Bill Speidel's Underground Tour Review

A lot of really interesting information shared, definitely worth a look

Our tour guide, Chuck, was a natural speaker and story teller. The tour was a great length at 1 hr. We learned quite a few thing about the history of Seattle, which were emphasized/explained with a number of historic photographs hung along our route. There was a bit of walking to get to a couple of underground sites that weren't that interesting visually...once you've been underground, it's sort of all similar. However, we felt we learned a lot and was very happy we went. Tips were appreciated and we were happy to oblige. I noticed some people didn't tip, so I thought I'd mention it here. Bring a few extra dollars at least. All guides we had in Seattle were fantastic!

A great tourist excursion, they have a mini muesuem to check out before the tour and great guides. You will be walking!

The tour guide was friendly and informative would go back

I cannot recommend this tour more highly. It is by far the better of the two tour companies operating in Pioneer Square.

I have been on "Bill Speidel's Underground Tour" many times (it's popular with friends who visit) and it's always the same - totally scripted and pretty boring. The 'Beneath the Streets" tour was much better. Our guide, Dave, was much more engaging with our group (which I should also add was half the size I'm used to so much more intimate), it was clear we were getting a personalized tour and he was drawing on his own extensive knowledge and experience not a script.

Richard was a fantastic guide! This was an amazing & informative tour of old Seattle. Highly recommend!

We spent the day as tourists in our own home town of Seattle last Friday. We specifically wanted to take the underground tour, and after reading reviews on both companies chose Beneath the Streets. We were Not disappointed. Our tour guide, Mike, Was incredibly knowledgeable about the underground and Seattle s early history. He shared a wealth of information, while keeping the tour upbeat and fun. Although this tour did not seem to show quite as much of the underground as I remember seeing when I took this tour years ago, Mike definitely made up for it with the facts that he shared. I would recommend this tour to everyone, whether you live here or are just visiting.

Great tour. Great tour guide Jennifer. Lots of knowledge on the way the city was built.

Jim was AWESOME! So lively and we learned lots about Seattle s history in a very engaging way

Patti was an amazing tour guide. Great energy, knowledgeable, and funny. Loved hearing the history of Seattle! Awesome experience, highly enjoyable.

Had a great tour guide (David) gave us a great history lesson. Also gave us suggestion where to eat and to check out the Smith Tower.

Great guide full of energy even tho was a little dissatisfied with the views and how little time we spend actually beneath the streets I still have 4 star bc of the lady alone loved her

Great experience! Dave was a fantastic tour guide, we learned a lot about the history of how the city started and about where it is at today. Some light humor topped off the experience. I would recommend this tour for both visitors and residents of Seattle!

My family and I were on the way to Bill Speidel s Underground Tour and were stopped by a friendly face holding a sign advertising something to make some small talk. When we mentioned that we were on the way to Bill Speidel s, he started telling us about his tour. We decided to give it a shot over the other, more established tour. This guy had years of experience at the other Seattle Undeground tour company, so he knows a lot of trivia about the Underground. The tour is run out of the same location as a more spooky-oriented tour, so the interior decor is themed that way, but the actual tour experience was really fantastic and not that spooky lol. The in-shop introductory explanation of Seattle history only lasted 15-20 minutes in total. The walking tour never felt rushed, our guide was able to answer pretty much all the questions that people had, and he was very thorough when talking about little details of Seattle s underground history. Their tour groups are also a lot smaller and more manageable than Bill Spidel s, IIRC. I feel that we got the same experience, if not much more, from this tour as opposed to Bill Speidel s, and to top it off we saved $8 as a group of 4. Absolutely recommended for Seattle tourists. Super glad we decided to give the underdog a shot.

The tour was great there was only around 12 people so not a big group. They intentionally have a cap of 25 people. Chuck, our guide was articulate, funny, and informative. He presented unique facts and answered questions with patience. Places we went were neat, 3 historic places with equally neat background stories! Must book for tourists!

We have now been to both underground tours. I feel like the other tour company may have had a few more areas to look at. However, the small groups and amazing tour guide made the experience with Beneath the Streets much better in my experience. I was also glad to hear they are expanding to a new space soon and hope they are able to expand the visual to match their amazing guides. Well worth the time and money. Thank you Richard!

Great informative tour. Very friendly people. Looked after us on price for 2 adults and 3 kids. Our twin 4yo boys and 8yo daughter enjoyed it too. Thumbs up to these guys. Highly recommended if you want to know more about Seattle than the Space Needle

Another great tour I loved the sky lights simply amazing, and to learn how Seattle was built awesome tour and a great guide George knows his stuff and the history and was not boreing

Anyone coming to Seattle can recommend this tour! Our guide explained the history of the subterranean parts of Seattle and then went on tour, but more than half took place over the earth! Priced, they are on average.

Just finished the tour with Richard and it was awesome! Loads of information, great sense of humor, and very interesting overall.

This was one of the best city tours I ve been taken. I believe our tour guides name was Dave and he was super nice and insightful. If you re looking for a tour of the Seattle tunnels I couldn t recommend this place more!

The first thing I saw was the outside of where it starts. It looked like it was one tour that was going to be a haunted, dark side of the Seattle underground. We went in and saw they had a little museum with some macabre things and got excited. We asked about the tour thinking there was only one. We were told the next tour was going to be in a couple minutes. I purchased tickets for us and we went on the tour. Next thing we knew it, the tour was over and we were wondering what happened to the haunted, dark side of Seattle part. We then found out there were different tours. It would have been nice if the person at the front desk would have told us about the different tours. We were bored with the tour and all we heard about was how the underground came to be. The tour guide was very excited about the arches the supported the sidewalks above ground so we heard a lot about that.

Parking was easy and only $8 for 10 hours just around the corner. Richard was fantastic. Only 10 people in our noon Saturday group.

Pretty cool tour, very informative and nice staff. We had a spare Groupon ticket that they let me "pay it forward" to the people behind us in line.

Our experience wasn't great but only because we were left behind. Might have been cool.

Manager contacted us right away. Plus, the service attendant offered a refund for our trouble. It was a freak accident and we would still try their services in the future because of all their positive response. Plus, their tours are more personalized with smaller tour groups than the competition.

Great tour! I did the other one 5 years ago and was glad there was another option. I liked the areas this one went than the other tour.

Tour guide was excellent, funny and informative through the entire tour! We were drawn into the location by the Spooky Tour signage and decor and ended up getting a historical tour that was outstanding in it's own right.

This tour was fantastic, thanks to our witty and knowledgeable guide, Jim. I have taken the Bill Spiedle tour and I enjoyed it much more. Jim is really good at what he does and I hope that many more people will get to experience his awesome energy. Thanks, Jim!

Fantastic! Both the tour and the guide herself! I wasn't sure what to fully expect going forward with this tour but it was well worth the mystery of adventure. It was filled with great historical knowledge and facts, along with getting to see different stages at which the underground world was and is! Our guide loves her job, which is so great to see and experience. She even pointed me to 2 free experiences I otherwise wouldn't have done while visiting Seattle and I even got $2 off my admission to the tour by staying at the Green Tortoise Hostel... (which was also amazing) I recommend this tour to anyone interested in witnessing the secrets that lie below Seattle downtown!

Lots of fun! Richard was very knowledgeable and entertaining!

This was a great show! We had Dave as our tour guide, who was informative, funny and a great story teller.

The tour is not all Underground like we thought so don't leave your jackets in the car if its cold because there's some walking and exploring in the streets. Mike the tour guy is very knowledgeable, funny and entertaining. I learned a lot about the city and the architecture even though I live here. It's priced just right at 20 dollars a person. I would bring visitors from out of town here again.

The guy that took me and my mom on the tour talked too fast and gave way to much non spooky information.

It was more above the streets tour. The tour guide was nice but overall the experience wasnt rlly worth the money in my opinion.

Interesting. Wish there were more points of interest in the tour because seattle is filled with them.

Very cool tour of Seattle history and how Seattle began. Jim was a great tour guide.

The tour guide was awesome, learned a ton. I thought I would be seeing more underground storefronts and structures. It was mostly walking through basements. Don't get me wrong still neat but in NY a lot of places below street have same vibe, so it did not feel much different. Overall I like it but would not have paid as much

Pretty neat tour and a quick history lesson on Seattle.

We went on the Beneath the Streets with Dave. We had a fabulous time. The tour started with a short history of the Seattle area. Dave gave us the history of the First Nation people, the first US settlers and the development of the city. We then toured three sections of the underground were the history of how the underground came to be was described and how the modern city of Seattle is now using the underground. Great tour and recommend for all.

Great tour! Guide was really great, and funny. They let you take pictures and video!

Great tour , loved hearing all the history. Interesting that the "red light" district had such a huge influence on modern Seattle. Kari our tour direct was super friendly & you could tell she enjoyed her job

My daughter and I took this tour yesterday afternoon and Richard was our tour guide. EXCELLENT! Great way to make history fun to learn.

Very informative. Interesting and great interaction with the tourists. Highly recommended.

Very interesting tour, lots of great historical information. The museum area where you wait is a completely different concept, all about death. My ten-year-old found the different cultural things that they showed really interesting.

I was expecting a little more "beneath" the surface. Without a doubt a nice tour and brief history of Seattle from the tour guide. Dave was great. However I was under the assumption there would be more underground portions of the tour...we essentially walked through three basements of buildings and outside along Pioneer park being entertained by homeless.

Cool pictures underground of how the city looked before the fire and then how the people choose to rebuild. The guide tried too hard to make us like her. I'm assuming t ok get a better tip at the end. Unfortunately it backfired and she just sounded annoying

Gerry was a great tour guide and was very knowledgeable about the history of the underground as well as Seattle's start as a city. Worth taking the tour if you are a visitor to Seattle or if you like history, architecture and city planning!

Great tour of the seattle underground, the tour itself requires going up and down stairs, but it's interesting to hear the background of the city.

This was a fun little tour. It was very interesting and you learn a lot about the history of the underground. If I'm being honest, I accidentally bought these tickets because I thought I was buying tickets to the ghost tour but my bf really enjoyed the underground tour!

Very fun. Storefront is fun and entertaining, the tour is awesome. Tour guide is great. Groups arent too big like the other one. Totally worth it

The tour is great! You're shown many things about old Seattle. Tour guide (Mike, I'm not sure) is very helpful with reliable information.

The guide was very knowledgeable and friendly. The tour is super educating and really shows why Seattle is unique. Totally must-visit, especially considering it doesn't take long, about 1 hour max. It is not about undergrounds, it's about the history of the city.

Richard was fantastic!! My daughters and I really enjoyed his engaging personality and wealth of knowledge!! Thank you!!

Went on Friday evening for the Red Light Underground Tour.Rod was very personable and knowledgeable. Fascinating to be under the city and physically see the remnants of nearly a century ago. We really appreciated the tidbits of info Rod added along the way.The old black and white photos were so interesting as well.A definite must to see in Seattle.

Amazing tour guide, very fun trip! Richard is an amazing guide and I would highly recommend this tour

Loved this tour. I learned so much history in one hour. The tour guide was extremely knowledgeable and hilarious! Any chance I could get, I was recommending fellow tourists to go here.

If you love history and the odd and peculiar you will love this tour. Mike was our tour guide and his energy and passion for this topic was contagious. He was not only entertaining but also well read. I learned so much I have already started to educate others on the history of Seattle. Worth the money and time.

Our guide was awesome and this is a super interesting tour. Well worth the money and time.

Not quite what I expected. Could have been a little better

This is a must-do for any visitor to Seattle (much more so than the Space Needle). This fascinating tour exposes you to the early days of Seattle, how it became the city it is today, and shows you and explains to you how modern downtown is built above what was the historic downtown. The guide was extremely enthusiastic and knowledgeable. I could not more highly recommend doing this tour!

Dave gave us an awesome your! Very friendly, professional and personal.....good humor too

Richard is an awesome tour guide. Very knowledgeable yet comedian like, made the tour great. Will take tour again on next visit to Seattle.

This is a great way to explore the city and learn about the history of Seattle. We were recommended this tour by the Seattle by foot coffee crawl guide because they have small group size and good value for money. True on both counts. A thoroughly entertaining walking tour. The start point for the tour is super cool too, get there a little early to have a look around.

Great tour, our guide Richard was very knowledgeable and funny. Learned a lot!

Definitely worth it! I took the Red Light District tour and it definitely educated me on the founding of Seattle!

Billed as an "beneath the streets" tour when in reality you spend 10 mins in a real, beneath Seattle setting, 10 mins. in a club basement and 30 mins on street level walking history tour - if I'd wanted a walking history tour, I would have booked one...

We took our 3 boys and had a really great time! It was really informative but kept fun and upbeat. I think our tour guide was Sara and she is 4th generation here. She had a wealth of knowledge.

Tour guide was fun and told me everything I wanted to know. Learned a lot and saw my fill of the underground.

History is boring but he makes it interesting and funny thanks to Richard

A very informative tour including the history of waterfront Seattle and its hidden underground.

A good one-time experience. The guide was the best part---funny and knowledgeable, he kept the commentary interesting.

Very informative, interesting, historical and thought provoking! Terrilyn was our guide and she had a great amount of energy with our group. She was very clear and concise with her facts, made us feel safe, was on time and worth our money! The tour was very well organized and she even suggested checking out other spots nearby, which we did, that gave us even more insight into the history around Seattle. I'd highly recommend taking this tour and if you get Terrilyn even better! Please make sure to bring cash with you so you can tip the guide at the end. Thanks again!

Fascinating tour with an engaging and entertaining guide. Our guide Richard was very knowledgeable and funny, and interacted with the group rather than simply talking at us. I learned a lot and was surprised by the Seattle history. Highly recommended!

Our tour guide was fun and friendly! She kept us moving along at a swift pace, but never lost any of the older guests, and always let us stop for questions. She was able to answer just about every question thrown at her, as well. Very fun tour, and inexpensive.

Tour was great, Ron was awesome. Our group opted for the red light district tour, but the best was the history of the city. I'd definitely say go for the original or the ghost tour.

Really fun. Learned a lot, small group and the tour guide was very knowledgeable.

The beneath the streets tour was ok.. wasnt my favorite tour in seattle. Kinda boring very general information. The underground of seattle was cool. Especially the glass skylights