Travel
6 Golden Rules for Free Walking Tours
From traveller to a tour guide
The first time I listened to a free walking tour I was in Europe. I took several free walking tours: London, Rome, Barcelona, Berlin, and Amsterdam. I never thought that a few years later, I would be facing a group of foreigners surprised by my disclaimer that Cinco de Mayo has nothing to do with Mexican Independence Day.
As a tourist and as a tour guide, I have experience from both sides of the coin. Here are the golden rules for free walking tours that will the experience more agreeable to a group. Everybody is there to enjoy while learning about the visiting city.
Two years ago I was saving money to rejoin my boyfriend in Canada so I had two jobs to have some extra money in my pocket. Monday to Friday I was a high school teacher, where I learned valuable life lessons. And Saturdays, Sundays and holidays I offered walking tours downtown in my city in Mexico.
So here are the golden rules from the experience of a tourist who became a tour guide:
1. Feel free to ask, but don’t expect that guides have all the answers.
Feel free to ask questions about doubts you have, but don’t be mad if your guide honestly admits that they don’t have an answer for you. They may offer themselves to search for the answer and give it to you either
- Immediately if Internet is available, or
- Shoot you a message through e-mail or social media.
Tour guides are always happy to share their knowledge because we also learn from those questions. We may add this information to our pitch as a fun fact. For example, giving credit to the curious tourist who asked a question.
Yes. A tour guide is a teacher, but even teachers don’t have all the answers. We have to study to offer accurate information. Although there is information we should learn by heart, such as dates and names, we are always learning to improve our pitch because of these two main reasons:
- We love to share what we have learned;
- We love our city so much that we would like to show it off.
Although as a free walking tour guide, I learned how to be prepared for frequently asked questions.
- I included these FAQ in my pitch before people would ask.
- I had my notes about hard data so I didn’t have to memorize it.
Most of the time I accepted that if I didn’t know the answer people wouldn’t make a big deal. But one day I received a bad comment on the company’s social media from a tourist. The company Estación México wasn’t upset because I also received a big amount of compliments and a 5-star rating. It was just a person who thought I should know every single detail.
In case you are a tour guide don’t make it a big deal and focus on keep learning because you love your job and your city. Let it go and continue the tour.
2. Follow the rhythm of the group
The tour guide wants these three things:
- Everybody to be satisfied;
- End the tour with the same amount of people who started the tour;
- Be a good reference as a tour guide.
You may be a solo traveller. In this case, you will be traveling with people you don’t know. Be polite to everybody and follow the rhythm of the tour. The guide will always wait for you, in case you are staying behind the group. The tour guide will start talking about the location until everybody is gathered around.
In a varied age group, the speed of the walking tour is set by:
- Elders. Their pace may be slower than the rest of the group;
- People with mobility barriers.
Although these people may say: — Go ahead, don’t worry about me. We, as a tour guide and as a part of the group, should say the same: Don’t worry about me, I’ll go with you. Make it easier for them and go a bit slower than usual. Everybody should be thoughtful about each other’s needs.
In other cases, people may walk behind the rest of the group because they are passing through the most “Instagrammeable” spot in the city. The tour guide will be conscious about this and will leave some minutes for you to explore and take pictures. A tour guide most of the time is also a good photographer. Serve yourself.
If you are a new tour guide, here is my secret for most Instagrammeable spots and you don’t leave your group behind:
- Take the lead to take everybody’s photos.
- Everybody should wait for their turn.
- Everybody will be thoughtful and aware of everybody.
- For example, — I will wait for others to take the picture because they also waited for me to be my turn. And vice versa.
There are times where one person in your group doesn’t appear in the pictures because they had to take the picture. Not this time, your tour guide will shoot an amazing picture of you guys!
3. Make friends but don’t be overwhelm them.
If you are a solo traveller, or a local who joined the free walking tour, remember we are all there to make friends and enjoy the tour. Be thoughtful that especially foreigners joined the free walking tour because they want to learn and get to know the place they are visiting.
It is sometimes annoying when you as a tourist want to pay attention to the tour guide and you have another person whispering in the ear about themselves, or about yesterday’s night.
Don’t be that annoying member of the group:
- Introduce yourself to the group. Some people feel connected to others who live in the same area.
- Take advantage of the transition walks from one place to another for a casual conversation.
- Once the guide is giving an explanation, pay attention.
- Assure that your new friend is enjoying your company and your conversation.
4. Take it seriously
As a free walking tour guide I faced a lot of kind of travelers and very different kind of groups as well. For example:
- A young group of spring breakers;
- Hitchhikers;
- Caravan travelers;
- Elder couples;
- Locals.
Most of the time the people are polite and respectful of each other’s culture. But what I find annoying is when people would make fun of my culture and my heritage. I am aware that there are a lot of mistakes and detractors in Mexican history, and still in the present day. But there is nothing I can do to fix it, so don’t come over me and say what we Mexicans should do and do this or do that. As a foreigner, you are allowed to give your personal point of view but be aware of your words.
Remember that you are attending a free walking tour for the following reasons:
- To learn about the history of the place you are visiting
- Know the best spots in the city to have a great meal
So please be thoughtful about the next points:
- Be respectful with your guide and be careful with what you say
- We as tour guides are offering a service that we expect you to appreciate
The guide is probably the only person who is native to the place you are visiting for the first time. Or your guide is at least in love with the place you are visiting; otherwise, they wouldn’t be showing around and explaining the most beautiful and emblematic spots in town.
5. Take your time to say goodbye
Life happens so in case you have other plans and it is not possible for you to finish the tour, take the time to say “Thank you” and “Goodbye” to your tour guide. As mentioned before the tour guide will always expect to see you in the next spot.
As a tour guide, I noticed people tend to leave the group and disappear either because:
- They want to skip the final phase where tips are given
- They took a lot of time taking a photo and lost the track of the group
This once happened to me that my friend and I got lost from a group in Amsterdam. Even though we tried, we didn’t find the group.
These kinds of accidents happen, especially in crowded places, as small halls in Amsterdam. It was our fault; we spent too much time taking photos of ourselves. This is why all free walking tour guides hold an umbrella rain or shine: so people can find us easily. (It is useful also for don’t burn when is too sunny, especially in Mexico.)
At the end of the tour, a final pitch is given where the guides ask for a tip, whereas you have a little to offer to give it by heart and a polite Thank You is fine. At the end of the day, in my case two tours per day, my numbers were fine as some others were too generous to me.
6. Be generous
There are several ways the tourist companies make money from the free walking tours.
- From the total amount of people who attend the tour, a percentage is kept for the company
- A fixed amount of money is given to the company from every person who attends the tour
This makes sense because it is a business and they have to pay for the web page hosting, maps and they are in charge of looking for clients posting an announcement on different platforms and pay for ads if needed.
Consider that a part of your tip is going to the tour guide and another is going to the company. In my experience, I had a great extra revenue from this job. Sometimes at the end of the month, I made half my teacher’s salary in 8 days of working two days a week for less than 8 hours a day as a tour guide. It is a very lucrative craft.
The last stop is reserved for the most amazing spot from the tour and for the most expected time: a pitch for tips. In my case I was honest with my tourists:
I explained to them I was saving money for visiting/relocating to Canada and that having extra money in my pocket was always helpful. I also approached them with my pig bank stamped a 100 Canadian dollar on it; to make it more appealing and it worked! Some of them wished me luck and sent greetings to my boyfriend.
How to give a tip? Consider the following points:
- The time that the tour lasts, everybody’s time is valuable. Make guide’s time worth! We all have expenses to cover.
- The effort and eagerness your tour guide has put into the tour.
- Tangible goodies as maps and other resources to make it easier for you to catch the info.
- The valuable information you got from the free walking tour, not only about the place you are visiting but where to get the best traditional food, how to get to the airport, the best bar in town, for example.
- If the tour is given in a foreign language, you should value this the most. You are not only valuing our effort as a tour guide to make us understand but the time we put into learning a new language; English for example.
Even though it seems to be a ‘free service, the person who is in front of you has expenses to cover, like everybody. As I said, it is a very lucrative craft if as a tour guide you put eagerness into your delivered content.
Conetent is king, not only in the social media, make it valuable for your audience. Being a tour guide has given me a lot of fun anecdotes to remember and smile at. Moreover, because I could get to know my city better and at the same time, I felt myself travelling by other’s storytelling about how and why they landed here in my home city, my lovely Puebla.
This is not a sponsored post but feel free to whenever it is possible to travel again, Estación Mexico has free walking tours and other experiences all around Mexico. Gotta check out! I really enjoyed my time there as a tour guide. Highly recommend it!
Thanks for reading.
