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...........Steve's Segway Tours...........

Located at the far East end of Upper Randolph Street . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312-946-9467
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Why Choose Us
 
Hello, Steve here once again.  Welcome to this very important page on our web site.  If you are looking to take a Segway tour in Chicago, please allow me to explain, in detail, why you should choose Steve's Segway Tours.  It doesn't matter if you are looking to Book a Tour for just yourself, a few people, or even a large group, the following reasons are just as valid for each.
 

Reason #1 --  We Have the New Segway i2 Personal Transporters!
 
Okay, this reason is no longer valid as all Segway tour companies have the i2 nowadays.  I left it here for historical reasons and I thought you might get a kick out of reading it.  However, feel free to skip to reasons 2-9 as they are ALL still 100% valid!
 
If you take a tour with us you will be riding the latest in Segway technology -- the i2 personal transporter (PT).  We have them, and some of our competition do not!  This is because the i2 PT "rolled" out of the factory in late August of 2006.  Because we are a new company *(see note below), established in 2007, we got to purchase the latest and greatest in Segway technology for your touring pleasure.  Segways are very expensive -- about $5,000 per unit.  We got lucky that Segway made such a technological breakthrough right before Steve's Segway Tours was established.  Our competition has not been so lucky.  They already had a considerable sum invested in their old units, thus making the purchase of the new and vastly improved Segway i2 units cost prohibitive for them.  If you are not completely familiar with the difference between the old Segway technology and the far superior new technology of the i2 PTs, please take a minute now to read our write up "The Segway i2 - a Drastic Improvement in Technology" on our About Segways web page.
 
* Note  -  Remember, we are new, not inexperienced!  Please see our About Us web page and Reason #6 below, to learn about our background, philosophy, and experience, and how that will translate into a superior tour experience for you.
 

Reason #2 --  Longer Tour - More Bang for Your Buck!
 
We are storytellers.  You will always get the basic Chicago historical facts from us (and they will be correct, lol - call anytime and ask me about that), but you will get so much more!  In fact, you can take the same, main, Lakefront/Museum Campus Tour 4 or 5 times with us, with a different Tour Guide each time, and even though the route will be very similar, you will hear different stories about Chicago each time!
 
Our tours ARE longer than those of our competition, but guess what?  They go by so quickly, even the most attention-span challenged teenager wants to keep going at the end of 3 (or even 4 hours of tour)!  A customer called last year to book a return tour for her family.  She had been with us a few years before.  She wanted the "same" 1.5 hour tour they did before.  When i explained that was a 3 hour tour, she was incredulous.  "Steve, it was so much fun I didn't realize!", she told me.  Longer tours means more value for your dollars.
 
Our Evening and Winter tours used to be 2 hour tours.  You can still ask for this anytime.  However, so many people (like 95%) booking these over the last few years, when asked by me if they wanted to take a 2.5 hour tour for only $5 more per person, replied yes. Hence, I changed the official tour lengths to 2.5 hours on the Book a Tour webpage.
 
And want to know a little secret?  Most of my Tour Guides I can't get back on time!  I pay them by the tour and by the wonderful tips you provide.  I don't pay them by the hour.  And yet, they bond with you, and have such a fantastic time with you that they extend the tour so very often (even when I need the Segways back to charge).

Reason #3 --  Superior Safety and Training 
 
One of the reasons I started Steve's Segway Tours was because I wanted to control the training process.  As the owner I personally train all my tour guides, and require their teaching techniques to meet my strict standards.  We NEVER sacrifice safety for speed. That is, we do not depart until everyone is very comfortable on their Segways!  Nor do we sacrifice the integrity of the tour for training.  If one or more members of your group need longer to train and get comfortable, we will delay the start of the actual tour, but we will not curtail the actual tour as a result! Not only don't we sacrifice safety in order to provide our customers more time actually riding the Segway, but we stress safety and I won't allow any tour to depart the training area until every rider has mastered the most important safety techniques.

Note -- Don't let me scare you.  Riding the Segway is extremely safe and there are very few accidents, even with the older model that lacks the LeanSteer™ technology.  If you choose our competition you will still be happy, and most likely all will go well.  Even though you are not likely to be involved in an accident on any Segway, you are less likely to be involved in an accident with our superior training.  Therefore, when you tour with Steve's Segway Tours, you are less likely to either hurt yourself or damage the machine, for which you are responsible (see Damage Waiver).
Reason #4 --  We Offer More Tour Options by Far!
 
We want you to ride with us.  In fact, we want you to ride with us again and again!  That's why we offer you more tour options by far  than our competition.
 
If you've never taken a Segway tour of Chicago before, we highly recommend you take our three-hour Morning or Afternoon Tour.  Even if you've ridden a Segway before, this is a great tour!  We ride through Grant Park, Museum Campus, the Lakefront, and downtown Michigan Avenue.  We stop at Buckingham Fountain, Millennium Park, the Shedd Aquarium, the Adler Planetarium, the Field Museum of Natural History, Soldier Field, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Rose Garden in Grant Park, and more scenic places. We discuss them all, as well as the architecture of the city and many other prominent features of Chicago.

If you are visiting Chicago, we further recommend you take this tour at the beginning of your visit.  This way you will better be able to plan the rest of your visit -- where you want to go, what you want to see and do, and where you want to eat -- by utilizing the expert input of our experienced tour guides.  Even if you visit Chicago regularly, or even live here, you will still benefit greatly from taking this tour.  I guarantee you will learn information about Chicago, and hear stories and anecdotes that are completely new to you.
Want to travel a different route?  We have a North Tour, a River North Tour, an Architecture Tour, and even a Haunted Tour (I like to call it the gruesome murder and death tour)!  All are very popular, and it doesn't matter btw if you believe in spirits or not.  The Haunted Tour is filled with awesome all true stories of unexplained deaths and large scale disasters from Chicago history.
 
Want to ride more and stop less?  Then you might be interested in our two-hour Evening Tour.  We cover almost the same amount of territory, we just do it in an hour less time, with a lot briefer comments from your tour guide.  We highly recommend this tour for after-work corporate outings, where most all participants are local Chicagoans (and hopefully know the downtown area and its history quite well - otherwise, once again we recommend one of our three-hour tours).
 
Have you taken a standard morning, afternoon, or evening tour with us, loved riding the Segway (a common feeling), and now you want to see what it's like to ride the Segway at its top speed?  Then come take our expert level "Red-Key Tour".  It is so named because the older Segway models have 3 keys (settings) -- black, yellow, and red.  The black key is the beginner key and has a top speed of 5 mph.  The yellow key is the intermediate key and has a top speed of 8.5 mph.  That may not sound like much, but it is a far more powerful setting than the black key, which you really notice in turning.  With a top speed of 12.5 mph, the red key is the expert key.  The red key is not used on tours.  It would be irresponsible without sufficient experience.  The new i2 model no longer uses these 3 keys.  It has an "InfoKey™" that can be set to different levels.  Although obsolete, we retain the name "Red-Key Tour" to colorfully describe our expert level tour, wherein you get to ride the Segway at its top, fastest, and most powerful setting.

Have you taken a tour with us and now you want to ride somewhere other than our standard tour route?  No problem!  Steve's Segway Tours allows you to basically "Design Your Own Tour" -- within reason of course.  We'll take you north or south along the lakefront, include a swim at the beach, a picnic lunch, or lunch at a scenic outdoor restaurant.  We'll tour longer or shorter, or start and end at a special time, if you so desire.  Tell us what you want to do, or ask us for suggestions, and we'll make it happen.

Please note -- the "Design Your Own Tour" feature is intended for returning customers.  However, first-time riders with Steve's Segway Tours may certainly elect this option.  We still recommend you take our standard Morning or Afternoon Tour, mostly because it is incredibly fun and informative.  But if you want something different, or added or changed, let us know and we will do everything we can to make it happen -- and far more than our competition will.  By the way, you can combine a "Design Your Own Tour" option with a "Red-Key Tour", but every member of your tour group must be a returning customer, and ready for the red-key challenge.

Reason #5 --  Price Flexibility and Incentives
Reason #6 --  Our Tour Guides, Simply the Best!
 
Steve's Segway Tours has the best Segway tour guides in Chicago.  Our tour guides are the best for the following reasons:
      A) As the owner and a top tour guide i want every tour, and therefore every tour guide,
           to be up my high standards.
      B) Our tour guide training process.
      C) Our selection criteria for hiring tour guides.
      D) Our appreciation of our tour guides, and our realizations/understanding of just how
           important they are.

For a detailed explanation of reason (A) above, please read the Why I Started Steve's Segway Tours section of our
About Us web page.  For detailed explanations of reasons (B) and (C), please read the Why Our Tour Guides Are the Best section of our About Us web page.  As for reason (D), some of our competitors treat their tour guides as easily replaceable business equipment.  If a tour guide is unhappy with something -- tough!  It's their way or the highway.  They'll just hire someone new to lead a satisfactory tour (see the introduction section of our About Us web page).  At Steve's Segway Tours we realize that a great tour guide is necessary in order to have a great tour.  We invest a lot of time and effort into helping our tour guides become great tour guides, and we don't in any way consider them easily replaceable.  In fact, I hire very few if any new guides each year as I am looking for Tour Guides to be here for many many years!  I have guides who have been here since nearly the beginning.  If one of our tour guides is unhappy with something, we listen and discuss it.  If one of our tour guide has a better method of doing something, we switch to that method.  And if one of our tour guides is interested in doing more for Steve's Segway Tours, like marketing, we reward him/her for it.  I really don't believe our competition does this, thus making their tour guides less inclined to make that extra effort for the company, and the customers, that our tour guides make.

By the way, I realize people don't always read the
About Us page on web sites they visit.  However here, I highly recommend you read ours.  Thanks.
 

Reason #7 --  We Care, We Really Care
 
Steve's Segway Tours is a small company dedicated to providing our customers with the best tour of any kind -- Segway, bicycle, bus, boat, walking, etc. -- of the wonderful, historic, and scenic areas of downtown Chicago.  We strive to be the most fun, entertaining, and informative tour on the market.  We want to make money, sure, but we will never sacrifice your experience for our bottom line.  The customer may not always be right (if you deal with customers regularly in your business you definitely know what I mean), but we truly appreciate our customers.  We want you to ride with us.  We want everyone you know to ride with us.  And we want everyone they know to ride with us as well.  I guarantee we will work really hard to make this happen.

I used to be a tour guide for the competition. I put my heart and soul into every tour I led.  For 3+ hours I was dedicated to providing the best possible tour for my riders.  I started Steve's Segway Tours because I want every customer to experience that level of dedication, and hopefully that level of quality.  If you've read
About Us, specifically the section about the relationship between The Tour Guide and You,you understand that the quality of your experience is of paramount importance to us, and definitely far more important than having everything flow orderly and on schedule.  If you haven't read About Us, Why I Started Steve's Segway Tours, and Why Our Tour Guides are the Best (also see Reason #6 above), I urge you to please read these sections of our web site.
 

Reason #8 --  David vs. Goliath 
 
Did you read all 9 reasons why you should take a Segway tour with us?  Why you should choose the Steve's Segway Tours over our competition?  I hope so.  I put a lot of time and effort into this passionate plea for your business.  That's what you get from us -- passion for what we do, true caring about your Segway tour experience with us, and our best effort to make that experience of the highest quality.

Convinced?  Ready to
Book a Tour?  Again, I hope so.  Do you have questions?  Then check out our FAQs page or Contact Us. Please feel free to e-mail or call us.  We'd love to hear from you.  Thank you.

Steve