I was really looking forward to this excursion having booked it several months ago but it was a great disappointment and my friend and I agreed that we had paid far too much for a fairly mediocre day. The trolley itself was great and I enjoyed seeing some of the wineries more distant from the town but I felt that the cost was far too high. We paid $99 each but by the time you added in the costs for the wine tastings at the 4 wineries we visited, the total expenditure was $150 each and, of course, in the usual American way, we were also expected to tip the driver and were told that the usual sum would be between 15 and 20%! Our driver certainly didn't deserve a tip of $20 from each of us. He wasn't particularly informative. He told us a bit about the process of making wine at the first place we stopped at but at the other 3 he just dropped us off, left us to pay up for the tasting and then left us to it. I was not at all impressed but of course, we tipped him anyway because we know that is what is expected in the US.
When we booked this excursion, I thought the cost seemed high particularly in comparison with the Franschhoek Wine Trolley trip we did in South Africa last year but the Sonoma trip was supposed to include a "gourmet" picnic. What we actually had was 2 sandwiches each, a spoonful of pasta salad and potato salad, a cookie or brownie and a bottle of water. Not my idea of a Gourmet lunch!
I really can't recommend this trip. Sonoma is lovely and some of the wineries are well worth a visit but this trip is a good example of how the visitors are being expected to pay top dollar and getting very little in return.