LA Hotel Horror, Main Street Vice
The Black Dahlia Murder and Other Los Angeles Crime and Vice Stories
Esotouric Los Angeles tours visit the LA hotels associated with crimes like the Black Dahlia murder, Colombian drug mules, the Night Stalker and Skid Row Slasher
There are worse hotel horrors than the desk clerk not being able to find your booking. Especially in Los Angeles where some of the city's hotels have been associated with crimes including the Black Dahlia murder, Night Stalker Richard Ramirez and the Skid Row Slasher. And of course those Colombian drug mules have to stay somewhere when they're visiting LA with cocaine hidden in their platform shoes.
The Esotouric tour company, which organises offbeat crime, rock, literary and architectural tours of Los Angeles, introduces two new downtown LA organised bus tours. One takes in LA's Hotel Horrors, and the other takes visitors for a look at Main Street Vice. From September 8, 2007, the two tours are added to Esotouric's eclectic list of adventure bus tours.
Downtown LA has always been where the action is, even if in recent years no sensible tourist would go wandering round there. More recently, though, there are signs that downtown LA is making a bit of a comeback. The historic buildings are all still there, and so too the stories that Esotouric brings to life. In fact these two new downtown tours were specifically added to the tour program after LA's Downtown News voted Esotouric the Best Downtown Tour earlier this year.
Both tours last 90 minutes and both commence at the Café Metropol, which is near the old Santa Fe train terminal at Santa Fe and Third. Hotel Horrors kicks off at 1pm and Main Street Vice will follow at 3.30pm, giving visitors chance to do both of them, with a 1-hour lunch break inbetween.
Hotel Horrors uncovers some of the secret and not-so-secret stories behind hotels including the Alexandria, Rosslyn, Barclay and Cecil. The tour will reveal where Night Stalker Richard Ramirez liked to stay, another hotel which was visited by the Skid Row Slasher, and will tell the true story about whether the Black Dahlia murder victim, Beth Short, was last seen alive at the Biltmore Hotel. Tour guests also get to see the number one hotel choice of the Colombian drug runners in Los Angeles.
Esotouric's Main Street Vice tour is a celebration of all that is – or was – ribald and raunchy on Main Street, Los Angeles. From the burlesque babes to the magazine peddlers offering Marilyn Monroe calendars from under the counter, the tour takes in these and the old-time tattoo parlors, the wax museums and the dirty picture parlors too.
For further details of the tours, dates and prices, visit the Esotouric website.
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Read about Esotouric's Crime and Rock Music tours by clicking here.
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