Free Walking Tours in Europe
Kapil and I discovered free walking tours on our recent trip around Europe. There are free walking tours in all the major cities of Europe. These generally start from a central location in the city and can go for 2-3 hours. Depending on numbers, people are sometimes split into smaller groups of 10-15 each and paired up with different guides. These tours are free in that you do not have to pay a fixed price for them. The tour guides make money from tips. At the end of the tour, you are free to tip the guide as how much or as little as you think it was worth to you.
After doing a few of these tours, we found out that the guides generally have to pay the tour company a portion of what they make from tips. This is calculated based on the number of people in the tour group. In some cities, and particularly with the bigger tour companies, this means a group photo at the start or end of the tour as evidence of numbers. Since free walking tours tend to lose people along the way (in that, people decide they’d rather wander off on their own) we sometimes sensed frustration and anxiety in the tour guides as the tour progressed. This does not make for a good tour experience. So our suggestion would be to look up reviews online on TripAdvisor etc before deciding between multiple free walking tour options.
That said, apart from being a great sightseeing option that is available to all irrespective of budget, duration of visit, age and fitness level, free walking tours can be worthwhile for the following reasons:
Great way to get your orientation in a new city: Of course smart phones, maps and guidebooks can help you find your way almost anywhere in the world, but doing a walking tour lets you find your bearings in a new place a lot quicker than shuffling around the city, alternately looking at the map on your smartphone/travel guide and then at street signs to make sure you are headed in the right direction. Once we realised this, we started doing walking tours on our first day in a new city. This helped us figure out where all the key sights were relative to our accommodation and the city centre. Figuring this out earlier on always made the remainder of the trip a lot smoother in terms of finding our way around.
Good way to figure out the sights at which you want to spend more time: Walking tours make a brief stop at the major sights in the city. In some cases this is all the time you need at a particular sight. Then there will be the ones that you want to return to for a better/longer look and more pictures, maybe. A walking tour works like the contents page of a cookbook. In that, you get a summary of what's on offer, and can figure out how to return to the parts that interest you. Often after a walking tour, Kapil and I have tweaked our itinerary in the city so that we are making the most of our time there.
A great tour guide can greatly enhance your experience of a place: The guides that lead these walking tours are generally people that know the city in and out, but more importantly, they love the place, its history and culture. Barring two instances when Kapil and I have walked off midway because our guides looked bored and uninspired, we have had some great free walking tour experiences. Good tour guides can help take your enjoyment of a city up a few notches by sharing great tips about where to hang out with the locals, what to do, what to skip, and the best places for local food, drink and fun. For example, our food memories of each of these cities are just that bit more vivid and delicious because we decided to check out Bertels Salon and Torvehallerne KBH in Copenhagen, Lokál in Prague and Time Out Mercado da Ribeira in Lisbon based on our tour guides’ recommendation.
And of course these tours are another great way to meet other travellers, make new friends and swap travel tales, tips and tricks.
