Two trolleys will soon be cruising along the Naramata Bench. Starting this weekend, Grape Savvy Wine Tours will be providing the first, in the Okanagan Valley, hop-on-hop-off ride service.
Trolley tours will run on a predetermined route from Penticton to Naramata. So far, there are 12 pick-up points including Township 7 Vineyards, Da Silva VineYards and Maple Leaf Spirits.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to be a pioneer in Okanagan tourism and really bring forth a new generation of wine tours onto the Naramata Bench,” said Grape Savvy Trolley Co. owner and operator Savannah Swaisland.
“There has been an overwhelming amount of support from the Naramata Bench winery community as well as the cideries and breweries in town. I think this is a really great way post-COVID to allow people to have a more discretionary income when it comes to actually supporting the industry.”
Swaisland has been in the wine industry for almost a decade but felt the Okanagan Valley lacked affordable tour options.
“Grape Savvy Trolley Co. is aimed to be just that. An affordable way for people to be transported to the most incredible wineries, landscapes and views of Naramata in the most convenient way possible,” she added.
To keep with the theme of convenience, the new service will use an online web app integration system. The system will host all ticket sales and will track the trolleys.
“In the web app there is a live map feed when you purchase your ticket so that you can see where the trolleys are and what the seat capacity is, so no one is waiting,” said Swaisland.
The company is launching with two trolleys purchased from the Vancouver Trolley Company and has bought three more for additional routes that will be announced later.
“One thing that was really important to me, because I am born and raised in Vancouver which is actually where I acquired these trolleys,was keeping the nostalgic feel of these buses,” said Swaisland.
Grape Savvy Trolley Co. had a soft launch last weekend and Swaisland says the support was overwhelming.
However, it hasn’t all been a smooth ride so far as just before the soft launch a suspicious fire damaged one of the trolleys.
“We had a crazy time getting these up and running. There was a suspicious fire lit Friday night which caused a substantial amount of damage to one of the buses — the community really came together to fix this,” she added.
Public tours are set to roll out on Saturday and booking and more information are available on the Trolley Co. website.