Green Dream Tours owner Elie Sasson loves a challenge.
In 2008 in the middle of the recession, Sasson launched his award-winning wine tour company to help international guests visiting San Francisco fully experience Napa and Sonoma. Green Dream Tours had planned to expand with the launch of Green Dream Cannabis Tours in the spring of 2020 just as Covid-19 restrictions essentially shut down tourism.
Now with the Covid clouds still hovering over San Francisco, Sasson has purchased SF on Tap, a very popular walking craft beer tour company.
“A lot of people probably think I’m crazy, but we have been thinking about adding beer tours for a long time,” says Sasson. “SF on Tap specializes in small-group tours just like Green Dream Tours and has a great reputation, so it really was a no-brainer to add it to our products.”
Adam Marca, a former tour guide for Green Dream Tours, started SF on Tap over five years ago. With Marca at the helm, SF on Tap emerged as the top beer tour in the United States, ranking No. 6 in the world for its Alcatraz and Craft Beer Walking Tour, according to the Travelers’ Choice awards for 2020 Best of the Best Top 10 Beer Experiences — World. (Green Dream Tours was also named a 2020 Travelers’ Choice Award winner.)
“It is with mixed emotions that I have sold SF on Tap after more than 5 years in business,” says Marca. “Luckily, I have found a great buyer in Elie Sasson, the owner of Green Dream Tours here in SF, so the reigns of the company are in the capable hands of another small tour operator based here in San Francisco.”
SF on Tap craft beer walking tours include visits to San Francisco’s most eclectic neighborhoods such as Fisherman’s Wharf and North Beach, South of Market and the Mission. It’s top-ranking combo tour of Alcatraz and beer stroll features a boat ride and tour of the prison in the morning and drinking in the afternoon.
With the addition of SF on Tap to his portfolio, Sasson’s companies now boast wine, cannabis and beer experiences.
Green Dream Tours is the #1 Wine Country tour specialist in San Francisco according to TripAdvisor and regularly receives 5-star reviews on Google. With 14-passenger buses and vans, Green Dream Tours has taken more than 60,000 guests to Wine Country.
“We are excited for the next chapters at Green Dream Tours,” says Sasson. “Just as wine and cannabis have roots in the San Francisco Bay Area, craft beer is huge, with lots of breweries and cool places to sample beer made right here.”