Sunset Ranch Hollywood — Attraction in Los Angeles

How I wish I had heeded the warnings in other negative reviews about this place before foolishly booking with them. I had an enquiry ahead of the ride which was dealt with very rudely. Still, I thought if the ride is good I can handle the lack of customer service. More fool me.

We arrived on time for our briefing etc, and were on the horses by the booked departure time of 4.30pm. We then sat waiting on the horses in the yard for 25 minutes, waiting for two people to turn up. It turned out they were booked on the 5pm ride but the yard didn’t want to send them out just the two of them as this was not cost effective, so made 10 of us wait for them to turn up, be briefed and get on horses.

Throughout the ride my horse was problematic, and pulling on his reins in a violent and unpredictable manner. I have ridden many horses before, but even I struggled to deal with this. So violent were his tugs on the reins that I ended up with rope burns on my palms. I flagged this issue several times with both of the guides taking us on the ride, but nothing was done about it. At the peak, where we stopped for the views and photos of the observatory, my horse wandered off so I was unable to take photos or see the view. Again nothing was done about it.

The ride itself was slow and boring, and although the views are special, there is an overwhelming sense from the horses and the guides that they have done this hundreds of times before and the sense of boredom is hard to ignore.

The most frustrating and disappointing element of what was an overpriced and mundane ride was that despite paying for two hour ride, and despite setting off 25 minutes late, we still arrived back at the yard at 6.30pm, almost a quarter of the time of the ride we paid for lost. There was no member of staff at the yard to speak to about this. On arriving home that evening I sent an email complaining about the much shortened ride, and the injuries sustained. I heard nothing back. I sent another email. No reply. I then phoned up, and was spoken to very rudely. I was asked to send another email whilst on the phone to make sure they were receiving them, which they were. I was assured the manager, Jason, would read my email and be in touch. Nothing. I emailed several more times, before phoning again, and asking the person I spoke to ask once again for Jason to contact me ASAP. Still nothing. All I am asking for is 25% of the money paid to be returned, having lost out on 25% of the ride. I have now sought legal advice and will be escalating the matter further. The complete lack of customer service, customer care and the money hungry nature of this company is staggering. Expect non stop requests for tips for the guides who apparently aren’t paid by the yard, only in tips, on top of what is already a vastly overpriced “experience”. The only reason I went with them is the time of day the ride was available, but other rides I have since done at other companies have been far superior, cheaper and much, much friendlier. I strongly advise you to AVOID this place...

We really enjoyed something very different at Sunset Ranch … horseback riding … in the middle of Los Angeles. This great little ranch, that we were told is about a century old now, is right on the edge of Griffith Park, and offers a variety of daily rides into the park. We chose the Best View and BBQ ride and enjoyed a couple of hours of a relaxed ride along 6 miles of dirt roads and trails in the park with some amazing views of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank, Glendale, the San Gabriel mountains, and the Griffith Observatory. You could even see the hills of Palos Verdes off in the distance. This ranch is an incredibly well-organized operation and when you get there they have plenty of horses saddled up and ready to go. The horses are easy going and easy to ride. But it's the staff that really makes this a pleasant experience overall. They gauge your level of “experience” and then match up a horse to you based on that experience along with your age and size. Every one of these “ranch hands”, to a person, is authenticity and genuinely happy to be there. They all love their horses and the various other animals on the ranch (pig, donkey, chickens, and rooster) and treat their guests with the same genuine care. We had George-Ann and Curtis as our trail guides and they paid close attention to every rider and horse, providing a safe ride, while pointing out various sights and history along the way. They were more than happy to grab our cell phones and take pictures of us along the ride and at the top of Mt. Hollywood … with the iconic Hollywood sign in the background. After our ride, we enjoyed a BBQ dinner (chicken, ribs, brisket) with live music by our guide Curtis. He was quite good and very talented, even sharing a few of his own original tunes. The whole adventure was a welcomed departure from the regular hustle and bustle of Los Angeles, and it was so quite up there, that when you didn't see the city, you wouldn't even know you were in it. Our ride included both young and old, as well as locals and several foreign tourists from Germany, Britain, and Australia. If you're looking for something different in LA, you will enjoy this...

Very poor experience! My husband called before driving down we live 3 hours away 🙃 we saw the tickets but no age limit I have a 2 year old and a 3 year old over the phone we were told my children can ride with the parents and kids were good to come we get there and got told no the kids cannot go the lady in the front got me soo upset I started crying because she called not just my husband but myself a liar was not professional in my opinion then told us they can loose their job but I really don't care about their job I spent 3 hours driving down to LA spent over $100 and wasted not just mine but my family time when we could have done something else and use the money that we've been saving to end up going to a theme park instead like the worker in the front could have been professional and staff as well because when they were walking by they wanted to butt in the situation and then leave without knowing what was going on " maybe a misunderstanding from one of our end on both parties, maybe 1 rider can go first then switch off when they come back, I do apologize this is happening we never had an issue like this before do you know who you spoke with" but nothing got called a liar!, was told they can loose their job meanwhile other workers passing by was speaking in but didn't want to help, and a cherry on top I had my kids looking at the hourses and my daughter got the rope was swinging it but the worker was bring in a horse to the riders so I grabbed it telling her wait I don't want you hitting the animals and the worker did not say excuse me or pardon me but instead replied back with I need the rope with an attitude so nothing was resolved nothing was professional nothing was handle right everything was very poor with me and my family they need a team meeting I hope the owner sees this and gets down to who was taking the phone calls in the morning everyone makes a easy mistake and things tend to happen that is out of our hands but please be nice to others if you want to run a business we don't know what other people are going through and I hope this is the first/last time it happens to anyone who...