Cheapskate Chronicles: Free Walking Tours in Europe

Imagine arriving at the latest European city on your itinerary, checking into your hotel or hostel, and feeling somewhat disoriented by your new surroundings. How then to regain your bearings? Speaking from my personal experience traveling for 5 1/2 months all over the Continent, here's a simple recommendation: Join a walking tour. 

I've found that joining a walking tour gives me the confidence in navigating my new city (or at least lets me know which way is north or south), provides an overview of the city's attractions, and is a fun way to meet other travelers. All this in the couple of hours it normally takes.


For those carefully counting their pennies, you'll be glad to know that a revolution has swept all over Europe that has proved to be a boon to budget travelers - the concept of the FREE walking tour. Yes, that is correct, sir - young, motivated entrepreneurs in a vast number of European cities have decided to show you the highlights of their home town for the grand sum of zero. I took 15 such free walking tours in 11 different cities (spread over 7 countries) and can attest to the knowledge of the tour guides, and they make it FUN instead of simply overloading your brain with historical facts. 

I know you're thinking - "What's the catch? They can't give free tours for nothing?!". That is true, to a certain extent. The guides tell you upfront that they are working for tips (which makes them pull out all the stops), thus if you enjoyed yourself a gratuity at the end is much appreciated. 


Some tour companies (especially in Spain and Germany) also offer more specialized walking tours for which they charge money. Thus, by getting you to join their free offering, they hope that you will become aware of their company and be enticed to sample their other tours. For example, in Berlin Sandemans offers a bewildering array of tours: Third Reich Berlin, Sachsenhausen Memorial, Red Berlin, and even a day trip to Potsdam. 

Without further ado, below are the 15 such free walking tours in 11 different cities that I went on, and my general opinion. I'm sure there are even more free walking tours in other European cities that were not part of my itinerary (Paris, Amsterdam, London, Prague come to mind), so feel free to mention them in the comments section.

Spain

Madrid - I wrote a blog post about Sandeman's free walking tour which leaves from Plaza Mayor every day, and is offered in English and Spanish. (I took the Spanish tour). The Tapas Experience is also worthwhile for sampling Spain's culinary delicacies at four different places. 

Seville - Pancho Tours offers two free walking tours that cover different parts of this magnificent Andalusian city. Most of the guides are young Europeans from other countries who have lived here for years. Bring lots of water - it can get really, really hot in Seville

Barcelona -  Ah, everyone's favorite city in Spain, so it seems. Competition is intense in the free walking tour business here, but I was pleased with Runner Bean's Gaudi tour (which every fan of the famous architect should go on).

The Old City walk covers a lot of ground, including the Gothic Quarter. My tour took almost 3 whole hours since the guide just loved to share information about the sights. 

Lisbon, Portugal


In Lisbon, Uwe (a transplant from Austria) gives an offbeat, entertaining, and sometimes sarcastic view into Portugal's sprawling capital city on his dramatically named "See Lisbon Or Die" project. The tour takes you through the Chiado, Baixa and Alfama neighborhoods, and he will even ride with you on the famous No. 28 tram and advise you how to avoid getting pickpocketed. 

Budapest, Hungary


Confusingly, there are two competitors with similar names in Budapest - Free Budapest Tours and Free Budapest Walking Tours, in the mornings and afternoons with meeting points near each other in central Budapest. The guides speak excellent English, and will recommend restaurants serving authentic Hungarian goulash and fashionable nightspots.


In addition to the standard city overview walk, they also offer specialty-themed tours (also for free) like the Communist Walk. Led by locals who suffered under the oppressive Soviet regime, this tour was quite informative and would interest anyone who wanted to learn more about this part of Hungary's history.

Belgrade, Serbia


In my book, Belgrade doesn't offer much in terms of sightseeing, but that's no excuse to miss out on the 2-hour free walking tour offered five days a week, meeting at Republic Square (by the statue in front of the perennially closed National Museum). 


My tour was led by a lovely female student who spoke great English, and included a walk up to the old fortress. But what made the tour memorable was the huge downpour that made us all scramble for shelter underneath a pavilion inside the park, trying to huddle together while shivering from the cold rain. The thunderstorm passed and we went on with the tour without skipping a beat. 

 Berlin, Germany

If you needed solid evidence that Berlin has become Europe's third-most visited city, then witness the crowds that show up for Sandeman's free Berlin walking tour at 11am.  In all the other cities that I've joined a free tour, the participants numbered anywhere between ten and forty people, but when I strolled towards the Starbucks near the Branderburg Gate and saw the hordes of humanity, it was quite astounding. Over a hundred people were there, and were subsequently divided into three smaller manageable groups led by a different guide. The 3 1/2 hour tour covers Berlin's highlights, including the Jewish War Memorial (pictured above), Hitler's bunker, and of course, the Wall. 


For a peek inside the funky Berlin underground scene, Alternative Berlin offers their free tour twice a day, at 11am and 1pm. Be prepared to experience a lot of graffiti on this walk which does involve quite a bit of walking. Tour ends at a nice beach bar near the East Side Gallery where cheap drinks are available. To get my nightlife fix, I also took Alternative Berlin's "Anti-Pub Crawl" which went to a few "interesting" local hangouts which make Berlin the cool spot that it is.


Romania

Brasov - One of the nicest cities in Transylvania (in fact, the city's slogan is "Probably the best city in the world") can easily be covered in a day, although you'd probably want to linger for at least a couple of days. The guided tour goes outside the medieval city walls for a climb up the Black Tower (which isn't black) to get an amazing bird's eye view of the city. Another worthwhile activity is to hike up to the Hollywood-style "Brasov" sign on top of the hill. 

Bucharest - It's one big concrete jungle, teaming with stray dogs to boot, but maybe the free Bucharest tour will make you appreciate this rather charmless city. Unfortunately, our local guide was lacking in charm as well, and merely recited facts about Bucharest in a straightforward manner. Yawn.

Rome, Italy

Ah, the Eternal City. Either you love it or you hate it. Crowds, noise, pollution - they're all present. You can spend days walking on your own, seeing the sights, but why do so when there are two companies offering a free walk. 

Rome Free Tour offers three different walks - Vatican, Colosseum and City Center.  I took the Vatican Walk which met at the Spanish Steps and crossed the Tiber to the Vatican City. The guide (a man) was somewhat dull, and we lost a few people along the way. 

In contrast, New Rome Free Tour offers only one free walking tour which concentrates on ancient Rome. I loved this tour, especially since we visited a few lesser-known churches (S. Andrea delle Fratte, anyone?) and the guide pointed out their unique features (e.g. painted-on ceiling). Not only that, after a look inside the Pantheon, he organized a coffee break at La Casa del Caffe, one of Rome's highly-rated cafes, and treated all tour participants to either an espresso or cappuccino. How I wish all free walking tours worked like this!

Aveiro, the "Portuguese Venice"

I know - those long boats and canals look familiar. At first glance, you could be forgiven for thinking those are gondolas on the Grand Canal in Venice. Nope. Although similar to gondolas, these are called moliceiros, and the locale is Aveiro in Portugal.

Not to worry if you hadn't heard of Aveiro, neither have most of the Spanish people I've met. Located just an hour outside of Porto, this small city is often dubbed the "Portuguese Venice" because of its similarities with that more illustrious Italian city. 

Having visited three big cities in a row - Granada, Sevilla and Lisbon - I wanted a break from the crowds, and needed a place to simply relax and be free from the pressures of sightseeing.

There are lots of smaller towns that touted their features in glossy brochures, but Aveiro stood out because of the novelty factor. Like any tourist, I was curious about those canals and long boats, not having any plans of visiting touristy Venice anytime soon (I took the gondola ride there ten years ago), I figured the city and moliceiro ride would be a good substitute.

Clearly the forty-five minute jaunt on the canals was going to be the highlight of my stay here. After a short wait to gather the minimum six passengers (on a weekend!), we set sail and passed underneath numerous bridges (the most interesting is pictured above with Aveiro's emblem), saw the huge McDonald's logo pasted on the huge mall dominating the center of town, and a few other noteworthy buildings. The architecture along the banks doesn't exactly inspire comparisons with Bruges or Amsterdam, to be honest.

Moreover, sorry to disappoint romantics, but there is no hunky gondolier in striped shirt rowing the moliceiro  and belting out opera arias as you sip expensive champagne. Commentary is provided by a staff person who struggled to be heard above the din of the motor as he alternated among Portuguese, French and English, with varying levels of proficiency in each. 

That proved to be the only touristy thing I did in Aveiro, and two days passed by quickly spent just strolling around, visiting the upscale mall with all the name brands, and eating a lot of sweets. So, it wasn't quite like the real Venice, but then that was probably for the best.

Yellow Pastry tour of Portugal

"So why is it called bolas de Berlim?", I asked Paula, a local Portuguese whom I met at the hostel in Porto. "It didn't come from Germany, did it?".

Paula laughed, then replied "No, of course not. Because it has two halves, with the thick cream in the middle. Sort of like East and West separated by the wall".

This bizarre explanation with outdated political reference notwithstanding, the bolas de Berlim is just one of many sweet treats in pastelarias' display cases that entice passers-by to ogle and stop for a quick snack.

While critics might harp that Portuguese cuisine doesn't rise to the same meteoric heights as their larger Iberian neighbor, in the sweets department it's definitely no slouch. 

My personal favorite is the pasteis de nata, sweet custard tarts topped with burnt caramel and surrounded by a flaky crust. Four cafes lined the seven-minute walk from my hostel in Lisbon to the metro stop, so every day I would venture inside a different one, order two pasteis with cafe con leche, and devour them standing at the counter.  Hard to beat that for a mid-morning snack.

In Aveiro, a traditional pastry called ovo mole still rules. Shaped in different forms such as shells, fish, and clams, these treats have a very thin wafer-like exterior, and a very sweet inside made of egg yolks and sugar. 

I found the ovos moles quite addictive, and found an excuse to pop one into my mouth every few minutes, only to discover to my chagrin that my newly-purchased box of twelve is now empty. Oh well, time to go back to the store for more.

There are lots more Portuguese pastries that I haven't tasted, possibly for the better,  health-wise. Just these three alone brought my sugar intake to stratospheric levels, and only lots of walking offset the calories (how many, I didn't want to know) that were consumed. Don't let anyone fool you into thinking Portuguese food isn't great, but cast your eyes towards the pastelarias.