TOURS

Adam, the author of this blog, was a a co-founder of Weird Chicago Tours, and is a veteran of several other tour companies in the city. He now performs tours privately, mainly for school groups. He is available for walking ghost tours for your group or family (roughly 60-90 minutes) at a low rate of only $15 for person (4 person minimum) and can be booked as a step-on guide for bus tours (and can help you arrange to rent a bus and driver). See his webpage for his tours for school groups.

In addition to ghost and crime tours, Adam has done sightseeing tours, historical tours, Civil War tous (in downtown Chicago!) Devil in the White City/ H.H. Holmes tours, gangster tours, political tours, "Classic Chicago Bohemia" tours, serial killer tours, and more. Most walking tours stay in or near the Chicago "loop" area, though special custom tours are often available.

See Adam in action:


Email: staffATsmartalecksguide.com to arrange a tour today!

Note: Adam does not give sex tours or red light district tours. He receives no kickbacks from any tour stops.

See Adam's Homepage


E-MAIL ADAM and the Smart Aleck Staff for availability and prices today!

Some of Adam's available tours for school groups, libraries, park districts, private groups:

THE SMART ALECK'S GUIDE TO CHICAGO
Based on his acclaimed Smart Aleck's Guide to American History, this tour is a hilarious, irreverant ride through Chicago past and present, combining elements of all of Adam's speciality tours (below). Length and stops can be customized to your schedule and curriculum (2.5-3 hours standard on a bus, 1-2 hours standard walking).

THE CHICAGO UNBELIEVABLE GHOST TOUR
Adam got his start in the tour business as a ghost tour guide - his experiences as a professional ghost buster are detailed in Your Neighborhood Gives Me the Creeps: True Tales of an Accidental Ghost Hunter and the Chicago Unbelievable Blog). The 2.5-3 (1-1.5 hours walking) hour tour is among the most authentic, enjoyable ghost tours available anywhere - students LOVE it, and even science teachers don't think Adam is nuts at the end of it! The tour is scary, funny, and thought-provoking. It is rooted in Chicago history for maximum educational benefit.

ANARCHY! THE CHICAGO POLITICAL TOUR
Vote early, vote often! Politics in Chicago have always been entertaining! After all, it's a city that elects mayors with names like "Long John" and "Big Bill." The 2-3 hour tour features fascinating scenes from political history in Chicago, including sites associated with Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, riotous conventions, and more! Fair and Balanced (though Adam unabashedly loves The Bull Moose Party - which was born right here in Chicago)! Adam receives no kick-backs from tour stops.

RAT-A-TAT-A-TAT! The Chicago Crime Tour
Chicago crime tours can last all day! From famous stories like The St. Valentine's Day Massacre to unbelievable stories so obscure they were never retold until Adam discovered them during his extensive research, the crime tour will keep you on the edge of your seat (length can be customized between 1.5 and 5 hours).

FOUR SCORE AND SEVEN BLOCKS AGO: The Civil War in Chicago.
A Civil War tour in Chicago? But there weren't any battles here! And all the buildings from back then burned down a few years later! Well, that's all true, but Adam has, in fact, conducted Civil War tours around Chicago. Walking tours can show you where Lincoln was nominated for president, where (and why) Stephen Douglas was pelted with vegetables over the Kansas Nebraska act, the site of the only two legal slave auctions in Chicago history, help you follow the route of Abraham Lincoln's funeral carriage through the loop, and more. Bus tours may show you the site of a confederate prison, the tomb of Senator Douglas (there are brochures on the sarcophogus, believe it or not), and a few other sites of interest.


Everything about the tour - from length to content - can be customized for your group or family. If your bus has a DVD player, he can even bring along illustrated slide show DVDs to help the students visualize what the city was like in days gone by - and to show off the strange pictures that have been taken on his ghost tours (including explanations to help students learn to approach such things skeptically - some of the spookiest pictures turn out to be of someone's ear)!

Email: staffATsmartalecksguide.com to arrange a tour today!


What they're saying:

"We had previously arranged a ghost tour with another company who proved to be very "new agey" and whose stories turned out to be nonsense (even the history was wrong!). The year before that we used a company who sent a guide who kept asking students to cross themselves before getting off the bus! This year, we tried Adam. Adam was hilarious, informative, level-headed and able to keep the students engaged through the whole three hours. The history was great, and I didn't roll my eyes at ghost stories once - and I'm a science teacher!"

"I wanted to thank you again for giving us a fantastic tour experience, we could have not wished for a better guide. We're already discussing when we'd like to take the next tour with you.. you were extremely accomodating and very patient with everyone's questions and pulling your time in different directions."

"When I told Adam specific events we'd studied, he re-arranged the tour on the spot to include relevant locations - including some that I didn't even know about! Not to mention that his rate was the most affordable we've found. A tour and author visit rolled into one!"

"(Adam's) tour was the best field trip I've ever been on!"