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California Winery Shuttle & Tour
- Hours:
Mon-Thu, Sat-Sun 9 am - 5 pm
8 reviews for California Winery Shuttle & Tour
8 reviews in English
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Review from El C.
Ann Arbor, MI
Updated - 9/5/2011
Once again, Bobby did not disappoint. My sister and I took our parents on a tour around Sonoma. Although it was raining, Bobby remained upbeat and talkative the entire time, filling the day with tidbits of information on the wineries. We relied on his suggestions, as they have been excellent in the past, and had a pleasant experience once again. Delicious wine, a sober and cheerful driver, and the beauty of Sonoma -- what else could you need?
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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5/31/2010 First to Review
We loved our day with Bobby! He knew all of the great places to go and was able to get us into some… Read more »
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Review from Mary H.
Richmond, VA
9/1/2011
Definitely WOULD NOT recommend this company. We paid in late June for a tour in early August.
This is what was advertised for the social tour:
We'll have our excellent Napa Valley Chauffeurs guide you to the area's small and hidden, the truly well known and the gems of the Napa & Sonoma Valley!
This is what we got:
A cab driver showed up at our Bed & Breakfast. Okay....we got in and I asked him was he there to take us to the van for our tour? It was only then we were informed that the tour was overbooked and they had hired him to take us to the wineries! When asked was he knowledgeable about the wineries or wine, he said no. He stated that he would be given addresses on where to take us. We then told him to turn around and take us back to the B&B. He gave us a phone number to call and they told us they had tried to call us five times. After checking my phone, I only had two missed calls and both were after the cab driver had already arrived at the B&B. We told them this was unacceptable. We were expecting an experienced and knowledgeable guide .All they were doing was basically giving us a ride for $180.00. We were told we would be given a refund. It is now September and we still have not received that refund. -
Review from Linda Y.
San Francisco, CA
5/31/2011
I'm also shocked at the bad reviews. Shawn (our driver) was awesome! I was searching for transportation from our hotel in American Canyon to our scheduled Napa wineries and all the other places were charging an arm and a leg. We couldn't remember which company we booked with last year and when I stumbled upon California Winery Shuttle & Tour it was the cheapest so I booked it. Usually you get what you pay for but that wasn't the case. Shawn was punctual and professional. When he arrived we immediately recognized him from last year. We got the same driver. It was meant to be.
He's quite entertaining. He also took us to a couple other wineries (not scheduled) because we had more time. Half of our group ended up talking to Shawn outside the tasting room rather than taste wine (and these people love wine). I was shocked!
In all seriousness, if you're looking for affordable transportation while you visit wine country book California Winery Shuttle & Tour. -
Review from Natalia T.
San Francisco, CA
5/4/2011
We used California Winery Shuttle & Tour for our day out in Sonoma recently and we had a really terrible experience.
1. Our driver Shawn was at least 30 minutes late... He acknowledged that he was late and he apologized...so we let it go, sort of. MINUS 1
He also told us that he'll make it up to us by staying longer. SORT OF PLUS 1.
2. Once we got to the shuttle, another driver called my husband's cell phone letting us know that she has arrived to pick us up. This confused us since we were already on our way to the first winery in the shuttle. She then settled it with our driver and turned out she was in Napa picking up another group but got our number mixed up. To summarize this, the company is just simply disorganized. MINUS 2
3. We asked Shawn if we have cheese and crackers in the shuttle as per the contract. He told us since he was late he did not get a chance to stop by to get us some cheese and crackers. MINUS 3
4. We told him our plan and let him know that we wanted to go to Buena Vista winery for our first stop. He said sure! So he put Buena Vista in his iPhone GPS WHILE DRIVING AND SWERVING TO THE OTHER LANE. MINUS 4.
5. At a stop light, we saw a road sign indicating Buena Vista was in the direction opposite to where we were going, so we had to call it out. He simply said, yeah I saw that too but my GPS told me to go this way...MINUS 5.
6. We had to turn around for at least 1 mile to get to the right place, again WHILE SWERVING AND CUT PEOPLE OFF AT STOP SIGN. MINUS 6
7. Same as item #5, we had asked to go to the Mayo Winery and again he got lost and had to turn around AFTER WE ALL SAW THE ROAD SIGN indicating Mayo was in the opposite direction. MINUS 7
8. After we asked him to stop at a deli for lunch, he finally bought us some cheese and crackers PLUS SOME MANGO. We THOUGHT this was a plus and he was trying to make it up to us, so we accepted with joyful heart. PLUS 2.
9. The trip after this went pretty well. We had a game plan after lunch just to tell him exactly where we wanted to go, ignored all of his recommendations, and gave him a frickin' map!
MIND YOU, ALL OF THESE TIMES WE WERE UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT HE'S TRYING TO MAKE IT UP TO US.
10. As we were about to head back to our B&B, he came up to us and suggested another winery with really great wine. We were like SURE, GREAT, YOU'RE AWESOME SHAWN. PLUS 3
11. We had a dinner reservation to catch and so we told him we really had to go now. He said WHY DON'T I DROP YOU GUYS OFF AT THE RESTAURANT OFF THE CLOCK, NO CHARGE.
We were like YOU'RE SO AWESOME SHAWN, YOU REALLY MADE IT UP TO US. PLUS 4
12. Back at our B&B, he called my friend up to "settle the bill," and we thought this was just to acknowledge we did the tour, sign it and go.
NOPE! He had the balls to charge us an EXTRA $180 because we went over time. MINUS 8, 9, 10 - 100!
HE ALSO APOLOGIZED TO US THAT HE DIDN'T HAVE THE TIME TO GO OVER THE CONTRACT IN THE BEGINNING OF THE TRIP BECAUSE...YES, HE WAS LATE!!!
HE NEVER REMINDED US DURING THE TRIP THAT "HEY GUYS, AFTER 4PM, IT'LL BE OVERCHARGE YOU KNOW" NOPE!!
HE EVEN SUGGESTED US TO GO TO THE EXTRA WINERY AND US NOT KNOWING THAT WOULD COST US $$$.
BUT NOOO...THIS IS ALL OUR FAULT BECAUSE IT SAID SO IN THE CONTRACT. HOW THE HELL WOULD WE REMEMBER A CONTRACT WE SIGNED FEW MONTHS BACK, HIM NOT GOING OVER THE CONTRACT IN THE BEGINNING OF THE TRIP, AND WE WERE UNDER THE IMPRESSION HE WAS MAKING THIS UP TO US FOR HIM BEING LATE AND GETTING LOST A FEW TIMES.
OVERALL: BAD TERRIBLE HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE...
THE POSITIVE THING: WE HAD A REALLY GREAT DINNER AT CAFE LA HAYE. YEAH, NOTHING TO DO W/ THE SHUTTLE OR THE DRIVER!
NOT RECOMMENDED! -
Review from Amanda B.
San Jose, CA
5/5/2011
I would NOT recommend hiring this company as a shuttle for a wine tour in Sonoma.
Here are a few things that happened during our shuttle tour around some wineries after my friends and I hired this unprofessional and unethical company:
*Arrived late = Driver (Sean or Shawn) arrived at least 30 mins late (when we called to find out where the driver was, we were asked if we wanted the driver's cell number so we could contact them ourselves!)
*Snacks not provided = Did not have cheese and crackers provided at time of the tour. He bought them when we stopped for lunch 3 hours later after I complained.
*Got lost = Driver twice passed by a winery and had to back track a few miles each time
*Bad driving = Driver was driving reckless by running stop signs, cutting people off on the roads and talking on his cell phone (not hands free! which as a Court employee I know is a $159 fine)
*Skipped planned wineries = Every time we stopped at a winery we would go over the next planned stop and tried even giving the driver 2 maps with the wineries we wanted to see circled. Yet we missed 3 wineries we wanted to go to and he took us to 2 he felt we should go to.
*Charged us overtime with no warning = Driver said he would make up being late by staying later. So when we were ready to be taken to our B&B, and the driver suggested one last winery we thought he was just being nice and trying to make up for all the problems we were having.. nope.. after we got back to the B&B he wanted us to sign off on the additional fees for overtime!
This was supposed to be the highlight of our trip, the whole reason to come to "wine country" to drink wine, have fun and be in good company. Unfortunately due to this companies ethics our trip was stressful, negative and left a bad taste in our mouths.
Please be advised and shop around for another shuttle service. -
Review from Pam H.
Canoga Park, CA
9/20/2011
Avoid at all costs! We booked a 9:30am pickup in Napa for a 10am tasting at a "reservation only" winery. By 10:30am our driver STILL had not arrived to pick us up, citing confusion over the reservation and causing us to forfeit a deposit for our winery tour. I literally called them 10 times as we waited and was told "the driver is 5 minutes away." My confirmation email clearly stated the pick up time and address so no idea what the confusion could have been. We ended up canceling the entire day of wine tasting and choosing another car service for the following day, which was fantastic.
Extremely disappointed in such an unprofessional organization and could never recommend this agency in good conscience. -
Review from David R.
San Francisco, CA
5/31/2010
We had a great day with Bobby! This was our first wine tour in Napa Valley, so I was a bit worried that we'd just end up in the cheesy tourist spots and at the giant wineries of the area. Instead, Bobby really listened to what we were interested in and was constantly working with the various wineries to find openings and cool spots to check out on the fly.
All of the basics were covered:
-Prompt pick up
-Clean car
-Nice driver/guide
-Comfortable ride
-Great winery picks -
Review from Alexis I.
Davis, CA
5/4/2011
I'm going to try to keep this short & not-so-sweet: our driver was late (and so didn't go over contract with us, which would've saved most of this trouble; even he admitted this), unprepared for our wine-tasting requests made months ago, missed stops, didn't bring the cheese & crackers as were supposed to be supplied (he did, admittedly, pick them up while we were having lunch), confirmed a certain route then went elsewhere, and insisted we go to one more tasting room after we were done (& tried to charge for this extra time!). He also said he'd make up for his mistakes because he "liked us," implying that any time over would be off the clock.
When I called to complain about the service and additional charges for overtime, the company, yes, refunded some money but never apologized. They also claimed things were on the contract that were not and didn't return my first call when they said they would-- I had to call back. I'm also pretty sure I spoke with our driver, acting as manager (?), which to me was a total conflict of interest.
Overall, the trip was stressful and frustrating-- the exact opposite reason we paid all that money for a shuttle to begin with. While our driver, Sean, was friendly and did try to make up for some mistakes, we were still utterly disappointed. Thank god we had wine. And next time, we'll probably pay a little more and go through a more reputable company more familiar with the area so we can completely enjoy ourselves.
