Background:
I live in LA and I had booked the trip for my family member who was visiting us. I went online and booked this trip for him, and he had a rotten experience. It started at the time of boarding.
Incident:
The tour guide was rude. He was passing water bottles to the passengers. My family member was sitting in an aisle seat. After receiving his bottle, he tried to help by passing the water bottles to the passengers sitting in the window seat and reached out for another bottle. The tour guide snapped and scolded my relative that he was snatching the bottle.
Everyone who was watching this transaction was shocked and tried to appease my family member and apologized on behalf of the tour guide. But the tour guide did not seem to have noticed that he had behaved inappropriately.
Later, in the lunch stop at Farmer's market, my relative got lost. The tour guide just left the people on their own in the confusing Farmer's Market area, without any instructions on how to reach him or how to get back to the bus. My relative missed the bus, and had to go to the next stop by spending his money on taxi and catchup in Hollywood. He missed out on a couple of items on the tour because of this delay.
Till the end, the tour guide was friendly with everyone and spent time talking to them, except with my family member and another Indian family. My family member felt that there was discrimination against him.
Summary:
Surf City Tour guide's behavior was perceived to be rude, irresponsible, incompetent and racist.