Timing and Preparation

Timing is essential when requesting a tour. Sometimes there is time in between tours where a guide might be able to make a tour available.  However, you run the risk of it being not quite right due to the lack of preparation time.

For a tour guide, preparing for a tour is as important as conducting a tour, especially when the request does not contain crucial information such as specific start/end times, expected duration or even a firm date. What is your tour guide to do?

Think of a friend you haven't seen or talked to for a while.  You are planning to travel to a city near them and want to spend some time with your friend while you are there for a long or short layover. Would you wait until the last minute to contact them? Even if it's a short span of time that does not allow for any advanced preparation, would you expect your friend to be available for you, not knowing how their schedule is or what else might be going on in their life? You might think, well, it doesn't hurt to ask, right? But generally you would not take the chance of missing your your friend due to lack of preparation on your part.

Although I am a virtual stranger and not the friend you are thinking of above, I would like to welcome you, as a friend would, when visiting from out of town. Sure, my time as your personal guide is not a free service, but because of that, I want to make sure you will get your money's worth. In order to do that, I would like to properly prepare for you and your customized tour. The most important thing I need to do that is to get notified in advance, and I mean, at least a week prior or more.  One or two days notice, especially on weekends, will result in me declining to be your tour guide as I will be otherwise booked for other tours and activities. As they say, "the early bird gets the worm" and the early travel request gets booked first.

I am setting up a free calendar so that potential clients can track my available time.  Recommendations are welcome as to how this calendar can best be utilized by you the traveler.

In the meantime, I appreciate every inquiry and I'm looking forward to meeting you in person soon.

Email me today! Sabine:  tourguide@ok.de

Travel Love...

I dreamt big as a girl.  Deciding early on that I would be an opera singer that traveled the world, with a house in every major city and a trail of stories to tell my grandchildren.

Fast forward to 2013 and I have traveled a little, never sung an aria on a stage and have no children to have grandchildren.

My goal is still to travel the world, collecting stories and memories that I will share with the world.  One trip, step and goal at a time I will see the places I want to see.

I'm in love with traveling.  The romantic idea of it quickly dims when you look at airline fees, rude TSA agents and taking off shoes repeatedly.  But once you are AT your destination it's all worth it.

I love the quote above because it speaks the the spirit of travel.  To read about Greece, then to actually stand on the cliffs and look at the blue water.   To speak Spanish in 7th grade and then have those words come back to you as you try to order food in Madrid.  Traveling is in my blood, my core, my heart.

Let Sabine guide you on a magical adventure in Frankfurt.  You will not be disappointed. Sabine's email (tourguide@ok.de)

Keep falling in love with where you want to go...

Get On The Bus!

There are many cool things to see by just walking through a city, but what if you have a physical ailment that prevents you from walking long distances?

I've found that most major cities in the US and abroad have bus tours.  They can be a tad pricey but well worth the money if you are unable to walk around and see sites under your own steam.  Or if you are like me, you like to see a lot of sites utilizing very little personal energy!

Tickets for the Madrid tour bus in particular were reasonably priced at $22.00 (USD) for two consecutive days of "hop on and off" travel.  My travel companion and I would get on the bus in the main square, ride around and view the city and then stay on to hop on/off as we chose.  It was an awesome way to see the older and newer parts of Madrid and have a "shuttle" that ran from 7 am to 12 midnight.

I can't recommend one tour company over another but we did choose the flashy red bus above because at that time (2006) it was the one that had the most comprehensive number of stops and sites.  Feel free to research the bus schedules once you arrive at your destination so you can get the most bang for your bus buck!

We encourage you to sample the city utilizing this great resource.  Most of the tour guides are very friendly, most of the information regarding each stop is translated into several different languages (using headphones that have pre-recorded information) and they will even answer your questions about different points of interest.

Enjoy your next city adventure on the bus!! Contact Sabine (tourguide@ok.de) to help you schedule your next trip to Europe.