Round the World Ticket

Free Walking Tours Are An Excellent New Trend in Europe and Israel

Started only in 2006, there is a new revolution spreading around Europe and elsewhere, and it’s especially helpful to RTW travelers and others on strict budgets. A company called Sandeman’s, which was founded by Chris Sandeman in Berlin, has begun offering “free” walking tours of various cites in a very novel way. As someone who has taken 5 of the tours already, I can highly recommend all of them.

A free walking tour?

Okay, so they aren’t exactly free, in that before the tour begins the guide will mention that the tours are really “tips-based” and not intended as some benevolent offer to tourists. You could literally pay nothing and walk away at the end, and some people do this on nearly every tour, but most people find the tours to be extremely interesting and fun, so a tip of perhaps €5 or £5 feels like a good deal, and enough that the guide feels appreciated. The guides will also usually point out the sterile tour buses making a similar route, and that those tourists are usually paying €20 or more for 90 minutes of prerecorded commentary.

Cities so far:

and more to come soon

How they generally work

You’ll find helpful maps and area guides stacked near the reception at most of the major hostels in each of these cities, and on the front of the map you’ll see the free tour advertised in bold. They ask guests to just meet at a predetermined location, which is the same time and place every day of the year. From there, the tour guides will sort out how many people they have, and if the number is high they’ll break it down into smaller groups so it never feels like a herd of cattle. They even do tours in Spanish and other languages, usually leaving from the same place at the same time.

Then once the tour begins, the guide will explain the tips-only thing, and begin telling interesting stories about each location. Most tours average a bit over 3 hours, and they do tend to go on a bit longer than scheduled, but most people stick it out the whole time, even though there is an incentive to duck out just before the end to save from giving a tip.

Along the way they’ll also mention that the company has a few other tours in each city, and those do cost money, but usually only around €10 each. You needn’t worry that the whole thing is some sales pitch for other tours, because they are only mentioned briefly, as are the pub crawls they sponsor in every town, every evening.

The pub crawls are also extremely fun, and especially a good choice if you are traveling on your own. There is something about free-flowing alcohol that helps bring new friends together in a hurry. They mostly cost between €12 and €20, but you make that up in free booze even between the pubs, and the drink specials make the whole night way cheaper than you’d do on your own.