Gray Line Austin

The service was good and a very interesting tour. The only issue was timing a bit of a delay with driver picking me up from Austin having to travel that morning from San Antonio and that delayed everything to the point that we only spent over an hour for lunch in one of the villages and I really wanted to explore it for longer.

We had a very difficult beginning that put a damper on the rest of the trip. Apparently, something went wrong and the tour driver failed to pick up a passenger who had signed up to go at a different hotel than where we boarded. The driver was notified after about an hour or so and we sat on the bus at a gas station while she argued extensively with the company over whether or not she was to go back and get the overlooked passenger, then redo the part of the tour that we had just completed. The driver's hope was that the passenger could be rebooked for a different tour. Our hope was that we could leave the city without delay for the hill country trip for which we had signed up. Eventually, we agreed as passengers to go back for the woman but not to repeat the hour or so city tour (which was not on the brochure — a fact that aggravated a couple on the trip who had already done a city tour and hadn't wanted to do it again and certainly not twice the same morning). Picking up the forgotten passenger turned out to be a challenge with both the driver and and all passengers using cell phones for directions to find her hotel as the address the driver had was wrong. By the time we found the forgotten passenger, she had waited on a street corner for 2 hours, was in tears, and kept apologizing as if it were her fault for the mix-up — which it was not. A bad start for a tour that latter turned out nice in the end but was deeply flawed by the morning fiasco.

The driver/guide was very personable, accommodating and knowledgeable.

While the driver was friendly and courteous, he started out stating we were supposed to be at the pick up point at 8:30 when our tickets said 9. At the LBJ birthplace, we weren鈥檛 given time to see the exhibits in the visitors center. When we got to the LBJ Ranch at noon, the next tour didn鈥檛 start until 1, so we didn鈥檛 get to see the house. We told the driver we would rather spend more time in Fredricksburg and Luckenbach than wait for the tour. In Fredricksburg, we were only given 1.5 hours, which is the same amount of time I was given when I took this tour 5 years ago and we got more time at the previous stops. When we got to Luckenbach, we asked how long we had and were told 15 minutes. We stayed a half hour. The driver drove right past he winery where he said we would stop at the beginning of the day. It was clear he wanted to get back early.