6.06.2008

Segway tours in Atlanta

My family loves living in metro Atlanta and are always up for learning more about out adopted home. Early this spring I was excited to learn that City Segway Tours had an Atlanta office, offering 3-hour tours of downtown. For once I knew had the perfect birthday for my wife!

Purchasing a birthday gift for one's spouse gets more and more complicated once kids are in the picture, however, especially when the gift is an activity and a babysitter needs to be scheduled. It was for this reason that my wife's birthday gift was two months late...

We booked our tour a couple of weeks out because the tours often sell out. The 3-hour tour is $70, but if you book through Viator, enter FAB7 for a 7% discount. Tours run twice a day at 10am and 2pm, 7 days a week.

My wife and I arrived 15 minutes before our 2pm tour at the City Segway Tours' office on the top level of Underground Atlanta at 50 Upper Alabama St SW, Suite 256. After signing away our lives we watched a brief video on how to operate the Segway. Afterwards we made our way outside to Upper Alabama Street which is open to pedestrian traffic only, making it a perfect place to learn how to use a Segway.

While tours can have up to 8 clients with a guide, there were only four of us paired with our guide and six in the other group. With help from our guide, we individually learned how to mount, move, turn, and dismount the Segway. Each of us spent about 10 minutes practicing, and then we were off!

The tour took us past the former World of Coca Cola museum to the Georgia State Capitol. From there we went through the campus of Georgia State University, past Grady Hospital, to the Sweet Auburn Historic District. Along Auburn Avenue we saw the Soul Food Museum, Wheat Street Baptist Church, Ebenezer Baptist Church, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Center. After a brief stop, we headed northwest past Woodruff Park to Centennial Olympic Park, where one of the few fountains in Atlanta is currently running due of the drought. After a photo op, we circled the park and then made our way back to Atlanta Underground.

Fortunately my wife loved it and says it was worth the wait.