Santa Barbara Trolley Tour in Santa Barbara, CA

Having enjoyed my experiences on the trolley tours I took in San Diego and Nashville, I decided to give the trolley tour in Santa Barbara a go. It conveniently had a stop right outside the lobby of the Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort where I was staying. Based on the published schedule and online reviews, I knew that although this was billed as a "hop-on/off" tour just like the Old Town Trolley Tours it wasn't going to operate in the same fashion. (This tour is owned by a different company.) First off, the trolley only runs every hour which doesn't make it very convenient as transportation around the city. Next, there are really only four stops (the Visitor Center where the tour starts and finishes, the Hilton, the Harbor, and the Old Mission where it stops for about 20 minutes) although passengers can request the driver let them off at one of the other eight locations on the map. These stops are not marked at all, so it's only easy to get on at one of the four locations with pickups. When I hopped off at the Courthouse (the view from the top is definitely worth the stop), I decided not to try to flag down the trolley driver and simply took public transportation back to my hotel. The two drivers I had relayed interesting information about the city on the tour though one was more engaging than the other. Some perks of this tour are a second day for free and discounts at some of the museums in Santa Barbara.