New Europe Tours

The New Europe company, started somewhere around 2003, has suddenly risen to great heights as walking tours are on the rise, especially in the eco-conscious major cities. There are two types of tours, and all the tour guides have to do the free one and train on at least one other type. The first type is their highly popular "Free walking tour of (whatever city)" which caters to a crowd of about 16-20 people on average.
These tours cover the big bases in these cities and last between 3 and 4 hours, most starting between 10 and 11 am. They take you past the major sites, those that are standard fare for tourists, but they also give you the history of wherever it is, as well as little known facts etc. They study and/or live in the city they guide, so they really do know their way around. THey'll also show you some little-known places, or the best restaurants to go to, the little "human" touches that are usually omitted from big tours.
The other type of tour is the paid tour, generally a reasonable rate, in which the tours tend to top out at 25 people and are a little more rushed. We did the free tour of Munich (a wonderful, very educational tour we enjoyed a lot) and two paid tours, Dachau and Neuschwanstein, and both were excellent. The guides know there info, and they are pretty good at giving you enough hints at the big mysteries atthe end to keep you wanting to stick around.
Normally, tours are overly expensive and not much fun, but these were good. I'll talk about each one in more detail, aside from the free tours because really, they're free so you can do them to your heart's content.