Free Walking Tour Experiences?

[EditorMom]

Has anyone taken the tours offered by Venice Free Walking Tours? Trying to be frugal, but I’m afraid this might turn out to be a case of “you get what you pay for.” (I’m happy to pay tips to the tour guides, assuming it’s a good tour.)

[steamboats]

I haven´t done one in Venice yet but one in Malaga and the other one in Tallinn. Both were really excellent! Both were experienced tour guides and spoke English very well (and no, I´m no native English speaker but German). You usually tip 10 to 15 Euro per person by the end of the tour and everyone was happy to give a tip.

 

The concept actually started in Berlin. The thought is that the tour guides are more encouraged to give a good tour when they depend on the tips. Usually there´s an experienced company offering those tours and the company does live on the paid for tours which they offer too.

 

steamboats

[dogs4fun]

12 hours ago, EditorMom said:

Has anyone taken the tours offered by Venice Free Walking Tours? Trying to be frugal, but I’m afraid this might turn out to be a case of “you get what you pay for.” (I’m happy to pay tips to the tour guides, assuming it’s a good tour.)

Just a thought ... have you considered Rick Steves audio tours? They are free, come with maps of the area & can be downloaded to your smartphone with his free app. Venice tours available: Frari Church, Grand Canal Cruise (for use on the #1 Vaporetto), St. Mark's Basilica & St. Mark's Square. Actually, I find that these are pretty decent audio tours for a first time visit to Venice.

https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/audio/audio-tours

[hun]

We enjoyed our “Free Walk in Venice” tour with Riccardo in October 2015. We were on an overnight in Venice itinerary (Vision) and did the free walking tour the first afternoon we docked. We enjoyed it very much, was about 2 1/2 hours and gave us some great background, history and “lay of the land” that helped us when we explored on our own the next day! (And he told us about a few great gelato places lol) 

[cccole]

Because of their great reviews we contacted Florence Free Tour and arranged a private tour in Florence.  It gives you flexibility in your itinerary and tour time, and the cost was very reasonable.  I don't know if this is the same company as Free Walk in Venice", but you might contact Free Walk Venice and see if they offer private tours.  There may be others on your Roll Call who would like to join.   Cherie

[Clay Clayton]

We enjoyed the free tour in Venice but had to leave before the end as we had come off the overnight flight and were zonked. It was supposed to be two hours (this was in  2013) but the guide was very knowledgeable and loved sharing information so when we were close to our hotel at hour 2.5 we quietly tipped him and went back to our hotel.  

 

We have done free tours in Valencia, Sofia, and Dublin. All have been good. 

[dkata]

On 2/9/2019 at 2:18 PM, EditorMom said:

Has anyone taken the tours offered by Venice Free Walking Tours? Trying to be frugal, but I’m afraid this might turn out to be a case of “you get what you pay for.” (I’m happy to pay tips to the tour guides, assuming it’s a good tour.)

 

Yes, we took a walking tour with this company and highly recommend it! The historical information the guides give are top notch and the information they give on what to see and do and how to find a non-touristy restaurant are invaluable and we wish we had this info on the first day of our stay instead of towards the end.

The tours this company offers visits the neighborhoods and does not go inside any major sites like San Marco or the Doges palace. You do those on your own. Our tour did walk across the Rialto Bridge, though.

We having taken free walking tours in many areas of the world and we love them! We usually tip 20 for the both of us at the end if we liked the tour. I have seen people just walk away at the end and they guides don't say a word.