About Us
The Local Sauce Tours Story
My name is Justin, I’m the guy with the “tour guide hands” in the photo. I started Local Sauce Tours back in 2018 after escaping a corporate law career. I realised that I was working around a lot of unhappy people and I thought, “I want to work in a more enjoyable industry – let’s try tourism!”
From starting with one walking tour on a Saturday morning offered on Airbnb Experiences, we’ve grown to offer a wide range of unique tours and experiences, led by a team of amazing hosts.
In 2022 and 2023, we were awarded Gold in the NSW Tourism Awards for Cultural Tourism. We’re also ranked #1 for all Tours & Activities in Sydney on TripAdvisor, so you’re making a great decision to explore Sydney with us.
What our tours are like
Our tours focus on showing guests around Sydney with an expert local, weaving in entertaining stories about the area while visiting excellent, independently-owned bars, restaurants and cafes.
We limit our group sizes on all of our tours to 12 people, as we’ve found this is the magic number for guests to meet each other, bond and have a fun time. If you’re visiting Sydney or travelling solo, you’ll probably meet people on the tour to hang out with while you’re here!
You’ll quickly discover that a tour with us is a little bit different to a regular one, as we focus on making it feel like you’re just in a group of new friends hanging out and enjoying themselves, with your host keeping everything flowing and telling you stories.
Our promise
We love having each and every guest along on our tours. Whether you’re visiting Sydney or a local looking for something new to do, we know that you can choose from a million other activities – but you chose to join one of our tours and hang out with us!
We take that commitment from you seriously and will do everything we can to give you an amazing experience and the best possible introduction to Sydney. We guarantee you’re going to love the Sydney that we show you so much, you’ll be asking “when’s the next tour?” and booking again with us!
Since we started, we’ve received thousands of 5-star reviews on Airbnb, Google, TripAdvisor and Facebook. Check some recent ones out below.
We’ve received over 2,000 five-star reviews
All Reviews 5.0
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Google 4.9
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TripAdvisor 5.0
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Airbnb 5.0
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Facebook 5.0
- Helen Laverick14/11/2024Fantastic experience for locals and visitors. Had the best afternoon with Justin. He showed my husband and I the sights of Newtown & Enmore as never seen before (at least not by us) and explained the cool backgrounds of all the graffiti. We discussed themes and the history of the images brought to life. This is a tour any age group can enjoy as long as you can walk or roll. We sampled some amazing pies (meat, vego & vegan), vegan mexican, Turkish icecream, Egyptian falafels made to order and a beer at Young Henry’s. My ideal day out!!! Sydneysiders really need to go on this tour.read moreread lessHelen L14/11/2024Great way to spend a Sunday afternoon We are Sydney locals but what a unique way to spend a Sunday afternoon, discovering Newtown’s street art (old and new) and sampling a heap of new eateries/restaurants. Justin our guide was awesome, with lots of great conversation and back stories. Would highly recommend to locals and visitors, great value for money and something a bit different!read moreread less
- Angela12/11/2024As being cynical to think of a guide tour that to have a good route and overview of the city. But with Steve, a well travelled local Australian ex math teacher. He is not only have in-depth knowledge culture of his hometown, but also added a logic mind of the whole tour. It was efficient and fun.
His teammate Justin, alongside, accompanied the tour, made sure we were well guided as well as informative.
Their generosity in sharing the best parts of their city, including a taste of local beer at the end, made the tour both fun and memorable.
Highly recommended—it was definitely worth it!read moreread lessJessica12/11/2024Went on the walking tour on my first full day in Sydney. What a great way to see the city! Not only hitting the main points, but little spots I would have never thought to see. Steve was such an entertaining and informed guide. I had a great time and met some new friends! Will definitely be recommending!read moreread lessTheresa H12/11/2024Really enjoyed this tour We had a very knowledgeable guide. Walking was not too much ( but some). We returned to some of the places we passed by. We really enjoyed the free museum that was in the building that housed convicts that was designed by a convict. They gave you headphones that explained the history and artifacts in the museum.read moreread less - _corinnn_76512/11/2024Highly Recommend Our tour guide was Michael and he was amazing! He did such a good job explaining everything and answering the groups’ questions. This tour is a great option if you’re looking to get a snapshot of Sydney with some historic background and find some hidden gems. Highly recommend and it was one of the highlights of our trip! If you do this tour, see if you can be in Michael’s group- he really leveled the tour up.read moreread lessNicholas Serrano11/11/2024Justin was very attentive to any questions or concerns I had before and during the tour. Michael was an excellent tour guide for the Halfday City tour. He was very engaging, detailed oriented, answered any questions throughout the tour, and the tour went at a very good pace. Provided a lot of interesting facts and history as well as some recommendations after the tour was completed.read moreread less
- 516MaryM11/11/2024A tour worth taking. What a great tour! Steve gave us an incredible amount of information in the 3 hours that we walked around Sydney. His local knowledge was extremely helpful in planning the rest of our stay. Great sense of humor and very interesting to listen to. Three hours went by in a flash! Thanks Steve!
Brock & Mary from Michiganread moreread less - Tom G10/11/2024Definitely recommend, Steve was excellent Steve was an excellent guide. He was very informative and funny and we learned a lot about the cities history and interesting quirks it had to offer that people would normally miss. We would definitely recommend. He even took us to a lovely local bar at the end with a view of the bridge and opera house which was a lovely way to end the tour.read moreread lessRob Chen08/11/2024<Ultimate Sydney Walking Tour> Visiting this city for the first time has been awesome, especially with our tour guide, Steve, who really knows his stuff about the local culture and life here. He took us around to all the cool spots and shared some fascinating stories about their history. If you’re looking for a fun way to learn about the area, I definitely recommend him! This tour is great for solo travelers or families wanting to explore together.read moreread less
- mikebrouw07/11/2024An insightful stroll taking us through the history of Sydney Steve took us on a great walking tour all around Sydney. We saw places we would never see on our own and he was engaging and insightful throughout. A great way to learn the history and culture of a beautiful city.read moreread less
- Rob Chen05/11/2024Visiting this city for the first time has been awesome, especially with our tour guide, Steve, who really knows his stuff about the local culture and life here. He took us around to all the cool spots and shared some fascinating stories about their history. If you’re looking for a fun way to learn about the area, I definitely recommend him! This tour is great for solo travelers or families wanting to explore together.read moreread lessSierra05/11/2024Walking around Sydney with our guide Steve was a fantastic way to explore Sydney. He made an effort to point out sights in the city you would typically walk right by and was a wealth of knowledge. Steve let us socialize amongst ourselves as we walked between sights while also making an effort to get to know us and what we were interested in. I’d recommend this tour to new visitors and locals hoping to see their city with fresh eyes.read moreread less
- Maria03/11/2024Die war super interessant und die Zeit ist wie im nichts verflogen. Daniel war der perfekte Guide, so einen Geschichtslehrer hätte ich mir ebenfalls gewünscht. Der hat alle historische Daten in sehr spannende Geschichten verwandelt und die Tour so zu einem echten Erlebnis gemacht! Vielen Dank!read moreread lessDonna Ritchie02/11/2024Justin and Steve co-hosted as guides on this tour. Personable, knowledgeable and thoughtful. Great tour. Well worth doing. Glad we did it early in our stay as we learned a lot that enhanced the rest of our stay. Steve was an awesome storyteller and Justin was great at the facts. Perfect balance. We covered a lot of ground and they kept us engaged through out the 3.5 hours. History, culture, art, architecture…a bit of everything…And recommendations that we went back to and explored deeper over the rest of our stay. Lovely finish up at the end at an Oceanside bar for a wee drink as well. This is a professional, well thought out tour with guides that care about the people they take on tour. They kept the group small, which was awesome. Made sure we were comfortable, answered questions along the way, and offered personal recommendations for follow up. P.s. thanks for the book recommendations, Steve. Much appreciated!read moreread less
- Helen Laverick14/11/2024Fantastic experience for locals and visitors. Had the best afternoon with Justin. He showed my husband and I the sights of Newtown & Enmore as never seen before (at least not by us) and explained the cool backgrounds of all the graffiti. We discussed themes and the history of the images brought to life. This is a tour any age group can enjoy as long as you can walk or roll. We sampled some amazing pies (meat, vego & vegan), vegan mexican, Turkish icecream, Egyptian falafels made to order and a beer at Young Henry’s. My ideal day out!!! Sydneysiders really need to go on this tour.read moreread less
- Nicholas Serrano11/11/2024Justin was very attentive to any questions or concerns I had before and during the tour. Michael was an excellent tour guide for the Halfday City tour. He was very engaging, detailed oriented, answered any questions throughout the tour, and the tour went at a very good pace. Provided a lot of interesting facts and history as well as some recommendations after the tour was completed.read moreread lessRob Chen08/11/2024<Ultimate Sydney Walking Tour> Visiting this city for the first time has been awesome, especially with our tour guide, Steve, who really knows his stuff about the local culture and life here. He took us around to all the cool spots and shared some fascinating stories about their history. If you’re looking for a fun way to learn about the area, I definitely recommend him! This tour is great for solo travelers or families wanting to explore together.read moreread less
- Rob Chen05/11/2024Visiting this city for the first time has been awesome, especially with our tour guide, Steve, who really knows his stuff about the local culture and life here. He took us around to all the cool spots and shared some fascinating stories about their history. If you’re looking for a fun way to learn about the area, I definitely recommend him! This tour is great for solo travelers or families wanting to explore together.read moreread lessDonna Ritchie02/11/2024Justin and Steve co-hosted as guides on this tour. Personable, knowledgeable and thoughtful. Great tour. Well worth doing. Glad we did it early in our stay as we learned a lot that enhanced the rest of our stay. Steve was an awesome storyteller and Justin was great at the facts. Perfect balance. We covered a lot of ground and they kept us engaged through out the 3.5 hours. History, culture, art, architecture…a bit of everything…And recommendations that we went back to and explored deeper over the rest of our stay. Lovely finish up at the end at an Oceanside bar for a wee drink as well. This is a professional, well thought out tour with guides that care about the people they take on tour. They kept the group small, which was awesome. Made sure we were comfortable, answered questions along the way, and offered personal recommendations for follow up. P.s. thanks for the book recommendations, Steve. Much appreciated!read moreread less
- Danielle Nath02/11/2024What an amazing tour! Justin was our guide for the 12 of us and he was so knowledgeable about all things Sydney! If you’re looking for a fun, easy going, knowledgeable tour – this is it! We even ended the tour with a beer while overlooking the beautiful ways! 10/10 would recommend!read moreread less
- Pamela McLean28/10/2024Yesterday I had a wonderful tour through Newtown, hearing the interesting stories behind the street art and tasting some really delicious food. I normally drive straight through Newtown so it was such a delight to walk around getting to know this quirky suburb. Our guide, Daniel was very personable and had the true gift of story telling- he made our day!!!! Thank you Daniel!!read moreread less
- Rob & Mandy Burda24/10/2024Wow what an amazing tour of Sydney. We have visited Sydney on a number of occasions but today we visited places we have never been and learned things we didn’t know. Daniel was an enthusiastic knowledgable and friendly guide who obviously has a deep love of history and the history of his city and this shone through as he shared knowledge with us. Daniel ensured that he got to know the people on his tour and encouraged people to ask questions and share their knowledge. If you want to learn more about Sydney this is the tour to take. The home made Anzac biscuits were fantastic as well! Thanks Daniel.read moreread lessRobin Burda24/10/2024We had a brilliant historical tour of Sydney this morning, our guide Dan was amazing, he had a superb local knowledge and made the whole tour a very entertaining and interesting experience. I would highly recommend this tour to anyone who has an interest in the early years of this great city.read moreread less
- Helen L14/11/2024We are Sydney locals but what a unique way to spend a Sunday afternoon, discovering Newtown’s street art (old and new) and sampling a heap of new eateries/restaurants. Justin our guide was awesome, with lots of great conversation and back stories. Would highly recommend to locals and visitors, great value for money and something a bit different!read moreread lessTheresa H12/11/2024We had a very knowledgeable guide. Walking was not too much ( but some). We returned to some of the places we passed by. We really enjoyed the free museum that was in the building that housed convicts that was designed by a convict. They gave you headphones that explained the history and artifacts in the museum.read moreread less_corinnn_76512/11/2024Our tour guide was Michael and he was amazing! He did such a good job explaining everything and answering the groups’ questions. This tour is a great option if you’re looking to get a snapshot of Sydney with some historic background and find some hidden gems. Highly recommend and it was one of the highlights of our trip! If you do this tour, see if you can be in Michael’s group- he really leveled the tour up.read moreread less
- 516MaryM11/11/2024What a great tour! Steve gave us an incredible amount of information in the 3 hours that we walked around Sydney. His local knowledge was extremely helpful in planning the rest of our stay. Great sense of humor and very interesting to listen to. Three hours went by in a flash! Thanks Steve!
Brock & Mary from Michiganread moreread lessTom G10/11/2024Steve was an excellent guide. He was very informative and funny and we learned a lot about the cities history and interesting quirks it had to offer that people would normally miss. We would definitely recommend. He even took us to a lovely local bar at the end with a view of the bridge and opera house which was a lovely way to end the tour.read moreread less - Phase3Retirement02/11/2024Justin and Steve co-hosted as guides on this tour. Personable, knowledgeable and thoughtful. Great tour. Well worth doing. Glad we did it early in our stay as we learned a lot that enhanced the rest of our stay.
Steve was an awesome storyteller and Justin was great at the facts. Perfect balance. We covered a lot of ground and they kept us engaged through out the 3.5 hours. History, culture, art, architecture a bit of everything And recommendations that we went back to and explored deeper over the rest of our stay. Lovely finish up at the end at an Oceanside bar for a wee drink as well.
This is a professional, well thought out tour with guides that care about the people they take on tour. They kept the group small, which was awesome. Made sure we were comfortable, answered questions along the way, and offered personal recommendations for follow up. P.s. thanks for the book recommendations, Steve. Much appreciated!read moreread lessKim G02/11/2024We had a fantastic tour with Daniel. He is a very passionate guide who shared the history of Sydney in an interesting and informative way. We saw many historical buildings, learned about the early days in Sydney, saw cool street art and the gorgeous botanical gardens.
Our tour was a great introduction to Sydney and we had a fabulous time with the group over a beer at the end. Highly recommended.read moreread lessThomas B02/11/2024I did the walking tour with Daniel, and I must say this was probably the best walking tour I had so far. Daniel was so knowledgeable and connected the places we visited with actual stories and people from history. It was fun and enlightening at the same time. And of course as a local he had great hints on which places to go and which to avoid. Really worthwhile and highly recommendable. Thanks!read moreread less - 516MaryM01/11/2024Steve was wonderful and very entertaining! Loved the jokes along the way. 3 1/2 hours went by in a flash! Steve loves his hometown and it shows, he is very passionate. His knowledge of Sydney is amazing and was very enjoyable. If all of the other guides are like Steve, then you can’t go wrong! Thanks for the wonderful tour Steve! Brock & Mary from Michiganread moreread less
- Angela12/11/2024As being cynical to think of a guide tour that to have a good route and overview of the city. But with Steve, a well travelled local Australian ex math teacher. He is not only have in-depth knowledge culture of his hometown, but also added a logic mind of the whole tour. It was efficient and fun.
His teammate Justin, alongside, accompanied the tour, made sure we were well guided as well as informative.
Their generosity in sharing the best parts of their city, including a taste of local beer at the end, made the tour both fun and memorable.
Highly recommended—it was definitely worth it!read moreread less - Jessica12/11/2024Went on the walking tour on my first full day in Sydney. What a great way to see the city! Not only hitting the main points, but little spots I would have never thought to see. Steve was such an entertaining and informed guide. I had a great time and met some new friends! Will definitely be recommending!read moreread less
- Sierra05/11/2024Walking around Sydney with our guide Steve was a fantastic way to explore Sydney. He made an effort to point out sights in the city you would typically walk right by and was a wealth of knowledge. Steve let us socialize amongst ourselves as we walked between sights while also making an effort to get to know us and what we were interested in. I’d recommend this tour to new visitors and locals hoping to see their city with fresh eyes.read moreread less
- Diego02/11/2024Andrew was an excellent guide and did well during our secret bar crawl! I could have never found these local gems in Sydney, and the information we received during the evening gave us a better idea of the places we visited. I recommend this if you’re new to the city and want to discover local bars!read moreread less
- Sybille02/11/2024Wir können diese Stadtführung nur wärmstens empfehlen. Man bekommt innerhalb kurzer Zeit einen guten Einstieg in Sydney.
Die Gruppe untereinander war sehr nett und das gemeinsame Cafe trinken im Hyde Park hat großen Spaß gemacht. Am meisten war ich von den kleinen Gassen bedruckt, die wir alleine nie gefunden hätten. Unser Führer hat uns viele tolle Unternehmungs Empfehlungen gegeben, die wir gerne ausgeführt haben.read moreread lessKarin28/10/2024This tour was so worth it! Loved all the little details Daniel knew about, regarding the spots we visited, or the actual history involved. It was interesting and funny and fun. Really nice to finish the whole thing with an awesome taste of locally brewed beer. Daniel definitely made it worthwhile, also because he proofed to be really knowledgeable. I can recommend!read moreread less
- Ben Scott05/02/2023Awesome experience doing the Chinatown food tour today! Both my parents couldn’t stop raving about this experience and the food they would never of eaten plus the local art work we would have just walked past/ history of the area.
This was a great experience and could recommend this tour highly enough. As a Sydney sider I was gob smacked with how good the tour was! Definetly will be back for more tours! Thanks for the awesome hospitality Justin!read moreread less - Melis Akiz14/01/2020Aussie You’s Secret Bar Crawl covering the Darlinghurst and Surry Hills neighborhoods was easily the highlight of my time in Sydney! Justin took us to some really unique places and made sure that everyone in the group connected well that most of us chose to continue our night after the tour was completed. You should definitely try this tour and I promise you will not just have a blast but also enjoy a unique experience with a knowledgeable and caring guide that you will not forget.read moreread less
- Kate Chen14/12/2019Justin的bar crawl非常值得來參加!整個晚上就像是有個當地朋友帶你去只有當地人才知道的酒吧去玩,他選了風格不同且都很獨特的酒吧,是我們不會知道要去的地方。
Justin人非常友善及幽默風趣,讓你覺得很自在放鬆且有趣!
另外他中文説得也很不錯,所以不用擔心英文不夠好。很推薦參加Justin的bar crawl tour 完美體驗當地夜生活 :)
Justin’s bar crawl is so much fun! It’s like a local friend showing you around the coolest bars while you visit his city! He picked the bars that you would not go by yourselves and he is very friendly and fun to hang out with! Perfect for solo travelers to meet new friends and enjoy local night vibe! Highly recommended!read moreread lessBen Ridding11/12/20195 out of 5 stars. Joined the hidden bar tour after finding a flyer for AussieYou Tours in the hostel I was staying. Tour was great, got to see a completely different bar scene that you would just not find from google searches or normal research methods. Pretty sure that most Sydney residents would not be aware of some of the bars we went to. Justin was a fantastic host, as well as taking the group around cool bars he kept the group entertained with interesting history on Sydney and teaching us Aussie Slang. Would recommend this tour for anybody visiting Sydney and for Sydney residents who want to see a side to the city they might not have been before.read moreread less - Sarah Ann12/04/2019I went on Justin’s secret city bar crawl tour in Sydney with a friend. We had such an amazing time that we had to book the secret Surry Hills bar crawl as well! Both nights were exceptional and Justin is a really good host! The bars we went to were really cool and I definitely would not of stumbled across them!! I really do recommend going on these tours if you are in Sydney, you won’t be disappointed!read moreread less