Dayna Sheikh, left, and Debbie Sobe, center, listen as tour guide David Weller, right, points out interesting facts about the Columbus Union Station Arch during a Segway tour on Monday, May 13, 2019 at McFerson Commons in Columbus, Ohio. [Joshua A. Bickel/Dispatch] ▲ The Huntington Building as seen out the window of the City Adventures van on a tour around Columbus. Jeff Lafever is with Columbus City Adventures and was giving a tour around the city via a van April 29, 2019. [Eric Albrecht/Dispatch] ▲

The number and variety of city tours offered in Columbus has increased in recent years as the tourism industry has seen a boom here, but the tours also provide longtime residents with colorful stories about their town then and now.

Any traveler going on a traditional city tour in New York City; Washington, D.C.; or San Francisco can guess at least a few of the famous sights they will see.

But what about visitors to Columbus?

"Everybody knows the spots in New York City — Broadway, the Statue of Liberty or maybe you go out to Brooklyn," said Jeff Lafever, co-founder of Columbus City Adventures, which provides tours around Downtown. "They know those iconic places, but Columbus is a blank slate for them."

After the Ohio Statehouse, it might be difficult for tourists and natives alike to envision what a tour of the capital city might offer. It turns out, there are enough colorful stories, characters and historical landmarks to fill hours of tours — whether on foot, bus or Segway.

And more interest in Columbus has meant more interest in touring it.

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The New York Times named the city one of 52 places to visit in 2019,

just a few years after National Geographic published a 2016 article with the headline, "Why all the cool kids love Columbus, Ohio."

"When they go to a new destination, people look for city tours," said Kari Kauffman, vice president of tourism for Experience Columbus. "We frequently get people asking if we have any city tours, and for a long time we didn't."

That demand is precisely why Lafever, former executive director of the Columbus Historical Society, started Columbus City Adventures in 2017 to offer bus and van tours that range in cost from $30 to $47.

"Columbus is a growing city," he said. "There are so many hotels going up. The convention center is expanding. We're getting on more lists of places to see. I also think people need to know more about Columbus, even for the locals."

More people are flocking to the city these days, with nearly 140,000 moving here in the past five years. One of them is Debbie Sobe, a recent transplant from Cleveland whose daughter, Dayna Sheikh, a Columbus resident, arranged for a Segway tour for the two of them for Mother's Day.

Zipping along town as part of David Weller's SegAway Tours of Columbus ($59), they saw condos made from the former site of the Columbus Buggy Company just west of the Clippers' Huntington Park (named Ballpark of the Year by baseballparks.com in 2009), and the building that housed the former Belmont Casket Co., which made the caskets for Marilyn Monroe and presidents Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Sobe said she was impressed by the public art that she saw along the Scioto River, including bronze statues of animals depicting the story of Pickaweekee, a Native American boy, and some anthropomorphic deer sculptures. She also enjoyed whizzing around the gardens of the new National Veterans Memorial and Museum.

"My husband is a Vietnam vet, and this is something I'd like to bring him back to, especially because (Weller) said it's less about war and more personal stories," said Sobe, who moved to the Polaris area to be closer to her daughter and 4-year-old granddaughter, Harper.

Sheikh said that she learned about the city's history as well, even though she has lived here for 15 years.

"You can't see everything when you just drive by," Sheikh said.

Weller and other tour guides said they like to weave in historical facts and trivia with current updates on the burgeoning development in the area. Some of Weller's favorite tidbits include how Fred Lazarus Jr. helped set the date for Thanksgiving — to provide more time for shopping between the holiday and Christmas — and how the Main Street Bridge is one of only five in the world built in its style.

"All tours are stories," said Weller, who lives Downtown and started his company 11 years ago. "Columbus has stories just like any other city."

He said his business is split evenly among locals and visitors.

Walking tours also serve many central Ohioans.

"I love to look at Columbus this way: Not everyone who lives here thinks of Columbus as a tourist destination. It's fun to be a tourist in your own city, and it's exciting to showcase it for visitors," Columbus Landmarks executive director Becky West said about the tours led by the foundation, including its CityWalks of Downtown, neighborhood tours and Art Walks & Landmarks Talks series, which kicked off last month.

William Haynes, owner of Show Me Columbus, has been offering tours on and off since about 2013. Tidbits he likes to point out, especially on his fall Boos and Brews tours, are that Columbus' first cemetery lies under the North Market, and the Ringside Cafe Downtown is one of its oldest operating bars, dating to 1897.

Worthington resident Dean Gibson recently hopped on a 2½-hour van tour offered by Lafever. Though he has lived in central Ohio for three decades, he said he was enthralled by everything he saw, from the historic homes in German Village to the nondescript Lucas Sullivant Land Grant office in Franklinton.

"I didn't know about the history of Franklinton," said Gibson, who is retired. "It was fascinating. It was great to see how this neighborhood has a great future."

He also discovered a new spot to take his five grandchildren: Downtown's Topiary Park.

Michael and Mary Woods — in town from Washington, D.C., visiting family — planned to bring their grandchildren to the Book Loft in German Village after seeing it on a van tour. While most of the various tours stick to Downtown and the Arena District, a few venture out into neighborhoods such as German Village, the Short North and the Near East Side.

"We were only aware of a fraction of Columbus," Michael Woods said. "I'm fascinated by the scope of development and how businesses are involved in that development."

The van tour — as well as the others — showcases a heavy mix of old and new aspects of Columbus, for which Kathy Abels was grateful.

Visiting Columbus for the first time, the Florida resident wanted to see some of the city while her husband, Bruce, attended a conference.

"I've been surprised by what a pretty city it is," Abels said, "and by how everyone is working hard to preserve its history."

award@dispatch.com

@AllisonAWard