LOS ANGELES- Savvy travelers know that the most incredible adventures are often outside your door. The secret heart of Los Angeles, deep in the suburban San Gabriel Valley just east of Los Angeles, America’s most historic highway, Route 66, starts ends in L.A. On the ROUTE 66 tour, hosted by Richard Schave and Esotouric, you’ll board a luxury coach class bus and head due East along the old Mother Road (an affectionate nickname for historic Route 66) to explore how Southern California welcomed newcomers for much of the 20th Century. Route 66 only exists today in small fragments, but many of the unique attractions that dotted its length survive and flourish today.
Highlights in the February 2010 edition of ROUTE 66 include a tour of E. WALDO WARD FARM (the oldest surviving commercial citrus facility in LA, where passengers can buy scrumptious preserves and almond-filled olives to take home), a stroll through the halls and private rooms of Robert Stacy Judd’s 1924 masterpiece THE AZTEC HOTEL (and yes, it’s haunted), a visit to the astonishing Egypto-manic COVINA BOWL bowling alley (once the 24-hour hub of community entertainment and still a popular destination), and tucked among vast cleared fields awaiting new development a swing around the homes of the feuding SLAUSON SISTERS (hidden gems of Azusa lore and family dynamics, and a reminder of how fragile ecologies fall to the incessant crush of progress). Passengers will also tour the seldom-seen Civil War-era FAIRMOUNT CEMETERY and view the evocative BUNGALOWS of old Monrovia accompanied by host Richard Schave’s lively rendition of a vintage bungalow booster tune.
Route 66, a San Gabriel Valley bus tour in the “Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles” architecture & urbanism series
WHEN: Saturday February 13, 11am-4pm
COST: $58, reserve on esotouric.com or call: 323-223-2767
WHERE: Tour departs from Clifton’s Cafeteria, 648 South Broadway, Los Angeles, California 90014
Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule:
Sat January 16 - Wild Wild West Side crime bus tour
Sat January 23 Weird West Adams crime bus tour
Sat January 30 - East Side Babylon crime bus tour
Sun Feb 7 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: South LA
Sat Feb 13 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66
Thurs Feb 18 Jeremy Kasten presents “Spider Baby” with director Jack Hill
Sat Feb 20 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The New Chinatowns
Sun Feb 21 - Joan Renner lecture “How the ‘Bob’ Changed History” (tentative)
Sat Feb 27 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The Lowdown on Downtown-The
Secret History of LA
Sat March 6 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sat March 13 - Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles
Sat March 20 - Maja’s Mysteries: Rapture & Release (debut)
Sat March 27 - Raymond Chandler’s Bay City
Sat April 3 Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits’ L.A.
Sat April 10 John Buntin’s L.A. Noir
Sat April 24 Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski’s L.A.
Sat May 1 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour with Crimebo the Clown
Sat May 8 - Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour
Sat May 15 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat May 22 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain’s So. Cal Nightmare