Esotouric's Pair Pass is a perfect Valentine's Day gift

Esotouric's Pair Pass lets couples explore the weird side of West LA crime and noir

WHAT: Esotouric bus adventures offers a discount Pair Pass ticket through 2/14, and debuts its first West LA bus tours, Wild Wild West Side and Raymond Chandler's Bay City
WHEN: Wild Wild West Side (Feb. 16, 12pm-5pm) and Chandler (Mar. 8, 1pm-5pm)
COST: $55 each, or a couple can save $30 when riding two tours together with a Pair Pass

Passengers on Esotouric's offbeat history tours have already explored the hidden back roads of downtown, Hollywood, Pasadena, West Adams, South Central, Vernon and the San Gabriel Valley. Now, for the first time, Esotouric heads west of Robertson, with a pair of showcase tours meant to shine a light on the fascinating, forgotten history that West Los Angeles residents rarely see.
On February 16 it's WILD WILD WEST SIDE, a deeply bizarre true crime tour featuring the most intriguing forgotten crimes of the last century. Departing from the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City, crime scene highlights include the shocking tale of the Great Eleven love cult that carried a mummified teenage priestess around for years, two sweet little old Venice ladies who farmed babies, the brilliant 1960s UCLA film student who mixed acid and mental illness to terrible effect, Skid Row serial killer Steven Nash's ghastly 1956 stabbing of a child under the Santa Monica Pier (a case that fascinated James Ellroy as a boy), how Benton L. Barrett married the wrong woman and was framed for her murder, the mysterious Helen Love who willed herself into a coma rather than face sentencing for shooting her secret husband, and the elegant Hotel Del Mar's fascinating past as the anti-drug cult Synanon.
All this, plus visits with the incredible PotatoKing, a knife-toting teenage girl gang and the brave man who mapped the L.A. sewers. This tour is hosted by Kim Cooper, Joan Renner and Richard Schave.
On February 23, it's RAYMOND CHANDLER'S BAY CITY, a companion to Esotouric's popular downtown-to-Hollywood Chandler tour. Where the Raymond Chandler's LA tour focuses on the man and his personal life, the Bay City tour highlights the writing, particularly stories in which Santa Monica features as a symbol of all the corruption and ugliness that bedevil his detective hero Philip Marlowe. From doctors feel good to second wives with pasts to crooked cops with a loathing for a mouthy PI, this tour has it all. Focusing on Chandler's middle period ("Farewell My Lovely," "Lady in the Lake"), the tour explores the real life rackets and murders which inspired Chandler, and the elements of the old community that have survived layer upon layer of gentrification.
Tour highlights include the elegant Casa del Mar Hotel (jumping off point for the gambling ships), a tour of a rarely seen vintage speakeasy in the Georgian Hotel, the former site of Thelma Todd's sidewalk cafe (inspiration for Lindsay Marriot's house in "Farewell My Lovely"), Chandler's Santa Monica and Brentwood homes, and Dutton's Bookstore.
As a special gift to its romantic passengers, Esotouric is offering a Pair Pass through Valentine's Day. This is a shared Season Pass, giving a couple seats on two regularly scheduled Esotouric bus adventures for $190, a $30 savings. The Pair Pass can be reserved by emailing tours@esotouric.com , calling (323) 223-2767, or visiting http://www.esotouric.com
Esotouric bus adventures provide fresh ways of seeing the Southland and mingling with fascinating fellow travelers, and are a must for urban explorers, architecture buffs and anyone who enjoys turning over rocks to reveal the secrets beneath.

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour schedule (new tours starred):
*Sat Feb 16- Wild Wild West Side Crime Bus Tour
*Sat Feb 23- Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The Many Downtowns
*Sat Mar 1- Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66
*Sat Mar 8- Raymond Chandler's Bay City
Sun Mar 9- Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles (on the anniversary of his death)
Sat Mar 15- Vroman's Bookstore - Pasadena Confidential
Sat June 14- Vroman's Bookstore - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's Southern California Nightmare
Sat Aug 9- Vroman's Bookstore - Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowki's LA
Sat Oct 11- Vroman's Bookstore - Raymond Chandler's LA
For more info on Esotouric, please visit http://www.esotouric.com