About Tour Erie
Tour Erie, LLC is a mother-daughter operation established in the summer of 2024 by lifelong Erieites and unabashed Erie cheerleaders Heather and Lauren Cass. Whether you are just visiting Erie or are an area resident who wants to learn more about your hometown, you'll experience the fun and wonder of Erie's rich history, all while getting a bit of exercise.
We love Erie! Let us show you why!
Why We Started Tour Erie
We love to travel and, when we do, we look for tours to learn more about the area we are visiting. We've often wondered why with so many summer visitors and hotels on the bayfront, nobody was offering walking tours in downtown Erie. One day, we thought: What if we did it?
We turned to the Gannon Small Business Development Center and the Northwest Pennsylvania Innovation Beehive Network and got all the help we needed from local colleges (another great thing about Erie!) to launch our business.
Meet Our Team
Lead Tour Guide:
Heather
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Heather is a professional writer and former journalist for the Erie Times‑News, where she founded and served as editor‑in‑chief of the former Her Times women’s magazine. She now works as the Publications Manager at Penn State Behrend, which means she spends her days writing cool stories — and her weekend evenings telling spookier ones.
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Tour Guide:
Lauren
Lauren cut her tour‑guide teeth at Penn State Behrend, where she spent four years walking backwards, projecting her voice, and convincing teenagers that Erie winters “build character.” Today, she’s an Admissions Counselor at Gannon University — a campus we wander through on the ghost tour and one that, let’s just say, has more than its fair share of stories. The good kind. The spooky kind. The “only in Erie” kind.