Temecula Wine Country Tours

This was my second time riding with them and I Loved it both times! Diana and Lisa honored our coupon even after it would expire because the schedule was booked! Call them directly for their specials!
They are a horse rescue organization. The guide shared a couple stories when asked about the horses.
Riding was awesome with tolerance for a little jogging and light trotting. Horses were suited to the riding ability of each rider.
The trails are safe and scenic. I do recommend that you plan to make reservations 5 – 6 months in advance as they are very popular and booked out that far.
The wine tasting was crowded but fun and the selection was good. Lunch is a bit pricey, but again worth the cost.
I highly recommend making a day if it and enjoying the fresh air, fun ride and a bit if wine and lunch!
Thank you for a great time, I will be back!

This company deserves NO STARS, but Unilocal is kind enough to dish out 1 star for even the worst of the bunch… so they get 1, by default. Not because they deserve it. Where do you start? They don’t return your calls and emails. They cancel on your appointments. They make up reasons for cancelling your tour. They have many many excuses for NOT providing the services they charged you far.
I purchased my two unused vouchers via Living Social last year and have been unable to redeem them to this day due to the reasons stated above. I’m sure reading the other Unilocal reviews is of some indication of the caliber and integrity of this company.
I’ve complained to the BBB and there’s been no reply by Temecula Wine Country Tours so the case has been closed, but my complaint has been duly noted.
I’ve left numerous messages and emails requesting a refund for the services that have not yet been provided. Of course, there’s no response.
IF YOU PURCHASED A DEAL FROM GROUPON, LIVING SOCIAL, BLOOMSPOT, etc. GET YOUR MONEY BACK NOW!

STILL NEGETIVE! So They said the’d honor my certificate due to cancelations. This is the 2^nd cacleations passed the expiration date. 4^th Cancelation all together. I get a text saying the tour has been canceleed due to weather. 75 Degrees and Sunny says
for Temecula for the day. No chance of rain at all. These guy s are crooks!
I had to complaine to the BBB about them. I couldn’t find them because they were not listed. The groupon website is what I complained. They promptly refunded my money. AVOID THIS COMPANY !!

If I could select zero stars, I would have. These people are horrible!!! DON’T USE THEM, use Destination Temecula instead.
My friends and I purchased a discount coupon from Zozi and followed the booking instructions. Per this tour company, they wanted us to email the reservation to them. We booked a month ahead of time and they told us that we were confirmed for our tour but call the day before to confirm again. We called and the man that answered the phone (Joe) had no record of us booking our tour and told us to call the driver named Jeff and discuss with him. We called Jeff and he had no record of us confirming and proceeded to tell us that Joe always «dumps people on him» and that Joe has not paid him in months. We were shocked!
After going around in circles with the driver Jeff, he finally told us that he could squeeze us in and we should meet him at a different winery than he had previously told us. We tried to call Joe back several times and all we got was a prerecorded answering machine that said if we had a tour scheduled for Saturday, then it is confirmed. We left Joe several messages and we still have not received a call back.
We were so upset and disgusted with company that we called Jeff and cancelled the tour. When we called him he answered the phone «this is Scott» and when we asked for Jeff, she said «oh yea, this is Jeff». He was shocked that we were cancelling the tour with him.
I immediately started looking for other tour companies since we already had a hotel room for the night. This was a Friday and we had planned on going on the tour on Saturday. I called Destination Temeclua from a recommendation and it was an amazing experience from the moment that Dave answered the phone. Overall, we had an amazing tour with Destination Temeclua, I highly recommend them!!!
DON’T USE THIS TOUR COMPANY!!!
**please note, Zozi gave us our money back and a nice credit with no questions asked. Apparently, they got several more complaints regarding this company.

Just like everyone else’s negative reviews:
If there was an option to select ZERO stars. this would be it. Purchased a voucher through living social over 6 months ago. Our group had scheduled with Joe a couple of times but was never a success. Our schedule was always postponed due to «weather condition is not good for the horse» or «there is no opening». Til’ now we are still unable to schedule. To top it off, we cannot get a hold of anyone nor has anyone returned our calls. I even tried to look for their website today to file a complaint but it was nowhere to be found.
I lucked out $ 188 for this SCAM deal.
— One voucher I paid $ 89 directly to livingsocial and hope to get a refund. Other voucher, $ 99, paid directly from their site.
Be careful and DO NOT fall for these deals. DO NOT be a victim.

Two friends and I bought vouches for this company via TravelZoo. We bought them in Aug 2011. We quickly realized it was almost impossible to get a hold of them. After we all tried many, many times to call them — they eventually answered saying, «hello?» (Like it was their personal cell phone rather than a professional business.)
Finally, they agreed to take us on the wine tour (three wineries and lunch at one location.) We scheduled the tour for November 2011. A couple days before, they contacted us and said they had to cancel due to weather. (It was a sunny, lovely weekend — this is Southern California after all!)
Ok — so, again, they fell off the grid and were unable to get them on the phone. In January 2012 they finally answered again (The Voucher expired at the end of Jan.) They told us they would extend the date of the voucher into February for us, and we scheduled again for today, the 4^th of February 2012. We started to give them the benefit of the doubt again. Then, this morning at 5:55am, they sent a text to the person who had scheduled the date and cancelled again. The stated they had a «family emergency» and that we could call to reschedule. Of course, they are not answering again. Perhaps they really are having an emergency of some sort — but, it is rather odd.
I am beyond unimpressed. This is a shoddy way to run a business. I am going to find any and ALL ways to #1 get my money back and #2 let the world know NEVER to use this company in any fashion EVER.
VERY UNPROFESSIONAL!

THIS TOUR COMPANY IS A TOTAL SCAM!!! Do not spend your money, either from Travel Zoo, Living Social or with anyone else. «Joe» will ask you to call one number and that phone refers you to another number. Sometimes he answer; sometimes he doesn’t. But. EVERY TIME, he will cancel your reservation due to weather or wind.
Duh! A Hummer is a pretty rugged vehicle. As the other reviews stated, it can be perfectly sunny in Temecula and «Joe» will say the forecast is expecting high winds. I’m putting in for a refund/​credit and I would advise anyone to try one of the other wine tour companies. But, NOT THIS ONE. In fact, today, I was told that their website no longer works. Soon they will be a distant memory. But, make sure you get your money back or, better yet, don’t make a reservation in the first place. Now, I really need a glass of wine! ;) ^_^

I’ve been having the same issue in regards to calling 100 times and no one answering or returning phone calls. I ended up calling Living Social (877−521−4191) and telling them my issue and how upset I was. The customer service rep said that many people have called complaining and that their Living Social Rep can not contact the company either and that they were issuing complete refunds for vouchers purchased. I was very relieved and thought I should spread the word!

This wine tour is bullsh! t. I purchased two tickets from travelzoo. It was suppose to be a hummer ride, with lunch and a free bottle of wine. I called to make reservations in November. Called twice and no one picked up the phone or call me back. I finally tried again after Christmas and some dude picked up. I scheduled the tour for tomorrow Sunday 01÷08÷12. I just got a text from them telling me that the tour is canceled due to high winds and I should call to reschedule. I just check the weather website and the wind-​speed tomorrow will be 15mph in Temecula. How will this breeze affect the wine tour?! I already filed a complaint with travelzoo and they did nothing. I will have to call them again because this company is totally jerking us around. I will be so pissed if travelzoo does not refund my money.

For the price, you can’t beat this wine tour. It didn’t get you to the top wineries but who cares! You knew what were the popular ones. The smaller wineries were Just as good if not friendlier to guests.
This wine tour had it all. Jeff, our friendly tour driver who gave it personal service as we were picked up and dropped off at our hotel. The food was simple and delicious. The hummer jeep was comfortable and despite a 10-​person max, Jeff would drive just the two of us and got us to our next stop with personal touch. He said the day was booked but we never once rode with other people. He always called and made sure we were fine and kept us informed as to when we would be picked up. I was surprised that our hotel did not recommend them. Thanks to Unilocal,we found a great wine tour!

So we purchased the 5 hour wine tour… with hummer and lunch. i will just say that it wasnt what we thought, and it did not go on for 5 hours… we met at 11:30 and done by 3. it was not organized.
i will post a picture of the food… wasnt what we thought when it said tri tip lunch with ceasar salad. the salad isnt pictured but it was just lettuce, and dressing from the 99cent store. the groupon i had was $ 99 each person 2 vouchers and a free bottle of wine. you do not meet at the masia de yabar winery like it states either. it also stated that the hummer ride was off the beaten path literally… well its not. its down the street from each other. we were also supposed to each get a bottle of wine. well we did not, and he was like «let me call Joe» he did not tell me i have to give everyone a bottle of wine. i would not suggest this ride to anyone. you can drive to the wineries yourself. i felt they were not organized. The wineries we went to were nice and the people were nice. The picture of our food was before i had touched it or eaten any.

I had to do this — as nice as they were, I can’t let this business go without being held accountable for LYING (p.s., I’ve only ever written good reviews about people/​businesses on Unilocal).
Setting: Early September, 2010
Package: Horseback & Wine Tasting Tour for Two
Source: Groupon
So, when I first called in to ask my standard «21 questions» prior to making a purchase with a company of which I’m not overly familiar, Joe let me know I could buy my deal directly with him at the Groupon price. I’d also been reading the Groupon message boards and confirmed via Google research that the Groupon price of $ 85 or $ 89 was only $ 10-​$ 15 bucks cheaper than their normal price (and they had two different websites with two different names).
Why I’m still bothered/​concerned about our experience: After booking the package anyway because I wanted to do something really fantastic for my GIRLFRIEND’S BIRTHDAY (of which I initially informed them) that didn’t cost an arm and a leg, I received a call a few days prior to our horseback wine tasting tour telling me the horses had been acting up and that we could no longer ride the horses on that date, her birthday, and we could re-​book the wine & horse tour for three weeks out, or join the «open air Hummer» tour, which the owner said would actually be an upgrade. Sorely disappointed about the horses (since that was the driving force behind booking the tour), I agreed to join the Hummer version of the wine tasting tour so we could still celebrate her b-​day on that day. We show up, we wait and wait… Finally, about 20 minutes late, a white van shows up to take us to the first destination. Hmm… We find out from Joe, «Oh, hey, sorry guys — I know you guys were all expecting a Hummer but we couldn’t get it today, so we’re gonna take you all around in this white VAN!»
O-​M-​G. I would’ve stood up right then and there and DEMANDED a refund had it not been her birthday (and I’m not in the business of ruining significantly important days in the lives of those I’m dating). You could see everyone in the VAN looking around after the announcement too like, «huh???» I also realized near the end that neither I, nor anyone else, would be getting a bottle of wine, so I actually had to remind them of it twice. My story does differ positively there from some of the other accounts I’ve read in that they were essentially forced to pick up the bottle of wine from the last local winery we visited because I did bug them about it since it was for my wine-​adoring GF.
So, no horses, no Hummer, no honesty.
We had to make light of the situation (and obviously the alcohol helped a bit ;P), but I’d like to leave the owner and her staff with this message for their business:
Do what you say you’re going to do. Don’t ever drastically change the primary thing you’ve sold your customer on at the last minute, and if it doesn’t make financial business sense to provide a particular additional item to your customer, take it OFF your list of additional service offerings and please, just in general, review the code of business ethics. You all seemed FAR TOO NICE to make people feel like they got scammed.

I bought the Living Social deal for my boyfriend and I back in February as a V-​day gift. However, TWCT was booked for the entire month and the soonest opening they had was for this Saturday.
The staff was very friendly and accomodating. We arrived 20 minutes late however, Joe made sure we were able to get on the next horseback tour even though they were booked, back to back with appointments.
Our horseback tour was fun but on the scarier side due to the reason the horses would start galloping every so often. So we had to make a point to hold on tight to the reigns. During the first half of the tour, my keys fell out of my pocket which caused me to stress out but the horse trainer was able to find my keys for me almost immediately. On top of that, the other couple we were paired up with was very understanding and patient.
My recommendations is, if you’re a beginner rider you may not want to go on the horseback riding tour. However, if you’re ok with being aggressive to control your horse, than it’s not too bad.
After the horseback riding tour, we were picked up and dropped off at the 1^st vineyard. The wines there was average. They had a decent grenache, syrah and cabernet. However, nothing great to intrigue me to buy a bottle and take home.
After about 1.5 hours at the 1^st vineyard, we were picked up and brought back to the original vineyard. Joe had brought us to a VIP area which the staff served us faster with our wine tasting and then we were brought to a private dining area which we were served turkey sandwiches, spinach salad, chips and cookies.
The lunch could have been better, but you can’t expect a filet mignon lunch, wine and horseback ride for $ 90/​person.
Overall, the entire experience was good.

My 3 friends and I used the Living Social voucher for the 5 hour wine tour for my 28^th birthday on a Saturday in mid January. It was easily one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had.
Why is that?
1. Sweet ride.
We drove in a really unique 10-​seater Hummer/​Jeep, and that alone made my day. It was a perfectly warm, sunny day and only 2 other people joined the tour, so we had tons of room for us and our booze.
2. Awesome driver/​host dude.
I’m pretty sure our driver’s name was Jim, and he was so personable, laid back, knowledgable, and extremely accommodating. You could sense his passion for what he did, and it made the experience that much more enjoyable. He went out of his way to make this experience memorable for us.
3. Chill schedule.
Someone complained about there being no set-​in-​stone schedule. That’s dumb. We got to cruise at our own pace, and the offer even stood that if we wanted to deviate from the agenda of wineries, we could. We had the start and end time, and that was good enough for me.
4. Tasty.
All the places had great wine, views and service. Lunch mid-​way through was delish. All off the stops were off normal beaten path than that of most other tour companies. I spent a lot of money on some yummy stuff. Raspberry champagne. Garlic infused avocado oil. Wine, wine, wine. Mmm.
I recommend it to everyone, and think it would make an awesome group event for bachelorettes or retreats. Thank you, Temecula Wine Country Tours!
PS– I stayed at the South Coast Winery and taxi’d there. It was perfect.

Whoa! Hold yer horses herre!
Pun intended.
I’m surprised at the mediocre reviews. My girlfriends and I did not have the same experience as these other folk… ours was quite grand actually.
First, we did purchase the wine tasting, picnic, horseback riding through the Living Social deal.
Originally, when I called to schedule an appointment, I thought it weird that I was told to email them. Nonetheless, I did and I ended up dealing with Rebecca. My friends and I had to reschedule at least 3 times on her. Grr. She was always polite and understanding of the circumstances. (One was really serious).
When got to the winery (it changes from time to time), we did have to wait 30 minutes, annoying, but it was a pretty view and with good company.
My two friends are fairly good horseback riders, I am not. I have to say between Frank (our Horse tour guide), Rebecca and their crew were fantastic! They put me at ease, made sure I was comfortable and «trained» me on how to properly ride the horse. The trail was ok, nothing spectacular, I think its all about the experience really.
Afterwords, we went to two different wineries and had a nice picnic, that Rebecca made for us. The wine at the second place (can’t remember the name) was awful… but that should not show poorly on TWCT… they even told us it was a new winery, and with that comes caution.
Also, you should know to bring money for tipping (Horses and wine tenders). We did not tip Rebecca, not sure if we were suppose too!?!
I hope you have a great time, like my friends and I did. TWCT is worth it!

I did the Living Social coupon too – for a 5 –hour wine tasting tour of 4 wineries w/​lunch.
Myself and my 4 girlfriends really enjoyed ourselves and the service throughout the day was pretty good. I’d say I wasn’t really impressed with the wines, but not sure if that was the wineries we went to or if that is a Temecula thing. My other experiences have been in Napa Valley, Austrailia and New York – so maybe the wine isn’t quite as good here?
Really that’s not what I’m writing about. The staff was very friendly and relatively well organized and lunch was actually pretty good and filling, I was happy with that.
BUT! At the end of the day they gave us a «free bottle of wine», it was totally a cheap bottle of wine bought from Fresh and Easy! It still had the sticker on it! I knew something was fishy when they gave us the bottles in the brown paper bags of the Masia de Yabar winery, but kinda hurried us off and offered to put the bottles right into our car (how gentelmenly) —no! they just didn’t want us to take a look at the wines until we drove off!
So while we had a nice experience on the tour and felt relatively well taken care of, the entire class of the event was ruined by them shoving us off with a cheap bottle of wine (which by the way, I“m NOT a wine snob, I buy 6 $ wines as a general rule, but this wine was BAD!!!) I’m not even sure I“ll use it for cooking!
Come on Temecula Wine Tours – show us a little bit if respect for our $$ and class up your act. You aren’t serving a bunch of tourists that will never be back to San Diego. There are a lot of locals on these tours and we will spread the word!

I was all over the following deal when it was offered via LivingSocial last month. Scooped up 2 vouchers and began preparing a surprise trip for my boyfriend.
«Spend $ 85 and get a five-​hour wine tasting tour for 50% off. Seated up high in an open-​air Hummer, you’ll get a tour of four Temecula wineries in five hours […] You’ll also get a picnic lunch complete with sandwiches and delectable desserts, plus receive a complimentary bottle of your favorite wine.»
I called with many questions before and after purchasing the vouchers, and Joe had quick answers regarding fine print and stipulations, a hotel recommendation (Embassy Suites, a recommendation I decided not to use), and tipping suggestions.
My understanding is that Temecula Wine Country Tours offers a variety of different tour packages, so my review is a summary of the tour described above. We visited the following 4 wineries on Saturday and received 5 or 6 wine tastings at each:
* Masia De Yabar Winery
* Oak Mountain Winery
* Frangipani Estate Winery
* Danza Del Sol Winery
Note that this wine tour – riding in a Hummer with several others – is a casual tour versus a sophisticated wine tasting experience. So glad I decided to wear a carefree halter dress and flats: the combination of the Hummer and dirt/​sand/​gravel at the wineries would have made wearing a nicer dress and heels Hell. Also, know that the Hummer is a rugged beast. Admittedly, I had expected a modern open-​air H2, but the Hummer we rode in was a military-​style model. Regardless, the vehicle was a fun experience. Our driver Jeff was a huge personality… though not always appropriate, like, for example, when he referred to the Cowboys’ quarterback as «Tony Homo» with a flick of his wrist.
Rebekah, who welcomed us at the beginning of the day and prepared our lunch, was accommodating and gave us her number, urging us to call her if we needed anything at all during the tour.
My major dislikes regarding the tour…
(1) The schedule. I’m a big time planner, so the fact that there was no set-​in-​stone agenda seemed chaotic to me. We weren’t told how much time we had at each winery, never told what time to meet up to head to the next place. Our time spent at each winery varied significantly as Jeff struggled to drive around the day’s multiple tour groups. Our last Hummer ride actually involved giving a very intoxicated young lady from a different tour group a lift.
(2) The lunch. Lunch was disappointing, and I hated that we sat at a table beneath water misters. We were each given a plate of a half turkey sandwich with packets (?!) of mayo and mustard being the condiment options, a mixed spring greens salad, and potato chips. The desserts – described as «delectable» in the tour description – were lame: I expected something more than store-​bought chocolate chip cookies, tea cookies, and brownie bites.
(3) The free bottle of wine. We thought we would get to choose a bottle of wine from one of the wineries we toured. Instead, we were each given a brown-​bagged cheap bottle of The Big Kahuna, an Australian wine. What a joke not to receive a local bottle!
My boyfriend and I agree that we would never pay full price for this experience but will be open to future opportunities to participate in similar tours at a discounted price. I feel as though the disorganized fly-​by-​the-​seat-​of-​your-​pants nature of this experience could have easily caused the tour to go awry, but overall we had a nice day in Temecula.

— 4 stars for the horseback riding.
— 1 star for the wine tasting.
= 2.5 stars rounded up to 3 for the good company & people we met
My boyfriend purchased 2 of the deal below: Temecula Wine Country Tours: One-​Hour Horseback Ride + Wine Tasting & Picnic Lunch ($ 89). Directions to the horseback riding weren’t clear. There were only 2 people there to handle our party of 10 during the ride where most of the horses were trotting and rowdy whereas everyone in the group were 1^st timers!
After the ride we then had to drive to a winery, had our 5 tastings, waited there for a supposed «yellow hummer» and were picked up by large white van after an hour of waiting! We had to contact the company to find out if we were going to be picked up, and no one met us at the winery until about an hour after. We were then brought to a 2^nd winery and had lunch at 2:30 when we had met at the horseback riding at 10:00 am. We were starving and we were once stranded again at the 2^nd winery for over 2 hours! We were told that we could taste at the winery next door but they were charging us. We again contacted the company to send someone to pick us up.
We finally found who we were looking for after he dropped off another group and PAID for their tasting at the winery that we were charged out but refused to stay in. He then took us off-​roading up a hill to overlook a view of temecula to «make it up» for all the miscommunication and problems throughout the day.
Even if we didn’t pay full price we were still not satisfied, the scenery made up for a lot but we spent the majority of the day being stranded at wineries with minimal tastings and a lunchable equivalent of a «gourmet» lunch.
We finally returned to our vehicles and went on our OWN to another reputable winery and spent our hard earned cash there purchasing cases.
The woman directing the horseback riding portion commented that she didn’t know how the owner of the hummer tour was still in business as a joke, but at the end of the day we understood why!

Went to Temecula for a Bachelorette Weekend. The bride to be isn’t much of a drinker, so we figured we could do a combo of horseback riding and wine tasting. This place was cool cause they also offered a picnic lunch. In total to do all three — 1 hour horseback riding, wine tasting and picnic lunch cost $ 89. The lady who we booked through was really nice and the girls could pick and choose what they wanted. So seven of us did the horseback riding, and the other 3 went to hang out.
This was my first time riding, so I was a little scared. The lady told me that my horse was pretty calm and had an injured leg, but what they didn’t tell me was that it would fall behind and then TROT like crazy to catch up. The ride was about an hour and the two guides were pretty nice — although they kept telling us to pull on the reigns to stop the horse but when we did, they told us not to pull too hard, so it was like, «what are we supposed to do.» At one point my horse lost control and did not obey any of the commands the guides told me to use. Finally the guide had to just grab my ropes and walk my horse for the rest of the ride. I can’t say I had the best riding experience, but I’m glad I tried it.
After we finished, we went for our picnic lunch which ended up being a couple of sandwiches, tortilla chips (no salsa), and fruit. The fruit wasn’t nicely cut up strawberries or grapes that are easy to eat. They basically gave us a bowl of tangerines and grapefruit.
The wine tasting part was good, we got tickets for five tastings and tried some good stuff. There was a list of reds, whites, dessert wines, champagnes, etc and you could choose which one you wanted. I stuck to mostly white and the almond champagne was the best. The chocolate dessert wine was kinda gross, but overall it was a fun tasting.
Was sore for three days after the horse ride, but the girls had a fun time.

Ok here’s the scoop… this company meets outside the Wilson Creek Winery, but it’s not actually offiliated with it.
A group of 15 girls went here for part of a bachelorette party. They did their best to accomodate to all 15 of us. The best they could do is have 8 ride first and 7 do wine tasting, then switch after the riders came back. They didn’t have enough horses to have all 15 of us ride and then all 15 taste.
We didn’t mind that we were split up. Some girls wanted to do wine tasting first anyways…
They had horses of all sizes and colors. Generally they were easy to guide. They key is to remain calm and remind yourself that the horse is controllable to some extent. Every so often the horses would start running for no reason so you have to remember to pull to have it go back to running pace. Sometimes you have to pull really hard.
Because of the sporatic running, ever girl’s butt was sore the next day. =(. However, the scenery of countryside and winery was so beautiful and relaxing so it was all worth it.
The company was very accomodating to us regarding time. The winery closed at 5 even though a group started tasting around 5 pm. They prepurchased wine for the second group of tasters. We sat outside under an umbrella in the picnic area and just enjoyed the weather and ambiance. It was nice because the area wasn’t crowded at all.
I would recommend this company to anyone. Please just remember that your butt will be sore the next day.