The Original Monterey Walking Tours

Excellent intro to Monterey! Interesting stories well told, a nice walk all over town. I’d do it again and I’ve already referred friends and family.

What a great tour! Thom has an amazing amount of knowledge on the area and California history and really makes it come alive. At many of the stops along the way we were shown photos of the exact place we were standing maybe 100 years ago or so. This really brought the facts «home».
I have driven past so many of these places every day and never knew all of the wonderful stories and history of the area. I recommend this for anyone who wants to get to know more about this beautiful place and how it came to be.

I took thom’s tour last month and very much enjoyed it. He is an excellent guide, knows the history of monterey, and leads you into little known spots that illustrate his history. I recommend this tour to all who would like to learn about the early days of california

This is a terrific tour. Tim the tour guide is so knowledgeable, friendly and well researched in the history of Cannery Row. Tim made this tour fantastic. The amount of history I was able to soak up in such a short period of time was just amazing. The tour had a little to moderate amount of walking, not strenuous at all. Tim keeps the tour going at a good pace and it is just filled with the so much history and fun. This is a great tour if you are in the area. Highly recommended!

My wife and I took our first trip out to Monterey in January of 2014. I am a history nerd and dragged my wife along on this walking tour, but she ended up loving it as much as I did! Thom is knowledgeable, funny, and an all-​around neat guy. My wife and I ended up being the only ones on the tour that day and we learned so much! We told all of our friends about it and would highly recommend it to anyone!
There is so much history about Monterey that you do not learn about in a classroom, whether it be high school or college, but Thom fills you in!

We took this tour with my two children and my mother. It was very fun and informative. It included so many great stories about the Monterey area and it’s history. I would recommend this for anyone visiting or that lives here.

This tour was a wonderful surprise and was an excellent way to kick off our visit to Monterey.
The UPSIDE:
You get a historical and informative perspective of the area and get to appreciate it more. It’s an outdoor walking tour so you get to enjoy the fresh air, exercise and learn quite a few new interesting things. The tour group is small and the tour guide is passionate about what he does and just wants to share Monterey’s history and his knowledge with you.
DOWNSIDE:
I am not even sure if this is a downside, but the tour was suppose to be an hour long and ran over an extra hour. We weren’t prepared for that so, I had to leave the tour and feed my meter and somehow find where we left off. But the tour guide knows so much and wants to share all his knowledge so I can’t really fault him except that I was so hungry and really wasn’t ready for the tour extension which delayed the rest of our itinerary.

We took this tour with our dog Diva and we learned so much! We have lived here all our lives and it was really fun to learn so many interesting facts Thom told us about the area. We highly recommend taking the tour and broadening your knowledge! Once we were done we had a lovely lunch out on the pier and it was a really fun date day :)

This tour is so much fun. You get a great insight into Monterey’s history, fresh air and exercise all at once. Really enjoyed it and my kids did, too.

The four of us joined Thom for his tour in early May. Thom provides an enjoyable and informative history of Monterey while walking us to the various historical sites in the old Monterey area. We went in to one musuem and toured the grounds of other sites. The walk is easy and leisurely. An excellent choice for visitors who want to learn about early California history, and even locals who want to brush up on their history.

Awesome tour! Small group, super easy to schedule, Thom was very informative and very open to all our questions. He kept the tour rolling at a comfortable pace for all of us. He really knows the area and the history. I could listen to him for hours!
This is not just for tourists. If you live in Monterey but don’t know the history very well, I highly recommend this tour for you too!

I purchased the Monterey Walking Tour with Thom through a Living Social (or Groupon… can’t remember) deal. We already had a trip to the Monterey area planned and thought this would be a fun addition.
We had a great time on the tour. I never realized the depth of history that Monterey had! Thom was very knowledgeable and the tour was a good pace. There was another group there with a couple of young kids, and between them and my preggers self, we were all walking at a comfortable pace. We covered quite a bit of ground, and saw some fun historic sites. Afterwards my husband and I had a question about a future stop during our weekend in Monterey, and Thom happily walked us over and gave us details on logistics about how to get there later. I would definitely recommend this tour to friends staying (or even passing through) the Monterey area.

This is a must, MUST do tour, if you’re ever in Monterey!!! Thom keeps the tour entertaining and FUN!!! Plus, you learn lots about the history of Monterey and you get a good exercises outta it.

I’m local and was interested in learning more about the history of Monterey. Thom, the guide, made this very easy and entertaining too! Had a great time walking around the historical buildings and sights near downtown, while listening to Thom’s exciting facts and tidbits. It is nice that I now know about the roots of this beautiful city!
I recommend this tour for just about everyone… tourists, locals, and I think it would be a great experience for someone new to the area.
Thanks again Thom for a fun morning walk!

The walking tour was GREAT! Thom knows so much about the history of Monterey! Thom is very professional, kind, and knowledgeable. Thanks for a great Sunday morning, Thom!

After reading reviews on TripAdvisor and Unilocal,we purchased a certificate for this wonderful tour. Our spring break vacation in Monterey was shadowed due to the pouring rain. But Thom was kind, professional and a wonderful trooper for giving us this exciting and educating tour under the rain.
It is very obvious that he has a love for the area and he knows a lot about Monterey’s history. He transfers this information in an engaging and humorous way to his tourists.
We are a family of 3 with a 6 yr old girl. The 2 hr walking tour was the best thing we did on our vacation. We learnt a lot, we laughed a lot and certainly we walked a lot :) Thank you Thom for this great experience and for lending us that large umbrella!

Great tour! I really enjoyed tracing the history of Monterey. Thom Diggins, the tour guide, was very knowledgeable and informative. Definitely recommend this tour.

Thom gives a very informative tour of Monterey sites which I had previously never visited. I hope he solves his problem with the State Parks and is soon able to let people into the sites that the state controls, that is the only thing that could have made this tour any better.

I loved the Cannery Row walking tour. I had just finished re-​reading Steinbeck’s classic and the tour brought the story to life!!! Thom, the guide, was informative and answered all questions!
This tour is great for locals and visitors — I’m looking forward to the Historic Monterey Tour next! An excellent way to spend 2 hours, and well worth the cost!!!

Went on the ¹⁄₁₅ Saturday, 1:30pm Cannery Row walking tour.
Met at the Wave Street Trolley stop, between Prescott & Hoffman, at the parking garage benches, first floor, next to elevators. The parking was convenient and the least expensive at $ 10 in the area.
Nice there are conveniently located restrooms next to the candy store near the meeting place.
Had a group of 5 people with Thom Diggins, the guide, easy to find, he had a yellow Monterey Walking Tour sign next to him. He was very friendly, informative, loved the visuals of his pictures and was flexible with the group on walking pace and questions and time to take pictures. Enjoyed his references to the Cannery Row novel by Steinbeck.
Plenty of bathroom breaks along the walk, walk wasn’t strenuous, fairly flat, some stairs, lots of stops and places to pick up snacks and drinks. Walk was right on time at 2 hours.
Found him through Meet up. I contacted him a week before and he was very responsive. $ 20 cash for the tour.