My initial email enquiry about whether my 11 and 10 year old granddaughters would be allowed to join the tour, was answered almost immediately by Michael, who assured me that the kids would pick up the art of Segwaying before the the adults! :) I was so happy that my granddaughters would be able to join in, as other companies in the area do not allow children under 12 years.
As mentioned on Michael's website, the tour is private, so you are not joined by anyone else outside your party.
The arrangement of the tour and all logistics for the day was very easy and done via email as I live in Switzerland.
Michael kept in touch with me by text message on the day of the tour, about the weather conditions, recommending that we delay the start of the tour for 30 minutes until the rain cleared. Great recommendation, we had perfect weather for the duration of our experience.
Michael provided us with information about the meeting point (Lincoln Road just outside the Ritz hotel), which served as an excellent place for us all to 'have a go' on our segways before starting the tour. Michael was patient and very relaxed with us all, despite most of us not having been on a segway before. He was right, by the way, the kids were experts in less than 5 minutes.
There were 8 of us on on the tour, which I understand is the maximum group size and we were not made to wear any helmets with or without mawhawks attached (other companies do make you do this)
The tour was absolutely brilliant!
We spent over 2 hours travelling on and around Ocean Drive and Miami Beach, Michael pointing out places of historic and general interest, taking photos of us in 'Instagram perfect places' and providing a comfort break to rehydrate.
Michael's segways are not as 'speed-restricted' as some of the other local companies, and he took us to a few areas where we could get to top speed (approximately 12mph I believe as opposed to 5mph with other companies). The sense of freedom was exhilarating!
And just when we thought it couldn't get any more exciting, Michael took us to an area where he let us all have a go on his very expensive, 'no hands' segway. What an experience! He even encouraged and helped my youngest granddaughter (10 years old) to have a go, depite her being tiny and her legs literally only just being long enough to touch the floor. This was the absolute highlight for me, not just because it was exciting and unique, but because my youngest granddaughter has a dairy allergy, is quite small for her age and usually misses out on so much, so for her to be actively encouraged and included in this activity with such ease made both me and her parents quite emotional and very happy.
We were all sad when our tour came to an end because we had had such a brilliant time, but I felt like we had been out a long time and we had seen more of Miami Beach and Ocean Drive than we would have if we had used a different segway tour company.
Just to emphasise the excellent service we received from Michael, I left my glasses in the box attached to my segway and didn't realise until later in the day. I contacted Michael to see if it would be possible to make arrangements to get them back before we departed for our cruise in a couple of days and wthout hesitation, he arranged to drive back to our original meeting point from Fort Lauderdale, later in the afternoon and hand them over!
I can't recommend this tour enough. It was well organised, relaxing, exciting, informative and just perfect.
Enjoy!