alt Hacker NewsI adore behind-the-scenes tours. I get there's a lot of work that goes into making it happen, but when you drop into a place where people work, you'll learn so much about real life problems that never make it to the Internet.
The greatest tour I ever had was at the Smokejumper base in remote WA. At any time when they're open, you're allowed to drop in for a tour and whoever is there that day is obliged to give you one. Even in the height of fire season.
We got to see them pack parachutes, repair gear, coordinate parcel drops - everything. Our guide was a 3 year jumper veteran on summer break from his masters degree in linguistics. It was incredible.
Any org that's proud of what they do should aspire to have public tours.
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I highly recommend the tour of the Itaipu Binacional hydroelectric dam in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil (well, it's also in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, but the tour starts from the Brazilian side).
https://turismoitaipu.com.br/en/
Get the "special tour" which takes you inside the dam. An absolutely incredible spot and incredible achievement. They will take you into a room with a turbine shaft that's mechanically transmitting 700 MW of power.
I worked a VR tour shoot of the UPS sorting hub in Louisville. There's a bit of idle time, but once the planes start arriving, it is non-stop action. Each plane is unloaded, packages are sorted/routed to the proper plane, they are then reloaded, and take back off ending in a bit of wow at everything that happened in that short time.
It answered a lot of the "what can Brown do for you" question in a way that no commercial could ever do. Their drop shipping and picking/packing facilities are impressive too including their cold storage areas that are massive warehouse sized freezers.
Also learned that the Louisville airport is listed as an international airport solely because of UPS.
Yes, field trips were always my favorite part of school. The "How its Made" show scratches a similar itch.
I've noodled with the idea of starting a "fieldtrips for grownups" group but I feel like a wastewater treatment plant is more likely to open their doors for a group of third graders than a group of thirty somethings.
I love that. I want to take more tours like this. One thing I found very interesting about it was to be immersed in a company culture. It's kind of like being a fish in water. You might not notice your own culture around you, but going into one that is very distinctive, you can observe it.
I highly recommend a free Amazon warehouse tour. You really get to see how the items you order gets picked and packaged.
Remember, most fire stations will give you a tour, let you sit in the truck, etc, if you just pop in. They love to show off.
Source: My father was a 35 year veteran of the fire department in a large city.
On a visit to Hiroshima, Japan, I went to the Mazda HQ for a factory tour. They took the group on a shuttle bus through their massive city-like complex and then we got to walk through one of the assembly-line buildings. Real fascinating experience.
I went on the factory tour at the Airbus factory in Hamburg Germany. It's quite well done, very long (2+ hours), and does a good job of explaining why they're flying giant airplane parts from around Europe for assembly, and what goes on inside all those huge buildings. Among other things, you get to go inside the building where they used to assemble the A380, and now there's 4 smaller planes being worked on in the same space that used to fit one A380.