- April 11, 2025
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Want to learn more about Sarasota’s storied circus history? Fascinated by the town’s midcentury modern architecture? Intrigued by the Amish community in Pinecraft? Whatever your interest, Tammy Hauser’s Discover Sarasota Tours by trolley have got you covered.
You’ll find Hauser’s entertainment empire (just a little hyperbole here, folks) housed in a 1930s bungalow on Fruitville Road not far from the intersection with Washington Avenue.
It’s got free parking, a gift shop, a porch for waiting and Dolly the Trolley, Hauser’s air-conditioned “baby.” Discover Sarasota is also home to a troupe of tour guides and theatrical performers, many of whom have graced stages around town.
In a time when adoration of the uber-rich and exclusivity seem to be encroaching on Sarasota’s welcoming tradition, Hauser’s traveling trolley tours are a bastion of Midwestern egalitarianism.
It’s safe to say the ethos of Hauser’s operation derives from the fact that she was raised in Iowa and spent her career largely in Minneapolis. Now some folks might call Minnesota a Great Lakes or even Great Plains state, but we don’t want to split geographical hairs. Let’s just say Hauser understands snowbirds and transplants from Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.
Her customers are largely women who like learning, socializing and spending time with their families. They enjoy the arts, proudly wear festive sweaters and start celebrating the holidays a month before Halloween and don’t stop until New Year’s Day.
Hauser’s customers like to cook, decorate and entertain. They also like to shop. You’ll find them before and after trolley tours in the cheery Discover Sarasota Tours store.
With candy-colored interiors, the selection of Florida souvenirs and books offered in this souvenir oasis is rivaled only by the gift shops at The Ringling and the Sarasota Art Museums. Once you know about it, you’ll stop by for a last-minute birthday or hostess gift.
One reason Hauser knows her market so well is she is not so different from her customers. When I first met her back in December, she was sitting on the porch of the Discover Sarasota bungalow wearing a mint green sweatshirt with the word “Jolly” emblazoned on it in big colorful letters.
Hauser’s fond of oversized pink glasses, but in honor of the upcoming Christmas season, she was wearing red spectacles. By her side was Charlie, a Tibetan spaniel who is the tour company’s mascot.
Hauser’s the kind of woman you’ll immediately want to call Tammy, even if you just met her. But beneath the Midwestern folksiness lies a shrewd businesswoman who has honed her marketing skills in retail, theater and arts nonprofits.
The recent gyrations in the stock market have worried Hauser, who holds an MBA. People who normally would take four or five tours with Discover Sarasota might cut back to just one. Each 90-minute tour costs about $55, and it’s not uncommon for visitors to take more than one during a vacation. “If they come for one, they almost always come back for another and bring friends and family,” Hauser says.
After nine years in Florida, Hauser’s a trouper who knows how to deal with destructive hurricanes. She even managed to stay afloat during the pandemic by operating an ice cream truck when she had to suspend her trolley tours.
Still, she needs her customers to feel financially secure enough to buy a book about circus history in the gift shop or foot the bill for family members on one of her company’s air conditioned tours.
Like other successful entrepreneurs, Hauser understands the importance of diversification and expansion, not to mention quality and reliability. On the diversification front, she’s got several different tours that repeat at the same time each week, according to the calendar. Needless to say, Halloween and Christmas are banner seasons.
After partnering with Venice Florida Tours, Discover Sarasota Tours recently expanded its operations to Venice, our neighbor 17 miles to the south. A beautiful town of pink Mediterranean-style architecture, Venice is where the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus moved its winter home in 1960, after spending 33 years in Sarasota.
Circus- and architecture-themed tours have been a big draw for Hauser in Sarasota, and they have been popular in Venice, which is quieter and more conservative than Sarasota, an eclectic town whose thriving arts scene employs and attracts a diverse crowd.
When you’re running a tourist operation like Hauser, it’s good to have several income streams. Besides generating revenues from tours and the gift shop, Discover Sarasota sells advertising in its guidebooks, which patrons hold onto for future reference.
When they open up the books again, they’ll see ads for restaurants, stores and arts organizations such as Sarasota Ballet and the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. In addition to all the other hats she wears, Hauser is in the media business.
Hauser got her start running trolleys in Sarasota when she moved here a decade ago. At the time, she was an arts consultant working for the Sarasota Center for Architecture, a predecessor organization to Architecture Sarasota, on assignment from the Gulf Coast Community Foundation.
Through her Blue Sky Thinking LLC arts consultancy, Hauser advised the architectural organization to start a trolley tour. “I looked around and I couldn’t believe there wasn’t a trolley tour in a tourist destination like Sarasota, with its magnificent architectural history,” she said.
To act as guides for the tour, Hauser hired longtime architecture columnist Harold Bubil and historic preservation expert Lorrie Muldowney. Hauser believes in recruiting well-known experts to lead her tours.
“Every Thursday, we rented a trolley and ran this tour,” Hauser recalls. “It would sell out every week. People absolutely loved it. I looked around and found that there weren’t any trolley tours for all these interesting things about Sarasota — history, the Amish, the circus.”
With that realization, Hauser put away her nonprofit persona and decided to go into business for herself. She formed Discover Sarasota Tours, conveniently located a few doors down from The Breakfast House, Siegfried’s German Restaurant, the Chamber of Commerce and the city’s tourist organization, Visit Sarasota.
Hauser discovered the 1930s-era cottage that is now Discover Sarasota Tours’ home when she dropped off marketing materials to the Chamber. She noticed a “For Rent” sign by Marlene Lancaster Realty. Once Lancaster showed her the property, the deal was sealed.
“Marlene is third-generation Sarasota,” according to Hauser. “Her father worked for the city’s Parks & Rec department. He was responsible for putting up the Dolphin Statue Fountain at Bayfront Park. Marlene loved the idea of tours to show off the city’s history.”
When Discover Sarasota Tours opened in October 2018, the first excursions offered were ghost tours because it was the spooky season. The company’s launch coincided with a red tide outbreak, which sent tourists scrambling for alternatives to the beach.
The next year, Hauser offered eight tours by leasing a trolley that came with a driver. At the time, Hauser was the reservationist for all of the tours. Everything was going well until she was forced to shut down in March 2020 because of COVID.
“It was absolutely devastating,” she recalls. “I was not at all prepared for it. I had to refund thousands of dollars.”
Enter the ChillMobile, a 1970s ice cream truck that Hauser had purchased on Facebook Marketplace after a gin and tonic or two. (“Don’t drink and shop online!”) She had originally planned to park the truck next to the company bungalow and use it to sell drinks and snacks.
When Hauser realized she wasn’t going to qualify for government aid to small businesses because she didn’t meet the requirement of two full-time employees (Her tour guides are contractors.), Hauser decided to go into the ice cream business full time. She obtained her cold comforts from Sweetheart Ice Cream in Tampa, Pop Craft in North Gate and Lickety-Split in Lakewood Ranch.
“Every day in 2020 and 2021, I was out in the ice cream truck with my dog, Max,” she says. “I built a business off of Facebook, word of mouth and by driving hours and hours, mostly in Lakewood Ranch.”
Hauser had to say goodbye to both Max, who died of old age, and the ChillMobile, whose electrical system got flooded by a hurricane. But she ultimately qualified for COVID relief funds for arts organizations. When that money came through, she used it to buy her own trolley, which she christened Dolly. The trolley was custom built for Hauser in Wisconsin and arrived in Sarasota in 2021.
Today, Hauser runs between six and 17 tours a week, depending on the season. Since Discover Sarasota Tours only owns one trolley, each tour has its own day and time that doesn’t vary.
Excursions run the gamut, from a general City Tour of local landmarks to a Psychic Sundays tour with psychic Deni Dreazen to a murder mystery outing called “Who Killed the Circus Queen?” with real actors in character and costume.
A perennial favorite is “Leading Ladies of Sarasota,” with guide Kathryn Chesley playing one of the city’s “founding mothers,” either Bertha Palmer, Marie Selby or Mable Ringling for the duration of the tour.
Chesley and her husband came to Hauser soon after she opened Discover Sarasota Tours and pitched her on history tours led by Kathryn and arts tours led by Jerome Chesley.
Another crowd pleaser is the Amish Experience tour, which teaches guests about the Amish and Mennonite neighborhoods in Sarasota in what Hauser calls a “respectful” fashion. Stops on the tour include Der Dutchman for a pie sample, the Carlisle Inn to view folk art and Alma Sue’s Quilt Shop to learn about the importance of quilting in the communities’ culture.
Stock market ups and downs not withstanding, Hauser’s trolley tours are rolling along. But there are always fires to be put out.
A recent visit to Discover Sarasota Tours found Hauser sorting out technical difficulties with Dolly the Trolley’s state-of-the-art sound system. But she took it all in stride. After all, what’s fixing a crackling sound system compared to surviving a pandemic and hurricanes?
