What is Included on an All-Inclusive Tour with Brews Cruise?

Brews Cruise tours that are offered across the country are designed in an all-inclusive format. You pay one time for our tour ticket, and we make sure that the rest of your experience is covered. But what does that actually mean?

We want to ensure our guests have an experience they will never forget, which could be hard to do if you had to pay for everything along the way. So we created all of our tours in an all-inclusive format.

So.. what exactly does Brews Cruise provide for each guest on our tours?

Alcohol Samples

Tasters and flights at each stop are included in your ticket price. Each location we visit will provide a sample of their latest or most sought-after craft alcohol products. You can expect multiple samples to explore different styles and brands when we are there. You are not obligated to finish all of the samples, we’re sure there will be somebody nearby to help you out.

Our tours generally always include beer, but often our itineraries will also include wine, cider, mead, kombucha, gruit, or spirits!

There is always time for purchasing an additional pour, cans, bottles, merchandise, growlers, or a snack from our partner or a nearby the food truck. Those additional purchases are on your own.

Production Tour

Each tour itinerary is scheduled in advance with our partners and are ideally designed to include at least one tour of a production facility. This is based on availability of staff and other events that may be happening at the time of our visit. 

Our guests love the chance to see where the magic happens. Either your Brews Cruise guide or someone from the team will talk about how their production equipment and methods, as well as the techniques they use to create each flavor.

Things like getting your hands on different styles of hops or barley, peeking into open fermentation tanks, or watching a canning or bottling run are just a few incredible experiences that often happen on our tours.     

Tour Guide

Not only do you get a behind-the-scenes look at amazing breweries, wineries, and distilleries, but your expert Brews Cruise guidance counselor is there every step of the way to serve as your own beverage consultant.

Don’t like IPA’s because they are too bitter? Never liked white spirits after that one gin-cident many years ago? Wish you liked sour beers…but you just can’t get into them? You are not alone with these or other feelings, so our guides will do their best to find products you may be surprised by.

They will also take you through the incredible history of the city each stop calls home. Trivia in the categories of math, science, history, geography, and vocabulary is always a highlight on our tours. And we love talking about the area came to be one of the top beer destinations in the world are just the start of all you have to learn on our tours!

Designated Driver

One of the best parts of this tour with us is your safe and sober driver. Think of them as your own personal chauffeur to safely get you to multiple locations that are all serving alcohol.

Many of our stops are significantly outside of a downtown area, so having a driver taking care of the navigation and parking is certainly a huge advantage over trying to find each location on your own. And let’s not forget the implications from drinking and then operating a vehicle.

In many cases, the drivers are also your guides, so the person that is leading your tour is very well equipped to make a safe and incredible experience.

Scheduled Appointments

Nobody likes to be surprised by unexpected visitors, so all of our schedules are coordinated with our partners well ahead of your tour. We also remind them again before the visit and let them know how many people to expect.

Nearly all of the places we visit are open to the public, but you and your friends will not have the kind of insider access that we have when we visit at our scheduled times.  

And we are very particular about timing, we like to arrive at each location precisely when we say we will be there. That’s why we give frequent and clear timing instructions, especially before we leave a location. 

Snacks

Each tour includes some sort of a light snack. We feel it’s an essential piece to make sure that you maintain for the duration of the tour, and the time after. We want to make sure that your tour with us isn’t the last thing you do while visiting the area.

As mentioned earlier, of you need something more substantial this can be accomplished at one of our tour stops.

Water

Water will be provided on each tour, either in bottled form on the vehicle or pointed out at each tour stop. Since alcohol strips water from the body, an easy way to prevent dehydration is to keep the H20 flowing. Also, as you learned once in health class, alcohol is a diuretic. That means it makes you need to use the bathroom more often than you usually would.

Besides, the best way to avoid a hangover is to moderate your drinking and have water between alcoholic drinks. So if you need more, just ask us—we’ll be happy to get more water for you!

Partner Gratuities

At each location we visit, you may catch our team paying for the samples and the experience that we all enjoyed. We also pay gratuity (on behalf of you) to the staff at each location for the service that was received.

In most cases, we have a dedicated staff member from our partners who is working directly with us for the duration of the time that we are there. Their time is essential so that we can get an in-depth experience right from a facility representative.

If you are on a public tour and feel that our team did a good job, then a gratuity may be appropriate to be left in the cup by the door. They always split their gratuities evenly. So although tips are never expected, they are greatly appreciated by our team.

If you book a private tour, than gratuity for our driver and guide is already included in the private package.

Insurance

Not exactly the first thing you might think about, but our company is fully insured to operate our tours. This includes business liability, commercial vehicle coverage, and any other requirements related to our alcohol tours.

We are also registered with each city or county as a tour operator and we operate well within the local ordinances and laws.

Other Goodies

Depending on which Brews Cruise location you visit, you may find branded tote bags, stickers, bottle openers, or other merchandise items for our guests. Many are offered free of charge, where other items may be available for a small cost. 

You might also find information and discounts for area events and attractions. You’ll often find out about an upcoming beer festival in the area by finding a flyer in the bag.

Private Tour Benefits

With our private tour pricing, you and your group will be the only ones on board. You’ll have the bus to yourself and it also includes gratuity for each stop, the driver and the guide.

Our public tours will include anyone else who has booked that itinerary, and the pricing is based per person. It includes gratuity for each stop but NOT for the driver and guide.

As you can see, our all-inclusive tours include much more than you might think. They are designed this way so that you don’t have to pay for anything else unless you want to.

Our idea is that if guests know before the tour exactly what the costs are (with no surprises or extra fees), then they will be more inclined to buy merchandise and packaged alcohol to take home!

So sit back, relax and enjoy your all-inclusive ride with us as we take care of Driving You to Drink Local.

Don Littlefield is the President of Brews Cruise, Inc. While preparing this post, he enjoyed a can of Sierra Nevada Celebration IPA. Twitter: @BeerinME