Our tour guide Gil was very informative but a little bossy. He told us absolutely not to take photos of things we could google. When I went to take a short video of the Hollywood sign for a future reel, he chastised me and in a joking/not joking pretended to swipe my phone away.
Three minutes into the tour he outright asked us to be “overly generous” on his tip. He mentioned his tip no less than four times on the tour. We paid for a 2 1/2 hour trip which goes all the way to the top of the Hollywood sign, but throughout the tour, he proceeded to try to talk us into the 90 minute version which does not go all the way to the top. Since I have been to the top before, I opted not to spend any more time on this tour and turned around at the 90 minute mark.
He did take some photos of us and was generally pleasant, but he encouraged us to take photos of each other, and there were only six of us (3 groups). Since he’s on this tour often, I would think that he would agree to take each groups photos, as he has daily knowledge of better angles with the sign, etc.
He also stopped to tell us stories about a couple of the homes of general information in the hot sun, when shade was just a few feet away.
You can take this tour on your own without any guide. I wish we had just done that.
Just start your hike at Hollyridge Trail