Walking tour: why to explore on foot?

3 reasons that should make you consider walking tours to explore a new place (they're good for yourself, for your visit and for the environment)

Leggi in italiano

What’s your favourite way to explore an unknown town?

As you may guess from the name of this blog, what I prefer is to explore on foot, even though there are many alternatives that many people prefer instead of walking. Today it’s not the moment to rattle off all the possible modes of transport, but I want to tell you about why I think that walking tour is one of the best way to appreciate a town.

How I realize that moving on foot is the best thing to do for me

I grew up in a family of, so to say, walkers. I say that not only referring to travels, but also to everyday life. Going to school, going shopping with my mum, going to my little friends’ house, going to the gym: everything exclusively on foot. We took the car just when it was raining (big rain, otherwise take the umbrella and go) and, obviously, to move from a town to another. Just saying this, you shouldn’t get surprised if I choose my legs as a means of transport by default.

I understood that walking was the best thing, for me, just around 20. My brother and I were in London, our first travel by plane and our first travel together abroad. During our visit, we moved by subway, by double-decker bus and obviously on foot. We walked so much that we lost weight in that travel, despite the rich English cuisine. Then, I made some reflections that brought me to prefer to move on foot than other modes, even If faster and less tiring.

A matter of perception

Imagine to go along a street with a vehicle on wheels and look around. Now try to do the same thing, but imaging to walk along the same street. Do you find any differences? What do you think that is changed?

Maybe, walking, you might have imagined to go slower. Perhaps you might have thought to stop the gaze on the window of a patisserie that, maybe, before, with the other vehicle, you’ve barely seen. Perhaps, you’ve looked with attention the details of the graffiti on the building in front of you. Well, while walking you may have given more attention to all the details around you. This is because the perception of what surrounds you is very different according to the way you move, by means of transport or on foot. A walking tour allows you to see a town from a naturally “human” point of view and at a pace that allows all your senses to appreciate the place where you are.

Psycho-physical wellbeing

I won’t list here all the good effects that a walk can have on body and mind. In a post on Instagram (by the way, do you already follow me?) I wrote that for me going for a walk is like a cure for everything: if I’m happy, sad, angry, stressed, anxious, looking for an idea, I go for a walk or propose to do it to those who feel like that. Try to think to join these benefits with an unknown town: don’t you feel better?

As I’ve written above, my brother and I came back home from London with less weight. It may seem a banality, but it would be to deny the evidence of the facts if I say that it’s a small thing. We all worry about the weight that we gain on holidays (mind you, I’m not just talking from an aesthetic point of view, but I’m considering health, too). People are divided in two groups: those who don’t deprive themselves of the joy of foreign food, worrying about losing the gained weight once back home, and those who prefer to avoid to taste food that can be potentially too caloric. I, being a coeliac and already avoiding many foods, surely don’t want to worry about excess calories, but I don’t want to come back home and go on a diet to lose the weight gained during the travel either. So, what do I do? I enjoy my food, no matter how caloric it is, and will use that energy to explore on foot the place that hosts me. If you eat fish and chips for lunch, you have a lot of energy to explore!

The advantages for the environment

It’s evident, in fact obvious, that walking is one of the most sustainable way to move in the world. We bring the energy and it’s easily renewable! The means of transport are attached to our body and we always carry them with us. There’s no emission of exhaust gas and no problem linked with space, like the need to find a park in the area you are visiting. Don’t forget the advantages at acoustic level: have you ever noticed how noisy means of transport are? Have you ever walked along a street with little traffic? I can assure you that towns change face, for the better!

Now, I would like to know what you think about walking tours and if you would try to visit an unknown place exclusively on foot. I look forward to read you in the comments!