Resorts find a novel use for the Segway
NEW YORK — Some couples celebrate their anniversary with a horse-drawn carriage ride. Others rent a romantic cabin in the woods. A few even jet off to Las Vegas and renew their vows in front of Elvis.
Lori Kelly and her husband, Gene, recently marked their second anniversary by touring the woods of the Omni Bedford Springs Resort and Spa on a Segway.
“It was absolutely fantastic. It is really the ultimately unique experience especially for people my age,” said Kelly, 59. Her husband is 64. “It gives you the flavour of adventure with very little threat of injury.”
The Segway, first introduced a decade ago as an alternative mode of personal transportation, is getting a new life at a growing number of resorts around the world. For those not familiar with the twowheeled electric vehicle, it works like this: Lean forward to move forward. Lean backward to go in reverse. Move the handlebars, and it turns left or right. Pretty simple.
The device never quite took off as an everyday way to get around, but it has found a niche replacing city walking tours and helping security guards patrol local shopping malls. And now hotels with sprawling grounds are finding the Segway to be a great way to show guests around their properties. Plus, the devices are still quirky enough to be an attraction in their own right.
Kelly and her husband travelled in mid-September from their home in Shepherdstown, W.Va., to the Pennsylvania resort for a two-night getaway. They shopped, sat by the hotel’s fire pits, played horseshoes and had a romantic anniversary dinner.
But what really made the trip unique was the 90-minute, off-road Segway tour for $90.
“Once you mastered it, you felt very, very comfortable about it,” she said.
Lois Crosby, 62, recently hopped on a Segway at the Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg, Va. She was there, joining her husband on a business trip.
“All the other people in my group went golfing and I’m not a golfer,” said Crosby, of Germantown, Tenn. So she spent $65 for the 90-minute tour. “It’s a lot of fun. It’s really a lot of fun.”
Prices generally range from $60 to $125 per person.
Most hotels start their tours with a practice session in an empty parking lot or in the middle of a field. Once guests have mastered the Segway, they head out to explore the grounds.