My boyfriend and I were in Big Bear for his 40th birthday this past weekend and we did both the Segway and Zipline tours.
Segway
Pros- Our guide Chris was awesome. He was a fun guide and I enjoyed the tour around Big Bear Lake. He took some great pictures of us both on and off of the Segways. Safety was clearly stressed and a big priority.
Cons- Although safety was stressed, I still got injured when my Segway tilted over going up an incline. It was my fault in that I did not properly dismount from the Segway when it started to tilt. I panicked. The Segway toppled on me, pinning me to the ground and badly bruising both of my legs, scraping my elbow. This being said, I never felt 100% confident on the Segways.
This is not a passive experience, it is more on par with skateboarding or rollerblading. There is a high probability of falling when learning. We heard this from pretty much everyone we encountered in Big Bear, including staff at the zipline. It's not to say that you will have a major accident, but be prepared for the possibility of scrapes and bruises. I think that if I had more experience, my confidence level would have been fine. Two hours was not enough to ease the nerves.
I think Action did the best they could to give us a great experience and minimize accidents. I was able to finish the tour and when we returned to the office, Chris gave me ice packs for my injuries.
Zipline
Pros- Fantastic tour guides, I never felt unsafe or that safety was not a priority. The guides were fun, but also really nice about not pushing me when I momentarily freaked out. They were supportive! There are nine ziplines and the excursion lasted nearly three hours, which felt like a great value for money. We liked that they had a professional photographer. It's located in a beautiful location.
Cons- really only one- I wish that the pictures at the end of the tour had been better organized. It added about another half an hour of waiting around the Action office as we went through all of the tour pictures. It's probably cost prohibitive, but it would have been nice if we could have viewed the pictures on the ride back in the van and then been ready to purchase when we got back to the office. We almost didn't wait to see the pictures, because we wanted to head out to lunch!
I'm glad that I did it, but Ziplining was far outside of my comfort zone. It wasn't the heights and I had trust in the equipment/guides...it was the speed and worrying about breaking. I was shaking after the first few lines and didn't get comfortable until the last two. We are very unlikely to do zipling again, but I am glad that I experienced it through Action. Good company and great guides.
TIP- We were told to wear bright colors for pictures. We did this on both excursions and our pictures really looked great.
Please visit my blog for a more extensive review of the zipline and Segway with pictures! Also tons on our Big Bear weekend!