LOS ANGELES—For 80 years, curious sightseers have toured where Hollywood stars lived, dined and celebrated, and shopped.  Since the 1960's, when the tour bus turned onto Rodeo Drive, passengers often exclaimed, “Stop here.  I want to get off.”

Starline Tours, the company that pioneered the movie stars' homes tour in Los Angeles, has introduced a new tour: Celebrity Homes & Rodeo Drive Shopping. The experience combines the most popular and longest-running celebrity tour in Los Angeles with a visit to the world-renowned shopping street and the opportunity to return to Hollywood at leisure.

“Today's traveler seeks to customize their vacation itinerary and this new tour offers them the chance to create their very own experience,'' said Vahid Sapir, president of Starline Tours. ''This year  is the 100th anniversary of the city of Beverly Hills and this is the perfect time to introduce a new tour that highlights some of the most popular elements of this world-famous destination.''  

The new Celebrity Homes & Rodeo Drive Shopping tour offers three great LA elements:

• Original Movie Stars' Homes Tour. Highlights include more than 40 celebrity homes, Hollywood sign, and Sunset Strip in a 13-passenger bus that travels through Hollywood, Bel-Air and Beverly Hills.  An entertaining and informative guide tells all about the luxurious residences and their celebrated occupants, while passengers keep a sharp eye out for residents.  Considering relocating?  Several million dollars will buy only the land, the homes can cost more than $20,000,000.
• Rodeo Drive Shopping. Spend as much times as you like shopping and dining on the world-famous palm tree-lined street in Beverly Hills that is home of some of the world's most exclusive stores. Jewelers Harry Winston, Van Cleef & Arpels and Cartier all provide bling for celebrities attending red-carpet events. You will need to have an appointment to enter the $12-million Mediterranean style palazzo that is home to House of Bijan. This one-of-a-kind store specializes in men's clothing including suits for $25,000, plus jewelry, perfume and a king-sized chinchilla bedspread for $260,000.
• For something more affordable in Beverly Hills, the Sprinkles Cupcake store is just around the corner.  No appointment is necessary but if there's a queue, and there often is, use the cupcake ATM machine.  Insert money and get a cupcake in a box for $4.
• Return to Hollywood in the California sunshine in an open-top double-decker tour bus from Beverly Hills, past famous Melrose Avenue, La Brea Tar Pits, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Farmers Market and other sights. The ride comes with a professional tour commentary in your choice of nine different languages on personal headsets, or you may just soak up the California sun and street scene.

Visitors may select from an additional option to further customize their tour. If they want to step off the bus and explore the locations on the bus route from Beverly Hills to Hollywood they may upgrade to a Hop-On, Hop-Off ticket that is good for 24 hours for only $29 for adults and $15 for children (3-11).  The 100-mile Los Angeles Hop-On, Hop-Off bus offers color coded tour routes that combine to stretch across the entire city.

Starline Tours' Celebrity Homes and Rodeo Drive Shopping Tour departs the Starline Terminal at TCL (Grauman's) Chinese Theatre every day on the hour from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The fare is $55 for adults and $45 for children, ages 3 to 11.  The duration of the tour, not including the Rodeo Drive stop but including the return trip, is around four hours.  Double decker buses depart Beverly Hills every 20 minutes and the last bus leaves at 6:30 p.m. in the winter and 7:30 p.m. in the summer. The Hop-On, Hop-Off upgrade is available for $29 for adults and $15 for children (3-11) from the double-decker bus driver either in Beverly Hills or when passengers exit the bus in Hollywood.  The ticket is good for 24 hours from the time of purchase.  Also, customers who have previously purchased a Movie Stars Homes tour ticket can upgrade to the Celebrity Homes and Rodeo Drive Shopping Tour for an additional $10 per person.

For reservations, visit www.starlinetours.com or call toll free 1-800-959-3131 or direct at 1-323-463-3333.

About Starline Tours

Hollywood's No. 1 celebrity tour company, Starline Tours, is the oldest and largest tour company in Los Angeles, having pioneered the famous Movie Stars' Homes Tour in 1935. A full range of sightseeing tours of Los Angeles and Southern California are available. Starline Tours has been featured on Ellen, American Idol, the Muppet Movies, Iron Man 3 and NBC's Today Show as well as in newspapers and travel magazines from around the world. Starline operates the Grand Tour of Los Angeles in nine languages and the world's largest Hop-On, Hop-Off tour with Starline's CitySightseeing Double-Decker buses offering comprehensive tour narration in nine languages via personal headsets. The open-top Movie Stars' Homes Tour and TMZ Hollywood Tour, recommended by travel agents worldwide, are visitor favorites and operate daily.

Tours to theme parks, movie studios, San Diego and Tijuana are available with pick up from more than 250 hotels in the greater Los Angeles area. With locations throughout Hollywood, including a new Visitor Welcome Center at Hollywood & Highland and a ticket sales office at TCL Chinese Theatre at 6925 Hollywood Blvd. The company also has a sales office on Santa Monica Pier, starting point for the Malibu Movie Stars' Homes Tour, a new Santa Monica Terminal at 11857 Santa Monica Blvd., and in Anaheim at the Travelodge across from Disneyland Resort. The company is privately owned and will celebrate its 80th anniversary in 2015. It is operated in conjunction with TourCoach – the company's Bus Charter Division.

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Contacts:   

Starline Tours, Susan Wilson, Publicist, 480-824-3015,susanwilson129@gmail.com,

Philip Ferentinos, Director, Starline Tours, 323-785-6707, philip@starlinetours.com