Walking around somewhere with a local tour guide is the best and fastest way to see a new city or place. This post is an ode to free walking tours. I love free walking tours. So much so that a free walking tour is the first thing I do when I arrive in a new city.
If you’ve never done a free walking tour before, you’re missing out! A free walking tour provides a taste test of the highlights of a location. While the word ‘free’ is in the name, free walking tour guides rely on your tips. This means that a guide will work hard to provide you the best value possible. Guides often go above and beyond, providing recommendations about the best things to see, the top places to eat and how to avoid tourist traps. A free walking tour is the perfect start to any city visit.
Why You Need to do a Free Walking Tour
I’ve done a lot of free walking tours throughout my travels. As mentioned in the introduction, I usually try to do a free walking tour the first day I’m in a new location. As someone who is instantly drawn to anything with the word ‘free’, I find free walking tours are the perfect combination of experience and value. I’ve probably done close to 40+ free walking tours at this stage. Accordingly, with this many under my belt I would like to think this makes me a bit of a free tour expert. I passionately believe that they’re the best way to see and learn about a new city.
Here’s why you should do a free walking tour on your next trip:
1. Meet People
Spark up a conversation with a like-minded tour goer and see where that new friendship takes you. This is especially useful if you’re a solo traveller and looking to meet others. There have been many times I’ve met someone on a tour and then spent the rest of the day (or days) together in that city!
2. Plan the Rest of Your Stay
Often, it’s difficult to know the best way to spend your time in a city, especially if it’s a quick trip. There is so much information online and everyone has a different opinion about THE best thing to do in that city.
This is where free tours come in. I have a much better idea of where/what else I would like to see in a place once I’ve spent some time walking around it. Tour guides can provide recommendations on the best museums, attractions, restaurants, bars, nightlife and things to do. Free tours are like a ‘taster’ of the different things to do in a city, helping you make a much more informed decision about what else to do.
I’ve often visited (or not visited) a museum, church or other landmark based on a tour guides recommendation. They’re invaluable resources for making the most of your time in that place.
Remember What Your Guide Recommended
Struggling to remember what place the tour guide recommended? No need to take a notebook. Instead, check out my guide on how to use Google Maps to save the tour guides recommendations. Read more here.
“Save locations, create custom lists and add notes to optimise your travel experience.”
3. Find Hidden Gems
Free walking tour guides live and work in the city you’re visiting. This makes them incredibly useful sources of local knowledge and where to find hidden gems. Free tour guides can provide recommendations that go beyond any Trip Advisor list of top restaurants or sights.
Useful things I’ve learnt from a free walking tour include:
- Easiest way(s) to get around the city,
- Cheapest and easiest way to get to the airport,
- Best places to eat on a budget,
- Favourite ice cream shop,
- Where to swim away from all the tourists,
- Most spectacular day trips from the city,
- Museums that are worth your time.
… and so much more.
4. Great Value for Money
While ‘free’ is in the name, it’s polite to tip your guide at the end of the tour. Despite not being free, these tours represent incredible value for money. Especially compared to other tours which can be three to four times the price. If that’s not enough of a reason, the tour guide often recommends other budget friendly activities and restaurants. Investing in a free tour can pay itself back in savings elsewhere multiple times over. The price of knowledge has never been such good value.
5. Passionate Guides
When it comes to guides, free walking tour guides are some of the most passionate guides I’ve ever met. It takes a certain type of person to choose to take you around their city for (almost) free! I’ve had tour guides who were formerly teachers, some have had doctorates in history and others a passion and drive to share stories about their city.
6. Get a Personal Perspective
While it’s not always the case, a lot of the free walking tour guides have grown up in the city they’re showing you around. What this means is that they’re able to share personal stories about what it was like to grow up there. These personal stories tend to be what I remember most about a certain city. For me, it’s these stories that make the city really feel special, not so much the year a church was built.
Are Free Walking Tours Really Free?
No.
Please give a tip. Each tour guide has taken the time to provide you with a walking tour experience. What is just a few hours for you, includes a lot of behind-the-scenes work. Tour guides need to plan a walking route, learn about the local history, find fun stories, find interesting facts, come up with a list of recommendations, promote their tours and much more. This is a lot of work. These tours are already terrific value, so it’s important to respect the guides time and effort and please, please tip them.
My Worst Walking Tour
Tour guides work for your tips, so the tours are usually of a pretty high standard. However, there was one that didn’t quite meet expectations. Here’s my quick story about the only bad free walking tour I have ever been on.
I signed up for the tour through my hostel (my mistake not checking reviews) and was scheduled to meet in the afternoon. When the time came, the tour guide introduced themselves. I was surprised to discover that they had been living in the city for less than one year, were from a different country and acted like they had just woken up less than an hour beforehand. None of this would have been a problem if the guide knew what they were talking about. Unfortunately, they had absolutely no idea.
Over the course of the next 1.5 hours I learnt extraordinarily little about the city. The information the guide shared was less than I would have learnt from just reading the summary on Google. I was pretty disappointed. Where were the local stories? The fun facts? Where were the recommendations for cool places to see and things to do? And most importantly, were was the passion? I stayed for the whole tour, hoping it would get better, but it never did. In the end I was happy just to finish the tour.
This experience was a stark reminder that the quality and passion of the guide can make or break a tour. It made me appreciate even more just how great tour guides can be. On a positive note, none of the free walking tours I have been on before or since have been even remotely close to this experience again.
Despite this subpar tour experience, I still tipped the guide. Was the tip the same amount as the incredible free walking tour I went on in Sarajevo? No. But I still tipped. Please don’t be that person who doesn’t tip or claims they’ve got no change. The tour guide took time out of their day to show me around and I respected that.
Where to Find Free Walking Tours
One of the most common ways I find a free walking tour is with the website Guruwalk. Guruwalk serves as a platform for free tour guides to advertise and has free walking tours all over the world. Plus, you can read reviews of past tour goers. Had I done this, I might have avoided my worst tour story above.
Alternatively, just googling “Free Walking Tour [City Name]” can help you find a list of the free tours in that location.
Regardless of how you find the free walking tour, be sure to check out the reviews, look at where they go and pick one that appeals to you. Depending on the city, there may be tours which run in the morning, afternoon and/or evening. Bigger cities will often also have tours which circulate around specific themes allowing you to learn more about what you’re interested in!
Do I Need to Book in Advance?
Yes. Tour guides will have a maximum number of people they want on their tours. This is so they can provide a better experience. However, I’ve never had problems booking only one day in advance. I’ll typically arrive in a city and book in for a free walking tour that afternoon or the next morning. If you’re in peak season, you might need to book further ahead. However, tours will typically cater for peak times with more guides available.
Conclusion – Best Way to See a City
Free walking tours are by far my favourite way of seeing a new city. If you’re looking to meet other travellers, get excellent recommendations, find hidden gems, and meet passionate tour guides there’s no better way to start your time in a city than with a free walking tour. The easiest way to find your next walking tour is just by checking out Guruwalk or a quick Google search.
Where was your favourite free walking tour? What made it so good?
I’d love to hear about it in the comment below.
Happy Walking!
Kieren