Brewen’s Empire Trolley

Cannot beat the trolley tours! Our driver, Lisa, knows her way around the Temecula Valley Wine Country! Went on the Valentine’s Day tour. Lisa was personable and entertaining on a very busy day. The only snafu was lunch at South Coast Winery which was caused by a kitchen accident forcing an hour wait for our food and having to get them to go.
Due to the nature of my lunch– Artisan Grilled Cheese and tomato soup, I had to toss it out. Gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches do not sit in styrofoam boxes well and quickly transform into mud! And I was provided with only a knife and fork to eat soup! But no fault of the tour which was delightful!
Fortunately, at our last stop, Frangipani offered unlimited crackers when they saw the condition of my lunch. Despite crowds at the four tasting rooms at Hart, Inn at Churon, Baily and Frangipani, we got to taste a lot of wines comfortably.

Highly recommend this tour! If you are looking for a great experience you need to check them out! Great rates and you and your guests will be happy!

I used this trolley company for transportation for our wedding guests this last weekend. I had called Amy around Christmas and caught her in the holiday spirit where she gave me a 40% off discount! We used two trolleys before the wedding and three after to help ensure that our guests could drink as much as they wanted without having to worry about driving. What’s great about their service is you can book them by the hour where other transportation services force you into hour minimums usually like 6 – 8!
All of our out of town guests loved the novelty of the trolleys!!! I never actually took them, but it sounds like the drivers were nice, accommodating, and timely. Bonus: they allow guests to have beer and wine roadies! :)
I give them 4 stars for the service I received, however they would have been too pricey if I hadn’t received the discount.
Also, side note: one of my guest got sick on the trolley home. :(I had to pay a stiff $ 175 for the clean up. I understand a clean up fee, but $ 175 for basically wiping down the wood seats and rubber floors was a little much.

We had a great time on the trolley tour. Our hostess, Cheryl, was outstanding. Also, there was a mix-​up with our reservation and the business handled it beautifully so we didn’t miss out on anything! We felt like a welcome guest from the minutes we got onto the bus and enjoyed the entire outing. The wineries were excellent as was the tour’s customer service. I highly recommend this company.

Brewen’s Empire Trolley has been conducting winery and brewery tours in the Temecula Valley for more than five years now. Owner Amy Brewen knows all the major players and sees to it that your day is a memorable one. In the past month I’ve taken the Premium Wine Excursion and Best of Both Worlds tours and had a blast on both. The trolleys are clean and prompt, the drivers are courteous and the stops are great. Highly recommended.

HORRIBLE!
Absolutely the worst service and customer attitude by the owner of a small company that we have EVER met!
Prices were jacked up (after the fact) American Express bills disputed, phone calls not returned and services not rendered!
It is beyond my comprehension how this lady stays in business! I can only surmise the positive reviews are from friends or relatives. Trolly was late, driver really didn’t know ANYTHING about wines or beer (was supposed to provide insight into local winery and beer industry) (but he was nice) and even he had nothing positive to say about the company. Do yourself a huge favor and run (don’t walk) as far away from this company as you can!

NEVER NEVER NEVER use this trolley service. The owner is rude, crooked and unprofessional and accused me of trying to get one over on her when she never had a signed contract with me and never told me I cannot cancel 6 weeks out. She kept my money and refuses to return it. I disputed it with AmEx and she issued a charge back. A new bride looking to start her life and she keeps $ 450 for trolley service she never provided!!! This lady is in the wrong business.
She tried to tell me if I cancelled my first hour of service, that I would be taking food off the table of her driver and wanted to know if I was ok with that «businesswoman to businesswoman» — can you believe that ! In my opinion, this is simply the most shameful conduct I have ever encountered from a small business.
After her agreeing that she had no contract with me, we finally resolved for me to have one hour of trolley service after the wedding at the agreed rate of $ 225. She promised one hour credit and then when I got the contract it said $ 375 per hour plus $ 75 service fee = $ 450. I wrote on the bottom before signing «credit to Am Ex $ 225 due» and signed. She then text me at 12pm on my wedding day, knowing it was the middle of my time getting ready (had she been reasonable we would have agreed to the 225 for the first hour to pick my girls up and take us to winery and the hour after the wedding — but she was not so we settled on the one hour after… and she tries to charge me double) saying no credit was due, but the first hour is cancelled (so I paid twice what I had previously agreed to pay???)
So now I am back from my honeymoon, starting my new life and I have to deal with this negativity from Brewen’s Empire Trolly, which really taints all the joy the day brought. This owner is plain out mean. Please do not ever use her services.
Update: the owner’s response is untrue and American Express did issue a chargeback.

What a great time the Sheiksters had on Saturday as we filled the Trolley Merlot with my Hollywood High School Alumni Group, the Sheiksters — and we proudly declare that we are not old — just recycled teenagers representing the different classes of 1970 – 74!
Our driver, Lisa, was a lot of fun and very accommodating, arriving exactly on time. She took lots of pictures for us and came equipped with an ice chest full of bottle water that lasted the day — not to mention our complimentary champagne toast to kick off the day. Yes, we had fun.
It was not without a little bit of work on organizing the event. I personally hand picked the wineries, wanting to stay away from the ‘big boys’ and focus on some of the smaller tasting rooms. In the last few days, there were some proposed changes based on circumstances beyond anyone’s control. Brewen’s Empire Trolley was once again very accommodating working through the changes and making our event a memorable and stress free day.
Highly recommended to any organizer of any event.
SIDEBAR: Ellie and I enjoyed ourselves so much, we decided this just might be a great way to wine taste in the future — it was our first experience in a group tour setting. Again, very highly recommended!

NO NOT USE THIS HORRIBLE TROLLY SERVICE!
I took a groupon deal for a brew tour a while ago. I should have known better than to purchase a groupon deal for something like. I guess the saying «You always get what you pay for» holds true in this case.
First of all they were extremely difficult to get a hold of. Finally got a hold of them to schedule the tour. The driver was over 30 minutes late. We thought they were never going to show up. Then we get picked up in a Trolly that looks fine but when you are inside it is very uncomfortable with NO AIR CONDITIONING!!! It was very hot outside this day and even hotter in the trolly.
The other absurd thing was were were stuck with what seemed like 20 or so other strangers and we were all squished in there.
The driver was nice enough but we were told we were going to have a tour guide that would explain beer and engage with us. Being a home brewer myself I wanted to ask some questions but the driver was just that. He was good at driving but had absolutely no knowledge about beer whatsoever.
The entire experience was completely unorganized and felt rushed. We received no inside knowledge, no interaction, just a horrible and hot ride. I would have rather gotten a taxi!!!
I anyone was thinking about using this service you should think again.
My friends hired a different brewery tour service a few weeks ago called brewery tours of temecula. It was a little bit more as it wasn’t on grouponbut was WAAAYYYY worth it compared to this one!
I am glad to see a lot of other bad reviews on this Unilocal page. It appears many others have had bad experiences as well!
Never again will I use the brewins trolly service!

I wish I could give this place 0 starts. 3 others and I went wine tasting on my birthday hoping to have a great experience. But the trolley was a late pick up. They overbooked the trolley leaving people sanding the whole time during the tour. The lunch was an insanely small portion of food. All the wineries were over-​crowded leaving us unable to use our tasting tickets. We talked to the extremely nice and understanding trolley driver, and after he spoke with the company, they said they would give us 4 a complementary tour on another date. We were very thankful and had a friend pick us up before the tour was over so other’s would have seats. THE WORST PART IS… they would not honor their word on the complementary tour. Biggest rip off of my life! AVOID BREWEN’S! There are many other reputable and enjoyable tours of the Temecula wineries.

Last week we went to Temecula ~ wine tasting with Brewen’s Infinity Experiences. It was on the open air trolley & with about 10 other guests that we didn’t know before the tour. We had the BEST time. Our driver/​host, Calvin, was so much fun. He was teased, unmercifully, but took it well. I would recommend this tour, over driving ~ any day.

BUYER BEWARE!
We used this service for wedding transportation. The transportation itself was fine, I haven’t heard any complaints from guests and as far as I know it was on time. However, they ran a completely unauthorized charge on my credit card a few days before the wedding, and on top of that overcharged my full balance by an hour. I have called multiple times and left multiple messages. Every time they say someone will call me back that day and it hasn’t happened over two weeks later. Thankfully I paid with an American Express card, who have suspended the charges and will be taking over the investigation for me. DO NOT give them your card numbers over the phone since they apparently just use them at their leisure.

This company doesn’t even deserve a 1 star. Do not waste your time with this company. They forgot to pick us up and after over an hour waiting, they tried to cover it up by lying stating they came and we weren’t there. We demanded our $$ back and the owner whom was rude and had zero customer service skills flat out said no! She argued with us and instead of doing the right thing which would of been an apology and perhaps offer us a comp for a future coupon just gave us attitude and hung up on us. Never in all my years, experiencing tours have we ever been mistreated with
unprofessionalism. This company only cares about your $$ NOT THEIR CUSTOMERS.

I organized a bachelorette party for 9 ladies on Brewen’s «Setting the Standard» wine tour last Saturday afternoon. Each girl bought a groupon ($ 59) and sent me her groupon code, then I organized from there. It worked well, if you’re thinking about it.
The good:
With the groupon, the price was right and the service was good. I spent a lot of time emailing the people running the tour trying to get all of the details organized (who wants chicken/​beef/​veggie lunch, etc.) and they were nothing but helpful and understanding of my challenges. They even sent me an itinerary in advance when I requested it.
Everything seemed to run in a well-​organized fashion. We had 2 pick up locations, then were off to the wineries. Our driver, Calvin, was committed to making sure we had fun. He blasted hip-​hop at passenger request, he took photos at every stop, etc.
Six tastes at each stop was ample, and you can bring your own wine on the trolley, which some people did quite liberally (by 2pm it was mostly a party bus of 20-​something women)
The bad (ish):
Lunch was not too impressive, a warm sandwich at the second winery. Mayonnaise in the sunshine is not a good idea. But, it was a free lunch…
We didn’t really have enough time at the second winery (of 3) after lunch to get all of our tastings in. To be fair, this wasn’t really Brewen’s fault, it was Lorimar winery, who had one person pouring for 30 guests and their wine club members. But given this, I would have preferred 60 min at each location to 45 so we could get our tastes in.
The bottom line:
We had an awesome time and didn’t break the bank. I’d do this again without a doubt for a special occasion with any sized group! What I would have liked to know:
1) Put wine in your purse for the trolley ride
2) Bring water, temecula is hot, the trolley is open air, you’ll be drinking
3) Power through your tastings if you want to have time to do them all

ROLLIN’ GOOD TIME!
Just wanted to let you all know that we had an AMAZING time last Saturday!
Brewery choices were great and the food at BullDog (bacon-​wrapped-​cheesy jalapenos baby!) was such a better option than the hotdogs we were expecting.
Espresso Stout at Aftershock Brewery=Dark Rain Drops of Heavenly Goodness! And Mystique at Refuge should come with a disclaimer_“for erections lasting more that four hours please see your Doctor or drink a Coors Light.“
In the original tour description we were supposed to get a behind-​the-​scenes tour of one of the breweries but we didn’t miss that at all. To tell you the truth, you’d probably need to tack on another hour to the tour and personally, I think we all were more into the deliciousness of consumption rather than the toil of production :)
Jim the trolley man, was cool and mild-​mannered when wrangling us all together. He was personable, affable and lastly, Dadable. What do I mean by that? Soon we were referring to Jim as more than just a driver, he was like a father figure. (ie. «Ok, Dad, see you in an hour when you come back to pick us up!»). We all wished he could’ve been throwing a few back with the rest of us «tasters» as we all became instant friends.
Thanks again to you and the Brewen’s gang for helping make a very memorable Father’s Day outing for me and my wolfpack!
All the best,
Steve
(all endorsements have been unsolicited but you can pay me in growlers later)

We bought a Travelzoo voucher for this experience so I will start off by saying this… for the $ 59 we spent, this was a good deal. We had a great time hanging out with the girls (13 of us) and «tasting» wine. To be honest though, that’s the most redeeming feature of this whole experience.
Hotel pick up was awesome… and would be even better if it had been on time. Our pick up was for 10:45. Three trolleys came by the hotel and we were told by the first 2, you’re not on this one. So by the time our trolley showed up, it was 11. I second what another reviewer said that it sucks then driving around picking up other tasters and waiting for no-​shows. We had 1 more pickup after they got us and we waited 10 minutes for a bunch of people in their party that weren’t there. That’s annoying when you’re already 15 minutes late.
Onto the wineries… our tour included Bel Vino (fantastic), Churon (lovely), Falkner (not a fan at all) and Lorimar (decent). At the first one, our trolley broke down. So we had to wait 15 minutes for another trolley to come get us and take us to Churon where we had lunch. We were supposed to be at Churon at 12:30 for lunch, we didn’t get picked up till 12:30. When we got to Churon, our lunch wasn’t even ready so we tasted first. Our lunch wasn’t ready until 1:15! That’s ridiculous. Our trolley was fixed quickly so when we left Churon, we were back on our original trolley but now at least 30 min behind schedule.
The communication from the driver was horrible. With the exception of telling us at 2 wineries how long we had to taste, there wasn’t much he communicated. We walked into most of the wineries not knowing how to go about getting our tasting tickets and glasses. He did eventually show up to help out but there was more time wated. By the time we got to the last winery, our driver, William, informed us that because we were behind schedule «you have 30 minutes at this winery and then you need to be back on the bus. I guarantee you will not have enough time to finish your tastings here.» This comment sent the whole trolley into an uproar wondering why we were being docked time because of the trolley breaking and lunch not being ready.
Our party ended up getting off at the first stop as they dropped people off and asked our rides to pick us up there because we were over the trolley experience. So, all in all, it was a good deal. I would definitely do another experience like this. But with so many tour companies in Temecula to choose from, I would neither recommend this company nor go back again. I would just find a better one.

Fun day of wine-​tasting in Temecula, with some fits & starts.
Hotel pickup is great. Driving around for an hour picking up other tasters (with some waiting in parking lots for ‘no-​shows’), not so great.
Wineries selected were all of the «tour-​bus dropoff» variety — no stunning standouts amongst the wineries featured, but of-​course, I don’t know enough about what’s really great in the region & ultimately what people love is a personal choice that differs for us all.
Our driver was a lovely fellow, but not terribly knowledgable about the region, its wines, its history or what makes these wineries distinctive. I’d like to know a little more of that information, given how much time was spent driving around.
Italian restaurant lunch included was OK. Be prepared to pay for drinks.
Two «hiccups» from this experience:
First, apparrently the company runs 3 trolleys & the driver of one of them misplaced the keys to his, so our group was dropped at one winery for an extended stretch while our driver shuttled the «dead» trolley’s passengers to another winery. Not a big deal, it was a pretty winery, but it put a bit of a drag on the day. Providing additional tasting vouchers to the stranded passengers would have helped.
Second, the driver of our trolley had a nasty habit of cranking the pop-​station radio so his telephone calls to the office wouldn’t be overheard or disruptive to the passengers. A nice idea, but each time he did it, he simply cranked up 10-​minute stretches of mind-​numbing radio commercials that sucked the fun out of our drive times. I don’t think he meant any harm, he just didn’t notice. A better alternative would be a commercial-​free soundtrack that plays during drive times or perhaps a satellite radio player…
All in all, it was a fun day, where we met some really nice people and tasted some decent wines.

Best. Day. Ever!
I would without reservation recommend Brewen’s to anyone looking for a splendid day winetasting in Temecula. I worked with Kristy and Kim to book my party, and they were super communicative and prompt getting back to my friends and me. They were also very accommodating when I had to change the date of the tour (we told them well enough in advance!). They asked us over the phone what varietals we liked, and they took that into consideration when choosing the wineries for the tour. My friends were all able to call and book their reservations on their own, which made it a lot easier for me to organize the party.
Our tour took us to four wineries. The driver was very friendly and knowledgeable. My friends and I didn’t stay overnight, so he picked us up at the Civic Center in Old Town Temecula at 10:30. Since we went in December, we kept the trolley window covering on and were comfortable. (The temperature was in the mid-​60s, which actually was perfect weather for an outing like this.)
We had lunch at an Italian restaurant after the first winery. We had a choice of chicken piccata, a salad with steak (I think), and ravioli. The food was good, the portion sizes were perfect — not huge but just enough, and the waiters were very nice. My friends and I liked all the wineries — four is plenty! — and each winery was beautiful and picturesque.
It was a memorable day that I will not soon forget. I will definitely do this again! Thanks, Brewen’s!

So much fun!
My fiancé and friends booked this for my 29^th birthday. We stayed at Pala casino where the trolley picked us up. We visited 4 wineries, all we’re really nice, the food that was provided was delicious! I got the tri tip sandwich. Our driver was super nice! The best thing was we didn’t have to drive at all, which is always great when wine tasting.
I am definitely going to use Brewen’s empire again.

A group of about 20 of us took the Valley Trolley tour for our girlfriend’s 40^th birthday. We had a GREAT time! The tour picks you up at your hotel at 10:45, then takes you to four wineries.
After the third winery you get a really good lunch. I was surprised at how good this sandwich was. The bread was incredible. We ate at the Bella Vista winery where they have picnic tables overlooking the valley and a pond is right next to you. Beautiful!
The trolley is open air. I would sit up front if you don’t want to be windblown. They pull up the plastic covering and the entire back of the trolley becomes a wind tunnel.
Our tour guide was a nice older gentleman that had a wide knowledge of the wineries.
At the end of the tour we all grabbed our glasses and bottles of wine that we purchased and stumbled happily out of the trolley. I would totally take the Valley Trolley again! It had good food, good drinks and you bring the good friends… perfect combination for a good ‘olé time!