Wedding transportation, birthday rides, anniversary outings and event pedicabs in State College and Happy Valley. A chariot ride turns an occasion into something people photograph and remember.
Most celebration transportation is a way of getting from one place to another. A chariot ride is part of the occasion itself.
That is the whole reason people book one. Nobody photographs the car that took them to the reception. They photograph the chariot, and so do the guests, and so does the photographer, because it is the one thing at the event that nobody was expecting.
We have been running chariots around State College since 2012, through weddings, graduations, birthdays, first dates, fortieth anniversaries and a good number of festivals. What follows is what each of those actually involves.
Rent a Vamos! Lion Chariot for a birthday and make the party extra fun. Decorations or simple custom touches may be possible when arranged in advance.
Provide fun, comfortable short-distance transportation for graduates, families, or student groups looking to visit iconic University Park photo spots without walking or driving across campus.
Make a date, anniversary, or romantic surprise more memorable with a private chariot ride. Custom route ideas and special touches can be discussed during planning.
Birthday plans in Happy Valley tend to come down to the same short list, and most people have already done all of it. A chariot ride is the part of the day nobody has done before.
For children, the ride itself is the event. A loop around campus, a stop at the Nittany Lion Shrine, a run down to the Creamery and back, with the birthday child sitting up front. Decorations can be added when they are arranged in advance.
For adults, it usually works as the link between the parts of an evening. Dinner downtown, a ride across to wherever the night continues, and a good deal of attention on the way. Groups of three fit in one chariot. Larger parties are handled by running more than one, which needs arranging when you book.
The rides that work best are the ones with a destination rather than a lap. Somewhere to arrive is what makes it feel like part of the celebration instead of a novelty.
Add a unique, photo-friendly touch to your Happy Valley wedding. While not a replacement for full-scale event transportation, the chariot can be a memorable add-on for short rides, photos, entrances, exits, or nearby guest transportation.
Consider a chariot ride for:
Contact us to customize timing, location, chariot décor and driver attire.
State College is a small town with a large campus in the middle of it, which makes it unusually good for this. The Arboretum, the Old Main lawn, the quiet end of campus after dark, and downtown a few minutes away from all of it.
A chariot ride works for an anniversary because it slows the evening down. Walking the same route takes effort and attention. Sitting in the chariot leaves both people free to look at where they are and talk to each other, which is usually the point.
Couples book these for anniversaries, for proposals, and fairly often for no occasion at all. Route, timing and any surprise element can be planned in advance, including stopping at a particular spot at a particular moment.
Evenings in late spring and early autumn are the ones people ask for most, and they are also the ones that book up first.
Graduation weekend has a particular problem. The whole family is in town, the photographs have to happen at several places across a large campus, and half the group cannot comfortably walk between them.
A chariot solves the middle part. Grandparents ride, everyone else walks alongside, and the group stays together between the Shrine, Old Main, the stadium and wherever the ceremony is.
It is also the busiest weekend of our year. If graduation is the reason you are reading this, book well before the date rather than after the tickets arrive.
Rent our chariot pedicabs for Penn State events, State College events, festivals, and special gatherings. Our chariots may also be available for select regional events depending on availability.
Vamos! Lion Chariot has provided fun, memorable short-distance transportation for events such as Boalsburg Memorial Day, Penn State Welcome Week, Downtown State College's First Friday, the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, and other occasions where pedicabs add energy, visibility, and a unique guest experience.
Contact us to inquire about availability for your special event.
What we need from you:
From there we tell you whether the date is available, what the ride will cost, and anything about the route or the timing that is worth knowing before you commit to it.
Two things worth saying plainly. Weekend dates in spring and autumn go early, and anything involving decoration or a fixed arrival time needs more notice than a straightforward ride. Neither is a problem when there is time to arrange it.
As early as you can. We run a small number of chariots and a single driver can only be in one place at a time, so weekend dates in the spring and autumn tend to go first. Graduation weekend and home football weekends are the two periods that fill earliest.
Three passengers comfortably. Depending on passenger size we can sometimes take a fourth. Larger groups are handled with multiple trips or by arranging more than one chariot, which needs to be discussed when you book.
Yes, when it is arranged in advance. Decoration, driver attire and route can all be discussed during planning. What we cannot do is decorate on the day without notice, because it takes time and the chariot is usually coming from another booking.
It depends on the conditions. Light rain is usually fine. Heavy rain, storms or ice are not, for the safety of the passengers and the driver. If the weather makes a ride unsafe we will tell you as early as we can rather than at the last minute.
Sometimes. It depends on the distance, the date and what else is booked that day. Tell us the venue and the time when you enquire and we will say plainly whether it works.
It depends on the occasion, the length of the ride, the time of day and how much is being arranged around it. Rates for standard rides are on the rates page, and anything involving decoration, multiple stops or a specific timing window is quoted after we have spoken.
Celebration and event rides can be a great fit for:
Tell us the date, the occasion and roughly what you have in mind. We will tell you whether it works and what it costs.
Vamos! Lion Chariot Tours is locally owned and serves the Penn State and State College area. We are not officially affiliated with Penn State University.