VIP Southern Tours & Georgia Wine Bus — Local services in Helen

The tour it self was okay as Rusty, our tour guide was such a kind gentleman and even went out of his way to capture some beautiful photos for us. My biggest reason for the 2 stars is because I made it very aware to the company when placing our lunch order ahead of time that a person in our group had a nut allergy and I was told that it would be handled and when we got our lunch on the tour she had macadamia nut cookies for her dessert. When we asked Rusty if he was aware he had no idea and had to call and to make sure the rest of her food was even safe to eat and I would imagine it made her feel very uncomfortable. Second thing, at two of the wineries we toured we were seated in overflow in the warehouse areas and missed out on all the gorgeous views and live music which is half of the experience. I could have saved 600 dollars and just went to the winery my self and enjoyed it more. Seemed awfully unplanned for a reservation I booked months in advance and payed good money for. All in all the wineries were fantastic with great customer service and we made the best of our trip,I will be returning to them. I was just really disappointed with the tour company.

💥UPDATE: The owner personally reached out to me and apologized about the whole situation and invited me to come back to give them another chance. I thought that was very generous of her and I appreciate them taking accountability and reaching out. No one is perfect and I understand people make mistakes. Their customer service has been great. Will update again in June...

Our group of 24 had an absolutely amazing time this weekend with VIP Southern Tours. The owner, Charles, was responsive, helpful, and accommodating. He spent time with me to understand what we were looking for and he made recommendations based on his experiences. He made the process easy and organized. He arranged for a caterer to do our lunch at the first winery. We had some food sensitivities and the caterer was fantastic at accommodating. The food was delicious and we were happy! The buses were comfortable and clean. Jeff & John were our drivers and they added to making the whole day so much fun. They were fun to interact with, they were gracious and polite while keeping us on schedule, and they were good sports with our bus singing! :) If you’re looking to do a wine tour - I cannot recommend these guys enough. (We went to Serenity Cellars & Yonah Mountain. Serenity was fun and the engaging and the wine was very good. Yonah Mountain left a lot to be desired unfortunately.) But that is nothing to do with VIP Southern Tours - their part of our day was...

This was a super disappointing customer service experience. The ticket information had the name of a business that did not match the address. I did not check. I just put the name into Google Maps and off we went. Turns out that address is 30 minutes from the start and was an hour from our starting point. I called the business and she said that had never happened before. We were too tired to drive another 30 minutes. She said she would take care of it. We were at a lovely tasting room so we decided to stay. The owner told us this happens ALL the time! I assumed that we would be able to resolve it but after several emails and calls later I am having to take this up with my credit card company. There is no reason to have the name of a business that does not match the address. The correct name or a link to the starting point is all that it would take. Then to lie about it and not be willing to take responsibility is super disappointing. So I am not sure if the tour would have been good, but I know that I will not be doing business with this...