Cruising through the downtown streets on a Segway, you feel a lot like the nerdy kid from high school arriving at the 20-year reunion in a Porsche. Heads turn, jaws drop, and the admiration is palpable, although it’s accompanied by an undeniable whiff of geek-chic.
Scoffers tend to change their tune, however, when they try a tour. Segways can cover more ground than walking tours, without isolating sightseers from the city the way a bus can. Segways are also a great equalizer: If someone in your party has mobility issues or just doesn’t like to walk much, they allow you to sightsee together. You can find Segway tours on the beach, in state parks and even in Walt Disney World, but tours of urban areas are catching on in Florida, where visitors can choose from about 50 guided tours from the Panhandle to the Keys.
While most companies set their age minimum in the teens, there’s no upper limit: Riders in their 80s are common. Maneuvering a Segway is so intuitive – shift your weight forward to move forward, backward to move back – that most novices master it in five minutes.
Once they’ve explored a city by Segway, new riders tend to look for similar tours in each place they visit, says Tom Jacobson, who owns Florida Ever-Glides in Sarasota, the oldest Segway-tour company in the country. (Like ska bands, Segway companies seem to find no end to Segway-related puns.) Like many of Florida’s guided tours, his itineraries take advantage of the vehicles’ suitability to urban environments: Because Segs can ride on the sidewalk, riders feel safe from city traffic, and the quiet electric motors mean they can easily hear the tour guide interpret the sights as they pass.
The tours are as individual as the towns they zip through: Clearwater’s tour is led by a pirate-garbed guide who spouts buccaneer trivia. Other urban Segway highlights in Florida include Tampa Bay Segs‘ trip through downtown St. Petersburg, which combines the highlights of the arts scene with a glide past 100-year-old banyan trees to the city’s bustling pier, and Bike and Roll Miami’s tour through the the Art Deco architecture of Ocean Drive. In Sarasota, Ever-Glides’ longest tour takes riders from the city’s theater district over the Ringling Bridge to Lido Beach.
Many companies also offer custom or private tours.
Thanks to Florida Ever-Glides for hosting me on a tour.