Or for history, archaeology, zoology, piquancy and an astonishingly different perspective all rolled into one...come beachcombing with us on the Thames foreshore. It's terra incognita even to Londoners - and great fun for all ages. And you'll be able to take a piece of London history home with you - a shard of Roman pottery, a mediaeval roof tile, an Elizabethan clay pipe...souvenirs don't come any more special!
The London Walks guides" repertory of nearly 400 walks (including Explorer Days) can be tailored to fit your needs. We also organise Treasure Hunts, Fright Nights, and illustrated lectures. Foreign language-speaking guides are available. For further details, please contact Fiona, Noel or Mary.
And you want to know why it always makes sense to "go with London Walks" if you're thinking of booking a private walk? Here's why: 1) price and 2) service.
1) We beat all comers on price. How do we do that? It's simply a matter of London Walks being run off our kitchen table. Okay, that's a slight exaggeration - there is a London Walks "office". But it's in our home. So that means we're not paying those killing London rental rates for office space. Let alone commercial rates (property tax, if you're thinking in American parlance).
2) As for service...well, 1) is absolutely to the point here as well. Because we work from home London Walks is an 18/7 operation. You ring a "normal" business at 6.30 pm - or 10 pm! - or over the course of the weekend you're going to get an answering machine. You ring London Walks - 020 7624 3978 - you're get a real live person. Not just live - but lively! Same goes for email. You send an email on Friday evening to a big company you won't get a real response until sometime next week. You might get one of those machine generated things, but who needs that crap. You send one here you could well be hearing back from Mary within an hour or two. And almost certainly we'll be back to you before the weekend is out.
Now any of that important? Damn straight it is. Great communications are one of the names of the game here. You're going to be late for a private walk and you can't reach the guide because he or she is on the tube. And you're about to go on the tube itself where you won't be able to ring. What do you do? Do you stay above ground, so you can keep trying to get through phonerly? Which means you're going to be still later getting to him? Or do you head into the tube, hoping that he (or she) will hang on, even though you're likely to be 25 minutes late. Problem isn't it? Except it isn't a problem if you've booked with London Walks. Isn't a problem because you ring here. And we'll get the message "patched through". One way or another. It gets an extra helping hand into the mix. It's the essential link. As crucial to the operation as the "controller" with the phone/radio connections is to the ambulance service.
Also, there's depth, there's "back-up" with London Walks that you don't get elsewhere. You have to make a very late change of plan. For example, something's come up and you need to do the walk a couple of hours later than its previous scheduled starting time. You go to someone who doesn't have the sort of depth and "back up" that London Walks has - well, maybe that guide has other commitments, can't do it for you two hours later. Bad news. You'll be billed of course - and you won't get your walk. Double whammy. Different story here. Because of our depth and "back up" we can almost always pull a rabbit out of the hat. So flexibility and resourcefulnes is also a very important part of the mix. You get that with London Walks, you don't get it elsewhere.
Anything else? Sure. We'll talk it through with you - either phonerly or by email. Find out a lot more about your group - where you're coming from, literally and figuratively - what you have in mind, what you want the walk to deliver. And that's all by way of getting the best possible "fit" between guide and group. Let alone tailoring the thing - route-wise or commentary-wise - to any given group's requirements and wishes. You're not going to get that elesewhere. The singletons will just say, "yes, sure, I'll do that for you." Well, yes, they will do it. And if they're a professionally qualified guide they'll do it competently. And if it's "up their street", so to speak, they might well do it more than competently. But competently, more-than-competently, schmompently...what London Walks aims at is brilliantly. There's a difference. A big difference.
And the final point is perhaps the most important of all. We're London Walks. This is what we do. Have done for nearly half a century. Walking tours in London is what we specialise in. Nobody - NOBODY - does it as well. There are good reasons for that. Stay tuned!