"Free walking tour" shouted the headline, and we, like dumb tourists, believed it. On further investigation it seems that the "free" London walking tours are only free if you've bought a ticket on the Original London Sightseeing Tour hop-on, hop-off bus.
Just the same, we are rather attracted to walking tours and the outfit has both a "classic" walk through central London and a Changing of the Guard walk as well. Walking tours are often led by young backpackers spending a summer in London, so as well as regurgitating some of the local history, they can be extraordinarily good at pointing out the best pubs.
These "nearly free" walking tours cost £5 (nearly $9) if you haven't bought the too-expensive hop-on, hop-off ticket (which costs £20 ($35) for 24 hours). We advise checking out the walking tour guide first to see if they fit your bill and if not, well, just buy a map. Then you can make your walking tour an entirely free "getting lost" tour instead.
New York is the kind of city where a tour guide is far from necessary. But sometimes even the most jaded locals want to discover something new.
That's when it's time to consult Urban Tours, the least touristy tour company ever. Organized by the Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment, Urban Tours offers walking, biking and boat trips around the city's least traveled destinations.
Coming up later this summer: A walk through Brooklyn's Greenwood Cemetery, as well as a water taxi tour of "The Other Islands of New York," which explores the non-Manhattans: Roosevelt, Randall's, Ward's and the two Brother Islands. (Bonus points if you've ever even heard of the Brother Islands, wedged between the Bronx and Rikers Island, they formerly housed quarantined smallpox victims.)
For those who like a bit of good old American weirdness with their tours, San Jose offers a stroll around the famed Winchester Mansion. A 160 room monument to nonstop renovations, the Winchester Mansion features endless arbitrary additions and staircases to nowhere.
The story goes that the widow of William W. Winchester, awash in money from her husband's namesake rifle, was spurred by a psychic to move west and build a sprawling domicile as a cure for a run of bad luck that included the deaths of her famous husband and their only child. This compulsive construction was an attempt to appease the souls of those who had died by means of the rifle that bore her husband's name. Ultimately, this appeasement resulted in thirty-eight years of round the clock construction and a one hundred and fifty six acre spread of idiosyncratic rooms and passageways.
The still-standing mansion and garden grounds offer a variety of daily tours. The best deal--short of faking senior status--is the Grand Estate tour at $28.95. This will take you through 110 of the 160 rooms and give you a behind the scenes look at the building and operation of the estate. If that's too rich for you, Weird US put together the video above.
When the Eurostar moves its London-end terminal to St Pancras in November, we hope it'll keep up its recent marvelous punctuality record. But if you are stuck at St Pancras station, just follow some tips from the UK Times to take yourself on a tour of some of the architectural highlights of the new station and its surrounds.
Or if you're really keen on swotting up on some London architecture, especially the newer stuff, sign up for a walking tour with local architect Tim Bruce-Dick. He takes people on a weekly Wednesday evening walk throughout the summer, starting at a different tube station each week. Now you just need to know when your train will be late and you can book a tour to pass the time.
Downloadable walking tours are the best, we love having hands free to do other things while also feeling like pseudo-intellectuals able to spew a variety of facts regarding any locale after completing a tour.
Check out Sounds for Sights - they sell downloadable tours direct to consumers, and they're just $5 each. Started by a tech-savvy pair of New Yorkers they currently have many NY-themed tours and are in the works to develop a bunch for other cities too.
To get you in the Xmas spirit, they're offering a discount on their Rockefeller Center/Diamond District tour, enter 50offrockcenter to get your discount when you check out.
With the Halloween countdown begun, it seemed like a good time to talk a bit with Stephen, whose Mystery House blog is full of annotated pictures of the bizarre Winchester Mystery house, built by the spook-obsessed heir of the Winchester rifle fortune. Stephen took the photos while working as a guide a couple years ago -- many are of rooms and details you can't see on any normal tour.
If you're in New York this coming Sunday and looking for a little thrill, you might want to check out Haunted New York, a timely tour sponsored by the 92nd St. Y. The walk, led by urban historian (and horror writer!) Gordon Linzner, will go through the East and West Villages. This being New York, the emphasis is on celebrity ghosts, not just random lame-o spook nobodies. So you're headed for the haunts of Aaron Burr, Mark Twain, Peter Stuyvasant, and other VIPs; given the list, you may want to watch out for ghostly disses.
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by amandak
Downloadable walking tours are the best, we love having hands free to do other things while also feeling like pseudo-intellectuals able to spew a variety of facts regarding any locale after completing a tour.
