It started one crisp early spring day in 2014. Two good friends, Ralph and Brent where drinking their coffee, trying to melt the early morning cold away, getting ready for their morning tours of the historic city centre like every other day.
Ralph, as he always likes to say, is a „waterproof Hamburger“. A true local, born and raised in Hamburg, who always has an adventure to tell about from his many travel experiences throughout the world. Even someone who has known Ralph for many years probably hasn't heard half of his amazing stories that he can tell. He is that someone that you always think to yourself he could probably write an autobiography about his travels. Whether it be about him actually making it on board an Airplane in South America without a boarding pass, driving a Harley through Yosemite in California with only a t-shirt and jeans and being pulled over for speeding to get past the below freezing temperatures on the mountain peaks, or his month long sabbath from the modern world in India, basically doing nothing but Yoga and meditation the entire day, Ralph always has a story to captivate one in a conversation. He is also a very trusting and good natured person. Like the uncle figure that always is there to give support and offer advice, or at least a smile.
Brent, an American expat who left the beautiful, sunny and warm California weather to study music in Hamburg, had been living in Hamburg longer now than in his home country. He is the one that soaks up the cultural and historical treasures that Europe has to offer. He had been traveling throughout Germany and the world on tour in various classical orchestras and opera companies. But had found, it in the end, too stressful a life and was looking to settle down a bit for his son and find another rewarding profession...Stumbling onto tourism he was enthusiastic and eager to show other english speakers the rich history of Hamburg and the role it plays today.
Slowly, a guest or two where showing up, and they started to greet them, ask them the standard questions, a bit of small talk as usual. „Where are you from?“, „Is this your first visit to Hamburg?“, and other questions to try and get to know the guests that would be coming along on their tours. It seemed like another typical day for the two tour guides. Little did they know this day would be the start of something that would change their lives.
The Tour went a few hours and everyone seemed pleased. The standard applause at the end and a few people sticking around afterwards asking for insider tips for typical restaurants or bars for later in the evening. Then a girl, waiting patiently till everyone else had left, started talking with the two. She introduced herself as a tour guide from Copenhagen. Always nice to have a fellow guide come along on the tour. She asked if they were interested in meeting up later on and talking about tourism in general. „Of course!“ was the answer and they decided to meet that evening at a nice bar nearby.
Later, as planned, the three met and ordered a drink. It started off with the usual exchange of details about their lives, work and experiences as tour guides. Then she started to tell Ralph and Brent about what was happening in Copenhagen. A small group of local guides in Copenhagen decided to start a tour company. An independent company created from guides and for guides themselves, and not just another international corporation where the guides were at the bottom of the totem pole. No, a local and self run company that offered freedom for their guides and treated them fairly. She went on to explain of the success they were having from their tours with guides that truly felt self-empowered, highly motivated and where being given good working conditions and how it made all the difference in the quality of their tours. Of course, Ralph and Brent listened intent to all the exciting details she had to offer. The night ended and all three went back to their homes and hotel.
A few days later Ralph called Brent up and excitedly said, „I´ve got a car from a friend, we´re going to Copenhagen!“. The next day they got up at 4:30 in the morning and off they were to Copenhagen with a few stops along the way for nice views of the Baltic sea and coffee/donut stops, and as fate would have it, they missed the ferry by two minutes...no worries, the next one leaves in an hour! But they were the first in line to board the ferry. An hour later and noticing it was becoming tight with the time they drove onto the ferry, got out and started to explore the boat and enjoy another second breakfast. 35 minutes later, arriving in Denmark, they were determined to not miss the 11 a.m. tour and started speeding along the motorway.
After about 5 minutes of noticing every kilometer or so a German car being pulled over by the Danish police for their Autobahn-No-Speed-Limit-Style driving, they decided to slow down to the local speed limit of 120 km/hour all the while assuring themselves that they would still make it on time. Every sign telling how many kilometers till Copenhagen was like a holy grail and cause to recalculate the chances of making it on time. Finally, „Welcome to Copenhagen“ stood on one of the signs! They still had another 20 minutes till the start of the tour and rejoiced that they would make it on time. Who knew that the suburbs where so large in Denmark?
15 minutes later, still on the motorway, they started making it into the more populated areas and frantically started to look for any sign saying: „Exit: City Centre“ or even better „Exit: Town Hall“. „That could be the town hall!“ - „Wait, no, just a museum.“ - „Why are there no signs for the center?“ - „Look! That sign says: City Center, South (pointing left) and North (pointing right)!“ - „Dang it! Which one do we need???“ - „Just choose one and drive!“
Apparently, they got lucky and chose the right one. Entering the city centre, they decided to stop and ask a pedestrian the fastest way to the town hall. 10 minutes later, they arrived at the town hall, only 9 minutes late. Ralph parked the car and they both jumped out immediately spotting the other tourists grouped around a guide. They both ran over and the guide noticed them coming, only to warn them that they shouldn't leave the car parked on the square if they didn't want it towed away in a minute or two. Ok, they decided to split up, Brent stayed with the group as Ralph ran back to the car to find a parking garage...
Brent started to enjoy himself knowing Ralph was desperately driving around frantically looking for any parking space he could find. 15 minutes later, Ralph called Brent´s mobile to find out where he was and how to get to where the group was. Thanks to the guide though, Ralph was able to find the group 3 minutes later. He had just missed the story of one of Copenhagen´s „great fires“. After the tour, the guide invited Ralph and Brent to introduce them to a few other members of the company and organised a spontaneous meet up with all the other guides.
Ralph and Brent were so excited and, of course, there was a lot of conversation going on. In the evening they went to a hip bar, and every one ordered an impressive and unique craft beer. Ralph and Brent started to notice that the little money they had in their pockets was not going to get them very far into the evening. After a few minutes, more guides started to show up, one after the other, very friendly, engaging and heart warming people. After a while, a dozen or so guides where taking up half of the bar and every time a new guide showed up, they ordered a round for everyone that had an empty glass...Ralph and Brent, who were quite embarrassed that they basically spent their last Euros making their way to Copenhagen and had no money left to order a round for the group, soon realised the immense hospitality, companionship and strong solidarity the guides had for one another. They immediately knew this was the beginning of truely amazing and lasting friendships!
The First Tour
Back in Hamburg, Ralph and Brent set out to start their own company. With no money though they had to make some sacrifices. Ralph sold his beloved motorcycle and Brent called his mother asking if she could help them out financially, which they always says thank you to!!! They will always be grateful for you believing in them :-) . With an extremely limited budget, they started to meet every day to organise their plans. A starting date was set for June of 2014. A logo, website, yellow umbrellas and flyers were needed. After about 2 months, everything was ready, flyers ordered, yellow umbrellas bought and printed, a tour route organised, and only a week left till the grand kick-off. They started going from hotel to hotel to inform them of their new tours... A few were willing to lay their flyers out, but most were sceptical, „Just another tour company start up that would probably end up quitting after a few months“ or „Sorry, no room for the flyers with the dozens of other flyers hanging around“ was the general response they got. Finally, the first day had come.
Ralph and Brent where at the meeting point 30 minutes early, eager to welcome their first guests. Forty-five minutes went by and only one elderly lady had asked why they were holding umbrellas open when it wasn't raining. The next two days went by with them standing at the meeting point waiting for something to happen, all the while spending every chance in between going to hotels, cafés, restaurants and tourist information points introducing themselves and trying to distribute flyers. Then, on the third day, one guest came up to them with a flyer in her hand. „Is this the meeting point for the Free Tour?“. Hallelujah!!! The first guest!
Expanding
Soon afterwards, only about half the tours where being cancelled because no one showed up. Ralph and Brent would proudly take their groups of maybe 3 to 6 people and show them the beautiful sites of the city. Soon, the guests started recommending them to their hotels, friends and online.
They started to notice though that one question would always come up, „Do you offer the tours in German?“. Hmmm... no, till now they were not offered in German. Well, they decided to change this and start offering them in German as well. There was just one problem, with more tours, more guides were needed.
They started to print flyers looking for new guides. After about a week of no one responding, they got an e-mail from Matej...a masters student just about to finish his studies in urban planning and wanting to use his expertise to show people the architecture, planning aspects and history of the city. Bullseye!
The small group started to meet regularly shifting meetings from one flat to the other discussing how to improve. Many times one sitting on a bed, one or two in an old 2nd hand wooden chair, and sometimes even one person on the floor. Every one of them brought their unique abilities and special talents with them, whether it was business management, design, or other strengths, all the while giving tours every day through the city. One thing was worrying them though, none of them had any real experience with IT and the computer program aspects of the business. It was clear that they could not nearly afford to hire an external company to do this for them. Then something truly amazing happened!
They had been working a month or so, when they got an email from a bloke named Robin. At first, they didn't really know what to take of it. Robin had just graduated from German High School and was interested in gaining work experience in the field of tourism. They all first thought he was looking for an internship our wanted to become a part time guide during his studies. But they read on and noticed he was more interested in working back office in IT and the computer optimisation areas. They were thrilled but also worried that they could not offer him anything interesting because they started only a few months prior. But they all decided to call him, explain the situation and tell him that they, unfortunately, probably were not what he was looking for. On the telephone, Robin said he had looked at a lot of other tourism companies and had chosen to contact them. Ok, well, they invited him to their next meeting to meet in person, but were still not very certain that he would be impressed with them or what they could offer or even if they were what he was looking for.
The next meeting came, It was at Matej´s flat in his bedroom as he didn't have a living room at that time. Matej was sitting on his bed, Ralph on a rickety wooden flea-market chair, Brent had the privilege this time to be in the faded old leather recliner from E-Bay, and a small empty foldable chair from Ikea was waiting for Robin. They were all quite nervous and started to plan what they would say when Robin arrived. A few minutes later the doorbell rang, Matej pushed the release button for the front door and they could all hear the footsteps of their awaited guest coming up the stairs. Shortly after, In came a well trimmed, blond haired, young man with sleek glasses and stylishly modest pullover who wasn´t put off by the Bohémian standards. After everyone got to introduce themselves it turned out they were exactly what Robin was looking for and exactly what they needed. They soon realised that Robin was an invaluable find that fit in perfect with the team. In end effect, it was the start of another great friendship!
Today
Robin and the Tourguides, has grown in size to offer tours daily in English, German, Spanish, French, Italien and other languages.
They do tours that they themselves would want:
Authentic: They go further into the causes and take a look behind the facade.
Local: They bring all of their Hamburg experiences with them.
Personal: Every one of their guide presents Hamburg from their own view with their personal history and experiences of the city.
Special: They discover places that one as a tourist usually would not see and tell the history behind them.
Entertaining: They mix fundamental background knowledge together with their personal enthusiasm of Hamburg´s rich history and unique stories to create an unforgettable experience for their guests. They also steal each others best jokes ;-)
Their Free Tours
365 days a year they offer so-called "Free Tours". The Free Tours are often mistaken for "tours that cost nothing" or "tours for tips". They do not find this description fitting. With these tours they wish a fair pay for their performance, at the same time they find it appropriate that the customer themselves decide what amount is fair. They are convinced, that great performance will also be well paid for. This motivates them to give a great tour every single time and gives an opportunity for those that can not normally afford a tour to have an enjoyable and memorable experience of their visit to Hamburg. Their offer of free tours is meant for lone-travelers with family or friends. Small groups of up to 8 people can join the tours. Larger groups can book a private tour with them (please see below).
Hamburg Craft Beer Tasting Tour
With their unique Craft Beer Tasting Tour they explore Hamburg´s craft beer scene and history with all possible senses. Seven high quality and hand crafted local beers will be tasted on this informative tour. You will learn of over 1,000 years of brewing tradition in Hamburg and discover the typical Hamburg atmosphere of insider locations from their expert guides and delve into new craft beer aromas.
The Personal Hamburg experience: Private Tours and more
With private tours and events, they stand by your side with all their Hamburg experience to create the most fitting time for your private group – from single tours to extensive Hamburg events, They can offer and organise almost everything that one could want here in the city. They are flexible so you can decide where to start, length, route, content among other things. Moreover, they can organise tours of the many sights and experiences of Hamburg: Historic city centre, St.Pauli, Speicherstadt (old warehouse district), Elbphilharmonie, Hafencity, Blankenese, local craft beer tastings, harbour boat tours, coffee and tea tastings, escape games...and so on.
Local and social obligations
They are a local company in Hamburg and growing year for year ever more together with their city. They happily contribute to the local community. First, they let people that have a limited budget that would normally not be able to attend a guided tour of the city, join their free tours, for example, students, backpackers, unemployed, refugees, etc... They also donate a portion of their profits every year to charitable organisations. During their tours, they support the independent and local companies, cafés, restaurants, breweries, etc... to give back to the community. They are a company that is founded, organised, and run by guides themselves and create fair working conditions. All of their financial transactions are done through the GLS Bank, Germany's first bank that works according to social-, environmental- and ecological-sustainable concepts.
Want to help?
-Well, first, join one or more of their tours to find out for yourself! You can find all the information about their tours are on their website: www.robinandthetourguides.de/en/
-Like and follow them on Facebook!
-Review them online to share your experience with others, for example, here on Facebook or Google: https://goo.gl/gJFfcZ
-Write about your experience with them in your blog or travel channel! Be sure to send them a message informing them so they can help promote your blog or travel channel and thank you. Their email is: info[at]robinandthetourguides.de
-Support their guides. If doing one of their free tours, for example, remember that it is a trust based system. Their guides, truly do understand that some people just cannot afford the standard price of a guided tour and it is heartwarming to see people go up after a tour to thank them for the wonderful time and tour while explaining that they would love to give something but, unfortunately, only have enough money, maybe, to pay for the ticket to the bus station to catch a ride back home. The guides truly do have understanding for their situation. Please remember though, for those that fortunately aren´t in such a situation, that the guides live off of what people give them for their services. This means with this money they have to pay taxes, social insurances like health care, pension funds, among other expenses and have to pay the costs of living for themselves and their families from what the customers decide to give.
-Have any other ideas? Feel free to contact them, they are really open to new ideas, partnerships and, a really nice bunch to get to know and maybe grab a drink or two with! Write them a message at: info[at]robinandthetourguides.de or call their hotline at + 49 (0)40 232 050 49
