Walk Like You're British:totally free guided tours around london,amsterdam,berlin and Paris

  You arrive in a major European city for the first time, your on a budget and have just a few days.  Walking around aimlessly or by relying on your guide book's limited info and hard to read maps can take a lot of your time and before you really know your way around or what you ha ve seen you have to move on.  Taking a guided tour is probably the best way to find your way around and gain valuable insights into what it is you're actually looking at.  Unfortunately these can put a dent in the limited funds you have set aside.  Don't worry there is a completely free option that will help you feel like a local in about 3 hours.

On a recent trip to London I first became aware of a new company that offers free guided tours around the city.  There were flyers in the hostel I stayed at and chances are there will be some where ever you are staying too.  At first I thought...it does say free..but what's the catch and what really can I expect from a free tour?  The truth of the matter is there is no catch and you can expect a superb tour with a great guide who will not only walk you through the city pointing out the major sights but also show you things that your guide book won't take the time to mention.  After the tour I was able to orient myself in the city and explore the sights I was interested in more in depth with an efficiency that made the best use of my time.

The company that provides these tours is called New Europe tours and operate s in several major cities throughout Europe.  In London you will likely see flyers for "New London tours" a nd likewise in Berlin they will be called "New Berlin tours"...you get the idea.  The tour guides are usually locals or students working their way through college who's incentive is providing you with the best tour possible so that you feel like tipping them at the end.  This however is completely voluntary and the only pressure to do so will come from your own conscious.  No matter what, you will pay less to tip these guides than you will for a paid tour of the same caliber where you will feel just as responsible to tip in the end anyways. Then again, you certainly do not have to tip if you don't feel like it. According to my tour guide the company's real money comes from their other tours such as pub crawls and ghost tours. These seem to bring in more than enough revenue to support the free ones that ultimately act as advertisement for the pay tours.  Don't worry though you won't be given any sort of hard sell...just one or two suggestions and even then you will receive a disc ount on any pay tour just for taking the free one if you so decide.

As I mentioned above, I tried out this tour in London and was more than satisfied.  The company also offers tours in Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, Munich and Edinburgh.  In London everyone meets at a central point and from there you are taken on a 2.5-3 hour walking tour all through the city.  You can leave the group at anytime and there will even be a break at some point where you will stop for some snacks and drinks.  This is where I first tried the Pasties I wrote about last week.   Even having been in London before this tour saved me a great deal of time finding my way around for the rest of my stay.  The guide is even a great resource to ask questions about sights and culture and since you're on the tour with others who are probably in the same boat you are (limited time and money), you may meet some great people to hang out with after.  I think this should be on every new visitor's plan for the first day of sight seeing in the cities it is offered.