Walking tour

Tourist activity

Tourists on a walking tour of the lower canyon at Petra, Jordan

A walking tour usually refers to either,

1. A guided walk of a historical or cultural site, usually in an urban setting,[1] or
2. A long walk over several days in the countryside. Also called backpacking.

## Definitions

[edit]

(1) Also included are a walking tour of the town of Nantucket, cocktails each evening and round-trip fast-ferry. OED

(2) Walking ... in the Tyrol with the Austrian Alpine Club. ... hut to hut walking tour, 16 days. OED

## History

[edit]

An early example of a walking tour was a pilgrimage. This was a religious journey, often taken on foot but sometimes e.g. on horseback, to a location of significance to the walker's faith. Chaucer's 14th-century narrative poem Canterbury Tales depicts such a pilgrimage. People still undertake such journeys, of which the most famous is the Camino de Santiago. Many pilgrimage routes now coincide with long-distance trails. Such trails are a recent form of a walking tour or backpacking. One example is the French GR 65 path, Chemin de Saint-Jacques (in Spanish the Camino de Santiago francés), an important variant route of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.

Early examples of extended walking tours were undertaken by the Romantic poets, William Wordsworth and John Keats.[2] In 1790 Wordsworth set off on an extended tour of France, Switzerland, and Germany, which he describes in his autobiographical poem The Prelude (1850). In 1798 he walked through Wales and he and Coleridge, in 1799, undertook a three-week tour of the Lake District. John Keats, who belonged to the next generation of Romantic poets began, in June 1818, a walking tour of Scotland, Ireland, and the Lake District with his friend Charles Armitage Brown. Walking tours were popular in the 19th century, and a famous example is Robert Louis Stevenson's Travels with a Donkey (1879). Stevenson also published in 1876 the famous essay "Walking Tours". An early American example is naturalist John Muir's A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf (1916), which describes a long botanizing walk, undertaken in 1867. Another early type of tour was The Grand Tour, undertaken in Europe in the 17th through 19th centuries, as part of a wealthy young man's education,[3] this involved a lengthy tour of Europe, with visits to cities, historic and cultural sites, which would involve similar walking tours as those undertaken by modern tourists.[4] Modern young people often undertake a similar, though cheaper, form of touring.

There are also self-guided tours, which aid travellers by means of books,[5][6] maps, pamphlets, and audio material.[7]

## Tours of cities and cultural sites

[edit]

A walking tour in Baden-Baden A glass stud in York sidewalk. Such glass studs are the remnants of the York Breadcrumbs trail, an initiative from 2005 which incorporated three custom walking tours and (now defunct) website. The tours included the Minster, the Shambles, the Guildhall etc. with a story thrown in.

### With guides

[edit]

A walking tour is usually much shorter than an escorted tour, which may last for a week or more. They are led by guides that have knowledge of the places covered on the tour, and their historical, cultural and artistic significance.

Many walking tours involve a payment to the guide, although some operate on a tip system.[8] The "pay what you want" model started around 2004, and can be found in many countries. The UK-based Guild of Registered Tour has criticised the system for not requiring any training or certification of its guides.[9]

### Urban theatre

[edit]

Several cities now employ dramatic spectacle to add interest to their tours. Usually guided by actors in costume, these walking tours create the feel of living history "in a non-academic, very accessible fashion."[10]

These tours are a form of promenade theatre, as well as museum theatre in that it makes use of first person interpretation.

## See also

[edit]

* Audio tour
* Boston By Foot (Boston, USA)
* Big Onion Walking Tours (New York City)
* Caminhada Noturna, São Paulo
* Heritage trail
* Hiking
* Photowalking
* The Rings of Saturn, a novel by W. G. Sebald – involves a walking tour of Suffolk.
* Walking bus

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Article title[dead link] Oxford Dictionary 1
2. ^ Hayden, Donald E., Wordsworth's walking tour of 1790. Tulsa, Okla. : University of Tulsa; c1983; Carol Kyros Walker,Walking North with Keats. Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press. 2021, p. 1.
3. ^ The Canadian Oxford Dictionary (1998), and New Oxford American Dictionary.
4. ^ Chaney, Edward.; Lassels, Richard. Genève; 1985The Grand Tour and the Great Rebellion (Geneva: Slatkine, 1985)
5. ^ Frommer's walking tours. Paris, Prentice Hall Travel, 1993, ISSN 1081-3381
6. ^ Legarde, Lisa (1993), Frommer's walking tours. San Francisco, Prentice Hall Travel, ISSN 1081-3403
7. ^ Wooldridge, Denyse. (Narrator); Dee's Audio Walking Tours (1996), Manhattan Midtown West, Dee's Audio Walking Tours, retrieved 19 April 2013
8. ^ Molnar, Agnes (2014-04-25). "Strassenökonom – die Stadtführerin". Capital (in German). G+J Wirtschaftsmedien GmbH & Co. KG. Retrieved 2016-01-25.
9. ^ Baker, Vicky (2013-06-12). "The rise of the 'free' city tour". the Guardian. Retrieved 2016-01-25.
10. ^ Handley, Gen. "Forbidden Vancouver tour reenacts Gastown's gothic adventures". The Westender. Retrieved 11 June 2015.

## Further reading

[edit]

* MacCannell, Dean. The Ethics of Sightseeing. University of California Press, 2011.
* Pond, Kathleen Lingle. The Professional Guide: Dynamics of Tour Guiding. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1993.
* Ruitenberg, Claudia W. "Learning by Walking: Non-Formal Education as Curatorial Practice and Intervention in Public Space." International Journal of Lifelong Education 31, no. 3 (2012): 261-275.
* Wynn, Jonathan R. The Tour Guide: Walking and Talking New York. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2011.
* Wynn, Jonathan R. "City Tour Guides: Urban Alchemists at Work." City & Community 9, no. 2 (June 2010).

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Walking culture

Aids, groups and
equipment|

* Bematist
* Baby walker
* Crossing guard
* Dog walking
* Guide dog
* Pedometer
* Walker (mobility)
* Walking bus
* Walking stick

Concepts|

* Dromomania
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Environment and
infrastructure|

* Alley
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* Xiaolüren

Leisure|

* Flâneur
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* Walking tour

Sport|

* Pedestrian circumnavigators
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* Racewalking
* Slow marathon
* Walking football
* Walking netball

Initiatives
and campaigns|

* Car-free movement
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* Reclaim the Streets
* Pedestrian Day
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* Walk Safely to School Day
* Walkathon
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See also|

* Alternatives to car use
* Green transport hierarchy
* Living Streets Aotearoa
* Obesity and walking
* Permeability (spatial and transport planning)
* Photowalking
* Principles of intelligent urbanism
* Race walking
* Sidewalk rage
* Societal effects of cars
* Transit-oriented development
* Walking meditation
* Walking track grading system

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