What an amazing time we had making our way through Pike Place Market! Nick was the best tour guide ever! I will certainly do another tour with Nick the next time I'm in Seattle.
This was disappointing because we paid extra to do this particular tour because what we were led to believe it included. The tour guide provided great history and information, the foods we tasted were great. The disappointing part was that we were supposed to get to throw the fish and the market and we did not. Not only did we not, it didn't even get mentioned. One person in our group asked if he could and of course he did, which made me think that he had the same understanding as we did. No one else was offered the opportunity. We also stopped in front of the Starbucks, but I thought we were going to actually get in the back door for something special and we didn't go by the gum wall, so no history or story about that. Those were y 3 disappointments. Not worth the extra money we paid for this. We could have gotten this same tour for about 15 less.
This tour was excellent! Patrick was our guide - he is so knowledgeable and passionate about the market, its history, and its social programs. He learned all of our names within minutes and made everyone feel included. We tried a number of different delicious foods. The whole experience was delightful. We would highly recommend this tour!
Our only criticism is that the description of the tour on the viatour website is not entirely accurate. We did not go to Fran's chocolates but the very recently opened Indi chocolates was great. The Viatour website gives the impression that tour participants have some type of exclusive early access ito the market, but in reality, anyone can get into the market at the time we went. Also, the website indicates that tours are limited to 12 people but our group was 16 in number. Not a big deal, but the website needs to be updated.
Overall, we were very pleased with our experience and wouldn't hesitate to recommend this tour.