GyPSy offers self-guided tours of area

And one of the worst ways to learn a place’s history is, unfortunately, on a guided tour. It sounds like a great idea in theory: Pay someone to drive you around and tell you what he or she knows.

Then there’s the reality where you have to deal with other people as they jostle for the best seats on the tour bus or monopolize the guide. And that guide: Does he know the facts or is he making up stories that sound good? Perhaps worst of all is being at the mercy of the tour guide. It’s not like you can get off the bus and go home if you’ve had enough of Hoover Dam or Death Valley.

Las Vegan Terry Kniess has a solution. Rent a GyPSy Guide, then take a self-guided tour in your own car with all the historical facts, local stories and more, at your fingertips.

Kniess introduced the GyPSy Guide to Las Vegas in December, offering tourists and locals the opportunity to rent one, for $49 a day, plus tax. It’s a GPS device loaded with stories about the valley, painstakingly researched and recorded by Kniess himself. Depending on the coordinates of a person’s location, the GyPSy chimes in with facts about Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, Hoover Dam, the Strip, even suggestions to visit a mall or other points of interest in town.

Kniess, who has lived in Las Vegas off and on since the mid 1980s, wanted to bring the GyPSy Guide to Las Vegas after he and his wife used one in Canada, where the original company is based. They visited the country’s famous Lake Louise and rented the GyPSy with their car.

The couple were so impressed with how much it taught them that they couldn’t stop talking about it, even after they came back to Las Vegas. He knew he had the time to devote to a start-up, as he was laid off from his casino surveillance job more than a year ago.

“We came home and I talked to my wife about it and said, ‘We’ve got to get these guys to come down here,’ ” Kniess remembers.

GyPSy Guide Las Vegas is affiliated with the Canadian version through a five-year agreement during which Kniess will use the company’s equipment but create the local GyPSy content. It took him six months to research and record the information for the two tours currently offered: Red Rock and Hoover Dam. But there also are some minitours programmed for the Strip.

He has a long-range plan for the guide, including tours to the Grand Canyon as well as Spanish versions of each route.

“I think it adds something to the Vegas experience,” says Kniess, adding that even longtime locals might learn something about the valley during the tours.

Kniess drew on his background in television weather when deciding what content to include on the guides. He describes the valley’s weather, the dangers of flash flooding and other information. The GPS points out trails in Red Rock, gives the history of the area and the reasons why the rocks are red (it has to do with centuries of buildup of iron oxide). On a tour to the dam, you’ll hear about Vegas’ mob history.

The system is easy to use, Kniess says. All you do is turn it on after mounting it from a suction cup on the windshield. And it’s simple to rent one; just call 450-6377 or reserve one online at gypsyguide.com/lasvegas. A device will be delivered to your door.

Kniess envisions partnering with businesses that deal with tourism, but he’s finding it difficult to get his foot in the door at casinos, with concierges and rental car companies.

“I’m finding that’s a tough nut to crack,” he says.

Contact reporter Sonya Padgett at spadgett@review journal.com or 702-380-4564.