RachelZoeTravels
Jul 2022
I bought the Cable Car Wine Tour for my fiancee for Christmas, and we finally had time to book in July 2022. We stayed at the Hampton Inn and Suites; it's one of several hotel locations where you can get picked up and dropped off for the tour. This was great because we didn't have to worry about navigating, parking or having one of us be a designated driver.
We thought the whole experience was really fun and relaxing, and it was great to have three different experiences. We went to three wineries (Callaway, Maurice Carrie and Somerset) and there was an abundance of wine for everyone to drink.
At the start of the tour, we had "welcome wine" and a nice big sandwich, and we also had drink tickets for 6 tastings per winery, PLUS many of the wineries gave extra pours and/or very generous pours. There is no need to "pre-game" for this tour as you'll have plenty to drink at the wineries; I actually only had one small taste at the third winery because I was done drinking at that point.
I'd read the "fine print" about people getting sick at the wineries or on the trolley and didn't think it would really happen but someone on our tour did get sick. Luckily, the host was prepared and told everyone not to feel embarrassed about it and to just let him know if you need a bag. We had a birthday party on our group but no one was super crazy; everyone was just having a good time.
Our guide was Ryan, who is also the owner of the company, and he taught us a couple of things about wine tasting that we didn't know. Our trolley was driven by LaTonya, who did an excellent job safely getting us to the wineries. My favorite part of the drives between wineries was "Cable Car Karaoke" when Ryan played popular songs and we all got to sing along.
My tips:
-No need to pre-game.
-There's plenty of wine to drink. If you don't like a tasting, you can just pour it out and get a new one.
-Don't wear a hat, it will probably blow right off on the trolley.
-If you have long hair, bring a hair tie in case you want to pull your hair back. It is windy on the trolley.
-Enjoy the moment, you will have a different experience at each winery.
-Lots of good photo opps at each winery.
-There are free chips (salt) and cold bottled water on the trolley. Stay hydrated!
-After a day of drinking, dancing, being in the sun, and being in the trolley, we were tired and happy to just spent the rest of the night in an air-conditioned hotel room.
-The day after, we went down to Old Town Temecula, which is very close to the Hampton Inn and Suites. We had a good breakfast and went shopping at the little boutiques, which was a fun way to wrap up the weekend.