Tea Around Town brings its unique bus tours to Phoenix
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Tea Around Town brought its "afternoon tea party on a bus" to Phoenix, one of 12 cities where it operates. Photo: Courtesy of TopView Sightseeing
Put on your fanciest clothes and enjoy a tea party on wheels in the heart of Phoenix.
State of play: Tea Around Town offers a unique experience — an afternoon tea party combined with a scenic tour of the city.
- A pink and white double-decker bus decorated with flowers on the inside takes tea partygoers on a 90-minute guided tour through central and downtown Phoenix.
How it works: Riders, who often "dress to the nines," get tea, treats, sightseeing and live singing that includes classics, jazz, contemporary and pop songs with "a Bridgerton vibe spin on it" said Ryan Prescott, of TopView Sightseeing, which runs Tea Around Town.
- Tea selections change seasonally, with warmer and richer brews like pumpkin spice or apple cinnamon in the fall or winter, and offerings like hibiscus, berry and green teas in the warmer seasons.
- Tours are narrated, with guides providing fun facts beyond the things you could find in a Wikipedia search, Prescott said.
Zoom in: TopView, a New York-based sightseeing tour bus company, launched Tea Around Town in the Big Apple in 2023 and began expanding westward.
- It's now in a dozen cities, most recently Los Angeles, Miami, San Antonio and, as of about a month ago, Phoenix.
What they're saying: "People love that it's something different. It's a highly photogenic opportunity, so it's very Instagrammable or social media friendly," Prescott said.
Between the lines: Tea Around Town has gotten a good reception in Phoenix so far, he said.
- They're still learning their way through Phoenix, getting the lay of the land when it comes to streets, traffic patterns and heat that led them to add additional air conditioning units.
Tickets start at $79 and are more expensive on weekends and holidays.
- You can get tickets for groups as small as two, or rent the entire bus — it holds 38 passengers — for special events.