As I’ve mentioned numerous times before, the best way to explore a new place is on foot. This is something you can easily do on your own and it’s easy to find route suggestions online or in guide books. However, there is also another great option. There are several sites offering free Walking Tours, here are a few that operate worldwide.

Freetour.com is part of the Viagio Group and it offers free tours on every continent except Antarctica. Currently tours are available in more than 110 countries. In addition to walking tours, the site also offers some chargeable activities like pub crawls, food tours, Segway tours, etc. The selection of torus varies by city. Depending on the city, tours are also available in various languages (e.g. English, Spanish, German, French, and Russian). There are also tours with different themes and the duration varies from one hour to several hours. GuruWalk offers tours in over 500 locations covering all permanently inhabited continents. GuruWalk has tours in several languages such as English, Spanish, Italian and German. Tours are offered in different neighborhoods and with different themes. Both companies also recruit new guides and you can find the instructions on how to apply to become a guide on their sites.

Strawberry Tours has tours in good 120 cities on all continents except Antarctica. Just like the others, Strawberry Tours offer differently themed walks. There are also some chargeable tours available. The walks last anywhere from two hours upward. Strawberry Tours was founded in 2013. The company believes in responsible tourism so part of the tips received on all tours will be used to contribute towards a local charity. Free Tours by Foot has offered free walking tours for over 15 years and operates in 53 cities. The tours focus on Europe and North America but there are some tours available in the Middle East and Asia as well. After a quick glance, I feel the site of Free Tours by Foot is not as user friendly as the others I’ve mentioned.

In addition to these four, there are several more local tour companies that arrange free tours. TripAdvisor is a good place to find smaller tour operators in a particular destination. You can also look into Sandemans Free Tour that operates in 20 cities. Remember that even though these are so-called free tours a tip is expected so reserve some cash to pay the guide at the end of the tour. These tours are also a great way to get to ask a local about the destination and culture.

The post Tip 22: Take free walking tours appeared first on The Cosmopolitan Epicure.