Why Free Walking Tours are my go-to travel activity - Nomads Unveiled (2024)

If you don’t already know from my other posts, I am a big fan of free walking tours. Free walking tours are my go-to activity whenever I visit a new city. I try to slot a free walking tour in as soon as I can after arriving because it a great way of getting an introduction to the city.

Here are some of the main reasons why these tours are great for travelers.

First look at the city

I try to attend a free walking tour as soon as possible to get a good idea of all the popular spots. This is particularly true if I don’t have a lot of time in the city. The information helps me to plan my list of to-dos for the rest of my time there. I try to avoid the case where I miss an interesting spot in a neighborhood I have already visited. Therefore, I always use free walking tours as a city introduction before doing anything else.

Get local recommendations

One of the main benefits of a free walking tour is to get hyper-local recommendations from the guide. Famous, touristic spots are easy to research beforehand, but I always love to dive into local haunts. This is where I feel the real knowledge of a local guide comes into play. You can read about history and stories online, but up-to-date local know-hows are hard to come by.

It is an excellent source of information for foodies to find authentic, local food places. There is only so much one can eat in a day, so I like to acquire the recommendations as early as possible. I hate to waste my lunch/dinner quota on a lousy food place!

They are time savers

As a spontaneous traveler who sometimes wanders to a new city at random, free walking tours can be absolute time savers. They allow me to get away with not researching the destination and still have a fruitful time. You can quickly learn about historical events, main food dishes, and what the city prides itself for, etc through these tours. Furthermore, you often find that some tour agencies can have multiple free walking tours in larger cities, exploring different neighborhoods. Despite being branded as free, these tours are by no means of poor quality. Some of them can be highly insightful.

Make new friends

As a solo traveler, I find that free walking tours are great ways to meet new friends. I have met many other solo travelers on these tours, and then we proceed to explore the city together. Sometimes, we even end up traveling together for a while. It simply sets an easy environment to speak to other travelers. These tours are attended by different types of tourists from all sorts of countries.

Pay what you want

If you are new to the concept of free walking tours, these tours are not actually free. You simply get to determine how much you want to tip the guide at the end of the tour. Sometimes the guides earn only from whatever tips they receive from the tour attendees, so be generous if you really enjoyed it. In any case, you get to determine your own price based on how much you enjoyed the tour and your budget. That said, this is one great activity for budget travelers.

Free walking tours are great ways to get local insights, meet other travelers and sometimes even hear personal experiences. If you haven’t been to one, give it a shot next time!

Free Walking Tours around the world

Here are some of the free walking tours around the world. I will add on to the list as I collate them.

Europe

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