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Segways in San Francisco

Segways in San Francisco

When we mention the word Segway as a method of transportation, your first thoughts might be nerds, lazy people, cops, or perhaps a mixture of all three for those who have seen the movie Paul Blart: Mall Cop.

But it’s time to push those negative perceptions of the Segway aside – these ‘vehicles’ are actually a fun and novel way to explore many cities across the United States and around the world. With a top speed of 12 mph (20 km/h), you can cover a whole lot more ground on a Segway than you ever could on foot and have a whole lot of fun whilst doing it!

Despite having some initial reservations, we chose to participate in a Segway tour of San Francisco in August 2009. Why exactly? Well we were trying to see as much of the city as we could in a short time frame and thought we would give them a try after seeing Segway tours were ranked #2 and #5 on TripAdvisor’s list of Things to Do in San Francisco.

Kieron & Amy on Segways with San Francisco as a backdrop

As we sat through a short introductory video and undertook the initial training, doubts about whether we really wanted to do this tour started to creep in. Probably because we felt like were going to look like massive dorks and be pointed out and laughed at in public – thankfully they didn’t make us wear those bright yellow vests like some of the other Segway tours!

But after quickly getting the hang of the Segways, our tour group of 7 hit the hilly streets of San Francisco and we knew why these tours were so widely raved about! For around 3 hours we rode through the financial district and down to the waterfront to see the Embarcadero and all the famous sites of San Francisco bay. We got to see many sights we wouldn’t otherwise have seen, learned a lot about the landmarks of the city from our knowledgeable guide and had plenty of fun as well.

If you have the opportunity and the budget (approx. $70 per person) to take a Segway tour on your travels, we highly recommend it – it was definitely one of the highlights of our vacation!

Flickr Photo: jpellgen

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