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Why Chicago’s Finest River Walk Tour?

Besides my family and friends, I have two great passions in life; my love for the city of Chicago and history. After I retired two years ago, I decided to unite these two passions by creating Chicago’s Finest River Walk Tour. My family and friends advised me that Chicago already had many history walking tours. I agreed, and while that is true I was convinced the city of Chicago did not yet have Chicago’s Finest River Walk Tour and it needed it.

Our history tour is distinct in several ways:

1. Chicago’s Finest River Walk Tour is a very intimate experience. Each tour is limited to a maximum of 15 guests.As a result, guests enjoy personal conversations with our tour facilitators, not lectures. Each tour is customized and thus,the content and pace is tailored to meet guest’s interests and measured by their active participation.
2. Chicago’s Finest River Walk Tour offers the city visitor or even the long-time resident, the complete “story” of how Chicago became the dominant Midwestern Metropolis and sixth ranked “Alpha City” in the world! This story is interesting, fun and exciting all at the same time.
3. The tour’s narrative is also filled with fascinating stories of colorful characters, tragedies, triumphs and wonderful anecdotes not found on other city tours. Although the primary focus of the tour is historically based, discussions relative to the city’s architecture, pop culture & trivia add texture and flavor to the guest’s discovery and enjoyment!
4. Chicago’s newly expanded River Walk is an excellent venue to take a nice stroll and take in the fantastic vistas only the River offers. While the boat tours do a nice job explaining the buildings and provide a macro understanding of Chicago, they do not stop at the cafes (seasonal) located along the walk nor provide a micro understanding of Chicago’s incredible history!
5. 100 % Guaranteed Satisfaction-Like the “Merchant Prince of the Midwest”-Marshall Field, all admission fees are free if guests are not 100% satisfied. Guests are assured to walk away thoroughly satisfied and I promise they will be proudly saying to themselves, “I did not know that about Chicago but now I do”!

Dan O’Connell
Owner

Phone: 312-202-0745 or 312-315-2539 (cell)
Email: doconnell@chicagowalktour.com
Web site: chicagowalktour.com

Hi Dan, June 24, 2011
Just wanted to let you know again how much we enjoyed the River Walk Tour you led for us during Memorial Day weekend. Even after five museums and four exhausting days of seeing everything we could, we both agreed that your tour was one of the most fun and informative things we did during our time in Chicago. Nowhere else we visited gave us such a well-rounded history of the city, and the understanding we gained through your tour helped put everything else we saw and learned into perspective. Additionally, the personal, small group atmosphere was fun, laid back, and relaxing- a welcome feeling after the crowds of the museums and other tourist destinations in the city! We would definitely recommend Chicago’s Finest River Walk Tour as a “can’t-miss” opportunity to anyone who is headed up to Chicago! Our time there would have seemed incomplete without it.

Paul and Sara Rotramel
Bowling Green, KY

   

Dan O’Connell Resume:

-Senior Vice President of Sales-DST Health Solutions
-Vice President of Training-CIGNA Corporation
-Executive Consultant-InSight Consulting

-Wesleyan University-Middletown, CT

Chicago’s most dynamic history walking tour!

Do you know?

Chicago holds the largest free outdoor food festival in the world every year!
Fact: Annual average attendance is 3.5 million over 10 days.

Chicago is home to the longest street in the United States.
Answer: Western Avenue (24.5 miles)

Ten Innovations and Events that started in Chicago:
1st McDonalds Franchise-1955
1st Farm Silo-1873
1st Ferris Wheel-1893
1st Deep Dish Pizza-1943
1st Vacuum Cleaner-1869
1st Electric Dishwasher-1889
1st Zipper-1893
1st Open Heart Surgery-1858
1st Softball Game-1887
1st African American President Elected-2008

My first day in Chicago, September 4, 1983, I set foot in this city, and just walking down the street, it was like roots, like the motherland, I knew I belonged here.” Oprah Winfrey-Television Host, Producer

Chicago’s Finest River Walk Tour Motto: “Levity is not a barrier to a great history tour!”