Free Walking Tour Salzburg

When I launched Free Walking Tour Salzburg back in 2018, I didn’t have a business plan. I had a freshly aquired Austria Guide license, a half baked website, and a love for my hometown. I’d just spent years working in Salzburg’s tourism scene, as a rickshaw driver, hostel staff, hosting hundreds of Couchsurfers and eventually became a certified guide.

I met thousands of travelers, and heard the same frustrations over and over, and thought: there has to be a better way. That idea became a tour with me as the only guide. Then it became a blog, a hand-drawn city map, and a booking page that barely worked. But it worked just enough to get people to show up. And they did.

Over time, that one-man show grew into something more. Today, we’re a small but passionate team of licensed guides, each with our own way of telling Salzburg’s story, but united by a shared belief that travel should be fair, fun, and meaningful. We’re still running on heart, word-of-mouth, and direct connection. But six years later, Free Walking Tour Salzburg has become one of the most trusted, highest-rated, and widely recommended experiences in the city.

What makes a tour “free”?

Let’s get this part out of the way: no, the tour isn’t funded by the city. It’s free in the sense that you decide what to pay, based on what the experience was worth to you.

No prepayment. No pressure. No sales pitch at the end. It’s a tip-based system, and it only works when we actually deliver value.

We don’t promise perfection. But we do promise effort. Every tour guide who works with us earns their income not from salary or commission, but from connection. You get the best version of us every time because that’s the only version that works.

How it started

Before I was a guide, I was a traveler. I’ve been the guy showing up in a new city at 6 a.m., too early to check in, too broke for a paid tour, and desperate to get oriented. I’ve been on walking tours that felt like they were reading Wikipedia out loud. I’ve also been on ones that changed the way I saw a place forever.

When I became a licensed guide, I knew I wanted to offer that kind of experience. But in Salzburg, the idea of a tip-based tour didn’t exist yet. It was a town of fixed-price tours, commission deals, and structured scripts. I wanted to do something more personal. More free.

So I launched my first tour in autumn 2018. It was just me, a guy with a passion project. I didn’t have money for ads. I also had several other jobs. I also still worked at the yoho hostel. That’s where I ran the first tours from. The first few tours were advertised with a sign and a sign up form at the hostel reception. A few people came. Then they told their friends.

Then came the reviews.

Then came the website, and bookings, and the realization that I couldn’t do it all alone.

How it works now

Today, Free Walking Tour Salzburg is a small team of passionate local guides. Every one of them is officially licensed, which in Austria means passing exams in history, law, art, and guiding skills, but more importantly, they care. We’re not here to recite facts. We’re here to create moments.

Each tour is different. Some guests are here for the Sound of Music. Others are history nerds. Some are just passing through. We try to strike a balance between depth and fun, tailoring each walk to the people in front of us. Our routes cover Salzburg’s most iconic sights, but we also share local spots, personal stories, and practical tips that only come from living here.

Group sizes are small usually no more than 25 people. We don’t do megaphones. We don’t sell anything. And we never take commissions for restaurant referrals or museum tickets. What we recommend is what we actually like.

Why we do this

This isn’t just a job. It’s a philosophy.

We believe great travel experiences should be available to everyone, not just people who can afford luxury tours. That’s why we’ve kept the tour free from the start and why we’ve never pushed people to tip more. If a student from Argentina can only afford €2, that’s okay. If a family from Australia gives €20 each, that’s great. It all evens out.

What matters is that people walk away having learned something, felt something, or just seen the city through new eyes.

Lessons from thousands guests

After guiding (and now managing) thousands of tours, I’ve learned some unexpected things:

• People remember your energy more than your facts.
• Humor is often the best way to explain history.
• Most travelers are very kind and curious when you treat them with respect.
• Salzburg isn’t just a museum. It’s a city that lives and breathes, and that matters more than any checklist of sights.

The most meaningful feedback we get isn’t “this was the best tour ever.” It’s:

“Now I feel like I understand Salzburg a little better.”
“This made me want to stay longer.”
“Thanks for showing us more than what’s in the brochure.”

That’s why we keep doing this.

How to join us

If you found this page by searching free walking tour Salzburg, walking tour Salzburg, or tip-based tour Salzburg — that’s no accident. We’ve been doing this for over six years, and word has spread. Not through ads, but through real experiences shared by real travelers.

Our official site is: freewalkingtoursalzburg.com
That’s where you can book a spot, check the schedule, or read what others have said.

We run tours almost every day, in every season, and we’d love to show you around.

From one tour to a family of projects

Free Walking Tour Salzburg, launched in 2018, was my first real project, the first thing I built from scratch and actually finished. But it wasn’t my first experience in tourism. That goes back to Rikschatours Salzburg, where I got my start as a rickshaw driver. It was my first job in Salzburg that I truly loved — riding through the old town, talking to travelers, feeling connected to the city in motion.

Years later, I had the chance to revive Rikschatours and take over the website from Claudia, who originally founded the company in 2009 with incredible passion and determination. She built it all from the ground up, one rickshaw, one guest, one crazy idea. I’m proud to carry that legacy forward.

Since then, I’ve added more to the mix: a private tour brand, a travel blog, and now a full content platform called Introducing Salzburg. But Free Walking Tour Salzburg will always be the root of it all. The idea that made everything else possible.

It’s how I learned to connect. How I learned to build trust. How I turned walking the streets of my hometown into something meaningful, for others and for myself.

This tour changed my life. I hope it changes someone else’s day.