Customized Tours

I decided at the last minute that I wanted to visit Mt Rainier but I was on a budget so Customized Tours was perfect for me.
The bus was comfortable, the guide was cheerful and full of information about the National Park and was able to tell us about some of the popular tourist sites we were passing on our way to the mountain.
There were enough comfort stops without it feeling like you were constantly getting on and off the bus for no reason.
It truly was beautiful, and I’m glad that I decided to see and experience Mt Rainier.

Me and my friend took their winery + Snoqualmie waterfall tour and that was just great! Cory, our driver and a tour guide, was really good, he told us so many interesting facts about Washington, he was very helpful and funny. Cory, you rock! :)) we also went to a chocolate factory on the way back! Such a great experience. Thank you!

Our Mt. Rainier tour had awful rainy weather but our guide was giving it his all to make it worth it. In the end we could never see the Mt. because of the cloud cover and fog but this is Mother Nature. Our guide went the extra mile to show us the sights in full rain with no umbrella of his own as he lent the ones on the bus to other tour people. Will definitely book another trip with this company as the staff made a great day out of a pretty potentially awful one! Thanks again!

Yesterday my friends and I went on the falls and wine tour. Our driver Cory was an excellent tour guide with a great ability to educate and entertain Our group was very congenial. We met some great people. We had the best tasting at Cheateu St. Michelle. One of our group didn’t like wine so he took him to a brewery. Stay away from the boutique winery Airfield the vintner was rude and the wines weren’t very good. I highly recommend this tour especially if you get Cory

I highly recommend customized tours especially our driver Caesar and Joel the manager/​owner. We used this service for our annual trip to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival and it was amazing. Professional, courteous service made our trip worry-​free. The price was competitive and the sprinter van was comfortable and perfect for our group. We will be using this service every year and requesting Caesar. :)

We took the Mt. Ranier tour with Joe for $ 100 + tip. Honestly that money spent was a no brainer, because there’s no way that we, some Texans, could have driven up a snowy Ranier, much less chain our own tires. We went up in a freaking snow storm, haha. Joe, our tour guide, was knowledgeable and offered commentary as we drove around downtown picking everybody up, and also as we went up the mountain. We got to see really beautiful waterfalls, a really deep cliff, have lunch at the visitor’s center, and then take a snowshoe walk.
One really helpful thing was that Joe provided supplementary jackets, scarves, gloves, hats, and boots! We didn’t realize there would be a snowstorm the day we went, but Joe was able to help us stay warm. It really shows that he goes the extra mile in providing this stuff! 5*‘s to Joe and the tour!

Did you the Mount Rainier tour today with Joe. I was hesitant to book a tour anywhere because I’m pretty cheap, and considered just driving up myself. So glad I did this tour instead!
Joe picked me up right on time, and was engaging and knowledgeable. As others mentioned, he has a great sense of humor. He also knows something about pretty much everywhere we were including places he pointed out on the drive out.
He knew all the places to stop on the way up, and once we got to Paradise, we actually went snow shoeing, as there was already some good snowfall. It was awesome!
We ended the tour watching the sun go down over the river at the base of the mountain, eating Christmas cookies that Joe brought along and drinking hot cider and chocolate. Again, awesome.
On the way home, Joe even brought Christmas movies for us to watch as we drove. :) Perfect!
Great pictures, great day!

This past Saturday I took the Mt. Rainier Tour with Joe and from the get go from being picked up he was a funny guy. Cracking jokes and making everyone aware of what we were going to see and what to actually expect on our tour.
Was going to use another tour company in town but a day before arriving I got the news that tour was cancelled do to weather or what not. I first saw this tour being offered at half the price on Goldstar and decided to call them since they were offering a Saturday Tour (Sunny No Rain Day as per Weather App) and for the price I would have to be picked up in downtown Seattle and I was staying near the airport. Once the young lady knew where I was staying she gave me the offer of 20% off and I would be picked up between 8:15 — 8:30 in front of my hotel.
At 8:10am sharp Joe arrived to pick up his last two travelers and head out in the tour.
After a 35 minute ride we stopped to use the restroom and pick up essentials at a grocery store. After that we continued on our journey up to Paradise on Mt. Rainier.
Along up and down the Mountain we stopped at various picturesque locations to take our selfies and group pictures or just admire the landscape.
The tour in my opinion was fantastic, got to see snow fall on our hike and met people from different parts of the world.
Joe is very nice and attentive to everyone’s needs and like I said is cracking jokes along the way.
If you forget any jacket or gloves and maybe even beanies Joe can assist you with some, he even took his jacket off for a woman on our tour that felt colder then most of us.
He even had a camera tripod to borrow in case you forgot yours.
I for one will use this tour company again my next time in Seattle and see the other tours they offer.
Because of weather we had a foggy and sprinkled to snow day but on the way down the mountain we had the awesome site of Mt. Rainier at a point where Joe mentioned we might get lucky to actually see the peak…
And we sure did, icing on the cake.
Thanks Joe and Customized Tours for a great time. Oh and the 10 hours went by fast, never a dull moment.

We had such a great time on this tour. I called the tour company to find out found out that they don’t pick up people outside of the downtown area. We were in Georgetown and had to take a bus in the city, but fortunately, at the end of the day our driver was able to drop us off in the area we wanted to spend afterward (i.e., International District). The bus ride was very comfortable. Cory was our driver’s name and he was really great — very funny, informative, and cheerful. We even made a couple of pit stops to take some photos and those who wanted to could buy road side cherries, which were really good. We chose this tour over the Mt. Rainer day tour only because my husband and I thought that the Mt. Rainier tour would take too long and would take up what little time we had considering there was more of the city nightlife we wanted to explore and we wanted to have the energy to do so. Of the 3 wineries we visited, my favorite was the Château St. Michelle. I loved their Reisling flight. We enjoyed the chocolate tour and bought some yummy rocky road chocolate. We met some awesome people on the tour. The waterfalls at Snoqualmie Falls were amazing; although, it started raining like crazy when we got there and stopped as we were leaving. But as another tour guide said for a different Seattle tour that it wouldn’t be a Seattle experience if you don’t (a) go to the Space Needle, (b) go to Pike Place market, and (3) get rained on. So I guess the rainfall at the waterfalls completed our Seattle experience.

I went on their Winery and Snoqualmie Falls tour. The falls were beautiful and I learned a lot about wine at the two wineries in Woodinville. Our tour guide was very friendly and knowledgeable and the bus was very comfortable. Overall it was a lot of fun, but the layout of the tour could definitely be improved. The falls are a good 45 minutes from the wineries and, while the drive was beautiful, that made the tour a bit long. The last stop at the chocolate factory could be skipped completely.

The scenery was fabulous up to Mr. Rainier and back, and the driver was a wealth of information. However, I can’t rate this tour higher because it was such an uncomfortable 10 hour ride. The seats were extremely small, smaller that those on an economy plane. I couldn’t change my positioning and my knees dug into the seat of the passenger in front of me. The internal air was muggy and hot, especially when the sun came out. Yes, I’m whining. But the discomfort pretty much ruined a potentially fabulous trip.

I chose this tour because of the rave reviews I read. Unfortunately, my experience was different. Got off to a very bad start because they were so disorganized. Stopped at various hotels and waited for people who were not there. So drove to next hotel stop and to my disbelief, actually DOUBLED BACK twice — from hotel downtown all the way back to starting point at EMP,
then back to Olympic Hotel downtown (for the second time). Customers were disgruntled and one said she had been waiting 40 minutes for the bus. So we lost very valuable time running around in circles and absurdly going all the way back to the starting point to pick up stragglers.
We got off to such a bad start and the rest of the day was just a rush rush rush and constant comments by the driver about time and having to get back to Seattle… I was particularly looking forward to some of the beautiful stops described by other reviewers which we never made it to. The weather was as beautiful as it gets — sunny, clear and the mountain was out! Who could ask for more. But we did not capitalize on the great weather. Seemed the whole focus of the trip was to hurry hurry hurry to get back to Seattle.

If in Seattle and want a good tour this company is the best. We’ve used other tour companies and they are good but… We opted for a private tour so we could have more personal one on one attention and do what we wanted to do not what was on a schedule. Joe P the tour guide was great!!! As a travel agent I recommend and book alot of tours for my clients. Tour guides come a dime a dozen and most are just generally going through the motions and it shows. But with Joe he took a genuine interest in what we wanted to do not a prescripted tour. I would give Joe P and Customized tours a 9.9 out of 10. The only reason I wouldn’t give them a perfect 10 is the website taking a payment was a bit of a mess. I wanted to pay for the tour all up front and it wouldn’t let me, despite the fact that it said it would charge me the private tour price.
Now to Joe and the tour. I don’t think I could find someone with knowledge of Seattle and the quirkiness of this unique city that my wife and I have grown to love on our frequent visits. The people for the most part are friendly, cept the drivers in the rain they seem worse than Florida drivers but heh it’s all relative. Joe took us to places of interest and was knowledgeable about the places we went by. We didn’t get out as today was the rainiest of all days in Seattle so it was a bit of a dreary mess but we made the best of it.
I recommend anyone in town for either a cruise or just visiting to take a private tour. It may be a bit more money but in my opinion is so much better than other shared tours. Joe as I understand it does some wine tours and Mt. Rainier tours as well. Whether it’s those or a private city tour ask for Joe P for your tour…
Can’t say enough good things about Customized Tours. A+++++++
ETA: Don’t become friends with Joe P on facebook. Seems he and his friends are entitled to their opinions on gun control and politics, but when someone posts something counter to what they view they will flat out attack you then ban you. It’s good to know that in America only one person is entitled to their opinion. So let the whackos in Washington smoke their pot and complain about the rest of the country. I would edit my review to say based on a professional experience Joe P was great, on a friend level with Friends like Joe and his friends who needs enemies.

Did the Winery and Waterfalls tour, the Mt. Rainer tour, and the city tour. All were good. This is the same as Scenic Seattle Tours so I will post the review in both places. Different web links but they take you to the same site

Our travel agent arranged the Winery and Waterfall tour for us. Pick-​up was prompt. Visited Januik (unfriendly, didn’t speak about wines, only poured), Columbia (mainly reds, nice atmosphere) and Château St. Michelle (our favorite! Great staff, lots of tastings, wonderful property). We then went to waterfalls — where en route our tour bus broke down. Thankfully a farmer gave us a jump and we switched vehicles before heading to chocolate factory. Was a long day and I could have done without the waterfalls and chocolate factory (very small) — I would recommend sticking with wineries. Overall tour was a bit disorganized, 2 hour wait for vehicle was a bit discouraging with limited time, and tour guide was more talky about personal life than I would have liked. ³⁄₅ stars is accurate.

Excellent Mount Rainier tour. Much better than the other tour company I’ve gone with. We stopped at more interesting spots. Joe is terrific!

When visiting a new city, I typically always look for a good tour — be it those hop-​on/​hop-​off double decker busses, a duck tour, or some other popular tour to show me around town so that i literally don’t have to think about anything — just sit back, relax, and let someone else show me around and tell me what I need to hear about a place.
Here in Seattle, I did a Duck Tour for the land/​water experience, and then took a Customized Tour for a trip to the vineyards and Snoqualmie Falls. The customized tour was great! We had a really friendly, chill tour guide named Corey who picked us up right in front of our hotel at 9:45am and, after picking up a few others at various other hotels, took us to his favorite winery (Tefft Cellars), Columbia Vineyards, Château Ste. Michelle, Snoqualmie Falls, and Boehms Chocolates before dropping us off right back where he picked us up. Door-​to-​Door service, 3 great wine tastings, a fantastic boxed lunch (not included in the cost of the tour), a visit to a natural waterfall, and a delicious choco shoppe founded by an actual Swiss Austrian guy who sounded pretty awesome, if I may say so myself.
Corey wasn’t cheesy at all, and he was really informative. Definitely seems like he loves his job, which makes all the difference. Highly recommend!

This was an incredible adventure! I purchased two vouchers for a shuttled day of Winery tours & tastings, a stop at Snoqualmie Falls and a visit to a Swiss Chocolate Factory for my boyfriend & I’s 3-​year anniversary and it was perfect! It was an all day event that I had no inclination about how thorough and fun it would be.
We were picked up around 9 AM at a park & ride in Tukwilla by the fabulous tour-​guide John, aka «King-​man». He had so much information to share and even though I have lived here for years, I learned so many new tid-​bits about the city and surrounding areas, it was wonderful! This exceeded my expectations and we proceeded to pick up several other passengers and head to Woodinville where we were taken to several Wineries and tasting rooms. The first taste was at the Novelty Hill/​Januik Winery where we were allotted 4 tastings of our choice off of a menu showing about 8 different wines. They were all lovely and we even got a free extra tasting of their desert wine which was oh so sweet. I left there with a bottle of the 2006 Novelty Hill Merlot. Yum!
Next up, was the Columbia Winery where we were actually guided through the tasting techniques of their various wines, tasting about 5 total. This was very helpful to be told exactly how to examine the wine before consumption, as most of us really didn’t know what we were doing and some instruction was what we were hoping for.
Next was lunch at the Texas Smoke House and oh my goodness… their loaded baked potato was a meal in itself! Covered in all the regular toppings, plus a ton of pulled pork and bbq sauce made this a meal to remember!
Then we proceeded to go to Snoqualmie Falls and due to the flooding in the surrounding areas, the falls were gushing more so than I have ever seen! We were drenched after being on the observation decks, it was quite the sight to see!
After exploring the gift shop and picking up some souvenirs, we went to a Swiss Chocolate Factory where we were able to sample chocolates and get a window tour of their factory and learn about the history of this shop. Very inspiring and interesting, plus wonderful chocolate!
All said and done with, we arrived back at our cars around 5 pm stuffed, sleepy and very pleased with a full day of sight seeing, tasting and experiencing some gems in the Pacific Northwest all thanks to John and
! I highly recommend this group!

We took the Waterfall & Winery tour. This tour was perfect. We visited the Columbia and Château Ste Michelle wineries, had a terrific lunch from the Red Hook brewery before taking a scenic drive through some of the outskirts of the Seattle area. The waterfall was absolutely stunning. But the piece that takes the cake was the stop at a quaint little bavarian chocolate factory on the way back to town where I had this amazing hand-​dipped ice cream bar. This is one full day and definitely worth the $ 70 price tag. If you have an extra day in Seattle, and want to see a little more than the city life this is the tour to take.

I took the Customized Tours Boeing Tour today. This is advertised as a 4 hour tour. Pickup at my hotel was at 7:30 AM we got to Boeing and our tour did not start until 9AM. The tour lasted until 10:30, then wait around forever and back in the van to return downtown by noon. To me, this adds up to 2.5 hours of driving and waiting and 1.5 hours of actually being on some sort of a tour
For a $ 55 price tag, I would expect to be picked up in a motor coach however I was picked up in a 7 – 10 passenger cargo van. There was little air circulation and you were forced to get cozy with your van mates. All this company really did was offer a ride to and from downtown Seattle and the Boeing plant in Everett. Other than offer a ride in a cramped, stuffy van there was no value added that would in my mind justify a $ 40 per person premium (Boeing only charges $ 15 per person for the tour). We could have at least swung by the Renton plant and done a drive by or driven past Boeing’s house or something.
They tried to add some value by playing a home made audio tape explaining Boeing history on the way up to Everett. The problem was the production quality was poor. Every time the B sound in Boeing was made, is sounded like the speakers were going to bust. They could have at least adjusted their microphone sensitivity prior to making that awful monotone recording.
If two people go on this trip the total would be $ 110 dollars for 4 hours– I won’t say it but is rhymes with sip-​off. For that price, you would be better off spending $ 60 dollars renting a car from downtown (tax included) for the day, and visiting Boeing on your own for $ 15 dollars a piece and your total would be $ 90 you could even use the car to go other places like drive up to B. C, shopping at the outlets, visit friends or relatives or whatever else you could think of doing that afternoon.
THINK– If you are a group of 3– forget this tour entirely. For two people on this tour you are out $ 110 before lunch and have not even gotten a meal. A group of 3 would pay $ 165 for $ 45 worth of admission tickets.
The driver was courteous– big deal though. Kind of like someone smiling at you while stabbing you in the back. If you want to throw your money away like this, at least do it with the big guys like Grey Line who charge less.