A Segway Tour of Jerusalem

A Segway tour of Jerusalem combines the fun activity of driving a Segway with a guided tour of Jerusalem. We took a Segway tour of Jerusalem to Mishkenot Sha’ananim with a peek to the old city. 

Here is the full description.

On a cool Saturday morning in February, we arrived the meeting point of Zuzu Segway Tours near Mamilla mall (next to Jaffa gate). We met there Snir, Zuzu’s guide and went off to a Segway tour of Jerusalem.

The tour starts with some technical instruction of the Segway. The Segway is operated using the body weight. Leaning forward will make the Segway ride forwards, leaning backward will make it stop or ride backwards. The steering wheel is only used for turns, and somewhat different than bikes or a car so it needs some getting used to. We wore helmets and started riding the Segway, with a little bit of giggling and the help of Snir, who made sure we are stable on the Segway. Snir also watched over us when we crossed streets (not many, but some), ran into slopes, and obstacles. It does not take long to get used to the Segway and enjoy riding it. This is the time for some photo-ops! 

We started the tour with an overview on Teddy Park and Jaffa gate near the old world globe statue. This is where Snir started explaining to us where we are, what is the history of the place, including some riddles and trivia. 

We continued to King David Hotel and the YMCA, where we learnt about the history of the buildings and the story about the bomb planted at King David hotel in 1946. 

We continued to Mishkenot Sha’ananim and passed by the famous Windmill.

While watching over Mishkenot Sha’ananim and the valley, the guide, Snir, explained to us about the topography, the buidlings we see, the history of the walls, the buildings and the background about Mishkenot Sha’ananim in the expansion of ancient Jerusalem beyond the walls. Here are some of the views along the way. 

We surrounded Mishkenot Sha’ananim abd cossed Yemin Moshe neighbourhood. 

We stopped for an overview and some photo ops in this lovely neighborhood. I took many photos here, the difficult part of writing this post is to pick the photographs, because they were all stunning! With ancient houses, trees, and views. 

We passed by Chuzot Hayozer (artist area) and roamed around the well-groomed Teddy park. 

We continued along the paths and went up to Jaffa gate and peeked inside the old city. We also went to a viewpoint overlooking the area we crossed: Teddy park, Mishkenot Sha’ananim, and Yemin Moshe. 

The tour we had was around an hour and a half, including a lot of stops for explanations and for taking photos. Here’s a map of the tour path, the red line shows schematically the way we drove more or less. We started where the star is, near the parking garage. We drove to the viewpoint above Teddy park. We continued along King David road, turned to Mishkenot Sha’ananim, drove down around Chuzot Hayozer, and crossed Teddy park. Afterwards (not marked on the map) we went up to the old city and returned to the starting point.

 Tips: wear shoes, bring with you water, hats, and sunscreen. Wear comfortable shoes because riding the Segway means standing all the time. When you take photos (and you will want to take many photos, like I did), ask someone to hold the Segway for you, or park it on a fence and concentrate on your photography.

Information: Zuzu Tours, Segway Tour of Jerusalem. They also offer tours in other locations in Israel.

Disclosure: I was a guest of Zuzu Tours