Chicago Trolley Tours, Chicago

This had to be the worst city tour I've ever taken. I found the excursion to be boring and far from what I had expected. The narrator's descriptions of what myself and the other customers were viewing lacked details about the city of Chicago, something I'd been hoping to learn when my husband purchased our tickets for this tour. The company approach to the public is not at all personal and the employees seem to be doing their jobs without little or no interest in the people whom they sell their tickets to. The other thing I found extremely uncomfortable was the ticket agent themself. She pressured my husband into purchasing the tickets and lied about what time a trolley bus was to pick us up. We wanted a refund although the ticket agent kept promising us a trolley "within 10 minutes". I would not recommend this company for site-seeing to anyone. The ticket agents lie to their customers and high pressure them into ticket sales. The $50 my husband and I spent was a total waste of money. If you should plan a trip to Chicago please avoid this company because you'll be terribly disappointed in what they have to offer. Dianne

DO NOT RIDE THE TROLLEY!!!!! The architectural cruise tour by the company Shoreline is the same price & 100 times the value, more fun, informative & relaxing. The trolley rides worse than a school bus, & you're sitting on 'park benches' (NO PADDING) on the trolley. From hearing people honk their horns & seeing very little of Chicago to the bored, monotone drivers - the trolleys should NOT be ridden even if someone PAID ME $20!! I'm a Generation X'er.

We loved the whole concept of riding the trolley to all the tourist attractions. It was a little difficult getting info about stops and times when we didn't know the city. We did not realize there was a FREE Trolley until after we had paid for the Hop on & Off tour. The kids loved the double deckers and it was nice to just ride around the city and learn about the great structures in it.

I figured this would be our best bet to get around since we took the train into town. It was such a pain waiting in the cold for each trolley. And we waited MUCH longer than 20-30min. There wasn't any room and we had to stand most of the time, even on the double Decker. The trolley workers at the stands never know when the next trolley will be coming around. I got a migraine the first day we rode on it from the woman tour guide. It was better on our second day, we were able to sit and had a decent guide and got where we needed to be, but the only reason we caught that trolley was because we ran! We also got left down by the Field Museum and the Shedd aquarium. We waited over a hour and never seen this companies trolley make one round. It was very frustrating. We ended up having to take a cab back to our hotel. Maybe we just had a bad experience, but I will never take the trolleys again, we would have been better off walking everywhere by the time the trolley arrived to the stop. I also wouldn't recommend this to anyone. You also have to try and catch the last trolley before they are done for the day which is pretty early. 5 o'clock.

Where to start? If you would like to see Chicago you are better off walking - we went through 3 buses (due to mechanical failure) and averaged nearly 20 min per stop so the tour guides and drivers could socialize. If you have kids you will be equally embarrassed when the tour guide starts talking about "Viagra Triangle" or her ability to rehearse lyrics from the Black Eyed Peas - oh, and after waiting for our 3rd bus to be delivered we asked about refunds at which point we were told - "there is no refund policy." This was before our "new" driver decided to jump the curb to get around the failed bus only to cut off several other vehicles and other tour buses while driving with his knees while talking on the phone - and no, this is not a joke.

I have lived in Chicago my entire life and thought I knew all there was to know about the city. I was wrong! After graduating from College, my friends and I went to Chicago for a day of fun. We wanted to get around the city without having to walk miles and miles or without having to pay for a cab every 10 minutes. So we decided to hop on a Chicago Trolley. We purchased the all-day pass so that we could get around from place to place while also learning about the great Windy City! It was amazing! The drivers were both very knowledgeable and fun to be around. Once off the trolley, the wait was never long to get back on. I would highly recommend them to anyone visiting or currently living in Chicago. We loved every second of it!

What an extrememly easy way to see the great city of Chicago!! Your team is so helpful & wonderful!!

Recently I had the pleasure of enjoying the sites and sounds of Chicago. I was going to tackle the city by walking around with a map and see what I can find but along the way I was given a leaflet about the Chicago Trolley & Double Decker tours. At first glance I wasn�t going to go but after listening to the very cheerful sales agent I gave in and was on my way. What sold me were all the great bonuses, like heresy bar, garrets popcorn and another tour that takes you out of the downtown area into near ethnic neighborhoods. The tour itself was wonderful. It really hit all the major attractions i.e. Millennium Park, Sears Tower, Museum Campus, etc. Not only did it take me to these attractions it allowed me to get off and get lost for a little, then later get on board to continue my tour. So in retrospect not only was it a tour but also a means of transportation, which saved me on my travel budget. But the best part of the experience were the very knowledgeable tour guides giving the information. They always seemed to know the answer to my question before I even asked it. I would not change anything at all. I would highly recommend this to everyone looking to get the most of the city. But beware there is a competitor company, Grayline, that seems to offer the same tour but without all the extras and vehicle numbers. I was talking to one of their passengers and they shared with me that my company already had 4 vehicles come by before she even got her one.

I went to Chicago to visit a friend of mine last summer. I had been there before but this time my friend got us some tickets for the Chicago Trolley hop on and hop off tour and I am so glad that she did! We had such a great time on the tour that I even took the tour twice! One of the best things about the tour were the tour guides. The tour guides were absolutely excellent. They were so knowledgeable about the city, which I found to be fascinating and I learned so much about a city that I had visited before! They were interesting and they were also very entertaining and kept us laughing the whole time. I had two different tour guides when one went on break, and I was given a completely different tour, which made the whole thing so wonderful to hear someone else�s view of Chicago. It is refreshing to know that they are able to give their own tours and not just read off of some script. If I had had the time I would have probably stayed and taken the tour again! I learned so much about Chicago and I highly recommend this tour to anyone wanting to learn about Chicago and be entertained at the same time.

My wife & I are big travelers and have visited most medium & big cities in the U.S. Whenever we travel we always try and utilize a tour similar to this to learn about the city & to use as a way of hopping around the city. Of all the tours like this that we have been on, this one was the best we have ever taken. They had funny & knowledgeable drivers and tour guides that kept us entertained informed & laughing through most of our tour. We especially liked our ability to get on & get off the trolleys & double decker buses all day long. They go almost every place you want to go and this tour even included a separate route to take you to 3 ethnic neighborhoods (Chinatown, Greektown & Italian Town). It costs considerably less than identical tours in other cities. We bought a two day ticket which made it an even better deal. Be CAREFUL there is another operator that behaves very unscrupulously by the name of Gray Line. They try & tell you they are the same as Chicago Trolley but they were horrible. At first we bought their tickets (thinking it was Chicago Trolley), but after experiencing long waits and surly employees we got a refund & switched to Chicago Trolley. All in all it was a great tour and we would highly recommend it when you visit Chicago. Thanks to all the tour guides we met along are way !!!