Santa Maria Valley Wine Trolley unveiled

The Santa Maria Valley Wine Trolley is a joint venture between the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce and the City of Santa Maria.

The goal is to attract visitors staying in Santa Maria-area hotels and motels, as well as local residents, to come to downtown on Saturday or Sunday morning, get on a custom-designed bus and explore the Santa Maria Valley wine country and then return to downtown at the end of the day.

“We want them to be in the city where they can eat in our restaurants, stay in our hotels, shop in our stores”, says Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce CEO Glenn Morris, “we’re always looking for ways to kind of shorten the distance if you will between those two components, and the trolley seems liked a great way to kind of start doing that.”

The round-trip trolley excursions will operate initially on weekends only between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

“I think its great”, says Cameron Porter with Presgu’ile Winery in the Santa Maria Valley which is one of the stops on the wine trolley route, “they’re bringing more guests from downtown Santa Maria to experience the wine country, and really get the full Santa Maria Valley experience.”

The cost per person, not including wine tasting or food, is $10 in advance or $18 when purchasing tickets at te trolley stops.

“There’s a beautiful wine country here, its a little bit off the beaten path”, says Fred Swan who was one of the invited guests for the debut of the Wine Trolley, “for people who are downtown staying in hotels or shopping, they may not know how to find it, they may not want to deal with the drive, the trolley is a great way to get out and explore.”

The 28-passenger Wine Trolley will originate at 11:00am Saturday and Sunday morning at Town Center West in downtown Santa Maria and will finish at about 7:00pm.

For more information on the new Wine Trolley service visit the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce and VCB website.