Margies Big Day Out — Local services in Margaret River

Very disappointed to say the least! My partner and I booked this tour because it promised a day of fun and of variety including both wineries and breweries with lunch included and pick up and drop off, it sounded perfect! As the day arrives my partner and I are both super excited as not only is it our first trip down south together it’s also my 30th birthday and we had booked the tour for the day of my birthday to celebrate! However it would be dishonest to say that this tour lived up to my expectations and delivered the birthday i was hoping for! We were picked up from our air bnb on time which was great however the driving of the bus at the start of the day was beyond uncomfortable and definitely not what was expected from people who drive a tour bus for a living, some of the people almost fell over on the bus as the driver took off without them being seated or restrained, very unsafe and definitely not best practice! First stop was Jarvis wines with Stu who was lovely and provided information into the wine process and the types as you would expect of a wine tasting, it was a lovely stop and we were once again hopeful for the day. The second stop was Houghton wines and it’s at this point I would say the day went downhill! The lady gave absolutely no information announced the wine poured and left seemingly completely disinterested in our group. From there we went to lunch at the brewery where we were offered no tastings what so ever, we were told to select a meal off the menu however I am quite positive that the presentation and effort of the dish that was provided was well below the standard we would have received had we gone to the brewery for lunch ourselves. Next we went to knotting hill winery we’re we had to pay for the tasting which was listed on the booking so we were aware however this was not mentioned at any point by the driver during the day and left majority of the group unaware of this charge and when a couple purchased a bottle the tasting charge was only removed for one person even though they purchased together. After this we were expecting the cheese and chocolate factory tastings however we were driven to cowaramup and dropped in town and told we had 20mins to look around, this was never mentioned as part of the tour and was a total waste of time and something I could have done myself, after this we were driven to colonial brewery and dropped at the front door and told we had an hour. No one had any idea what was going on or where to go, so we went inside trying to figure out what to do to be told there were no tastings at this venue either and there was no table booked or anything and we were left to essentially take ourselves off to the pub was how I would describe the experience and pay for all of our drinks which was noted on the itinerary yes however there was no mention on the itinerary anywhere that each of the breweries we went to had absolutely no tastings and that the day would consist of essentially a taxi service with one decent wine tasting one terrible wine tasting included and everything else being at your own cost on top of the tour price! Not to mention when my partner questioned our tour driver at what point we would be going to the cheese and chocolate factory only to be informed right at the end of the day prior to our being taken back that he had decided to swap out that part of the tour and go to cowaramup instead as there was a chocolate “shop” there and the chocolate factory was to busy and the cheese factory wasn’t doing tastings! So without even asking anyone in the group the decision was made to remove two of the big stops we were wanting to go to and had paid for!! Beyond disappointed!! There is nothing on the information that was provided during booking that said this was a possibility and to drop us in the middle of town for 20mins in comparison to what we paid for and thought we we’re getting is an absolute disgrace in my opinion as far as tours go! Definitely dampened my birthday and felt like a waste of the day and money…will not be...

The day started fine we were picked up on time as we were the only two on the tour then proceeded to our first stop Jarvis winery where we were introduced to Sara which was very informative as she provided tastings and information re the running and produce from the winery. Our next stop was lunch, Wes our driver asked whether we would like to visit more wineries or breweries we advised we would visit based on his recommendations as we mentioned that we weren't that big on wine and that we did the beer brewery tour last year which we enjoyed. Arrived at our lunch stop which was Black brewery our driver escorted us in, then we were asked to pick a meal off the menu to which neither of us would have intentionally dined as there was nothing that appealing so here where it continues to go downhill. Driver places our orders for lunch then retreats back to the mini bus after some brief conversation, no gourmet lunch as advertised, no beer or cider tasting with lunch as advertised. After completing our not so good lunch the driver reappears so we can continue our journey next stop Wild Hop brewery dropped off in the carpark we had 45 mins to do as we please then back on the bus next stop Cowamamup brewing dropped off in the car park 45 mins again back on the bus next stop and last Colonial brewing dropped off in the car park you guessed it 45mins back on the bus our driver stayed in the bus the whole time we had no beer commentary or any further tasting after our first stop nor did we visit any Cheese or chocolate tasting as described. Everything advertised very little delivered and very over priced for what we got as it cost a lot more than I anticipated having to purchase all of our drinks for the afternoon. Very disappointed and definitely wouldn't recommend this tour which is unfortunate as there seems to be a lot of positive reviews but didn't deliver on this...

Unfortunately my experience with Margie’s big day out was not a good one, our pickup was on time however it was just under 2 hours on the bus before we arrived at our first winery. Even at that stage John, our bus driver, had not explained where we were going or anything about our day as he kept telling us he would when everyone was on the bus. This only really happened when we asked where we were going next. Unfortunately at the end of our first tastings we were asked to pay $5 each to cover each tasting. After talking to everyone on the tour we all agreed the information we had for our bookings included the tasting costs and went to John with our concerns …he made a phone call to his boss and they agreed to pay for the tastings. The third stop was for lunch, which I must say was fantastic, at one of the breweries however when we asked about our beer and cider tastings that were included in our lunch the driver had no idea what we were talking about, so I pulled up the web site to show him ….he wasn’t interested, so one of the ladies on the tour rang the tour ‘boss’ who told her if he included everything he would go broke admitting it was on the website but it was supposed to go on for a Christmas special and he would not honour it . That obviously soured the rest of the day and although John did his best not to loose it was clearly out of sorts and didn’t really communicate with anyone on the bus after that. In short the owner knew what he advertised included wine tastings free beer and cider tastings over lunch and free chocolate and cheese tastings and tried to get out of just about all of them and when confronted did not put the customer first. Cannot recommend that you...