Let's Play Tourist!

Is it safe to say that I'm a little on island time on the writing of this review? My apologies! Tomas did another excellent job pairing us elites with a couple of extraordinary businesses: Ghirardelli & City Sightseeing. Ghirardelli threw out the proverbial red carpet for us by giving us a brief overview of the company and how their store here falls in alignment with it all. On a side note, I was lucky to have visited the original Ghirardelli in San Francisco during the Yelp ACRONYM summit earlier this year and the place is absolutely gorgeous! Anyhoo, the store here gave us a ton of goodies to take home as well an opportunity to try their ice cream. Rich & creamy and perfect for that night! After we got our sweets we made way to the double decker bus waiting for us outside the mall. Talk about your characters! These guys (especially our bus driver) were magnificent. Yes, as a resident, you can get a little complacent with your city; however, this tour gave me a refreshed perspective of what we have and what we offer not only to our own people but to the world as well.

Thoroughly enjoyed this event, Tomas. My hat's off to you!

How often do you get to eat a sundae as big as your face AND ride on the top story of a double-decker bus?? Not often enough for me. My eyes and stomach were so happy after this fun-filled YEE!

The sundae at Ghirardelli was absolutely amazing! I mean, this sundae could have fed a family of 5 it was so big and beautiful. I loved how the chocolate syrup slowly changed into a caramel texture as it hung out next to the delicious homemade vanilla ice cream. The whipped cream was light and fluffy and although my cherry on top wasn't as fresh as I've had in the past, it was still delish! The service at Ghirardelli was impeccable and you could tell the employees enjoyed working there. The chocolate goodies we all received at the end of the event were a super nice touch!

Now onto the "experience" part of this YEE: As all 40 of us boarded the double-decker sight-seeing bus, I knew we were in for a treat. Since I'm not originally from SA it was nice to get a tour of downtown and some of the "hot spots." The boisterous voice of the driver describing each site we stopped at made it hard for me to hear my friend sitting next to me (probably intentional since you're not really supposed to talk). I did get the feeling that a few of the sites we stopped at were "sponsored" like Augies BBQ, which the driver seemed to talk about for a little longer than necessary. No harm done, as overall the tour was extremely interesting and I intend to visit some of the places I had no idea were in my city!

Overall, I had a great time at this YEE and I look forward to more and hopefully get to know my fellow Elite Yelpers more too!

Thank you to the gracious San Antonio yelpers who let us hang out during our day in San Antonio. It was rewarding to see another group of Elites and learn how others do Elite events.

As to the event, it was great. My wife and I L-O-V-E Ghiradelli, and the opportunity to go to the only ice cream shop in Texas. We had been to San Antonio before, but not in a long time. The bus tour provided us a great chance to see all of San Antonio, without having to worry about watching the road.

If any of you are in Albuquerque - you know where to find us - we would love to hear from you!

As usual, Tomas prevails and finds very accommodating and hospitable businesses to host Yelp Elite events.

We started at the Ghiradelli ice cream and chocolate shop - the ONLY one in SA for now! I think everyone knows their chocolate is world class, but I didn't know they had ice cream shops. Combine Ghiradelli chocolate into an ice cream sundae, and it is simply bomb diggity!

Everyone at the ice cream shop got a full sized chocolate sundae - and it was SUPERB! We also received a gift back filled with Yelp sway and other Ghiradelli good stuff!

Then we headed on to the City Sightseeing double decker tour bus. Our driver and tour guide was simply AWESOME!

Congrats to Tomas for arranging a spectacular event and additional thanks for City Sightseeing Tours and the Ghiradelli ice cream shop in River Center Mall!

Really I can only said It was AMAZING!! Thanks. YELP for this experience and also Tomas for be the best :)!!
The sundae it was really nice.
For me it was my first event with Yelp San Antonio and I can said that people were and are so nice and funny.
The event was so good and cool with a sunny night .
The chocolates are so sweet and good. :)
I enjoy a lots :)

First and foremost: Tomas, you're welcome for fixing the weather.

Who knew being a tourist could be so much fun AND so bloody informative. After losing track of time during my run that afternoon I was like YIKES; I've 45mins to shower/get ready/get downtown for this incredible Elite event (so apologies to anyone near me if I smelled liked sweaty boy). It was so wonderful to see many new faces at this Elite event and to have a couple of actual of Elite Tourists to join us! After a brief into and a few words from Tomas we received a warm welcome from the team at Ghirardelli who talk not only about what makes them so unique but then also informs us how fortunate we are as San Antonio hosts the ONLY Ghirardelli store in Texas, yeeeehaaaaw! They then have a surprise for us: individually wrapped mini chocolates AND their famous hot fudge sundaes.

After a short round of Follow-the-Leader and after getting all sugared up we make our way to the double-decker City Sightseeing bus and get ready for a three hour tour....ok, I just wanted to get that song stuck in your head, it was really only one hour, but damn that hour was super informative! From local history, trivia, and lure, to architectural knowledge and the 411 on businesses this tour had it all. TC (Taco Cabana) was our driver and tour guide and kept us on our toes spouting knowledge faster than I can typically spout sarcasm, one-liners, and insults and was quite entertaining. The hour long tour flew by and before I knew it we were passing the Hilton Palacio del Rio (World Record holder for fastest new building construction) and on our way back to Alamo Plaza where former President Bill Clinton once had an all-you-can-eat ice cream adventure at the Menger Hotel (told you I learned stuff).

Once off the bus, and post tour group shot, we visited Ghirardelli once more for our final good byes and thank yous and to be sent home with one loaded up and super heavy goodie bag filled with goodies from City Sightseeing Tours and Ghirardelli including specially crafted, Yelp logo chocolates!

Thank you so much to Tomas, Ghirardelli, and City Sightseeing Tours for such a rockin' event! It's so crazy that had it not been for Tomas and this wonderful Elite event that chances are, I honestly would never have experienced any of what we did this event. Thanks again and a mad shout-out to our new fellow Elites! So happy to welcome you to the SA Elite family and can't wait to send time with each of you again in the not-too-distant future! SYOY!

So, so, so fun!!!!

By default (my one of many), I don't read all the details at first and just show up to wing it! We met our driver TC with City Sightseeing at 6:30 first. We're wondering where is the party WHILE ON the bus. Then TC tells us "They're at the NEW ice cream shop at the food court"! Oh duh, Ghirardelli's, the new chocolatier from our beloved San Francisco, and one and only location(for now) in Texas!!!

Boyfriend, kid and slow poke me on toe, we head down for our meet up, name tags and treat! The place was popping with all the regulars of Elite and Yelpy stardom. Daniel and I passed on the dessert since we were late and the super nice manager on duty (lost her name) offered our sundae for after the tour. Tangie, on the other hand, ordered a super special delicious strawberry and vanilla scoop (sooo much ice cream)!

Finally, we're on the right track with our friends and on to the double decker bus we go. We even got front row, top level!! It was a little steamy at first, but once the bus started moving it was really enjoyable up there.

TC was pretty hilarious and got most of the gang involved. I think this tour was the first of many on board (us included). Everyone was super jazzed and hopped up on those Ghirardelli's sweets! I must say, honestly, I heard a lot more advertising than history on the tour unlike the riverboat tours. I'm not sure if that's for sponsoring or representing our local restaurants, but lingering at the advertised facilities seemed a little over kill. Don't hate me, I'm a tourist, I love hearing the history parts of tours. Don't get me wrong, that description of Augies BBQ and Menger Hotels Mango ice cream and $17 buffet sounds like something we need to get to stat. Daniel was really interested in the Garden Wyndham hotel for a stay-cation too. So definitely, that will more than likely work out for City Sightseeings future of name dropping!

After everything was seen and heard, the gang travelled back to Ghirardelli's for our final goodbyes and goodie bag! My, oh my, did they hook us up with chocolate! I'm super excited to try everything out!!

In closing, I'm glad I saved the dessert for last as it was the most excellent, beautiful, sweet, chocolately, almondy, whipped creamy, with a perfect cherry on top of a most excellently hosted event.

Thank you, Tomas. Thank you, Yelp! Thank you, Ghirardelli's. Thank you, City Sightseeing. Thank you, TC for your wonderful tour and George Strait jams!! Goodnight!

It sure is neat to be elite! What a fun event this was. The planning that went into this was seamless and it did not feel rushed at all. The wonderful folks at Ghirardelli greeted us with a bunch of enthusiasm and we were all treated to their world famous hot fudge sundaes. They even passed out some chocolate squares as we waited. Those sundaes were top notch. The sauce was rich and had the right amount of sweet. The ice cream's texture was the thing I enjoyed the most it had a unique texture I ever had in an ice cream. After that we boarded the City Sightseeing Tour Bus and were treated for an hour tour of our own city. It was really fun to experience what I see tourists do all the time and it gave me a new profound love for my city. Our tour guide TC was funny and kept the trip interesting the whole way. We hit up all the classic SA stops you have to see when you visit and gained some knowledge along the way. I love these Yelp events! They are always so much fun.

I've wanted to jump on the hop on hop off bus and play tourist in my hometown for a while...of course, Yelp took care of the task for me and it was great! Kudos to Tomas, Ghirardelli, and City Sightseeing for a great event!

The only Ghirardelli in Texas is located in Rivercenter Mall on the lower Riverwalk level of the food court. As soon as we walked in: boom, free sample! The staff is super friendly and helpful. The shop is rather small and they were more than obliged to have all the Yelp Elites cram in. We were given a HUGE, delicious sundae...biggest I've ever seen, couldn't eat it all! Then we headed out to catch the bus by the Menger Hotel.

We ALL funneled to the top level of the bus - watch your head! The City Sightseeing bus was amazing...T.C. was funny, jovial, and puro San Anto guide. I learned a lot about my city that I didn't know! We hit up ALL the great spots...La Villita, Pearl, Southtown, Market Square, SAMA, Blue Star, UTSA Downtown...they have it all covered! Great, comprehensive tour of downtown. Great views. Made me really proud of my hometown!

We returned to Ghirardelli at the end and got an awesome swag bag...VERY generous with the chocolate! They even made custom Yelp logo chocolates! Of course, there was also Yelp swag enclosed which is always useful and appreciated.

I highly recommend the city sightseeing bus and a stop for a sweet treat at Ghirardelli for your visitors to SA, and even locals.

The Let's Play Tourist even was so much fun! The ice cream sundae at Ghiradelli inside Rivercenter was awesome. The hot fudge was incredible and the people there were so nice and friendly. The freebies at the end were a big surprise and I was not expecting that at all.
I didn't think I would learn as much as I did during the tour on the city Sightseeing bus. Our tour guide was really knowledgeable and friendly, too. I will definitely recommend it whenever friends and family come visit San Antonio.
This was my first time experiencing the free parking for Downtown Tuesday and it made me want to plan more things to do downtown so I'm really glad it was planned that way.