Cancelled our tour of 5 people, 2 hours before it happened. Super disappointed to say the least. Claimed there wasn't enough people for a public tour, we could have added people if we had known. Cancelled us for a private tour, just unprofessional. wasn't very kind on the phone read more

Lily and ruby were great host. If I did it again I'd ask for them. They went out of there way to make sure we had a great time. They even laughed at our stupid jokes. The tour was about 2 hours long. And we hit three bars on state street and university ave area. We had a great time and The two groups before did as well. It was more work then we expected but with 10 or more people it was manageable. If you have a large group I suggest you go earlier or the wait time for dinks at each bar will eat into the number of places you can go to. read more

See all

Nick was an AWESOME driver for us group of gals!! We didn't know Madison as well as him so he showed us all cool bars to stop at, especially the places to get free birthday drinks!!! The whole experience was so much fun and we can't wait to come back next summer and have Nick as our driver!! read more

This trolley is a great experience for a group of adult friends. We did it as a set of 10 neighbors as a private trolley. We got to pick 3 different bar/snack stops with some recommendations from the trolley staff on the best route, plus we brought our own drinks on board. Ended with a stop at the Memorial Union Terrace for a group photo. A great couple hours spent with friends in the Madison sunshine. read more

Trolley Pub - Madison - Great fun on State Street - Bike tours Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin

Great experience, super fun for bachelorette party. The meeting bar, Buckingham's, was a dive bar with really nice service- the waitress was great there. Nick was a wonderful tour guide on our trolley, we had so much fun with him as our guide. Warning: this is physically powered only by people so this is for either a large group that will fill the entire trolley and/or people who are really willing to get their pedaling time in. read more

This was the worst experience I have ever had with a business. The owner showed up to be our driver because our scheduled driver didn't show up. When the owner showed up, he made incredibly rude comments towards our group and our friend. It was her 21st birthday and made for such a bad experience we had to get up and leave. Every comment he made was inappropriate and made everyone uncomfortable. We are so disappointed about this experience and we will never be returning. read more

This is the worst experience I've had in a business. We were scheduled at 6 and a driver did not come until 6:45. The driver claimed to be the owner and was pissed he had to come in and drive us. He was rude to our friend whose 21st birthday it was and continuously called us terrible people. He continuously told us to stop talking and then proceed to tell us our ideas to fix the stereo situation was stupid. He singled every single guest out and made cruel uncalled for comments. He made us feel uncomfortable and said sexist comments towards the females of the group. We decided to get off the trolley after being so disrespected. We will never be coming back. read more

Absolutely one of the best things I've done in a long time ! Both our driver Andrea and our bartender Phil were super fun. This is a must do for anyone looking for a boozy way to tour downtown Madison. Also if you don't want to pedal there are seats where no pedaling is required. If you choose to pedal it's a great way to get your fitness on while getting your drink on! Cheers! read more

This was an awesome way to celebrate my niece's 30th bday. The staff were awesome, even got out and pushed for a big hill. We pedaled around the square stopping at several bars. The staff went above and beyond to keep the party lively. read more

Trolley Pub - Madison - The view from the back bench one of the few seats where you don't have to peddle! - Bike tours Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin

The first time I visited madison, I saw this thing called the Trolley Pub rolling down the street. The riders were having the time of their lives. Singing, yelling, drinking and pedaling their booties off. Quite literally. My org was hosting a conference last month in Madison and to celebrate a successful event we took the team out on two of them. Ok. First and foremost - our tour guides! Danny and Luis. LOVED LOVED LOVED THEM! SO GREAT! Not going to sugar coat it - it's real work. haha. There is no motor. Legitimately human powered. SO it's not for the faint of heart. But I will say... once we got up the hill, got through a few "I can't believe you're making me do this" and a round at the first bar - the excitement quickly rose and we had the... Best. Time. EVER. I mean who doesn't love working off their booze? I certainly do. Great way to see the city. Great way to team build (and quickly find out who your laggers are ;). It's nice to do something different and I'll tell you this is TOTALLY worth it. OH and we were also celebrating a recent marriage - and they're super cool with allowing you to decorate the trolley. enjoy! read more

I tried booking a private tour for 14 people on my 30th birthday in early December. I made the booking in early November and received confirmation and everything. Then 3 days before my scheduled tour I received a message from them saying that their "operating season" had ended "a few weeks ago" and they couldn't do the tour. They offered a refund or to rebook for the Spring. Very frustrating since their website had no indication that there was an operating season, just that the tour would be cancelled in the event of inclement weather. I even checked after I got the message and their booking system still allows you to reserve dates in December. I'm also not sure why it took them so long to contact me if the season supposedly ended a few weeks ago. UPDATE: The day after I posted this I got a call and they agreed to keep our original reservation, since the weather was going to be good. It was a little chilly, but our whole group had a blast! The pedaling was a little harder than I expected, but once everyone got going it wasn't too bad. Our driver was awesome, and we had a great time! read more

We just got a group of friends together for a Friday night. It was a really good time. The driver and co-captain are nice, respectful, and fun. They have a good sense of timing, and help you move along. It was a beautiful night for it too. I just wish it was a little longer! read more

I loved the "big red bike"!! The owners and driver (Larry) were LOADS of fun. The experience was just what I was hoping for. First things first, no, you can't drink of the pedal pub, but you know what, you can still have fun. If you prefer to be a little "tipsy" during the ride I recommend getting to your starting location at least an hour early, have some cocktails and then when you start the ride everyone will be feeling kinda silly and fun. Also bring an iPod and make a playlist ahead of time. They will let you plug it in and that really helps get the party started. We stopped at the Vintage and then at the Cap Tap house and then circled the Capitol back to Buckinghams where we started. They were happy to help with photos of the group and really allowed our day to the take on it's own fun energy that we had hoped for. read more

So fun! Our group had a great time on our Pedal tav/trolly ride! My only reason for 4 stars instead of 5 is that I have also done this in Nashville and it was a little better. In Madison we only had a driver -besides the 14 of us peddling of course- while in Nashville we had a driver and bartender and the bartender also had a camera and took LOTS of pictures that they later posted on FB fo free. ALSO the Nashville pub played lots of "games" like when you see someone on the streets taking a picture of you then everyone on the trolley would cheers and drink, when you came to a yellow or red light everyone would cheers again, etc. just the little things that keep everyone hyped. The Pedal tav was great here though too and Madison is so pretty it's impossible not to love it. The Pedal tav itself looked really nice and worked just fine for everyone with no issues! I would definitely go again! Also the bar it starts at is fun to drink at for a little bit too. It's older and not "cutesy" but bartenders were really nice and prices were good :) read more

Trolley Pub - Madison - a group of people posing for a picture - Bike tours Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin

An absolutely amazing experience. Could not have asked for a better group or tour guide. Will, our guide, was phenomenal! He kept us entertained, dancing and laughing the entire time. We did a mixed tour for my sisters bachelorette and we were paired up with another large group and their private tour. We caravanned the entire time together. Brad the private tour's guide was also great. Would do this again in a heart beat. read more

I unfortunately can't speak to the pub tour itself, since it never happened. Here's what I can say: I originally booked a private tour for a party, but we ended up only having 6 people in the party. This was not enough for a private tour, so I contacted Trolley Pub Madison a week or two in advance to cancel the private tour and purchase 6 mixer tickets. This portion of the transaction worked seamlessly and I was told on 5/21/15 that this was perfect because there was already a group of 4 signed up for a mixer and their trip would be cancelled unless more people signed up. It seemed like a win-win for everyone. We were all set to go and received confirmation the day before the trip that the tour would go on as scheduled. 3 1/2 hours before the tour, I received a voicemail letting me know that the tour was cancelled. When I immediately contacted Trolly Pub Madison, I was informed that not enough people signed up, so the tour was cancelled. I did receive a full refund. I inquired about the group of 4 that was previously signed up; had they backed out? I was told that there never was a group of 4 signed up, despite having seen the group of 4 signed up when I booked the mixer tickets and being told by this same person days earlier that they were signed up. I also asked how many people needed to be signed up for the tour to not be cancelled. I was told it was a minimum of 10, despite their website saying it was 7. As a last ditch effort to make this tour happen, I asked if I could scrounge up a few people to add to the party. I was told "no", that they needed 48 hours notice to add people. I thought this was rather odd, considering the tour was already booked, Trolley Pub was presumably losing business on this, and I had only just been told of the cancellation (why wouldn't I get the same 48 hours notice if they've known for 48 hours that they could not add people?) This whole scenario just didn't seem to add up to me and honestly seems a little shady in retrospect. I was disappointed that we didn't get to go on the tour and received such short notice and mixed messages from this company. read more

The most amazing time in Madison for a visitor from out of state. Riley and Emelye are the bomb. read more

Trolley Pub - Madison - Bike tours Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin

Kicked off my bachelorette party with the pedal pub, best afternoon ever - I recommend it! They provide you a driver so you don't get a DUI! The driver is also a bartender so that you don't have to serve your own drinks -- it makes for a great party! read more

The Trolley Pub helped us to celebrate my fiances 30th birthday!! For the most part it was a blast. We had plenty of time at each stop. The 2 Trolley pub workers we had ride along with us made sure we had a great time!! A few down falls to our trolley adventure. One, finding a parking spot was terrible. By the time we found a spot, walked to the pub, and waited for everyone to do the same, we already wasted 30 minutes of our time slot. Secondly, being accused by the manager that pedestrians called and said we were making racial comments towards them was absolutely ridiculous. Our tour guides even stated we did no such thing and the manager still disregarded the workers and my group. He handled the situation very unprofessionally from a former manager stand point. We apologized for these false comments and the manager really did not acknowledge it. This situation could have been handled better. I will more than likely not be returning. read more

What a fun time! Our crew, Brady and Taylor, were awesome! We ventured from Buckingham"s to Vintage to State St. Brats to the Memorial Union Terrace and back. There were some small hills which will challenge all and we had 13 riders. For the most part, it was pretty easy. A great time if you can get a group of 14 together. There are about 4 seats that don't require peddling. Bring ample water and brews if you wish, it can be a work out depending on the route you take. Also bring an ipod with a playlist set up, it sets the mood. read more

The private tour we had was amazing! Don't complain about not being able to drink on it. You don't need to. Just get to the leaving spot/bar a little early and have one before you go and then you get two (or three if you're really fast pedalers!) bar stops along the way, which is plenty! We loved our tour guides (one was the "driver" and the other was the designated "flip-flop retriever" since the middle is open and they don't want the pedalers jumping off the bike to retrieve stuff ourselves). We had a blast and will definitely do it again! read more

A group of us came to Madison for the first time for a bachelorette party ! The trolley pub was hands down the best part of the entire weekend. Craig and Will were our bartenders and drivers and they were the ones that made the experience such a blast! They were so much fun , thoughtful and had great suggestions on where to stop!! I highly recommend this to anyone coming to the area. Thanks Craig and Will for being so amazing!!!!! read more

I did this for my birthday and we had a great time. The staff was wonderful and so much fun. They were very relaxed and went with the flow. It is hard work to get that bike to go up the hills! I would do this again in no time. Only reason for 4 stars is because we couldn't have drinks on the bike, the staff said they were working on that and it was against the law in Madison (or something to that effect.) Not their fault but would make us come back even quicker! read more

This was my first experience on a trolley pub of any sort, and it greatly surpassed my expectations! The staff made the day...they are fun, positive, outgoing, and encouraging when you feel like you can't pedal anymore! We stopped a couple times to get food, walk around, take a break. At one stop, the driver broke out into an impromptu zumba class on the street (she actually IS a zumba teacher!) and got several of the riders to join. Bystanders and passersby watched and smiled, wondering how they could join in such fun themselves! It was a harder workout than I imagined, but that was partly due to the fact that I joined an established group made up of a couple older folks, and a couple teenage girls. I felt like I was doing 50% of the pedaling for the group! But they were a hoot too. Such a nice way to spend time with friends, or even random strangers who feel like friends afterwards. read more