Tour Guide: These Streets Are Made For Running

By: Ashley Thompson

What do Charleston, S.C., San Diego, and New York have in common? They are all cities with these new-fangled things called jogging tours.

Ladies and gentlemen, a new and improved way of sightseeing: City Running Tours. They’re more time-efficient than leisurely walking tours, and they’re a heck of a lot more eco-friendly than bus tours. And the best thing? They aren’t necessarily tailored for running fanatics. The tours (led by an expert jogger/tour guide) span anywhere from six to 13 miles, but there are frequent photo-op stops, giving you and your legs time to regroup and snap a shot.

“We do not have one niche of the running community,” says City Running Tour’s president, Michael Gazaleh. “We run with people of all levels. We get those who are training for a race and need to keep up with their training schedules, as well as recreational runners. We run with high schoolers to people in their 60s.”

Expect to pay

$60 per person for the first six miles (which takes between an hour and an hour and a half), plus six dollars for every mile after that.

It may be more pricey than a hop-on, hop-off bus ticket, but included in the price is a free T-shirt and a glamorous photo of yourself huffing and puffing with sweat dripping off your nose. Oh, and we suppose there’s also something to be said about the unhurried pace that doesn’t whiz you by city landmarks from a packed bus, but still allows you to cover more ground than walking does. And it seems like a great way to work off those oft-dreaded vacation-mode pounds.

City Running Tours offers its services in six cites across the country, with Washington, D.C., Austin and Chicago rounding out the mix.

Photo: City Running Tours