I was a little hesitant to book another tour based on my prior experience. But I follow Heather Leah, and her Raleigh Hidden History tour sounded right up my alley. I lucked out and found a parking spot at Tap Room. It is a small lot, so it may fill up quickly. There is another lot behind the building to the side or street parking is available. There was a street market, so it was harder to find. I did double-check that I could park at the bar when I checked in for the tour. Restrooms are available inside, and food and beverages can be brought on the trolley with a few exceptions. I liked this tour as we got a history lesson while the trolley was moving, and then we got to get off at different stops for a new perspective and not just looking out the windows. I still enjoyed looking out the windows and took some photos from there that weren't part of the tour. St. Agnes Hospital was our first stop. The stone hospital was rebuilt and opened in June 1909. It was during the Jim Crow Era for black citizens, as they were not allowed in white hospitals. We also stopped at the Heck-Andrews House. We learned of a secret tunnel and that there used to be a baseball stadium where a parking lot sits today. Devereaux Meadow was a minor league baseball stadium. I never knew a grand "Castle" (the original Meredith College) once stood near the Executive Mansion. It was a hotel and state office buildings at one point, too. It's wild that it's just a parking lot now! We got to see one of the trolley stops of the Glenwood line. It took people to Bloomsbury Park. It had electric lights at the trolley park. There was even a roller coaster, carousel, and a dance pavilion. Heather was an amazing tour guide and shared her knowledge and love of the city with us. I look forward to taking more tours with her. read more

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Darci our tour guide for the ghosts trolley tour was very good. She was funny and informative. The driver was also excellent and very safe.

I had taken some friends on the "Oaks and Jokes" tour back in May and it was awesome. The tour guide was informative and hilarious. We even had a special visit from Sir Walter Raleigh himself! Expecting to have another great experience, I purchased four tickets for the 6pm 10/26/19 "Laugh To Death" comedy tour. We were VERY disappointed. Our female guide, a "divorced actress", was uninformative and we were all speculating she was drunk. She would start to tell us a fact about a place and then just end it with "a lot of spooky shit happened there." It was like she forgot what she was talking about. Halfway through the tour we stopped off at the Holiday Inn and were told to go to the top floor for a drink. We became separated from our guide and wound up wandering around trying to find out where to go. Finally we found the room our tour was supposed to be in. We met a dead police detective who was actually funny and told some good jokes. After that, it was back to the trolley. On the way back to Paddy O' Beers the guide blasted music and just danced around the trolley. It was semi-funny to watch but overall I felt this tour was a giant waste of money. My guests learned NOTHING about Raleigh and they were not impressed. I won't be bringing anyone else on this tour and I definitely wouldn't recommend them going forward. read more

The Great Raleigh Trolley - Our drunk "tour guide" with beer in hand searching for tunes to blast on Pandora. - Bus Tours Near Me - Raleigh, North Carolina

Just got off the Griswold tour. Mostly driving around towards not a whole lot. The tour guide did a great job trying to help save it. The driver was not the safest. We made last minute turns and he almost blew through a light. North Pole was meh. Santa rocked. I already knew about the places we went. Save your money and go see lights on your own. read more

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We had a great date night on the Ghost Tour with Darci! I loved walking our city and learning some history that I didn't know about. I'm planning to do it again and take my sister. read more

The Great Raleigh Trolley - a cemetery at night - Bus Tours Near Me - Raleigh, North Carolina

I wanted to start a new family tradition, purchased 12 tickets to treat my immediate and extended family to the "Must See Holiday Edition" Trolley event. Talked it up, got everyone excited, forwarded the description of "magical experience & Christmas comes alive.." I am trying to understand how the function we just attended was anything holiday related. No holiday lights, no holiday music, departed at 620p and returned at the Tap Yard parking lot at 653p. 33 minutes @ $42 a person? I am so disappointed. read more

Our boys look forward to Santa Express every year! There's a lot of one on one time with Santa and the staff are amazing. Fun for both kiddos and adults! read more

Had a fun experience on the Oaks & Jokes GRT tour! Would definitely do it again. Kyle and Rachel were our guides and they were so friendly and entertaining. Thanks for the fun outing!! read more

Tour was awesome, there is so much too learn here in Raleigh and all the possible haunted homes. Great walk and amazing haunted tour guide(lol) read more

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What a fun family experience! The guide was knowledgeable and great with kids. The Santa was realistic and my son's highlight of the ride was the book Santa read mid ride. Fun activities to do before and after- face painting, fairy hair, etc. Loved this! read more

We had a great time on the Great Raleigh Trolley! Highly recommend for locals or visitors.

Terrible terrible mistake. Thought we could start a new family tradition, however you couldn't pay me to ride the trolly again. Advertised as holiday edition. Hardly any Christmas lights, no Christmas music, and still trying to figure out how the tour was holiday related at all. Advertised as a 1 hour tour which lasted 33 minutes. The one good thing about it being so short is that I didn't have to waste anymore of my family's time with this terrible experience. At 42$ a person for a glorified car ride around down town is laughable. This experience will be a running joke in our family for years to come. Please do not give this terrible establishment any of your money, you will be sorry. read more

Here's what the "Brunch and Bubbly Tour" really is: 1- board the trolley 2- pick up your mimosa 3- SQUEEZE into a seat next to your fellow passengers (be prepared to be up close and personal; I am under 130 lb and I felt cramped) 4- your "tour guides" welcome you, then crank up the music and disappear into their phones 5- so-ca for lunch (lovely place, great food, great service) 6- repeat steps 1-4 above 7- stop at the Raleigh Wine Shop (very nice shop) for a brief intro and tasting of one wine 8- repeat step 4 9- done This is not a tour; it's an uncomfortable ride to lunch and a wine store. Oh, and there are mimosas. I was there as a guest. Whatever the ticket cost, if it was more than the cost of lunch, it was too much. read more

A WONDERFUL company indeed. The Staff and management is SUPERB!!! They REALLY know how to treat their Employees. Go great Raleigh Trolley Company! I had a bad feeling in regards to a situation but this company came very professional and caring. Please excuse ANY bad review made by Julian C. on this fine company. read more

If I had paid $5 for this tour I would have gotten off the trolley and said, "Well, at least I only wasted $5." Never have my wife and I been so disappointed in a tour. There were very minimal lights and nothing out of the ordinary. We made 3 historical stops with little to no information given about each one other than the name of the structure. These stops included the Governor's Mansion, Krispy Kreme, and the Mordecai House. We also passed through Oakwood and Boylan Heights neighborhoods, and saw few lights (which I know they do not have control of but should be able to adjust the route accordingly). We took this tour with our friends for my wife's birthday and were embarrassed by how bad it was. The tour guide did not add value to the tour, and was not well versed in the historical information. He also did present in an eloquent or knowledgeable way, seeming like he was making things up as we went along. It was not the experience described on the website and I would not recommend these tours to anyone. read more

Well let's start by saying this is an awesome idea in theory... I booked it after Thanksgiving since My family was still here and have never been to NC? But hindsight... it was too early to book since there were virtually no lights in the areas advertised. The folks running the trolley were great and tried their best.. but seriously this tour should have not been rescheduled since they knew there were no lights to be seen. The folks were great, the other passengers fun.. but i was not interested in going to Garner. read more

Did the Oak City Lights tour last weekend. What a huge disappointment. The tour guide was knowledgeable about the history, but we hardly saw any lights!! I don't know if the driver just didn't go down the street with lights or what?! Then meandered through a very dark Mordecai. I guess to hear a ghost story. A true waste of money for me Also, the windows were so dirty, you could barely see out of them. read more

A group of friends and I rented the trolley for a night of birthday celebrating. We made a couple of stops along the route that night at bars we chose. You can bring drinks on board and enjoy while riding around. Highly recommend making a playlist and then syncing up to their sound system via bluetooth. This made the whole experience a lot of fun. Would definitely recommend this trolley over other options in town - especially when it is sweltering hot or frigidly cold as this baby has A/C and HEAT. The guide and driver were top notch. Handing out glow necklaces and leis, telling us history of the city, having fun with us. 10/10 would definitely ride again. read more

Wow. This trolley. I was 1. Warm 2. Surrounded by music 3. Surrounded by my friends Amazing guide and the driver was delightful. Highly recommend! read more

I surprised my husband on Christmas Eve night for the holiday lights tour. The trolley itself was very nice, inside it was roomy enough and had fun lights and was temperature controlled. But, once we got on the faster roads, the trolley was not so forgiving on the arse, especially when hitting potholes - I was wishing there was cushioning on the seats on the longer treks between the houses we went to see. It was nice to have them show us around, and was a nice distraction to give the adults some semi-sweet champagne to celebrate... on the way back, we got some random neon lights to play with - again, another subtle distraction on the long trek back. The free apple cider at the start and the free hot chocolate at the end were also nice. I probably won't do the holiday lights tour again, but perhaps another tour - I'll keep it in mind esp if I hae guests coming to town. Thanks to Mike the driver, and Jessie, our tour guide for the evening! Hope you get that bonus :) read more

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Just so not worth your time or the price. We are new to the area and excited when we saw the Raleigh lights tour. Got tickets for myself my hubby and my son. We saw a lit tree at 2 buildings. Then went though a shopping area and were told "this is where all the lights are" it was lights on the trees in the shopping area. That's it. My son was so bored and not happy. There were no real xmas lights to look at. The North Pole stop was cute for littler kids. But we spent an hour and half driving around the city and didn't get to see xmas lights like we thought. Such a waste or time and money read more

I went on the Griswold tour and had such a great time! Our guide, Ashley, was so much fun and so knowledgeable. Thank you for a great night. Yosra was such a great help!!! read more

I'm really unsure what I paid for. There were no lights, no singing, Santa was mediocre and that is being nice, the goody bag was filled with absolute junk like literally my sons had someone's garbage in it , they drove us around very quickly and waved to strangers it was beyond inappropriate to pay what we did for this. I know they won't care about my complaint but we purchased tickets for nine people and left feeling robbed for our money. Santa wasn't even there when we got back. Truly awful waste of money. Last year was incredibly better it just plummeted downhill. I'm still confused what we paid for. Awful. Awful. Don't waste your time or hard earned money. Ran into the ground. read more

Sorry but not worth money. Very little if any information or narration. Young kids who could care less about their job. Not professional. We knew more about Raleigh then they did. A few drunk people and this was supposed to be kid friendly. We got off at stop for North Pole and didn't get back on to finish. Kind of tacky and uninformative. Sorry but can't recommend. Really want a refund! read more

Total ripoff. That's the most accurate way to describe this experience. I was visiting Raleigh from New England for the first time and was was excited about seeing the city's Christmas lights. My two friends and I spent a total of $90 for our tickets. We saw the state house trew and the Governor's mansion. The stop was a shopping mall. That's it. We could have driven past those places for the cost less than a cup of hot chocolate. We felt totally totally taken advantage of, so much so, that I am reaching our to the Raleigh Convention &Visitors Bureau and the Mayor's Office. read more

We booked the Griswold Christmas lights tour. It's definitely overpriced for what you get. The 2.5 hour "tour" is 3 houses. The rest of it is driving. For the price, we could have driven all 3 and bought dinner. The people are nice but the tour is a pass. read more

Brunch & Bubbly was a lot of fun! Driver and Tour Guide were both amazing and brunch at So-Ca was delish! Highly recommend!

The Great Raleigh Trolley is a fantastic experience. My friends and I did the bar crawl and had a blast. No waiting in line, awesome bars, and being in the Trolley is the best part. Our tour guide was most impressive with the way she wrangled all of us from bar to bar and kept us on schedule. read more

The Great Raleigh Trolley - TROLLEY PARTY - Bus Tours Near Me - Raleigh, North Carolina

We LOVED using the GRT for our wedding. Anna was super easy to work with and coordinated everything seamlessly. We also loved our driver Ronnie. We used 'Dolly' which has a pretty white exterior and wooden benches - it looked great in our photos. Highly recommend!!! read more

My 3 year old son and I attended the Read & Ride and had an amazing experience. It was a Pirate themed day and all the staff was incredibly engaging and entertaining. The morning we went, the attendance was slow - but the team didn't let that dampen the spirit. They nailed it with exciting sing-a-long songs, Pirate poems, and books. We will be regulars. read more

There is the coolest train activity near the parking lot. Thomas the train and other toy trains are going around. There are buttons to control some of them (Although they were turned off since we were the last group of the day. The train ride was slow (it was slow down Sunday) and all we got to see were trees...which was fine. But the bad part was when the train went far enough it just stopped. and we stopped for a long, long time. My kids were getting impatient and eventually even I got really impatient. I was about to get off the train and walk back when we finally got moving again. This wasn't abnormal. They need to move the front of the train to the back of the train to go back. read more

Not worth the money. We did the Oaks and Jokes History tour. We learned nothing about the history of Raleigh and weren't really amused by the comedy. Do yourself a favor and skip this one. read more

We caught a buzz from the fumes of this bus that looks like a Trolley. Recommend a walking or bike tour. read more

Advertised as a "Holiday Lights Tour; Consistently rated as one of the most popular things to do in Raleigh." The staff was very nice, however the "Holiday Lights Tour" is an absolute complete waste of time. There were very few Holiday Lights and they even drove the trolley to Garner in search of some lights, which was a bad idea. Felt bad for the families with kids who were expecting to see "Holiday Lights," not dark streets in Garner? One couple took an Uber at the first stop. Bottom line, it's not at all what was advertised and I would not recommend. Their other tours may be great, but the Holiday Lights Tour is a complete waste of money. read more

Seriously, $35 to sit in traffic in Wake Forest for over an hour? Don't waste your money. All the Griswold Tour does is go to Piper's Lights in Wake Forest, stop to let you use the bathroom in a portapotty and then go see one house off Falls of Neuse. That's it. Also, our tour guide told us there was a back up at Piper's Lights, so they "compensated" with champagne. I would have rather been compensated with going to some other neighborhoods to see actual lights seeing as this was a lights tour. We also got back an hour later than we were scheduled to. I would strongly NOT recommend doing this. The tour guide was great and very energetic, but the sitting in traffic and lack of actual lights was not my idea of fun. Also, our driver drove SO fast. I think we were airborne in downtown at one point going over some bumps. Stay away!! read more

We went on the Griswold Christmas Light tour last night, in summary it was awful. Positives: we had a driver-in-training who was great, very safe, and no jerky movements (however after the "regular" driver took over at the end I felt like I knew exactly why they had to sign a waiver, Scary! Negative: where shall I start? With the fact that our guide served Champagne in plastic cups without a liquor license or checking any ID's? Or with the fact we checked in and were on the trolley when I get a phone call saying we hadn't checked in and they hoped we would be there in time for the trolley to leave? Or how they gave us 1/4 cup of the worst hot chocolate when we checked in? Or with the fact that our guide was a very bad rendition of Rosie O'Donnell (she sung out of tune constant, literally every single SONG... then threw candy from the front of the trolley to the back toward kids who answered Trivia Questions right, she kept skipping songs half way through, played Elvis's Blue Christmas three times in 1.75 hours, turned up the volume on the radio soooo loud we couldn't hear each other talk, or that she very unsafely walked back and forth on the trolley many times bumping into patrons all along the way). Let me add we saw very few light displays (about 4 in 2hours) and the Windows were so fogged up you couldn't see but little bits here and there where people had opened their half slice of window or where some kid had rubbed his mitten all over it. Absolutely worst experience of the holiday season. Awful awful awful DON'T DO IT. These people need to go on Undercover Boss, I'm sure the owner doesn't condone this type of experience read more

Shane Mitchell was awesome!! Great experience, would recommend to anyone in the Raleigh area

-Concept was great -Staff was exceptional -Trolley ride was a disaster ********Expensive ride to see not much in terms of seasonal illumination. Kids and parents on bus had to be very disappointed! Apparently Christmas lights in Raleigh are still on Thanksgiving break! read more

Run don't walk from your reservation! Currently on the 2 hour tour and drove about an hour out of Raleigh past garner to see one just ok house so far. And our guide said "see it was worth the wait". WTF I want my money back read more

We did the Oaks & Jokes tour. There were some good historical points made during our downtown Raleigh tour and Raleigh certainly has some interesting history. The jokes part of Oaks & Jokes were just some basic humor...not that great. So if you are going for some really "laugh out loud" jokes, forget it. The ad also said climate controlled trolley. We didn't think open windows on a hot day was climate controlled. They did give us cold bottled water however. All in all not sure it was really worth the price but that's just one opinion. read more