Don’t dismiss the humble walking tour
And a goodbye (for now!)
A note from : This is the last full length story from Issue 1 of Good Trip! What started as a side project during the pandemic has morphed into many forms. I learned so much about side projects — what feels energizing, what’s sustainable, how to try things before diving in too deep, and so on. I might do a reflections post on that over at
one day. Thank you for being here and reading these travel stories!Important: I’m looking for the right person to hand the reins of Good Trip. More details on this at the end.
Don’t dismiss the humble walking tour
Opinions of walking tours tend to be pretty polarized, in our unofficial opinion. You may be a devoted walker who signs up in any city you’re visiting (or even living in), or you may scoff at the idea of something so organized, and, dare we say, dorky.
I’m firmly in the first camp: from Buenos Aires to New Orleans to my new home city of São Paulo, I’ve partook in many a walking tour. Bonus: You can often find a free tour (tip your guide!), making it wallet-friendly. If you find yourself in a well-visited European city, I also recommend checking out Rick Steves’ do-it-yourself audio walking tours, sort of like a walking tour podcast.
Walking tours can come in a few varieties. The first is the sampler platter, giving you an overview of a popular neighborhood or greatest hits sites, so you can come back later and explore more in depth what seems most interesting. The other is the specific, one topic only tour, such as a food-focused tour, or like one I took in Santiago, “Offbeat” locations.
One of the most well-known walking tour companies is Free Tours by Foot, offering tip-based tours in dozens of cities around the world. We talk to Washington, D.C. tour guide Canden Arciniega (who also manages the company as a whole!) about why walking tours are a great way to get to know a new place.
What led you to become a walking tour guide?
I've known I wanted to be a historian since elementary school but as I got older and further along in education, I wasn't sure how to make that happen. I started out as a history teacher and quickly learned that I did not enjoy the dynamics or constraints of a classroom. One day while annoying my family with trivia on a vacation, someone said that I should be a tour guide. As soon as I moved to Washington, D.C., I sought out a tour company and have been a guide for the past 11 years. I still teach history but I don't have to deal with tests — or parents.
How would you describe the connection formed with a location for a traveler after they do a walking tour?
I love it when a guest takes a walking tour early on in their trip so I can help plan the rest of it. Walking tours allow guests to get familiar with really basic things, like the layout of the city, how crosswalks work, what the pace of the city is like. This helps get acclimated to a new place and make the traveler more confident on the rest of their trip. I love neighborhood tours so guests get a sense of the real city beyond the federal core. In D.C., so many people live here but you can be a tourist for a few days without ever seeing a house!
Do you think having a local guide makes a difference on what the traveler learns or how they experience the location?
Absolutely! Stressing the LOCAL part, tour guides (usually — at least all of ours do!) live in the location so guests get the history, the symbolism but also favorite cafe locations or fun stories like the time I got engaged in this park. It makes the experience more personable and really brings to light that the city is also home to someone.
Like the above answer, you can visit a city and never really meet a local — unless you're someone like me who chats with servers and taxi drivers. But spending two hours on a walking tour with a local guide means you'll get to learn about the city from a personal perspective, in addition to the facts and trivia of the historic sites.
Do you have any interesting stories from your interactions with travelers?
I've made so many friends giving tours. Often people tell me to reach out if I ever visit their city so they can give me a tour. A handful of times, I have done just that. I once gave a tour to a lovely couple in DC. A few weeks later I was in their hometown and they recognized me as my family was walking around downtown. We got an impromptu tour and great dinner recommendations.
Once on a tour, I noticed that two single travelers had struck up conversation on the walks between sites. When it started raining, he offered her his umbrella. It was a very meet-cute moment but the tour ended and they went their separate ways. I saw them a few days later on another tour they had decided to take together so they must have traded contact information. Fast forward a few years and he emails us to set up a surprise proposal on a tour!
How do you encourage helping the travelers get to know each other, you, or the location?
I've become an expert at area codes so when I check guests in, I always try to chat about where they are from. I have a map at home where I put a pin in every time I meet someone on a tour from a new location. There are only a few blank countries after 11 years. I try to chat with everyone about their trip so I can offer advice or answer questions about things outside the tour — restaurants, museums, concerts, etc. But I also talk about my background — especially when I find a history major.
One of our current tour guides found us because he came to DC on his 8th grade trip and I talked about how great being a tour guide was for history nerds. I really love to know why someone is visiting DC so I can help tailor my advice and I always try to throw in a reference to their home state if I can. For school groups, I always find someone from their home town on the Vietnam Wall to tell his story to add to the connection.
Do you ever get locals on your tours?
All the time! We really try to offer tours that locals will enjoy — especially our neighborhood tours. DC is such a transient city that a lot of locals are only here for a few years so we get a lot of people who've lived here for 5 years, are moving to a new city and realize they haven't toured the memorials. We do this in every city we run tours in — a few tours of the main tourist sites and a few tours geared towards locals.
The next chapter issue of Good Trip?
As mentioned above, I’m looking for the right person to take over Good Trip.
This has been my passion project for 3+ years, along with hard work from contributors Natalie Filkoski, Ash Pattison-Scott, and Amy Siripunyo, but based on current priorities, I cannot dedicate the time and energy I would like to continue it.
I would LOVE for the right person (or company!) to take it on as their own, including the visual identity, ethos, and this here Substack. If this is at all of interest, let’s talk!
I don’t have anything set in my mind, so I’m really open to ideas. I’d much rather someone take this and run with it than just shut it down. Feel free to reply here or email hi@goodtripmag.com.
In the meantime, check out:
Other voices in travel we love
It’s hard to find good travel writing and recommendations. That’s why we brashly started this rag. But there are those we often turn to and want to shout-out.
Mark Wiens
We’re recent converts to Mark’s wildly popular YouTube channel, which finds him traveling around the world trying mostly street food. Come for the under-the-radar yummy looking food, stay for his ecstatic facial reactions.
Eater
Speaking of food, Eater.com offers one of the few websites to create city restaurant guides for a wide range of locales, and not just your typical Mexico City-Lisbon-Paris list.
Monocle
Monocle is bougie as all get out, but they have a great thing going for them, and it’s worldwide coverage. They expand outside the usual locations and cover all sides of the world.
Sebastian Modak
After serving as the New York Times’ 52 Places Traveler in 2019, Sebastian is now a travel editor at The Wall Street Journal. Do yourself a favor and go back and read through his dispatches from around the world.
Rick Steves
The one. The only. Rick Steves. Single-handedly responsible for our love of dad jokes and making us want to go on a Viking Cruise.