This small, independently owned company knows what it’s doing and the result is creative, informative, and fun tours. That’s because the owner of the company worked for nearly a decade as a tour guide and guidebook researcher herself. I recently went on a tour called “Interior Architecture of the Loop,” which has the bonus of being indoors for the majority of the time (I took the tour mid-winter), and was pleasantly surprised to find that my group was made up of 95% locals—a rave review if there ever was one. The tour took us through Chicago’s pedway, an underground system that lets downtown workers get from building to building without facing the elements in the winter, and also highlighted different pieces of public art and architecture, while sharing stories of developmental failures and weaving tales about famous Chicago names, like Marshall Field. The guide was well versed in history, art, architecture, and Chicago, and was also an excellent storyteller. Detours also offers tours that include a historic bar crawl.