10
You can book yourself on a container ship as a passenger and see industrial ports and stuff across the world
John deere has some nice tours. The best tours cost half a million or more - but they let you take one home. (If you know a farmer who buys new tractors ask - many farmers have seen it and so won't use their tour , so you can get their ticket). Then there is the free tours that anyone can take - but these are limited numbers and tour bus companies reserve all the spots when they open up knowing they can then sell the whole tour (if you don't live near the factory this is the way to go since the factories are generally a boring drive away and the tour drivers know how to spice it up and where to eat). As an employee I've only got the engineers tour - that is when everyone staring at you knows it is your fault they are getting paid to do nothing - I do not recommend these even though they were paying me.
Pennsylvania has lots of opportunities for factory tours. There's bread, pretzels, beer, wine, guitars, candy...
Most of the time the tours are pretty cheesy. "Press the button to watch water spray on hops." Ride in a little cart through a dramatized candy production line. That sort of stuff.
Maybe you could pose as a wealthy investor. Then you get to see the real deal!
I've been to at least one distillery and a hydroelectric dam. These days, your best bet is probably to just check the website of wherever it is you wanna go to.
The next town over from me has a car/van manufacturing plant. I went there as a teenager to learn about Kaizen, lean, process mapping and critical path analysis.
As an adult I know of a few families who have booked to go to watch robots make cars, see the assembly line and gawk at the massive diagrams on the walls.
The larger town next to mine has monthly tours of their wastewater and water processing plants. Although they're scheduled to be amenable for K-12 student field trips, they also see adults who wish to understand how their tax dollars are being expensed for the public good.
For other municipal services, you might also reach out to the director of that department, since as public servants, they can also schedule special tours of the facilities for members of the public. It can't hurt to ask.
Check out your local recycling center, they often do tours!
There's lots of that for kids. I remember we went to a donut factory. They gave us donuts and they had a gift shop where you could buy dirt cheap broken donuts. I'm pretty sure they just had a PR number where you could book stuff like that.
I wanna say we did that for other stuff, too.
There are also old factories kept as museums. I went to a salt mine once that was set up like that. That was just a run of the mill tourist attraction, you just paid some cash at the entrance.
Fellow oldie here
When we were in university, professors who had contacts in the manufacturing industry would post a bill on the notice boards stating that some of the factories they know have a slot for visit open. If there was enough interest, the thing would go on like any other group visit. Logistics, dates, etc.
During the visit, the professor and their contacts would walk us through the shop floor explaining the stations along their production line. Sometimes, there'll be a walkthrough of their logistic decision making processes. Usually concluded with a q&a session with some manager in the factory. Back then, we broke students were curious regarding how our education made us suitable for a job there and what soft skills are expected of us.
So, hitting someone up where you are interested in visiting might be a good start.
Breweries and distilleries commonly offer tours. Just check their website.
Boeing has an awesome factory tour. So does Ford. Just buy tickets and for the day and time you want to attend.
Edit: here are some other interesting tours:
- chateau St Michelle winery
- grand Coulee Dam
- Amazon fulfillment center
Boeing lets you tight some screws and write few lines of code
this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2025
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