Consider Free Walking Tours

In every city that we visit, JG and I would always try and join a free-walking tour to get to know the city or country a little bit better.

Our first was walking tour was in the minus two-degrees winter of Berlin but we had so much and learned so much from our guide that we almost forgot about the cold. And so whenever possible, we always made sure to find one in every city that we travel to.

Athens

 It is not actually “free-free”…

… more accurately it is a tip-based system wherein you decide how much you think the tour is worth depending on how good the entire experience was for you.

They would often say that if you think that after the tour you feel it wasn’t worth much, the best you could offer is a handshake, and that would be okay.

Some funny guides would even dare say that you may slap them in the face if you felt short-handed, wanting, or perhaps gravely offended after the tour.

The idea behind this, is that instead of setting a price or amount, the tour guide would ensure the best experience that they can offer within the average two hours walking around, so that that you, amazed, entertained, and more informed than when you started would pay them deservedly.

A tour usually lasts two hours sometimes three, depending on how big the city is, how fast or slow your group’s pace is, and depending on how many times the guide stops to tell you something or show you something interesting.

Most of the tours would cover a brief history of the country and the city, the culture, suggestions of where to go, where to eat, the do’s and don’ts, and many different stories in between. Barring any disaster or life-threatening situations, tours do this every day, rain or shine, even as we experienced in our first tour, in the freezing cold.

Bratislava

Theme and topic and specific tours usually has a set fee. Such tours are not always free or tip-based, and is paid with a set price. The reason for this is because perhaps such topics are often niche and don’t always draw a big enough crowd, and in some cases, fees are needed to get in some places.

But some are still free especially if it is a big part of understanding the place you are visiting. Here in Budapest, they have the Communist tour, which tackles the history and sites connected to the years the country was under the said party after WWII.

Most European countries also have the Jewish Tour which takes you into the district that is either was or still is populated by their Jewish community, or has been influenced by the history and its culture, especially during the Holocaust.

The Tour Guide

At the center, and crucial to this experience is of course the tour guide. Let’s face it, factual information like history, food, and who this guy is mounted on a horse with his huge monument, is fairly easy to convey. But if your guide is great a story teller, or a very entertaining one, how you learn about the city makes it even more memorable and worthwhile.

It is sort of like teaching and teachers? It takes a good teacher to make you understand the fundamentals, it takes a great one to make you fall in love with a subject enough to make you want to major in it in college, or be a teacher yourself one day.

Over the years, I have seen a fair share of tour guides, each one with their own unique way of telling stories and showing you around the city. As a communication student, I am fascinated with this sort of career because it is an interesting point of study in terms of message sending and Narratology. Because if you think about it, how would you show guests around your hometown?

Belgrade

I asked that myself and I realized that it isn’t that easy. Of course consider that this sort of gig is specific and could easily be done in Europe especially since most of it are walking cities – something that would be hard to do in Manila.

Nevertheless, I guess the better question to ask, and a great guide would be able to pull off is, how do you tell the story of your city?

I have seen guides who are funny, too serious, cynical, distractingly attractive (both male and female), those who walk too fast, those whose accents are so thick or very definite it would take you a while to really get what they are saying. As I mentioned, all of these are factors that affect how they are able to make your experience with them interesting and worth what you would give.

Prague

Why not a Free Walking Tour?

One of the major criticisms that I have heard about these tours is that you don’t really get a first-hand, authentic “born and raised” guides- because they are usually exchange students, or freelance English-speaking foreigners, who are living in the city and want to make extra cash as tour guides. Thus, you don’t really get a real perspective of a local, and is better off paying a professional tour guide.

To some extent this is true, especially in big and widely visited cities like London or Paris, most of the guides are definitely native English speakers possibly in a gap year or doing part-time whilst doing something else; or in the case of Spanish tour groups those who know how to speak or are from Spanish speaking origins.

But most of the time you would encounter home grown locals, especially in small cities, or places where tourists don’t come in droves. Cities like Bratislava, and here in Budapest where knowing how to speak the language is crucial to the guide’s access to the city, which entails mostly locals. Some cities require guides to take exams, for instance in Vienna, where it takes you about a year or more to get your license to do tours, which again gives an advantage to locals. 

Budapest

If you ask me, I don’t mind this at all, because I also consider the source of the information and think about why his/her narrative is this way or that way. The key is keeping an open mind, and knowing that like you, we are all sharing this big planet, and each of us have our own point of view, our own different ways to share them.

Consider Perspectives

Considering the guide’s background, for example culturally, and another is how long he or she has been living in the city. A big plus for me, when it comes to expatriate guides is if they speak the language of the country. This shows that they have really put in the work to get to know the place they are taking you around in, or have lived there long enough to absorb the basic form of communication.

Another factor I look into is what they were doing prior to being a guide, or what they are doing on the side, for example college or graduate students.  It would be a plus for me if they are, say, are studying history, art history, architecture, or sociology, because their perspective is almost of a level a professor, sharing you insights of what they know from their point of expertise. And I also wouldn’t mind seeing the city through the eyes of a Scientist, a poet, or an engineer.

It is interesting for me to see how a guide’s tour is influenced by where they from in the world. For example, American guides aside from often having good voice projection, are more animated, more confident in ideals of individualism, and are more vocal about their opinions in politics (whether this is a good thing or not, depends on how they say it).

Edinburgh

As supposed for instance to our local guide in Ljubjana who was very diplomatic in his answers regarding current events. Our older guide in Dubrovnik half-jokingly said that he did not like greedy capitalists, explaining that he grew up during the communist era.

As for local guides, getting a chance to hear from them and tell you about their home is a privilege that one should not miss. Unless you make a friend while on holiday, you can’t really ask a local, questions like what do the people think about the new President? This would be your chance to get a small sample of what the people of the city you are visiting think about certain issues or anything you are curious about their culture and society. 

Whether they give you an honest answer or if you feel that they are still holding back, for me, this is better than getting any inputs at all. 

There were of course not so good guides.

Basic problems that cause me to lessen my tip after the tour would be if the guide gets lost (worst case scenario, but it happens). Or if they don’t take considerations about the current weather like not stop in the shade when they are only ones dressed accordingly when its raining or too sunny. Guides who walk way too fast used to drive me crazy, but I learned to just keep up and take advantage of taking pictures when everyone has gotten ahead.

I prefer older guides, they are rare in the walking tours, but I find their perspective wiser, laid back, often with a witty dry sense of humor. Perhaps they are less idealistic and more realistic in how they perceive things, they look more outwardly, collectively, not much about themselves, but in a matter-of-fact kind of way. Perhaps it’s a generational thing, but sometimes too much confidence can be a problem, and its probably just me, but younger people nowadays tend to be so.

For me the biggest plus would be attitude, you could be walking in the most beautiful city in the world but if your guide talks and walks as if he would rather eat dirt than be there, then it’s a bust. On the flip side, the most boring and most over-rated place could turn magical if the guide knows how to tell and share a good story.

I also dislike haughty or cocky guides; I mean a little dis to another country is okay, but to constantly insult everybody else thinking your city is the best, is far from okay, and would definitely get a low tip from me. Fortunately, this thing only happened once, and in that rare case, you could feel that the participants in the group were just politely ignoring the guide’s snide attitude, since we were still at least getting the gist of what we tourists needed to know about the place. 

Our very first tour guide in our Berlin tour

In contrast, our first tour guide in Berlin, told the story of Hitler’s last moments; and if you have ever been, you’d know that today that area where his bunkers were in the city is now just a mundane lot in front of everyday residential buildings. But he told it in a quiet serious manner, just as simply as he could, everyone was quietly listening as he explained why such a place did not deserve any monument or commemorative plaque. A perfect example of a how a good story teller can convey the significance of a place even if it is now just some lot. It was a sign that he understands the responsibility of the story he is sharing, the effects of what you he was imparting, not just shelling out information but the message and lesson it should teach.

Lastly. in one of my recent trips, the weather was wet and cold, and so there were but a handful of people who joined the tour. Our guide then suggested if we were okay in setting the tip to a price, explaining something about making it fair, since we were a small number. I wasn't sure about this since how it was laid out felt a little pushed as if considering cancelling it all together because the guide's pay would not be worth it. Most of us who were there seemed from far away, and probably thought that this was their only chance and reluctantly agreed. And as I expected, the guide felt like just getting through the tour, perhaps since the earning were already guaranteed whether it was done poorly or not. I know the guide could have done better because this was my second time taking that tour, and the guide in the first one was terrific, anchoring the tour on a theme. The second one though, not so much, most notably skipping a couple of great places I saw from the first one. It would have been okay if the set tip was suggested in a better way, or if we were just given a better effort for it. Thus the defeating the purpose of what I liked about the whole idea of "free" walking tours.

There are no stupid questions, but…

As far as the concept of a tip-based walking tour is concerned, there is the idea that the guides might just be telling you things you want to hear, so as to get better tips from you. But in my experience most of the guides are not only very forth-coming, but are very honest about answering questions. Some are even very open about certain issues that you might think is faux pas, like politics, or personal questions like how much the rent is in the city, in accordance how much would a tour guide make.

But of course, it also takes a certain sense and sensibility on your part as a tourist, as with everything in life, while they may not be stupid questions to a genuinely curious person, how it is asked, with the right amount of due respect is always crucial.

I say this because in all of our walking tours, you cannot help but encounter that one or two participant who just says things or ask questions just so they can show off that they actually know the answer, or most likely just wanted some attention.  The sad part is that in some cases, not only would they constantly interfere the guide, in the end they would also be simultaneously talk loudly, complaining about nothing to everything. Most of the time, these are also participants who suddenly disappear (a little before the tour ends), not leaving a tip for the guide, after ruining everybody else’s experience.

Krakow

The last story

At the end of each tour, the guide would usually share one last story. It could be about the last stop, or generally something that’s really important that happened in the city. I remember the guide in London who told the story about the guy who climbed Queen Elizabeth’s window, brandishing a knife, and how she calmly handled the situation. On the steps of the Rudolfinum, our guide told the story about their Velvet Revolution, asking us to imagine thousands jingling their keys as a sign of support.

Not all guides end their tours this way, but I like it when they sum of the tour with a memorable story. If you don’t remember much of what was told you, at the very least you could remember that one last story.

Tipping

Usually they stick around to entertain your questions, but this would be the time to hand them your tip, shake their hands, and thank them for the experience.

I’m not going to tell you how much we usually give, because that is the whole point. But remember that it is a free tour that is tip-based, doesn’t mean you should give meager coins just because you can.

During one tour, a group of girls gave the guide some loose change, and the guide did not hide his frustration asking if that was it from all of them.

While I understand that some people could really just afford very little, but that guide did well, and did deserve more than that. But of course that, is in fact the gamble in their job, you give people free reins to rate your services, and at times people can be cruel, or in that instance perhaps it was charged as the follies and arrogance of the young. 

Paris

Personally, I would also like to say that while it is also good to consider that doing the tour is the actual bread and butter of the guides, consider this as the last factor when giving the tip, and always give according to how they did during the tour. Again, that is the point of the deal of the tip-base system, but again, be fair and don’t be an asshole and give them alms.

If you are honestly confused of how much to give, look up how much a paid guide would be paid before you join the tour and use that as a standard. Think of your budget, and add or subtract depending on how you think the tour went.

And if you really don’t have much, it’s still cool to give what you can. The best you can do to make up for that is to write them a good review on travel sites like TripAdvisor. Or if you have some constructive things to say, let them know as well, and at the same time letting others know what to expect. And like they always say, that kind of feedback helps them a lot.

Salzburg

Try it, I mean why not?

I really think that the idea of the Walking tour is one of the best things that I experience in Europe. It’s not always perfect and perhaps there are things about it, that doesn’t always give you the ideal tourist experience. But its simply a great thing to at least get to know the country or the city you are visiting. It’s kind of a great intro to it. You could be there for the stories like me, or find a willing person to tell you how not to run around like a headless chicken, or at the very least come back home with so much more than ref magnets and pictures.