Free Berlin walking tours
Written by Karen BryanUpdate 17 March: It’s claimed in the German press that some free tour companies have been charging guides 3 euro per person out of their earnings from tips for leading these free tours:
http://www.thelocal.de/jobs/20100311-25813.html
New Berlin offer free walking tours. I saw the leaflet in the Generator hostel where I was staying and there was a daily pick up at the hostel, so I and decided to give it a try. Normally I wouldn’t go on a tour, my preference would be to explore at my own pace. However I only had one day free in Berlin, as I was mainly there to attend the Travel Trade Fair. It does explain in the leaflet that the tours operate on a tips basis, you decide on the amount at the end of the tour.
Our guide was Nikolai, who was born in Bulgaria but moved to the States as a child. He’s lived in Berlin since 2005 and is an actor (very useful as a tour guide). He did explain about the tips again and said that the average tip per participant for the three and a half hour tour was 7 euros but we should feel free to tip according to ability to pay. There was no more mention of tips after this.
Nikolai in action at the Jewish memorial
I thought that the tour was excellent, mainly down to Nikolai’s presentation and personality. I studied quite bit of German history at school and he did an excellent summary to put things in context. We covered the main sites and the commentary was of a consistently high standard. It was funny, entertaining, full of facts. and objective.
There was a half hour lunch stop, where I assume New Berlin receive some commission for taking so many customers but the food was fine, it cost 6 euros for a soft drink and a small pizza. The only problem was there was only one ladies toilet, leading to a long queue.
There was some promotion of the other paid tours offered by New Berlin but no hard sell.
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the tour and was fortunate that the weather remained dry throughout as there had been snow and rain earlier that week in Berlin.
This post was featured in the Carnival of Cities on March 12 2008 and the Carnival of Travel Guide on March 16 2008.
Carnival of the Cities, March 12 Edition…
Something new for us at CatSynth: we are hosting the March 12, 2008 edition of Carnival of Cities. We have been participating recently with our posts on art and photograp……
[...] Bryan presents Free Berlin walking tours posted at Europe A La Carte [...]
Hello Karen
I gave your piece a mention on my recent post & thanks also for the lovely photo of the street-art I found on your flickr site.
Heather thanks for the mention, there’s a lot of street art and graffiti everywhere in Berlin.
[...] Paris, London, Munich and Edinburgh, these tours work on the principle that you try before you buy. New Berlin Tours also offer free walking tours in Berlin. The tour guides work for tips, and they do their best to [...]
[...] as there is an expectation that you will give a tip of €5-10 per person. Karen wrote about her free Berlin walking tour here. If you go the the Brandenberg gate, you won’t miss the signs indicating a tour about to [...]
Hi – the problem with anything free (as someone else said) is that someone has to pay. Like, the guides themselves for example. See this article about an exposé on German TV of these very tours. http://www.thelocal.de/jobs/20100311-25813.html
With New Berlin tours (which also runs tours in other European cities) the guide is made to pay 3 euros a head to management. No wonder they mention how much they would like a tip! This is not a free tour because you have to pay at the end or the guide is out of pocket.
Please, pay for the tours you take and you will be paying for the guide’s well-earned wages – tips are extra.
Hi, thanks for the review of the walking tour. I am considering doing the free walking tour in Berlin next week. Does anyone know if the free tour includes the East Side Gallery?
Guy – I don’t recall visiting the East Side Gallery on my Walking Tour. Enjoy you trip to Berlin.