Experienced Liverpool tour guide Dale Roberts has acquired Liverpool Cycle Tours which offers ‘eco-friendly’ tours of the city. Tony McDonough reports

Liverpool Cycle Tours, which offers carbon neutral tours of the city centre, has changed hands.

Experienced Liverpool tour guide Dale Roberts has acquired the business from founder Phil Ware for an undisclosed sum. For the past eight years, Dale has worked with a number of Liverpool tour companies.

Now he will oversee his own environmentally-friendly sightseeing experiences. With a fleet of electric and non-electric bikes, Liverpool Cycle Tours offers tourists and locals a carbon neutral way to take in the city’s stunning landmarks.

Walton-born Dale first encountered the business five years ago, after going on a Beatles tour by electric bike. When he had the opportunity to buy it from Phil Ware, he felt the time was right to take it.

He explained: “I became aware of Liverpool Cycle Tours in 2017 when I joined Phil on a tour. I quickly realised that it was the best way of seeing Liverpool’s beauty.

“You are able to cycle through multiple parks and along the entire riverfront by electric bike and get to places that other vehicles can’t get to.

“My background is in marketing, so for me this was a unique selling point jackpot. As a tour guide who has since spent years studying tours, I was really impressed by how user-friendly and high quality it was.

“I championed the tour from then onwards, so in 2022 when the chance came to buy the company I couldn’t pass it up, and more importantly I couldn’t see our city lose its most environmentally friendly tour.”

Dale believes the city is “on the threshold of a real environmental boom” thanks to the growing number of cycle lanes in locations such as The Strand and Lime Street.

He added: “Everything is changing towards greener transport so it’s perfect timing to get involved and grow what is already a fantastic tour to make it even better.”

Dale joined Liverpool City Sights open top bus tours in 2016 as marketing manager.  He went on to become the city’s youngest qualified Beatles tour guide at the age of 26.

“I completely fell into tour guiding,” he said. “I was a marketing manager and had a background in public speaking so that, combined with my passion for showcasing the city, made me a good fit to be a tour guide.

“One day I was told we didn’t have enough guides so I stepped in and I’ve never looked back. I’ve found whatever job I’ve taken since has been split between marketing, management and tour guiding.”

Dale was approached by Cavern City Tours, owners of the world famous Cavern Club and Magical Mystery Tour, to join their marketing team, and led their successful Behind The Scenes Tour, the first of its kind in the Cavern Club’s long history.

In late 2021, he took on the ultimate Beatles tour role – as manager of Liverpool’s longest-running and most iconic tour dedicated to the Fab Four – The Magical Mystery Tour.

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“The Magical Mystery Tour is a Liverpool institution and it has been around since before I was born,” he said. “I’ve taken a lot of pride in guiding tens of thousands of people, of all ages and backgrounds and from all around the world over the years.”

Liverpool Cycle Tours will be recruiting soon to employ new tour guides and will be expanding its offer of tours to incorporate more of Liverpool’s music and sports heritage.