This tour is awesome!! The host, the lunch, the trip, it's all wonderful! Plenty of information about each wine tasting room is given, there's ample time to explore Carmel Valley, and the lunch provided is divine. I look forward to hopefully visiting again soon, there's so much to do and taste and the price is well worth the experience. I would absolutely recommend to friends and relatives, I wish I had known about it sooner. read more

Absolutely awesome. It's worth every penny you spend! Wine delicious and tour guide super funny!

Monterey Wine Trolley is a great way to see Monterey County's wineries, and is a serious alternative to taking one of San Francisco's over-priced day trips to Napa. We were late so Gary rang us to see where we were. He ended up picking us up where we stood, and at the end of the tour he dropped us off at our hotel rather than at the designated drop-off point. Gary is super friendly and chats affably between stops. Best of all, he's flexible and will tailor the trip to the tastes of the guests. Their day tour provides much better value for money than most trips offered by tour companies, with the added bonus that Gary knows the winery owners so everything feels a bit more personal. He's also arranged for discounts at most of the wineries. At $49 a person for 5 hours, it's really great value. Be aware, though, that for several of the tasting rooms there's a $5 fee. Highly recommended; I took some visiting friends and it's now firmly on my must-do map of the area. read more

The Skipper takes you on a tour of Monterey and Carmel on the beautiful Mona Lisa Trolly. He is very knowledgeable, and you should expect a few laughs along the way. You have many options for wine tastings and a delicious lunch ahead of you if you take this tour. read more

LOVED IT!! I don't know why it has taken me this long write this review, but man did we have fun! Gary is a great host/driver and the wineries are all great. Plus the drive is spectacular (if you are a thrill seeker, I recommend standing in the back when you go up the steep hills) My boyfriend and I went on this in May of 2010 as our first weekend getaway. Good thing we both love wine, because you will drink lots of it! We even made a few new friends. It's a great value for what you get and with a good group of people, you are guaranteed to have a blast! I recommend getting a cab to and from in the highly likely chance that you are too intoxicated to drive back to your hotel/home. read more

We had a great time with a group of girls. It was fun with olive oil and balsamic vinegar tasting with wine.

Mixed feelings about this. The staff were friendly and the bus (aka "trolley") spacious. However, the PA system was dreadful. We sat on the bottom deck and heard absolutely nothing but muffled sounds. The atmosphere on the bus was lacking. We expected a festive feel, but it never occurred. The stops were good, with Ventana Winery tasting room being the highlight. The lunch was a bit disappointing. Too much time spent traveling to stops. Our group of 4 unanimously felt that we would have been (much) better off renting a car or hiring a limo for our own tour. OVERALL: Fair. Not recommended. read more

Wine tour was amazing, Gary our tour guide was very knowledgeable and very humorous. He was the highlight of the tour, aside from the wine of course. There was a wide variety of wineries to choose from and the lunch was absolutely delicious. Highly recommend this wine tour! read more

Great day!!! Gary and Nugget were awesome tour guides. Gary's education of the area and wineries were so interesting. Told us all about the different wineries and then we were able to explore them all. The lunch was so delicious. Meats, cheeses, salads and bread, oh yeah, and wine!!! Very filling. Would highly recommend. Thanks Gary!!! read more

My friends and I absolutely love this wine trolly tour! By far the best I've had. Very nice, friendly, down to earth people. We had 4 wine tastings, a free bottle, and a tasty lunch for a very reasonable price. The lunch was full of goodies that paired well with the wine. The owner is great! We will definetly be coming back! read more

We took this tour on a lovely Sunday afternoon. The tour guide was delightful and we enjoyed his narration and conversation throughout the entire 5 hour tour. We went to six wineries with excellent choices of wines and spent ample time at each. Our boxed lunch was delicious and we were pleasantly surprised. We will definitely do this tour again. Good time! read more

My boyfriend and I decided to add this to our trip to the Monterey area. I am so glad we did! Its a great way to experience Monterey and Carmel while tasting some incredible wines. We went to 3 wine tasting rooms. The other passengers we're all great and cousin Johnny(our tour guide ) was not only funny and a great host, but he was also fairly knowledgeable about the wines. He recommended a certain wine and we loved it so much we took home a bottle (puma road's predator.... purchased at the Roadhouse). Very enjoyable, very fun, entertaining, and well worth it. One of my favorite parts of our trip! read more

Best wine tour around! Great options for wine tasting and a delicious lunch. Great balsamic vinegars especially the apricot! Great atmosphere and wonderful experience read more

This was such an amazing experience! Came here for my best friends birthday and we did the 4 wine tastings with lunch and a bottle of wine. You get to explore on your own and try lots of different wines plus an amazing lunch. Definitely want to do this again read more

Great experience, totally will be bringing my family to this trip. Amazing time and the tour guide is funny read more

Tours Monterey - Wine Tours Near Me - Monterey, California

Fantastic wine experience. If you're looking for something a little different from the Napa valley this is a perfect day getaway. read more

Tours Monterey - Wine Tours Near Me - Monterey, California

We went to Monterey for our first anniversary and booked some fun on Gary's Wine Trolley Tour! We had SO much fun. Gary, as other reviewers have said, is hilarious and provides a lot of added value en route to the wineries, sharing his knowledge of local history. The tour contained mostly couples, ranging from their twenties to fifties and everyone aboard had a great time! This is a great way to tour Monterey Wine Country and make some new friends in the process! I would give this five stars BUT... at the end of the tour I was a little turned off when asked to tip Gary, the sole proprietor and tour guide. If he were an employee, it would make sense but since most of the cost of the trip goes straight to him (minus food and gas), it felt a little like he was pandering. That said, he certainly has the personality to pull it off and we were super pleased with the service he provided. Worth the money! read more

Such a fun afternoon riding to the Carmel Valley wine tasing rooms. Gary, the driver, with his trusty dog sidekick, Nugget, are the perfect compliment to an incredible day! Highly recommend! read more

Fun great time good wines wonderful people! Gary gives you lots of history on way to wineries. Olive oil and vinegar tasting was fun!

Came out to celebrate my BIG's birthday and this has been the time of my life!!! 10/10 recommend. Absolutely wonderful!

Fantastic deal. Entertaining ride out to the Carmel Valley and get your money's worth in wine and food - can't beat the value when it comes to tasting wine in the Carmel area. read more

If you never experienced a wine tour, this was good. However, I didn't do my research and I hyped myself up thinking we would go to Vineyards. We get dropped off at the end of a wine tasting venue and you get to chose multiple locations of your choosing. Many to choose from so you need to guess. But if you still want to visit other places you can and the price was inexpensive. The highlight of my day was the olive oil venue we went to and they did some mixing of oil and vinegar. Bought a few different types to put on my salads when i get home. read more

Had a great time with our Trolley Host Gary and his cute little dog Nugget on this sight seeing/wine tasting tour from Monterey to Carmel. Gary does a great job at pointing out the sights. Loved all the places we tasted wines. The boxed lunch we received was great and we also received a free bottle of wine and a souvenier wine glass. We finished up a bit early so we exchanged stories with Gary and had alot of laughs! Thanks Gary!!! read more

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First wine tasting experience and I have to say it was great. It was especially amazing thanks to my man Gary (the guide/coordinator). The dude is hilarious too btw. I went to Monterey for a few days and I wanted to propose to my GF so I contacted Gary to set something up. Without hesitation, Gary was all about it and went out of his way to make our day extremely special. He even decided to take the trolley out even though we had a small group going on the tour. Gary hooked it up!! Made the proposal memorable! Any way, we went to Carmel Village and enjoyed several tastings there for a few hours. The ride there was beautiful, all sorts of scenery for perfect photos. There was lunch provided and all around a really fun day. Met some other couples there and had a good time. If you are out visiting Monterey, I would highly recommend doing the Wine Trolley Tour. Definitely a good time. read more

Tours Monterey - Wine Tours Near Me - Monterey, California

I loved the wine trolley! My friends and I had the best time, Garry and Johnny were great hosts and made for a fun entertaining time for everyone. They were accidentally short a lunch box for us and so Garry went and got us a delicious gourmet pizza to make up for it. Make sure to keep track of time though because we almost didn't get back to leave! And then we didn't get our bottles of wine that the package included and we were super sad about that but they turned around and took us back to go grab them. They really go out of their way to make sure everyone has a good time. Bring some cash to tip them when you're all done because they totally deserve it. Can't wait to do it again :) read more

This was one one of the best wine tours we have done! Customer service was awesome! Loved we had the freedom to go to what winery we wanted! Lunch was awesome.., protein protein protein! Cousins and Clay special shout out! read more

Tours Monterey - Wine Tours Near Me - Monterey, California

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What a great experience, I highly recommend you take the time to do this tour!! Great guide as well as great tasting rooms.

I went on the trolley on 9/16 with Uncle Johnny for my 21st. Had a really good time! Uncle Johnny kept checking up on us and he gave us his number so we can call him anytime. The lunch was REALLY good. I was expecting some cold sandwich. They gave us sangria, and an appetizer. Then we had 3 entree choices. We did not time ourselves properly. We went to slow and ended up having an extra wine tasting tickets. He gave us the option of using it on wine tasting another day or exchanging it for a bottle of wine. The wine was very good and everyone was nice:) read more

A wonderful and fun activity to do with some friends. The host was helpful and friendly. The drive to the wineries is so scenic. read more

Tours Monterey - Wine Tours Near Me - Monterey, California

Such a great time! The lunch wwas great. We went on a weekday and everything was calm and we went or our own pace. Will def do it again!!!

We had a great experience within this tour, very informative, would recommend this to anyone who wants to know wines:)) Our driver was the best!! Hopefully his name is Gary and hopefully we don't feed the dog. Thx again, great experience!!! read more

Tours Monterey - Wine Tours Near Me - Monterey, California

Great wine trolley in Carmel! Had a wonderful time!!! Highly recommend. It's a must do!!!!

Be leery about giving this guy your cc info!!! I had called over 72 hours in advance of our tour inquiring about a refund for one of our tickets. Left a message and never received a call back. I then called the next day and talked with Gary who said he didn't offer refunds but would try to sell my ticket. I got a text the day of the tour stating my ticket cost would be refunded. However, each ticket was $116 with fees and he only refunded me $89. Ticket originally cost $109 before fees. He stated he is charged $20 cancellation fee from his cc company (which is bull crap). He sold my original ticket to someone else, and then still went on to charge me a cancellation fee. What bull shit customer service is this? read more

A wonderful experience and great host! Highly recommended!! The wines were incredible and the lunch provided was delicious!

This was my 3rd time doing the wine trolley with Tours Monterey and it is so much fun! I highly recommend it to everyone I know because of the fun tour guide, the delicious lunch and the amount of wine we got to taste!! read more

Absolutely loved the wine trolley with Gary as our tour guide!! He has great knowledge of the area and the best wines of Carmel valley! Was lots of fun! Met great people from different places on the trip and tasted great wines with a lot of variety to choose from! Bought some excellent Pinots on our trip! Highly recommended! read more

Tours Monterey - Wine Tours Near Me - Monterey, California

My husband and I were looking for a wine tour of Carmel Valley and came across this option. We were lucky and had a large enough group so the trolley was used. I have been on many wine tours so they kind of start off with everyone real reserved and quiet. Once a stop or two is made, everyone is BFFs and loud. This is pretty much how this tour went. I loved each of the wineries we stopped at. I really liked the attention we received at Ventana Vineyards. At one point we had a stop in Carmel Valley and we given the option of stopping at many different tasting rooms that were all in walking distance. We ended up on a tour with a group of friends in their 20's who were Kardashian-like. They were a trip. On the way back it ended up turning into a dance party up and down the trolley. The driver Gary was very friendly, informative, and entertaining. I would recommend this tour to anyone who enjoys wine. read more

Awesome team offsite location! Had a lovely time, hoping to come back on a day off on a weekend for the wineries and Mr. Nuggets the dachsund read more

No stars. They cancelled us the late at night the night before our tour, we made reservations a month ago. If we would've cancelled they would charge us!! But its ok for them to cancel our reservation at the very last minute, after normal business hours the night before, and he was rude about it! read more

*Ting Ting* *Ting Ting* In the mood for a wine? For socializing? For fun? Well, you've found the right trolley. I can't call it a party bus, because it's not a bus, but it is a party on wheels (yes, you can drink on the trolley!). I went on a Saturday (which is apparently a good day to go if you want a fun atmosphere) and quickly became buddies with a number of other couples sitting around my friend and I--antsy to get going, to get tastings, and to get a little buzzed (well, for some not just a little). The trolley driver is a hoot (think Disneyland Jungle Cruise jokes) and the service is well worth the (what may seem like a hefty) price. You get a class on wine tasting at the first stop, then travel to Carmel to wander the city streets and pick wineries you are most interested in (Parsonage is a MUST). As you hop from locale to locale on the trolley you get DANCE MUSIC! It's an all around experience--better than expected. A group of girls on the trolley were a part of a bachelorette party--very clever idea! This was one of the most memorable experiences during my trip to Monterey. I plan to return. read more