With limited time in Clearwater Beach, we didn’t plan any major activities. We just wanted to relax, spend time together and explore the area a little bit. What better way to explore than on the Jolley Trolley?
The Jolley Trolley popped up in a lot of the research we did before the trip and then the concierge at our hotel highly recommended it. The trolley offers a North Beach Route and a South Beach Route, both of which stay local to Clearwater Beach, as well as a Coastal Route, which crosses the causeway, stopping in Dunedin on the way to Tarpon Springs. As an added bonus, it was free to us as part of our hotel stay at Opal Sands.
Armed with a map and the trolley schedule from the concierge, we headed to the trolley stop across from the hotel. We planned to take it to downtown Clearwater Beach and explore there for a bit before continuing on to Dunedin. We got to the stop in plenty of time for the next trolley… and proceeded to wait… and wait… and wait. We watched several trolleys pass by in the opposite direction while we waited. We double checked the schedule and then used the Jolley Trolley Tracker and discovered that there were no trolleys heading in our direction, despite the schedule. So we decided to cut our losses and walk to downtown Clearwater Beach. It wasn’t that far and it was a nice day to enjoy a stroll along the beach.
After exploring downtown Clearwater Beach (including lingering at the Hulk Hogan store hoping he would make an appearance), we decided to attempt the trolley again so we could go over to Dunedin. This would require catching a trolley on the Coastal Route. We checked the schedule and figured out that we had to make our way to the Clearwater Beach Marina. We got there… and waited… and waited.
Finally a trolley arrived and three dejected passengers got off. The driver quickly informed us that she was on the Beach Route and not the Coastal Route but that the next Coastal Route trolley was only 5 minutes behind her. The three disgruntled passengers explained that they had been trying to get across the causeway for an hour to no avail. So they sat and waited with us for the next trolley that would supposedly be arriving in 5 minutes.
Fifteen minutes later a trolley finally arrived and we excitedly checked with the driver to see if he was on the Coastal Route. Nope! He wasn’t even a Jolley Trolley! He was a Suncoast Trolley, which looked surprisingly similar. We told him that he was the most jolly driver we had seen all day and was he sure he couldn’t drive the Jolley Trolley route? He got a good laugh out of that but then continued on his jolly suncoast way. We entertained ourselves by exploring around the marina.
Finally, after over an hour of waiting, an actual Coastal Route Jolley Trolley showed up. We boarded it excitedly, ready to finally make it to Dunedin. We made our way across the causeway and got to our first stop… at a bus station. The driver put the trolley in park, turned around and said “we wait here for about 10 minutes.” What?!? They apparently try to sync up the trolley schedule (which seemed loose at best) with the bus schedule so that people could coordinate different legs of their public transportation. This was getting ridiculous!
Eventually we continued on our way and made it to Dunedin… roughly three hours after we left our hotel. Thankfully we were more interested in the company than the journey or destination so we took it all in stride and found humor in the situation. We did enjoy walking around Dunedin, checking out the cute shops and having a great Mexican meal. (Was it lunch? Dinner? Not really sure after the crazy timing of the day but it was excellent.)
So our assessment of the Jolley Trolley is that there is nothing, in fact, jolly about it. It is poorly run and misleading in its purpose. The city advertises the Jolley Trolley as a tourist attraction while still utilizing it as regular public transportation. In theory it can be both things but only if it runs on schedule and minimizes the disruption to the routes by eliminating long stops. Not surprisingly, we ended up taking an Uber back.
