I used to hate the idea of organized tours of any kind. It evoked images of crowded busses filled with timid travellers who enjoyed being herded around from attraction to attraction and being spoon fed curated bits of local culture. Yuk.
I’ve tossed that perception right out the window. Yes, the kind of tours I just trashed exist, but so do a host of very cool tour experiences that offer unique perspectives for visitors.
There are two tour programs that have made a number of our trips truly memorable.
Fat Tire Bike Tours
I’m proud to say that we’ve done a Fat Tire tour in every city it’s offered (Barcelona, Berlin, London, Paris). We even have the free T-shirts awarded for doing that.
We try to schedule a bike tour of the city we’re visiting close to the day of our arrival. There’s no better way to get a lay of the land as well as insider visitor trips from the local guide. The tour gives you an overview of major sites and thoroughfares, allowing you to pick and choose where to spend a longer visit.
Fat Tire has never disappointed. The tour guides have all been very knowledgeable about the city and each of the ones we’ve had have been colourful characters, infusing a good dose of irreverent humour into their account of historical events.
The bikes are comfortable and the tours are active, but you don’t have to be an athlete to keep up. There are many stops along the way.
Local Greeter Tours
If you’re visiting a city with a local greeter program, do not miss this opportunity. We’ve done the Big Apple Greeter walking tour of Brooklyn, the Chicago Greeter tour of Millennium Park, and the Paris Greeter tour of the 1st and 8th Arrondissement. Each was a fabulous, unique experience.
These programs are all part of the Global Greeter Network. Greeters are locals who love their city so much that they volunteer to show it off to visitors. They are not professional guides, so they don’t do tours of museums or galleries (they are not granted access). Rather, they will take you through a neighbourhood familiar to them and walk you through the local history and their own experience living there. There is no better way to get a window on life in the city you are visiting.
I think our favourite Greeter experience was our first one. It was with an older gentleman who had grown up in Brooklyn. He met us at the apartment we were staying at in Manhattan, gave us free metro tickets and escorted us to the tour. We spent the entire morning with him walking through his neighbourhood. He told us stories of his childhood, showed us locations of significant events and the changes he’s seen take place in Brooklyn over his lifetime. He even had historical photos to make reference to while we chatted. It was a total treat. We finished the tour by sharing a pizza at his favourite local restaurant.
The best part is that these tours are FREE. The programs do strongly encourage donations, however, to keep the operations going. We did so and also bought lunch for our Brooklyn guide as an extra thank you. We lucked out that on all three occasions, we were the only ones on the tour.
If you want to book a greeter tour, do so as far in advance as possible as the number of greeters is limited and the programs are popular.
Over to you. What are your must-do tours when visiting a new place?
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We did a Bike About tour of Versailles, which I highly recommend. In fact, after touring the grounds and eating lunch at the edge of the lake with our guide, the palace itself was a bit of an anti-climax!!
Also, we did a few tours with guides from With Locals which were great. A craft beer tour in Budapest and a Photo Tour of Zaanse Schans in Amsterdam; both were like walking around with a well-informed friend!!
We did a bike tour of Versailles as well. It was great, but it rained a lot that day and the technicians who staffed the audio tours were on strike so we had to look around on our own. 🙂 Your tour of Budapest sounds fabulous, and a photo tour sounds interesting. Was it to take photos or did the guide have historical photos as part of the tour?
I really like the idea of the Local Greeter Tour, I must keep my eyes open for it, considering I’m not a huge tour fan I wouldn’t mind trying this one 🙂
Yes, give it a go Franca. We’ve done it three times now and have never been disappointed.
I did a bike tour in Lima, Peru and decided it was my favorite way to see a new city. Bikes go faster than walking and you get to see so much more.
I agree Andrea. A bike tour is the best way to introduce yourself to a city. Get the big picture and then zoom in on the parts you want to explore more on your own.