In 2021 my friend and I took this tour and loved it so we booked another trip and brought along our boyfriends this time. First year we stayed in Santa Barbara and the whole experience was great! Sunny went above and beyond to get us lunch, take a detour to do olive oil tasting, and have some input on wineries visited. 5+ stars! We told our boyfriends we hoped we’d get Sunny again because she was so great. This year we did get Sunny again and it was still good but didn’t compare to the previous trip. If it was our first trip my rating would be 3 stars. I’m giving 4 because of last year.
This trip we stayed in Solvang and expected a later pickup which we found out would be at 11:40, but we didn’t get picked up until 12:10. We had no input on wineries and lunch (if you want to try specific places you should request when booking). Disappointing because we wanted to try new places and it was basically a repeat of last year. It was New Years Day so a lot of that was probably holiday related. We also didn’t get the region/winery explanation like last year but we chalked it up to a shorter drive from pickup to first winery. The other couple on the bus decided to not continue the tour and asked to be left at the first winery. Not Sunny’s fault, but was unfortunate because we were picked up late because of that couple. They messed up our timeline then left. The rest of the day felt rushed trying to make up the time. Additionally, stop 2 had a long food/lunch. Luckily our boyfriends didn’t do tastings because they wouldn’t have had time after waiting in line.
From pickup to drop off was 5 hours. Since our hotel was in Solvang and no flexibility on wineries or time for regional education, we all agreed we should’ve skipped the trip and drove ourselves. It just wasn’t worth the money this time. A little disappointed but not completely the company or Sunny’s fault. If staying in Santa Barbara this is definitely the way to go for a wine tour, though!