Tours in Columbia

Founded on Christmas Eve in 1741 by a small group of Moravian settlers and christened “Christmas City, USA” in 1937, Bethlehem turns its gaze toward the past during the holiday season with guided tours and museum exhibits. The 10.9-mile Heritage Trail snakes through 80 historic stops, including two National Historic Landmarks, Victorian-era homes, and the nation’s oldest gift shop. On historic walks, guides lead tour groups through the now-defunct site of Bethlehem Steel, the city’s oldest cemeteries, and the 1762 Waterworks, known as the first municipally pumped water system in the country. Located inside the 1741 Gemeinhaus, the Moravian Museum of Bethlehem curates a collection of exhibits about the town’s settlers, including their missionary work, education system, and medical techniques.

When Superior Tours looks for new drivers, it wants polite, reliable, and personable people, and it doesn't even consider those with fewer than five years of experience. Its drivers all work only for Superior Tours so that they can be on time and well rested for each trip. Luxury, 54-passenger motorcoaches pick up groups from the airport, ferry people to New York City for a day of urban exploration, or steer toward Atlantic City where passengers can hit the slots. The company also programs charter trips for corporate outings, church trips, and charter-bus-of-the-month clubs.

The staff of Pocono Segway Tours leads groups of up to 10 sightseers on segway-propelled escapades through the scenic Pocono Mountains. A battery-powered personal transporter, the segway allows recreationalists of all shapes and sizes to navigate the gyroscopic machine along wooded paths and roadways while taking in the area's picturesque vistas during guided, multimile excursions. With two locations, the company gives tours in mountainous Split Rock; in Shawnee Inn, which presents views of the Delaware Water Gap.

Propelled by an affinity for fresh air, the family that helms Hispaniola Cycling fosters the same free-spirit mentality in its guests who embark on the outfit’s bike tours, which include cycles and helmets. Hispaniola’s guides are experts on the local topography, calling upon their respect for Mother Nature and a healthy fear of her mood swings to guide groups for spins around town or weekend jaunts through Valley Forge and along the Schuylkill River Trail. They can also expand fitness with wellness tours and camaraderie with corporate tours that follow custom routes around worksites, kick-starting employee heart rates a midday slump after they wrestle faulty fax machines.