Retro trolleys now connect Naramata Bench wineries to Penticton

Last summer, wine industry veteran Savannah Swaisland identified what she felt was a need on her home turf of the Naramata Bench. And in best entrepreneurial fashion, she addressed it.

Swaisland, who in her career has dabbled in just about every role there is on the wine-centric Bench, figured the 45-plus wineries, distilleries and cideries in the region and the ever-growing horde of tourists who patronize them would benefit from an alternate transportation link.

Most folks, she says, drive the route themselves -- obviously a terrible idea if the person behind the wheel is imbibing -- or set up costly private wine tours. And Swaisland knows of what she speaks. She operates one such business herself -- Grape Savvy Wine Tours.

What if there was a system, she speculated, where visitors could taste/drink without worrying about driving, pretty much move across the Bench at their own pace, and spend less on transportation and more on take-home product?

And now, there is.

It's called Grape Savvy Trolley Co., and it features two old-school trolleys (newly nicknamed "Merlot" and "Chardonnay,") that Swaisland bought this past winter in Vancouver and drove back herself to the Okanagan over a snow-covered Coquihalla Connector.

They’ve since been repaired, revamped and spruced up, and they're now running four days a week on a loop from Penticton to Naramata, stopping at a variety of key Bench locations along the way.

According to Swaisland, the service is "hop on, hop off," and the price per person for one full day (10:30 am to 5:40 pm) of trolley riding and limitless daily stops is $44.99.

There are provisos. For example, patrons will pay out of pocket for tasting room fees. They need to bring along their own water and snacks and ensure their scheduled stops coordinate with open time slots at the wineries. But if our investigation is any indication, they'd be paying one-half to one-quarter the per-person price of most private wine tours.

"It was definitely a passion project," said Swaisland last week. "A vision that came to fruition after running a private wine tour company for a couple years. I just felt that post-COVID there was a need for a more convenient and accessible transportation system.

"It's not a new concept. Hop on, hop off has been used all around the world. But it hasn’t successfully been used on the Bench. Not yet anyway."

Hop on, hop off service, Swaisland believes, is perfectly suited to the smallish Naramata Bench where there's such an intense concentration of wineries and just 16 kilometers between Trolley Co's most distant stops.

"Each stop," she said, "is basically a hub. It will have a minimum of seven to ten establishments within five-minutes walking distance."

Swaisland chose the Fairview Inn and Suites at 602 Eckhardt Ave. W. as Trolley Co.'s chief Penticton stop, citing its central location and easy access to plentiful street parking. There's also a stop at "Rocky Store" in the Uplands neighbourhood, but the rest are on the Bench.

"We didn't want to be a hindrance to local traffic (on the Naramata Bench)," said Swaisland, "so rather than using the pullouts, we actually pull into wineries and off the streets so we don’t block access."

As a bonus, she added, ticket purchasers have immediate access to Trolley Co.'s winery database (she calls it "the largest winery database in the Okanagan") so they can better plan their self-tour.

But for many, the biggest attraction of all will be the trolleys themselves. And that’s understandable. They're unusual. They're retro. And that's oh so trendy.

"They come from the Vancouver Trolley Company," said Swaisland. "The original hop on, hop off concept for Vancouver."

When Vancouver Trolley Company was eaten up just a few years ago by West Coast Sightseeing, which then opted to go eco-friendly with electric units, the old diesel-powered vehicles were retired. And they remained that way, unused and unloved, 'til Swaisland came a-calling in the winter.

"So when I got them, they were in a pretty sorry state," she said. "But with a little bit of love, elbow grease and money, they've shined up pretty nicely.

"And hey, I was born and raised in Vancouver, so these are super nostalgic to me. I rode them through Stanley Park as a child."

After the winter trip, Swaisland headed back again in May to pick up two more Vancouver Trolley Company retirees, each powered this time by propane. And just yesterday she put one of them on the road for private functions, convention shuttling and weddings.

The fourth is reserved for something "extra special," likely involving "stationary service" somewhere near the water on Naramata Bench.

"Yes, I might have a bit of an obsession with trolleys," laughed Swaisland, a BC Metis who says Trolley Co. is a Certified Aboriginal Business.

"I'm a proud BC Metis," she said. "I would not have been able to sustain business operations through COVID without incredible support from the Indigenous business community. The support and guidance has been overwhelming."

Currently, Grape Valley Trolley Co. runs four days a week. There's just one trolley Thursday through Friday, performing two full route loops. Two trolleys handle the weekend, stopping at every stop on the hour.

Swaisland hopes to bump that up to seven days a week, but like every other business owner is dealing not only with a pandemic hangover, but a freakishly cold, wet spring and early summer that kept the tourists away. And, in her case, a brand new idea that still needs to gain traction.

In October, the hop on, hop off service through Naramata will be paused until next spring and the trolleys transitioned into wintry- and Christmas-focused duties. It's a schedule she hopes to stick with every year.

For more information on the Grape Savvy Trolley Co., hit up the website here.