There will be 3 different tours offered multiple times per week:

Big Shoulders Food Tour features Chicago favorites such as deep-dish pizza, Italian beef sandwiches, and Chicago-style hot dogs.

Chicago Bikes, Blues, & BBQ Tour includes top blues clubs, BBQ joints, and other food favorites all in Historic Hyde Park and Kenwood.

Sweet Home Chicago Food Tour the Sweet Home Chicago tour is a sweet-tooth’s dream with samples of top pastries, candies, gelatos, and more!

For more information on pricing, departure dates & times, and more – please visit: http://bikechicago.com/chicago-tours/food

See you out in Chicago for some great eats and great sites soon!

June 9th through 15th is Chicago’s Bike to Work Week!

Our sister company Bike & Park Chicago offers bicycle commuter services from Millennium Park and the 53rd St. Bicycle Center http://bikeandpark.com/city/chicago

A day pass costs just $5 and includes: secure bike parking, lockers, showers*, towel service*, mechanic service on-site, and more!  *Millennium Park location only.

There’s still time to sign-up for the Bike Commuter Challenge produced by the Active Transportation Alliance: http://bikecommuterchallenge.org/

Here’s a listing of the fun events and happenings put on by the City of Chicago http://www.explorechicago.org/city/en/supporting_narrative/events___special_events/special_events/mose/bike_chicago.html including a bike to work week rally on Friday 6/15 (with FREE t-shirts – see design below!), short film contest, and a screening of “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure.”

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Bike and Rolll Chicago’s sister company focused on bicycle commuting, Bike & Park, recently participated in the Sustainable Brands Innovation Open http://sustainablebrands.com/events/sb12/innovation-open   “…this event showcases highly innovative, socially conscious entrepreneurs with a product orB2B solution that is focused on helping companies achieve their goals towards creating more sustainable brands.”

After successfully passing several rounds of judginghttp://sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/blog/meet-sbio-semi-finalists  We are very proud to announce that our sister company Bike & Park was named the People’s Choice Award winner of theSustainalbe Brands Innovation Open.  http://sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/blog/sb12-innovation-open-results

5 day bike rental = $65 (67% OFF)

3 day bike rental = $45 (62% OFF)

1 day bike rental = $20 (49% OFF)

ALL bike rentals are all-inclusive and include: bicycle lock, riding map, & a helmet. As an added bonus ALL Lollapalooza attendees receive $10 OFF anysegway tour, bicycle tour, or food tour by bike. Bikes are going quick so please reserve your bike rental today at info@bikechicago.com please indicate that you’re a Lollapalooza attendee.

For additional info, please check out our website Lollapalooza Page here

We asked our tour guides “What is it like to be a tour guide in Chicago?” and this is the first of many candid responses we received:

“Being a tour guide is like a recurring show-and-tell for adults. I get to re-live that excitement I had bringing my favorite rock or favorite song to elementary school and having my 2 minutes of sharing glory. As a tour guide, it’s a pretty similar experience: I get to show people all of my favorite parts of Chicago on our mini adventure. As a super-fan of the city and an amateur history buff, being a tour guide is one of the best jobs I’ve ever had.

No matter who is on the tour, it’s great to see the reactions on people’s faces change as they start to fall more in love with the city as the tour continues. Many people enjoy our tours from all areas of the globe and also from our own backyard. Groups can range from a mini-United Nations to people that I grew up close to in the suburbs. When we first go out, I make sure we take time to introduce ourselves and where we are from. This creates a friendship between everyone so we all don’t feel like strangers riding around together.

I am a performer, and recently at the end of some of my tours I took time to advertise a cabaret show I had coming up with my girlfriend at a great spot in the city. On the last night of a two-day run of the show I actually had a family from a tour the week before in the audience. It was quite a joy see them there! Sometimes it’s hard to say goodbye because you feel like hanging out with your new friends more, so it was nice to have a little reunion at the cabaret.

If I had known how much I would enjoy being a tour guide, I feel like I would have done it years ago. Taking tours in Chicago is a great way to become acquainted with the city, enjoy being outside on something familiar (a bike) or something probably new (a segway), and get an insider connection with great places to eat or attractions to go see.”

Justin A

I will never forget the first time I was on a Segway Tour, zipping around Buckingham Fountain at night. The yellow, red and blue lights lit up various nuances of the fountain as I had an in-motion panoramic view. It won’t take long for one to realize the amazing qualities of a Segway, and while they may look silly (and I’ve Segway’d by my fair share of chuckles and grimaces), there is so much ground that can be covered and they’re incredibly fun! The Skyscraper Architectural Segway Tour of Chicago is one that particularly covers a lot of ground, not just geographically, but historically and culturally too.

We begin on the Chicago River, and while learning about incredible buildings like Marina City and the Intercontinental, we are also able to see the subtle things that make Chicago great– our beautiful river walk, various kinds of public art, little juice or coffee huts, kayaks along the river. The list goes on. Chicago is as beautiful as it ever has been, and with a venue like that we are able to delve into its rich history and culture. We then connect with Lake Michigan, where we are smack dab in between the vast body of water and some of the tallest, most beautiful buildings in not just the country, but worldwide.

The rest equates to ‘seeing is believing.’ Chicago has so much to offer and the Skyscraper Tour will seriously show you that. I am on tours daily and the city still manages to amaze me with its beauty and back story. And every day that I am on a tour, I can see that it’s not just me, others from all over the globe are amazed as well. So if you have giggled or shrugged your brows perplexed seeing a line ofSegways pass by you, it is only until you hop on one, and I promise you will be amazed too!

This entry was written by Bike and Roll Chicago Tour Guide extraordinaire Chris.