WILLIAMSBURG-A new walking tour option is now available in Colonial Williamsburg. Husband-and-wife team T.C. and Brenna Michaels, who hail from Georgia, officially kicked off their new walking tour business, Genteel & Bard, in the Historic Area on March 28. Prior to adding Williamsburg to the mix, the couple had been focusing their time on curating in-depth walking tours outside their front door in Savannah’s Historic District.
Locally, Genteel & Bard started with offering year-round Dark History & Ghost Tours in the evenings in Colonial Williamsburg. Later this summer, T.C. and Brenna Michaels plan to add a Williamsburg Walking Tour and Women of Williamsburg historical tour to the lineup.
Brenna Michaels said they are proud to have talented, well-read, and passionate local historians who serve as tour guides.
“We have a team of four people in Williamsburg, and they’re all super talented,” said Brenna Michaels. “They all have a lot of experience with speaking to groups of people, and not only know their history, but are passionate about the local history, which is a big requirement.”
She said that while there are other tour group companies in the area, their establishment brings a unique experience as the only audio-enhanced walking tour company in Colonial Williamsburg.
“With our tours, we set the tone from the beginning so it’s an immersive experience all the way through the end,” said Brenna Michaels. “Our tours are a full two hours, so it feels more like you’ve gone to see a movie.”
Walking tour guides wear a microphone so guests are able to hear detailed information from up to 100 feet away through complimentary souvenir earbuds. Brenna Michaels said the sound is transferred through wireless receivers that guests can carry in their pockets.
“The receivers are smaller than cell phones and allow you to enjoy your personal space without feeling closed-in or crammed into a large group,” said Brenna Michaels. She said that families with small children and people who are traveling with dogs find them advantageous.
T.C. and Brenna Michaels have found that their business style of historical delivery allows for continuous storytelling versus times of silence experienced from walking from location to location during traditional tours.
“There’s a lot of preproduction that goes into the tours, and we curate our tours a little differently,” said Brenna Michaels. “It’s sort of a mesh of what you would normally encounter in a museum, but we’re bringing it outside onto a walk.”
After successful careers in Atlanta, T.C. as a popular radio personality and Brenna as an assistant casting director, the couple moved to Savannah in 2013. In the summer of 2017, T.C. was laid off from his position as a program director. The news was devastating.
“It was a do or die situation,” said Brenna Michaels. “Our son was about a year old, and the company T.C. had been working for was bought out.”
After receiving the life-changing news, the pair decided to take a walk in their downtown Savannah neighborhood. They loved the area and didn’t want to entertain the idea of moving again. Historians themselves, the city’s culture and history had captivated them. During their walk, the couple brainstormed ideas of starting a new business.
“We were asking ourselves what we were passionate about, what we both loved and enjoyed,” said Brenna Michaels. “We needed something we could start immediately and actually started working on the idea of a walking tour company that afternoon. By the time we went to bed that night, we had already put together a business plan.”
Nearly five years later, Genteel & Bard is branching out nationally and plans to open another location this summer in St. Augustine, FL in addition to their new location in Williamsburg.
Genteel & Bard’s Williamsburg Dark History & Ghost Tour begins in Merchants Square outside of Kimball Theatre located at 428 West Duke of Gloucester St. in Williamsburg. Tickets cost $25 for adults and $15 for children between the ages of 7 and 12. For more information or to schedule a walking tour, visit Genteel & Bard’s website.