colorful, full of sin city.”
Richard Schave’s free Broadway walking tours for LAVA are featured in Mike Sonksen’s KCET Departures report, “Punk Rock, Poetry, and Public Policy.”
Silver Birch press gives our Bukowski tour a most auspicious rating.
The Jewish Journal calls us “Docents of downtown’s dark side.”
Our Richard Schave talks about Grand Central Market on KCRW’s Which Way, LA? (section starts 11:27).
Gillian Jacobs of Community recalls an Esotouric tour on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast.
The 2013 edition of our once-a-year Tom Waits tour is L.A. Weekly’s Go >> L.A. pick of the week.
CNN previews Cecil Hotel death lore from our Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice tour.
Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice tour creator Kim Cooper talks about the Cecil Hotel’s grim history on CBC Canada (link), on CNN (link),on NBC4 (link), on KNX (link),in The Sun (link) and in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (link).
Los Angeles Magazine says “History buffs, sync up your iPods” as our podcast debuts.
Los Angeles Magazine digs our year-end historic preservation list.
Sarah Spitz says “there’s one couple dedicated to a deeper appreciation of Los Angeles, its social history, crimes, literature, architecture and more.”
Travelin’ Local on the blog-ish birth of Esotouric.
Noela Hueso of Pasadena Weekly gets up close and personal with Crimebo on Pasadena Confidential.
Chinashop takes The Real Black Dahlia true crime tour.
Hipster Travel Guide: Walking in a dead woman’s heels (The Real Black Dahlia).
Toronto Star: “Dorothy Parker once described Los Angeles as 72 suburbs in search of a city. Thanks to Schave and his friends that may finally be changing.”
USA Travel Guide: Murder, greed, lust, gangs, ghosts, backhanded deals, cover-ups, Chinese food – whether it’s LA lore or certifiable fact, Esotouric tours have the skinny that only years of research could realize.”
Travel & Leisure blog: L.A.’s Dirty Secrets Found: “You can have your Homes of the Stars tours, but you’ll find me looking for vestiges of a less-documented city where grifters, platinum blonde widows, lonesome detectives, and career girls once trod.”
Marco Mannone on the Charles Bukowski tour: “This is a terrible way to simplify the tour, filled with so much wit and insight into not only Bukowski, but lost parts of Los Angeles.”
