I will be in Munich for a few days in early September before I join Rick's Eastern Europe tour. I am considering taking a day trip with Radius Tours to either Nuremberg or Salzburg. Any thoughts or comments as to Radius Tours and/or either Nuremberg or Salzburg?
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32353 posts
Michael,
I haven't used Radius Tours for trips to Nuremburg or Salzburg, however I have toured with them to Dachau and the Castles. I was pleased with their services for the tours I took, so would recommend them.
Cheers!
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19274 posts
My opinion of this kind of tours (third party to other cities) is that they take advantage of people who can't plan their own travel. Do a little research and find out how to get there on your own and take walking tours in the other city.
For example, even a single person traveling on the train to Salzburg with a Bayern-Ticket will pay only 23€ for transportation. Once there you can pick up a local walking tour for 9-15€. That's 32-38€; Radius charges 42€. For two people, they can split a 27€ Bayern-Ticket and pay only 23-29€ each. There is no proof that the Radius guides are any better than local guides in Salzburg.
Posted by
Sacramento, California U.S.A.
10606 posts
I took two Radius tours on my first trip to Europe. First was the tour to Dachau, and it was fabulous. You can do it on your own and get an audio guide, but in my opinion our time at Dachau was great enhanced by having a native English speaking guide who was knowledgable and was happy to answer any questions. We enjoyed it so much we decided to take the tour to Salzburg the next day. Apparently the guide usually conducted a different tour, and his knowledge of Salzburg was not great. I was disappointed by that, though I enjoyed the city. Since then I've gone back on my own. If you have a guidebook it's an easy train trip from Munich that you can satisfactorily do on your own.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19274 posts
In 2009 I was in Munich and did the Dachau tour "on my own". The Memorial has English language tours every day at 11 AM and 1 PM. The tour by one of the Memorial's own guides cost 3€ and last for 2½ hrs. The Memorial trains the guide very well and mine spoke excellent English (In fact, I think she was American).
I was already going to use an inner zone day ticket, so I spent 2€ more for the Muenchen XXL day ticket. That covered the S-Bahn from the Hbf to Dachau station and the bus from the station to the Memorial. The bus stop at Dachau station is very well marked.
So I spent a total of 5€ (3€ for the tour, 2€ extra for the XXL day ticket); Radius charges 22€. No one has ever been able to show that the Radius guide are any better than the Memorial's own guides. In fact, I suspect that they are all former Memorial guides. All you really get for the extra 17€ is an escort from downtown to the Memorial and back.
The Memorial also rents audio guides for the same price as the tour, which is handy if you cannot be there at midday, but you can take a guided tour, or you can just walk around on your own for free, but I would not recommend it.