Chicago Detours brings people to explore stories and places locals don't even know through guided tours of Chicago architecture, history and culture. Our tour company, now on its third year, offers regularly scheduled tours to the public, and private group tours for corporate teambuilding, birthday parties, student field trips, and other special events. Founded by professional travel writer and tour guide Amanda Scotese, we are a team of passionate tour guides who are educators, historians, artists and storytellers.

Walking tours include the Inside the Loop Interior Architectural Tour, a walk of magnificent lobbies and Pedway passages, and the Good Times Historic Bar Tour, an exploration of entertainment history. These tours are offered five days a week to the public.

For private group tours, the walking tours are available in addition to bus tours like “Chicago Jazz, Blues and Beyond,” a tour via luxury coach that ventures neighborhoods north to south to uncover Chicago’s rich musical past. This exclusive experiences stops inside a former 1930’s jazz club, and a blues musician hops on the bus to perform and teach everyone how to play harmonica. All tours incorporate media presentation into storytelling - historic photos and video clips are presented on shared iPads for our walking tours, and our bus tours have video screens. 

Beyond sharing our love of Chicago architecture and history through our curated tours, the Chicago Detours Blog or Instagram photos, we have a new creation, geared especially to locals. Our one-off “Detours” are quarterly events that reinterpret the tour into interactive experiences of Chicago architecture, history and culture. What does that mean? You’ll have to join us!

Our first “Detours” is taking place Friday, April 5, 4pm-6pm. This “Nonsensical Walk of Indoor Spaces” will weave through buildings with a game of telephone that will share facts about the architectural details or surprising angles on the businesses inside the buildings rather than stopping and talking at each place. Our freeform urban exploration of architectural design, which includes downtown lobbies, corridors, and Pedway, will expand your geographical conceptions of space in downtown Chicago. Reserve your tickets online for this one-time experience. Connect with us on Facebook or Twitter to hear about our next Detours which will involve meat factories, artists studios, culinary creations, and other exclusive experiences.

Tags: Chicago Detours, tours, visitors, members, architecture

« Back