City Tours That Will Give You An Experience
When visiting different cities around the world, it can become dull and monotonous to partake on the same old tours. Likewise, once you have had one historical tour of a city, you have no need to repeat a similar tour on a subsequent trip. So why not think outside the box and become more creative with the city tours that you take? Following on from our article discussing private city tours, we have curated a list of unusual city tours around the world that seek to share the more unusual secrets of their cities.
Street Art Tours
Head to Reykjavik in Iceland to find opportunities to participate in street art tours, where local guides show you around the very best of the infamous colourful art that decorates the exteriors of many buildings. Rather than political messages or the work of hooligans, you will learn that Reykjavik’s street art is more of a formal collaboration between the store owners and the artists.
It’s much the same in Bristol, in the south-west of England. As the home of the notorious Banksy, there’s plenty of run-of-the-mill tours that you can join to find out more about the elusive graffiti artist and to view examples of his work that are scattered around the city. Instead, we recommend booking onto one of the street art tours ran by the Where the Wall collective, the only tours that are supported by the local street art community, and that delve beneath the surface to show you more than just Banksy.
Interactive Tours
The Paris Space Invader tour touches upon street art, but in a more interactive format. A great tour to take your children on (or simply for grown up’s looking for something fun), the tour follows the trail of the infamous French street artist, who has left his colourful space invader art all across the French capital. Participants hunt down the alien graffiti whilst hearing detailed stories about the artist and the areas of the city that the tour takes you through, whilst children are tasked with drawing pictures of what they see as they hunt down the aliens.
Food Tours
Why not experience a city famed for its food with a designated food-themed tour? The Slice of Pizza tour catches on to how much New Yorkers love their pizza, taking tourists on a four hour trip around Brooklyn that stops off at a couple of the tour guide’s favourite pizzerias. Alongside facts about the history of pizza and Italian influences in the city, expect to take in some of New York’s famous sights and iconic film locations.
In Paris, Secret Food Tours take you on guided walks around Montmartre, seeking out French delicacies such as cheese, sweet pastries, chocolate, baguettes and crepes. The tour allows you to take a peek behind the scenes, learn more about the history of French cuisine, and (of course) taste samples of the delicious food. This being France, the tour naturally ends with wine.
Tours from a different perspective
Why not see the city from a completely unique angle? The Urban Living Tour allows you to peek inside the apartments of three different Berliners, discovering how they live, what they love about Berlin, and allowing you the chance to ask their recommendations for your time in the city.
Alternatively, tours given by homeless people have become popular in cities such as Prague, London and Barcelona, offering an insight into a hidden view of the cities. The tours in Prague are run by a social enterprise set up by students and aim to show tourists a completely different perspective of the city, including visiting squats and interesting buskers.
Tours that ignore the tourist traps
Rather than visiting all of the obvious tourist sights and the most stunning buildings, The Worst Tours takes you on a trip to discover the most decrepit buildings in Porto. The well-informed guides explain what happened when the country was hit by the recession, talking you through the events that led to the closure of the run-down buildings that you visit.
Emma Lavelle is a UK based writer and photographer and has her own blog Field and Nest.
