In the last 15 years, Walks has grown to dozens of cities across Europe and North America, welcoming two million guests. To us, each guest is unique and has their own story to tell.
Meet one of our Walks super fans, Amy H., from Las Vegas. On a trip to Rome, Amy was impressed with the ease of the visit and friendly guides on her Pristine Sistine Tour. Since then, she’s joined more than 25 Walks and Devour tours in Rome, Paris, Barcelona, Lisbon, and beyond.
We asked Amy about her favorite tours, her advice for traveling to Europe, and where she’s going next!
How often do you travel and why do you enjoy it?
I am not one of those gals that has fancy purses or gets my nails done. I’m like, let’s plan trips. That is kind of our thing.
We probably travel three times a year for a week to a destination. We live in Las Vegas and it’s a place where people vacation.
It’s fun to do something different and get out of this kind of vibe. We love going to Europe and seeing the history, the food, and all of it. As soon as we get back from one trip, we plan another one and it’s kind of a habit now.
What’s some of your advice for other people planning trips to Europe?
My advice is make a plan, but be flexible. There are things that happen and some people grumble about traveling. They don’t have the right mindset, and they expect going to Europe to be just like it is in America, but they’re very different.
Once you get out of your comfort zone and realize “Oh, that’s different, but it’s okay,” you can have a lot of fun. But things happen, you know, plans change. If you have a plan, that’s better than no plan, but your plan might change, and that’s okay too.
What do you think the benefit of doing guided tours is?
I think it’s the time that you save. You’re not waiting in line. You’re not having to coordinate what to see and when. It’s already kind of figured out for you. If you only have so many days, your time is precious.
I don’t want to be in a car all day. I don’t want to go from one hotel to another if I can avoid it, I’d rather just spend my time actually seeing sites and being wherever we’re visiting.
Guided tours are a big time-saver. They take care of everything. All you have to do is show up, so you’re guaranteed to have a nice time.
Tell us about your first experience with Walks Tours
The first time we did a tour with Walks, I was with my family in Rome for my kids’ spring break in 2019. I had seen a commercial for Walks about going to Rome and seeing it all, so I jotted the name of the company down.
We booked a whole week with just Walks tours. The idea of driving in Rome is intimidating for Americans and we only had to unpack once in Rome, but we could do day trips to Tuscany and go to the Amalfi Coast and see Pompeii.
When we got back to Rome we had time the rest of the day to go to a new restaurant recommended by a tour guide and shop. It was huge only having to unpack once and it’s kind of like cruising. We love to cruise and get off the beaten path.
What’s your favorite part of joining a Walks tour?
We’ve done a lot of tours as cruisers. That’s kind of what you do. You get off the ship and you go on a tour. Walks is our gold standard.
If it’s not as good as a Walks tour we’re like, okay, we’re gonna scoot and we just kind of tell the tour guide, “Oh, we’re really hungry and we’re going to go eat” and we just leave. But we’ve never had to do that on a Walks tour, ever. We’ve always had really amazing guides and it’s like they’re friends of ours just showing us around the city.
It’s very comfortable, very friendly, and welcoming. I think that that’s what people don’t realize with big tour groups, it’s not very personal. Walks has a lot of really engaging, interesting people. They’re fun to listen to and everything’s relevant to where you are.
Do you have a favorite Walks tour or memory from one of the tours?
I think there’s a few. One tour that was so interesting and unbelievable, and we would definitely do it again, is the catacombs in Rome. I think that that was so cool because you’re not allowed to take pictures there. So you just have to go to see it.
It’s unbelievable and the history of it’s really interesting. On the tour you go really deep down and you’re far into the tunnels, and the tour guide left us for a little bit. He said, “Oh, I think they made a new discovery. Let me go get the key.”
He just kind of left all of us there and we’re waiting and waiting, and he comes back with a key. We went into this little room that had been newly excavated and there was this tomb, I think it was marble, and it had this relief carving on it. All the other ones had no color and they were just kind of like marble, but this one, you could see the paint on the marble and the scene was just unbelievable.
It was amazing. Just things that we didn’t expect, you know? We thought, okay, we’re going to go see bones, but there was another whole aspect of that tour and little surprises. Another one is the pasta class.
I think the pasta making class was fantastic. We did a Walks Vatican tour and then that night we did pasta making. We actually came home and bought a pasta maker.
As a family we’ll be like, let’s make pasta tonight. It’s one of those things that really clicked with all of us and we had a great time.
What about tours you’ve done as a family with your teens? Did they have a favorite?
The first trip with Walks we did was all the tours with the kids. We did the Colosseum, the Vatican, and the catacombs. I think our daughter was a sophomore in high school and she would say, “’I thought yesterday was my favorite day, but then we did the tour today, and now today is my favorite!”
And it was just like, one day after another, it got better and better and better. I’m not sure what they loved most, but even things that you would think would be boring to kids or teenagers – they just loved it. They loved the history and everything about it.
The food tours were actually really cool too. They kind of just like walking around and not just going to a site like a museum. They like to get out and be in the city acting like a local. But our kids were older. I’m not sure about little kids.
Where are you traveling to next?
Florence! My sister was invited to a wedding and I’m her plus one. I can’t wait for that. I’ve never been to Florence. I’m looking forward to going to the wine windows and the food. It’s also my birthday.
I think we have 8 Walks tours for that week as well. So, some of them are the same as what we’ve done and some of them are different.
But, you know, you have a different experience each time you go, so it’ll be great.
