Staff Review: Philadelphia Segway Tour
That’s right, say it with me: Philly. Cheesesteak. Segway. Tour. Three hours of smooth gliding around Philadelphia, learning about the history of this mighty sandwich, and sampling five from the most reputable establishments. Sound like heaven? Well, you’d be right.
Firstly, what is a cheesesteak? Simply, it’s a chopped or sliced beef steak sandwich with melted cheese (or cheese whiz, which isn’t actually cheese) and fried onions, on a hoagie roll – probably the least photogenic sandwich in the world.
Arriving at the Philly Tour Hub on Arch Street, myself and two others on the tour were shown an instructional video (featuring hilariously graphic stick-men accidents), and introduced to our tour guide, Owen. Even thought I’d been on a Segway before, that was several years ago and was off-road, so there were less cars, pedestrians, pigeons etc. to get in the way. Riding a Segway on the road is a little bit scary, but the promise of hot, cheesy, meaty goodness was enough to get us out amongst the Philadelphia traffic.
Owen provided us with radios clipped to our helmets so we could hear him as we went, which proved useful for the ‘tour’ part as much as the ‘watch out for that car’ part, and soon enough we were confidently zooming through Old City towards the first two stops of the day. When people discuss cheesesteaks in Philly, two restaurants generally come to mind; Pat’s King of Steaks and Geno’s Steaks. The ongoing rivalry keeps tourists and locals coming regularly (although this ‘rivalry’ may not be all it seems), with patrons bickering over who does the best cheesesteak. We tried both and my personal favorite was Pat’s, but I’d be interested to hear alternate opinions!
Our first (two) experiences of the Philly cheesesteak were impressive, so we were keen to move on and see other takes on the sandwich, and whether Pat’s/Geno’s could be beaten. Gliding through Queen Village, we took in more city sights with Owen’s commentary, before arriving at our third destination; Jim’s Steaks (you may see a trend in the names of these places). Opened in 1939, this is one of the oldest cheesesteak establishments in Philadelphia, so our expectations were high. The sandwich was very good and probably had the better cheese, but the steak was chopped a little too finely for me, so Pat’s still held the crown.
With no time to waste, we were back on the road zipping down S 3rd Street, passing the Museum of the American Revolution and the First Bank of the United States, to our final two stops. Sonny’s Famous Steaks and Campo’s are both on Market Street close to the Liberty Bell, so we grabbed a sandwich from each and took a seat outside. This took our total to five quarters of a cheesesteak each, so 125% of a whole sandwich! Sonny’s and Campo’s were also very good (to be honest at this point I was in a bit of a cheesesteak coma), and we got the chance to really chat with Owen about Philadelphia as a place to live, and its fascinating history.
That was the end of our gourmet excursion, but we still had a few minutes to ride around on the Segways seeing Penn’s Landing and famous Chestnut Street, before arriving back at the tour hub. Segway tours are always great fun and make a unique way of sightseeing in a new city, or seeing your hometown like never before! Doing a cheesesteak tour of Philadelphia is also something everyone should put on their bucket list, so huge thank you to Owen for making it so memorable. One wiz wit please!
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