Introducing Free Durham Tours

Nathan and I have had an idea brewing for a while, since we visited Prague, Bratislava, and Budapest with Dave and Allison. 

All over Europe there are free walking tours, and we took advantage of them in Prague and Budapest. They were awesome! The informative and entertaining guides covered history, culture, architecture, food and drink, customs, and much more. The guides worked for tips only. It really put the pressure on the guides to make it good, but it allowed travelers to tip what they thought the tour was worth according to their budgets. We wondered if there was such a tour in Durham. 

Allison said that Nathan should start a business giving tours, and she wanted a 10% cut of the profits for her suggestion. She later "sold" her birthright cut to make a phone call to Dave on Nathan's phone, which didn't even work because she had Dave's phone in her purse. :)

To make a long story short, we got back home and discovered there wasn't such a tour in Durham, although there was a strictly historical tour available for four pounds through the tourist office. We showed up for the tour one Saturday, but there were no guides available, so I guess it's hit and miss. 

Nathan started reading and researching, and I got on board as well with the administrative side of things (licensing, marketing, etc.). I did give some awesome tours in my day at my alma mater, Taylor University (walking backwards the entire way I hasten to add), but Nathan still made me "apply" to be a tour guide for our  new business. I had to give him a few practice informational snippets and role-play how to deal with a tourist gone crazy (aptly played by him, of course). He's an intense interviewer! 

We did our first practice tour with friends on Saturday, and they said it was pretty good! :) We really valued their feedback and enjoyed our time together. Cullen, Pamela, Darius, and Kristine gave up two hours on their Saturday to help us out. Kristine took all of these pictures, and Darius even wrote a review on his blog. Thanks, guys!

Keep looking out for more updates on Free Durham Tours, mostly likely through Facebook. Our new website and Facebook fan page are still under construction, but we hope to have it all done this week. If you'd like more information about Free Durham Tours or would like to book a private tour, just let me know through one of the avenues on the 'Contact' page up top or e-mail freedurhamtours@gmail.com.