(4) Sightseing Guide

Seeing the sights in your distination city should not be a hit and miss expedition. A little planning will go a long way. I would suggest starting with a city travel guide book. This or similar books are available at your local book store or library. This will help you outline your main sight seeing hit list. Also search web travel sights, particularly those with forums with contributed feedback from other visitors. Talk to your acqaintences or even aquaintences of aquantences who have visited your destination cities. Even strangers will gladly share there travel experiences, because most the poeple they know are tired of hearing about it :) Aquatences and forums can often offer hotspots that are not documented by mainstream publications. If there is no time for preplanning you can visit the local tourist office in major cities. They are usually located near central train stations. Here you will find guidence and brochures for everything you can to or see in the desitination city. They even provide booking services.

Getting around
My stategy for touring major cities on a first visit is to start with the Tour Bus. These take you directly to most major sites and offer passes of 1-3 days that you unlimited boarding. This means that you can get on and off along the routes as often as you wish. They also provide mult-lingual tour nariations via audio headphones. No time wasted exploring the transportation system. But once you are aclimated and have hit most of the major sites, I suggest getting a full access local transit pass. These passes provide you full access to metro areas trains and buses. You can get a transit map and plan you visit to location outside of major tour routes or revisit areas you previously visited by tour bus.

Many Eurpeon cities have navigable waterways. Water tours or taxis provide a viable option for getting in reach of city sites.

All inclusive tours
Private Tours
Rickersham
Bicycle rental
Car rental - I don't recommend unless you plan to venture far outside of the central city.

The sites
Many of your sightseeing desitations may have free access. Or just seeing sights without venturing inside may be enough for you. This this will surely not be the case for all sites. You can economize your site visits by purchasing tour packages or simple passes that permit access to a number of sites for one price. Some passes even include access to local transit along with admissions fees.