Valletta Segway Adventure

Yahoo! Today we’re going back to Valletta to try our hand at riding Segways. We checked in with Malta Segway Tours for our 2hr tour of the city around 1130am. Cost of the 2hr tour was 55EU per person. Our guide, Matthew, met us at the 5D Theater on Bakery Street to give us a brief introduction and describe the do’s and don’ts of riding these powerful monsters. Sure they look pretty passive when you see them in the malls and airports but these are different. These are wild Segways native to Malta. Some say they were originally brought over to Malta by the Ottomans during the Great Siege of 1565, others say they are indigenous to the island. Doesn’t really matter how they came to be in Malta, we’re ready to saddle them up and head out on our training lap. The ladies got the standard models with around 185hp, Justin and I chose the high performance models with about 300hp, need that for the jumps.

OK, not an exact description but we were ready to do our practice laps on a side street before hitting the road. If you haven’t ridden a Segway you will need a few minutes to become accustom to the movement and to get a little comfortable. Matthew was very good at giving instructions and said the only real danger is becoming too confident in your ability and not paying attention. For example, if you get too close to a curb and hit it with one tire, that tire stops but the other continues to drive spinning you around and throwing you off. You go boom, feel shame and hopefully not too much pain.

Everyone seemed to manage the basics after a few minutes of practice so off we went through the city of Valletta. This was a Sunday and just happened to have a celebration taking place in the main plaza but that didn’t stop the Wild Ones (our Segway gang name) from cruising through. We navigated around and through crowds to make out way to the sites of the city. Matthew was great, he provided excellent commentary on the sites and history of Valletta while we slowly weaved our way through the crowds. Now remember when I said you can get into trouble if you don’t pay attention? Well, Collette was busy watching these large animal shaped balloons in the plaza when her left wheel hit a post and immediately came to a full and complete stop, at which time she exited the ride. I was behind her and had just enough time to yell out her name when what we now call “the incident” occurred. Didn’t do too much damage, scraped shin, bruised leg and ankle and a cut finger, the Segway was fine.

Back on that horse and away we go for almost 2 additional hours of riding. Matthew asked if we had other plans for the day, which we didn’t, so he extended our tour another hour, free of charge. We certainly covered all of the city and with no other accidents. If you go to Malta, Malta Segway Tours is the company, Matthew Mamo is the guide and Blue Whitney is the Operations Manager. Here’s the website: maltasegwaytours.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the sites from our Segway tour of Malta.