We just spent a fantastic couple of hours with Joe, who is funny, smart, insightful, wry and…read morepassionate about the city where he'd lived in and around his entire life. Our two hour tour went by too quickly and we wished we'd taken the four hour option instead! Joe was not only a terrific tour guide, he worked with with our schedules. We really appreciated getting a real insider's glimpse of a fascinating, complicated city. Cannot recommend Joe and Backseat Detroit tours more highly!

My husband, sister-in-law, niece, and I (age range 7-31) took a tour with Joe of Backseat Detroit…read morein January of 2014 and the experience was unforgettable for all of us! Joe served as a treasure trove of knowledge regarding the city as he provided interesting facts, historical data (and even hilarious jokes) while we traversed neighborhoods such as the affluent Boston Edison District, historic Corktown, the colorful Heidelberg Project, and many, many more. The best part was that though Joe had a planned route, he offered to customize our tour on the spot to meet our varied personal interests--a service that Joe said he provides to all his guests. For instance, Joe said that if we were interested in a particular theme, such as the Motor City's vibrant music history, he would include Hitsville USA and other prominent music sights within the city. My seven-year-old niece said she was interested in toys, which made us laugh due to its randomness, but alas, Joe guided us through the aforementioned Heidelberg Project (a neighborhood in which the houses are adorned with colorful polka dots and teddy bears) and even led us into the Fisher where we gazed upon a stunning detailed Lego replica of the skyscraper in which we were standing (see pics). Whatever your specific interests are, Joe will ensure that you leave satisfied! We also appreciated that Joe provided a well-rounded and as-unbiased-as-possible perspective of the long-troubled, yet vibrant city. For instance, when we asked Joe a specific question regarding the politically-polarizing Detroit mogul Matty Maroun, he was sure to note when his facts ventured into opinion territory. This perspective proved invaluable to the sights as well: Most visitors will have heard of and/or seen photos of Detroit's tremendous blight, but Joe also showed us breathtaking extant structures from Detroit's grandiose past and he was sure to also point out new developments in the city; we visited the decrepit remains of Michigan Central Station, but Joe also took us into the spectacular Guardian Building (Wait until Joe tells you the story about the building's roof--you'll be astonished), and Joe even showed us the wonderful new Beethoven Cafe on Third Avenue where we purchased delicious coffee and pastries. Of course, any smartphone could provide both navigation and a web browser set to Wikipedia that could guide visitors on a tour of Detroit, right? WRONG! For starters, Joe is a long-time resident of Detroit, so he provided a unique and authentic perspective of life in the city. Moreover, Joe maintains an active role in Detroit city politics and stays current on city planning; therefore, Joe provided us with fascinating information regarding the city's past, present and future that we likely could not have obtained through the internet. And if you require further proof that Joe's tour provided invaluable information, consider this: out of our group of four, all of us were born and raised in the Metro-Detroit-area and all four of us have lived in the city at one point in our lives; yet Joe still showed us new sights and provided us with a wealth of new knowledge regarding our former home. Book a tour with Backseat Detroit. You will not be disappointed!

I had the privilege of joining the First 313 Tour on March 13, thanks to an invite from a community…read morefriend. We began at the historic Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit, where a lineup of impactful speakers shared insights on their organizations, our community, and the cemetery's rich history. The group then traveled by bus to Fort Wayne for more educational exploration. I learned so much--insights I'm still unpacking today (March 21). The narrators from City Institute, Outlier Media, and others were phenomenal, making history come alive. I look forward to supporting these organizations and joining future tours. I highly encourage everyone to invest their time in these experiences. A huge thank you to my friend for sharing the invite!

If I could give them "0" stars I would. And here is why.... to start, there were 6 of us total for…read morethis tour. That's $52/person. So here is the breakdown of what that got us. This is a long story of epic fails. - a generic meet up point on a gps map, to which when we got there, there were no signs or anyone in a blue DFX shirt standing in the open waiting for us. We had to basically talk out loud and then a guy sitting down near us wandered over and realized we were his group. He did have a dfx shirt on, but hidden underneath another long sleeve button up shirt. -No bus. See photo. It was raining, and we are expecting to be driven around. My girl ran a 10K that morning with the distinct impression she wouldn't be walking around Detroit. -We start out a block from the coney places, but for some reason were guided to the furthest away place first. To which we are walking in greektown to Pizza Papalis. The guide walks us past the place until one of our crew states we are at the end of greektown near the freeway. To which the guide replied "sorry, I was looking at my phone". Keep in mind it is drizzling and we are all hungry. -We then turn around and finally get to the first stop "Pizza Papalis" to which we are seated and basically told that it takes 45min for their signature deep dish to be cooked. So basically we figured out that this should've been the last stop. So we have to settle on a thin crust pizza which isn't their best signature food... so what's the point? Our guide ordered two larges, so basically we eat about 1, and then now have to carry full carryout boxes of pizza to the next stop. -next is the Golden Fleece, also in greektown. We walk 5 buildings down stomachs absolutely full of pizza and sit down. The waitress stated that we were early. 45 minutes early, so nothing was prepared. Which got us "looks" from the guy cutting the lamb. Which reconfirmed we were going in the wrong order. The food here was great, but our tour guide spilled an entire water on the table in front of me. There will be another section later about the guide. So we are full on pizza and only eat a few gyros and again I now have multiple FULL carryout boxes I'm carting around Detroit in the rain. -the last stop is lafayette coney island. On the way we are like, I wonder which is better american or lafayette, we shouldn't have to choose right? See pic, well our guide made us choose as we were walking. So we go to Lafayette. These coneys are good! However our guide pays then comes back to the table and says that's it, tour is complete. So we never even went to american which is literally attached next door!!! -Our guide was out of place. He was a nice person, but he literally had ZERO facts about any of the places we went to. He had a lack of awareness of where we were walking to. He had to continuously look at an email on a piece of paper to try and figure out what we were supposed to be doing. He mistakenly took us on the tour backwards. He left our group multiple times at each food place for 10 minutes at a time to go smoke cigarettes. He spilled pizza and water on our tables. He actually got up from our table at Lafayette for so long that someone else took his seat. Then he tries to sell us on DFX at the end and just leaves with his food. Are tour guides supposed to leave with multiple boxes of food that the customer pays for??? This is probably an enigma tour in comparison to everything else I've seen or read about with DFX. But my major concern is this, we were all from the Detroit surrounding areas, and I got the impression our guide thought this gave him a "lazy pass". Maybe he was hungover, maybe he wasn't the normal guide, maybe he was disgruntled because he had plans that Saturday and now had to be in rainy Detroit, who knows.... BUT If we were out of town tourists, there would be a horrible feeling of being taken advantage of that would make you never want to come back. That pisses me off as a Michigan/Metro Detroit resident of 30+ years. It was bad representation of the turnaround the city is trying to accomplish and we felt like we had gotten fleeced out of our $52 per person. Nothing was learned, nothing was gained except a bloated stomach, an indecision of which coneys are better, and some sore wet feet.