WALK LESS. SEE MORE!
These DIY Walking Tours were originally just my own personal travel plans (I use a wheelchair these days, so my routes actually have to be planned to within an inch of their lives: I just need to know whether a route is step-free, and I also need to know where every lowered kerb is).
Hence the detail.
After each trip I made though, rather than just bin my research, it was immediately obvious that the same information could be used by other wheelchair-users (and would save them from having to do the same painstaking research themselves too).
And it was just a few seconds after that, that I realised that this information would actually be of value to all visitors to a city (as I wished I had had this degree of knowledge on my previous, pre-wheelchair, travels too – seeing as much as possible, while using as little energy as was possible, as this would have left me fresher for my evening outings too).
A DIY Walking tour allows you to really enjoy your visit then.
DIY WALKING TOURS v ORGANISED TOURS
With organised tours, you have to take the tour at the speed set by the tour leader (or that of the stragglers in your group).
And you have to visit everywhere that the tour guide takes you to.
So you end up wasting your limited holiday time – by visiting places that are of little real interest to you (and speeding through places that do interest you more – and where you would rather linger at for a while longer).
And this is what a DIY Walking Tour gives you:
Better time management. You don’t waste any of your very precious holiday time.
Additionally, if a meal is included in your organised tour, you end up eating at a restaurant chosen by your tour guide [the one that pays them the most commission perhaps? The best restaurants don’t have to pay commission!].
Instead, a DIY Walking Tour allows YOU to choose where, and when, you eat. And for how long.
Don’t get me wrong, organised tours do have their place. But, in my mind anyway, they are more suited to covering a particular attraction or theme in more detail.
Just not for an overall visit.
ALL DIY WALKING TOURS ARE ACCESSIBLE TOO!
All DIY Walking Tours are indeed step-free.
The things that make a route easy for myself (wheelchair user) – are exactly the same things that will make a route easier for yourself too:
1. All routes are step-free (so no climbing up and down steps). And where there is an unavoidable step-free diversion, BOTH the non-accessible original route, and the step-free diversion route, are explained in detail;
2. Where there is a significant change in elevation, and where possible, the route starts at the highest point, and continues downhill;
3. Most importantly though, attractions are visited in a specific order, so none of your precious holiday time is wasted by backtracking.
So you end up seeing more – while expending as little effort as possible.
Leaving you more time and energy to really enjoy your visit.
AND THOSE "HIDDEN GEMS"?
A quick word about those so-called “Hidden Gems”:
When you read this term, what is usually/really meant is “less visited attractions”.
Usually less-visited for good reason.
Calling them “hidden gems” is simply a ploy used by certain websites, that says “Only on this website will you find out a real secret”.
Here’s the not-so-good news though:
If you have read about it on the internet, then it’s not “hidden”.
And it’s definitely not a secret just for yourself alone. A horde of other visitors to that city, people who are also looking for that “not in the guidebook/secret destination” will be waiting for you when you get there.
But actual Hidden Gems do exist though.
You just have to stumble upon them yourself.
And as these DIY Walking Tours take you through some very interesting, but “off the beaten path”, parts of a city, then you have more opportunity to unearth your very own Hidden Gem.
After all, and more than anything else, travel should be FUN!
If any of the info given on any of these DIY Walking Tours has helped make your trip better/easier in any way at all, please consider making a small donation via Ko-Fi (allowing me to create even more of these informative DIY Walking Tour articles).
Thank you so very much – and Happy Travels!