Most Unusual Tourist Vehicles

Memphis, Tenn.
americandreamsafari.com

Since he started driving customers around one of America's most storied cities in 1989, Tad Pierson of American Dream Safari has become something of a celebrity tour guide. He knows as much about the history of the legendary Sun Studios, where Elvis cut his first record, as he does about where to find the most authentic dry-rub barbecue. Tours run from $200 for a three-hour run through Memphis' greatest hits, to $900 for an eight-hour trek along the Mississippi River Delta. The fancy term for this experience is "anthro-tourism." We call it taking a ride in a gorgeous, fully restored 1955 Cadillac with room for five passengers; the ticket price covers everyone.

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Las Vegas
pinkjeep.com

Don't be fooled by the pink hue. The Tour Trekker is badass — the world's first custom-built off-road luxury tour vehicle. Pink Jeeps Tours operates 23 Trekkers, which seat 10 passengers and are based on a Dodge Ram platform, with high-pressure 6.7-liter diesel engines, 2-inch suspension lifts for clearing terrain and custom dual rear wheels with 35-inch tires. The tours lean heavily on the Trekkers' off-road performance, ranging from a four-hour, $89 trip to Eldorado Canyon, with a tour of a gold mine included, to a 10-hour, $239 trek through Death Valley. A more traditional ride through historic Las Vegas starts at the fresh-water spring that convinced pioneers to settle there, and ends at the Strip.

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San Diego
lancedurant.com

Never hire a vintage car when you can hire an improbably ancient one. This 1927 Star 4-door is the oldest vehicle in Haynes Antique Car Chauffeuring's fleet and, for anyone willing to spend between $50 and $70 per hour, plus $150 to $200 for the first half-hour, to tour San Diego in it, the car is probably the main attraction. This rolling museum, which cost around $70,000 to restore, was produced by the short-lived Durant Motors, founded by a former CEO of General Motors, William Durant. The 1927 Star showed up at the tail end of a failed bid to compete with the Ford Model T. Riders are encouraged to sound the old-time horns and sirens, but leaping onto the running board with a Tommy gun in hand is frowned upon.

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Miami
gocartours.com

The GoCar, which is essentially a partially enclosed bike and sidecar, might be the least stylish vehicle on our list, and that includes a certain duck-inspired amphibious craft still to come. It seats two, maxes out at 35 mph and, the company warns, has trouble climbing steep hills. It's a smart idea, though, with more stability than a rented scooter, and an integrated GPS system that guides you along a scenic route and automatically kicks in with commentary as you reach specific sights. But since this tour is self-driven, the all-day, $150 rental lets you linger and detour at will, or ditch the preset route entirely. Shorter trips cost $50 for one hour or $100 for three hours.

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San Francisco
cablecarcharters.com

Unless you charter a private trip, there's no guarantee that your two-hour tour through San Francisco will be aboard one of Cable Car Charters' truly vintage cable cars, which were bought from the city in 1958 and converted to run on standard streets. But even the newer vehicles are impressive re-creations, built with oak and brass using original cable-car blueprints and featured, naturally, in every Rice-A-Roni commercial to date. Daily tours cost $28 for adults and $16 for children, and there's a special 90-minute nighttime tour of the city's holiday light displays, complete with blankets, music and a free Santa hat, which runs in November and December.

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New York City
deadappletours.com

Like a proper novelty tour company, Dead Apple Tours wears its morbid gimmick proudly, offering a two-hour trip through downtown Manhattan, using the sites of famous New Yorkers' deaths as grim waypoints. It includes the Soho apartment where actor Heath Ledger overdosed and the infamous Chelsea Hotel, where punk rocker Sid Vicious also overdosed after fatally stabbing girlfriend Nancy. But the route also begrudgingly includes staid landmarks such as the Empire State Building, from which various nonfamous types fell to their deaths. Tickets cost $45 per person, and the converted 1960 Cadillac hearse — a close cousin to the 1959 model used in the "Ghostbusters" movies — seats seven passengers in gloomy comfort.

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Key West, Fla.
conchtourtrain.com

It's hard to recommend a ride on this strange, wheeled train, which has been making 90-minute loops around Key West for more than a half-century. It's not that the history of this southernmost American town is boring to hear about, with its rogue's gallery of pirates and fugitives, its famous vacationers and writer Ernest Hemingway's local misadventures. The tour even stops at Hemingway's cat-filled estate, Key West's most bizarre and unmissable attraction, which you can visit before hopping on the next train that comes along. The trouble with the Conch Tour Train is that it looks like something that escaped an amusement park. For $29 per ticket, the most embarrassing transportation choice in the country should at least come with a margarita.

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Seattle
ridetheducksofseattle.com

In another era, DUKWs — commonly known as "duck boats" — were not to be messed with. These were the 6-wheeled amphibious vehicles that stormed beaches all across Europe during World War II, depositing squads of Allied troops during marine landings. More than 60 years later, duck boats have settled into a wacky second act, with vehicles deployed in cities up and down both coasts and tours that are heavy on the comedy, and that always include a dip in the water. In Seattle, the Ride the Ducks tour uses authentic, though heavily modified, DUKW boats, and spends an hour on land and 30 minutes on Lake Union. Tickets run from $15 to $28, with various options and packages.

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Based out of the Boston area, Erik Sofge is frequent contributor to Popular Mechanics and Slate.com. He specializes in everything scientific and technical.

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