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:
- Berlin
- Munich
- Amsterdam
- London
- Paris
- Edinburgh
- Madrid
- Jerusalem
- Dublin
- Tel Aviv
- Hamburg
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.
I just took the Paris Free tour last week with Phillip and had an excellent time. Check my blog on what we saw. Tip your tour guide well if you enjoy yourself. It is a great value for whatever you decide to give.
i think there is a saying that goes something like this: you get what you paid for…if you dont pay dont expect a lot, yes the tour might be entertaining but dont expect qualified historial information, as someone who studied german history i was shocked about the amount of mistakes the berlin guide made…rather spend 10 euros for a proper knowledgeable guide if i want comedy i go to a comedy club not a city tour.
Budapest has 3 free walking tours ranging from General to Communist and Jewish Quarter free walking tours.
Tripadvisor ranks it for the best thing to do in Budapest.
So feel welcomed to check out Free Walking Tour in Krakow, Poland.
Our Tour Guides are licensed which mean graduated from one year Tour Guide course consisting of mainly history and history of art, when about 90 % failed this course every year.
Furthermore they are guiding in much more passionate and entertaining way than regular tour guides cause they are used to foreigners who never heard about Poland before.
So we are rather giving chance to understand history of 7th largest country in Europe than forcing them to remember dates from polish history.
Please think twice about doing these free tours, they may be unethical businesses.
The largest Free tour operator in Europe, Sandemans New Europe, has just been accused of helping itself to its guides tips, and not telling tourists the ‘free tour’ was in many ways being paid for by the guide.
Sandemans mostly young workforce can even end up losing money by working for him.
Please hesitate before you support a business model like this, or you could spend your life working for tips, and having to give some of the money to your boss. Please google Sandeman + ZDF to find out more.
The company are now challenging these allegations. See their website press section (google it) We’ll see what happens
Check out free tour in Lima Peru also!
BEWARE of the posts from FairTradeInTourism. They were a fake group set up on FaceBook by PAID TOUR companies attempting to discredit the concept of free tours. They were caught at their game, and as a court order against them for unlawful slander was being issued, they disbanded their fake group and deleted it from Facebook.
Sadly, tourism is often set up to rup-off travelers. The free tours, now all over the world, allow travelers to only tip at the end of the tour if they want, which ensures 100% satisfaction…traditional tour companies are doing anything they can to try and stop free tours, because they simply can’t compete with: better quality at the price you decide you want to pay.
Long live free tours;) Paid tour companies should be afraid, their days are counted, and no matter what lies they try and tell, the people are speaking and they won’t be tricked into paying for substandard services just because they’re not locals.