Manufacturing Tours on the East Coast?

[adventurer]

Hi...

I'm planning a road trip up and down the East US at the end of this month and would love to see manufacturing tours, like Ben & Jerry Tour, maybe Maple Syrup Tour in Vermont, etc. A tour of just about any manufacturing plant would be interesting.

I'll be traveling from Florida to Maine and probably back through Vermont, Niagara Falls, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia back to Florida.

Any ideas of Tours that you've seen would be very greatly appreciated. Or if you have any idea how I can find out about what manufacturing tours are available, that would be great too.

It's wonderful to be part of such a huge pool of knowledge here. Looking forward to your suggestions.

Adventurer

[Mark Sedenquist]

A tour of just about any manufacturing plant would be interesting.

A tour that has been discussed here frequently is the Jack Daniels Distillery. Several of the moderators have been there -- and believe me you can get a contact high just from breathing around the settling vats! Here is what long-time contributor Laura wrote about it: This was a definite highlight of the trip. The distillery is in a tiny town of almost 400 in the hills of TN. The tour is free. No free samples, b/c the county is dry. But free deep breaths of the 140 proof whiskey in the charcoal mellowing process. There was a lot of history in the tour and I really enjoyed seeing the whiskey making process. We went on a Saturday, so they were not bottling any whiskey. If anyone has the choice, try and go on a weekday. There is "the bible" of manufacturing tours that we recommend! And here are some great choices in Pennsylvania!

Here are a couple more ideas -- I have been to some of these -- others are the recommendations of fellow travelers: In Florida, there is a self-guided chocolate tour in St. Augustine, (although a check on the their web site indicates that the tour is closed right now --so call ahead on this one). Near the Savannah airport you can take a tour of the Gulfstream Jet factory. In Greer, South Carolina you can visit the BMW plant which is a lot closer than going to Germany! In High Point, NC, you can visit the Furniture Discovery Center. Since you mentione maple syrup -- I know that Maple Grove Farms in St. Johnsbury, Vermont does a nice tour. There is an event every year in York County, Pennsylvania that I have been invited to, but could never make -- here is the site listing all of the participating factories (most of which you could visit now). Well there are a couple of ideas to get you started.

Mark

[Mass Tim]

One of the most interesting tours I have taken is the Toyota tour in Georgetown, KY.http://www.toyotageorgetown.com/ Having worked in manufacturing for years, I was readily impressed by how efficient and clean this place is, never mind how happy everyone seemed to be.

Last year, I took the Corvette plant tour in Bowling Green, KY. That was impressive, too, but I couldn't help but notice the faces weren't as friendly there. Which is strange, because both places were doing essentially the same thing - building cars - but Toyota is 7 times the size of the GM Bowling Green assembly.

Pennsylvania has quite a few tours available, including Crayola, Harley Davidson, and Zippo.

[adventurer]

Thank you both very much for the data. Due to your responses I've found a cool site others members might like at: http://factorytoursusa.com/Index.asp.

Thanks again,
Adventurer