Old Savannah Tours — Local services in Savannah

Old Savannah Tours in Savannah.... do better. We are walking down the street looking for where we booked our tour and we are super early. We see a sign that says Visitor Center, free maps, etc. We go in, look at some of the offerings and are thinking of booking some other stuff. The lady behind the counter was busy with other customers. While we are there we use the restroom. IMPORTANT: No signs anywhere saying the bathrooms are for a certain tour company's guests only. We legit thought this was a visitor center. Our bad.

We realized our tour time was getting close and we needed to get to our first tour before booking another especially as the woman at the front desk was still helping others. As we leave the building and cross the parking lot to our tour company (which we just realized was right next door), a short (5'5" maybe) blonde, older tour company employee gets in front of us and asks if she can help us. We said no, just heading to our tour. She says, "but you used our restrooms". Now I'm confused. It said Visitor Center on the front. I told the employee we thought it was a visitor center and there weren't any signs on the bathroom doors about it being for a tour company. We try to step around her. She steps in front of us. Ok, now she's pushing my buttons. I told her to put signs up if she didn't want anyone using their toilets and walked on.

As we are walking to our tour company, she is glaring at us. Enough is enough. I went back in to have a talk with the lady at the front desk. Here comes ol' red shirt again. Starts yelling at me across the parking lot. "Can I help you? CAN I HELP YOU???" Now people are staring. She gets in front of me again. I step to the side. She gets in front of me again. Keeps asking, "Can I help you?" I tell her no and to get out of my way. She says, "You need to stay out of our restrooms." I say that I'm not in her restrooms and she says we were. So she's looking in the building and watching who goes in and out of the bathrooms from across a parking lot? Ok, that's creepy in itself.

I go into the building and ask if there's someone I can speak with about a situation. The girl behind the counter says all the managers are "out in the field". I explain the situation to her and that an employee has now not only yelled at us across a parking lot, but twice blocked me from being able to walk. The whole time, the employee is standing right outside listening. I see her walk away a little and she's glaring at me through the window and I know if I go back out the back door she's going to get even more aggressive so I leave by the front door. Before I even get out, I look back and here she comes again. This woman wants to fight tourists and potential customers over an unmarked bathroom visit? Here's $2 for your water bill. DO BETTER!!!!! Do NOT recommend this place to ANYONE!

Yes, friends and family, I was on my best behavior. This was freaking...

I will say, our first hour experience with this tour was wonderful. Angela was an INCREDIBLE tour guide. I couldn't recommend her highly enough; however, Old Savannah Tours was the worst tour experience I've had. After we left Angela's trolley, our entire experience was downhill from there. The other guides were lackluster at best. When we boarded a trolley with a speaker and separate driver, they clearly were at odds with one another-- the way they spoke to each other over the microphones was unprofessional. When the speaker asked the driver to go to Broughton Street and mentioned something about "well you should have gone that way but okay then." The driver was clearly irritated with him. This particular speaker and driver drove past 2 stops that I counted without even asking if anyone on the trolley needed to get off. One of them was the stop we planned to jump off but when I raised my hand to ask why we drove past, he held up his finger in a "one second" motion. By the time he finally allowed me to ask a question we were well past the stop. This trolley driver who drove past the stops also was consistently scrolling on her phone which I found wildly dangerous. When we were waiting for another trolley, we called to confirm where stop 13 was because the map was a little confusing. The woman who answered, Michelle, told us so we waited there. Suddenly, it was pouring rain and lightening badly to the point everyone around us disappeared inside a local hotel. We called Michelle back at the main office asking if we could go inside the hotel and if the next trolley could wait just a moment so we could then step back out, and she said no but that a trolley would be along shortly. Several phone calls and over FORTY FIVE minutes later in the pouring rain and lightning, no trolley was insight. They also couldn't give any time frame within which a trolley might arrive which is absolutely absurd considering all of their trolleys have walkie talkies they use to communicate. When I called yet again to request when a trolley might arrive as they were near closing time, a man answered with an impatient "hello" with no indication of whom I was calling. Finally a trolley drove around and the person on the other line took my name, number and promised a manager would call me "either that evening or the next day." That was three days ago and I have not received any phone call or reach out from the office. I am not only highly irritated but really disappointed in their lack of empathy, compassion, or general awareness that this is a service people spend their hard earned money on. I already let all my friends know who were coming on a trip to Savannah next month to go with another...

The On/Off Tour with Old Savannah Tours was a fantastic way to take kids to see the city of Savannah and to learn the history. We got on and off several times during the day to explore a couple of sites close-up, and then transferred at the Savannah Visitor's Center to complete the whole tour from start to finish without getting off. The drivers were all very friendly, and each had a slightly different personality/twist to how they presented the various aspects of the history of Savannah and its buildings. We especially enjoyed the characters who temporarily boarded to give a 2-minute living history presentation- fantastic! My kids (upper elementary all the way down through pre-k and toddler), loved the whole tour, and it was a lot of fun to be able to get on and off at the different stops. We were also getting on and off with an umbrella stroller for the baby without any problem. There was a bit of a hang-up at one stop where there were too many people who wanted to get on and not enough seats on the the next trolley. That driver called in, and an empty trolley was sent straight to the stop. The manager (owner?) of the business personally showed up before the empty trolley to make sure everyone got aboard. We saw him again at least one more time as he made sure everything was going smoothly in terms of people having seats to ride. The customer service at their primary terminal was fantastic. We made our reservation for the wrong tour (Historical Overview) on a popular "coupon" website (starts with Group, ends with -on... a website I DO NOT recommend) and the ladies in the terminal were able charge us the difference so that we could ride the On/Off tour. The other trolley company may look a bit more "polished," but don't be fooled by looks! The white trolley company is fantastic. If we have another opportunity to take a trolley tour in Savannah in the future, we will definitely return to Old Savannah Tours, and will be recommending them to others, as well. Currently there is a $3 off coupon on the downtown map that you can pick up at the Savannah Visitors Center, located at Liberty/MLK Blvd. Our final tour ride was with Mike and Ethyl. Mike did a great job on the history, and Ethyl was fantastic at maneuvering through the "rush-hour" traffic.

Thank you Old Savannah Tours for a memorable day in...