Your European journey starts here
Raven Travel Guides Europe helps travellers find their European cultural adventures.
Thanks for visiting this website. It’s a stopover on the way to Europe. Once you have the help you need, travel planning becomes part of the fun.
You’re the kind of person who’ll never cross the globe for an expensive selfie – you’re seeking a richer experience in price-conscious comfort. You know the importance of beauty in landscapes and townscapes. You aim to travel in time as well as space … and do it safely.
Raven Travel Guides Europe is right for independent travellers who know what they want and plan to find it in Europe. Your special places are out there – you just need the information to be your own guide.
Europe is rows of eccentric buildings, stunning views, ancient places of worship, and the timeless bustle of a town market. It’s about life and variety.
All these places have their stories. With Raven Guides, you can discover them – and write your own. Sign up for Raven Travel Guides Europe free weekly newsletters and regular travel tips here.
The mission and the promise
Raven Guides make culture accessible and exciting for English-speakers spending their hard-earned cash.
Independent travellers need independent guides. Now, major publishers are exploiting booking links for tours, cruises or accommodation for extra income. It’s not hard to be sceptical of this approach. And package tours are no substitute for a personal itinerary. Raven Guides is not focused on getting cheap vacations.
Raven Guides income is from sales of destination guides and premium membership content. The rest, including a basic newsletter subscription, is free.
Every tour is a revelation
Nothing is as energising as a good walking tour – it gives us the stories and insights that explain a city, monument or artefact. Raven Travel Guides Europe offer the walking tours you can take along on your digital device, or even a sheet of paper.
You’ll find out about places to experience, some of their secrets, what makes them unique in human endeavour or typical of their region – where they are and which buses, trams or ferries will get you there.
Raven Guides won’t take away the sense of adventure – just the hard work and most of the anxiety.
Raven Guides deliver the travel support and experience you want
These guides provide everything for you, the independent traveller, to enjoy a cultural, price-conscious experience. Do you want to find magnificent views you’ll remember for a lifetime? Tranquil green spaces? Low-cost concert, dance or opera tickets? Late-opening museums? There are sections in Raven Travel Guides big-city guides to help you. Do you want to see (surely) the narrowest house in Germany? It’s in Eisenach, and it’s only two metres wide. Go to the guides, pick your destination and download a guide.
Plenty of general travel information and tips are on the website. Raven Guides provide the most comprehensive coverage of travel essentials anywhere – accommodation, money, security, public holidays to watch out for and where to do your laundry. Details of tourist information offices, other website links and other sources of inside tips are all part of the destination guides.
Affordable travel need not be uncomfortable, but can be more personal. The affordable hotel and other accommodation options offered for each destination are either central or convenient to public transport – details such as bus routes and travel instructions are provided). Sample hotel rates and details are supplied, along with web links so you can check and decide for yourself. If you need different accommodation, use the links provided to choose from other options. Check the food sections for affordable eating suggestions.
In Norse mythology, the all-knowing god Odinn had two ravens, Huginn (Thought) and Muninn (Mind or Desire), who flew worldwide and brought back information. Every traveller should have a raven working for them.
The research
Raven Travel Guides Europe are written with these …
… and these.
Plenty of extra research is going on, including an ever-growing travel library and filing boxes of maps, booklets and brochures, but the destinations in Raven Guides are found and researched on foot. In addition, by curating all the key links, Raven Guides has also created a natural portal for all your travel research. So you, the independent traveller, won’t have to use your shoes nearly so much..
Behind the guides
I'm Greg Videon, Raven Travel Guides Europe editor. I adore rail stations and standing stones and get excited about all that's different on medieval streets. It’s the culture that counts, and open-air museums rate highly. I can't stop reading about history – not for long, anyway.
In 14 European adventures, including a peek behind the Iron Curtain, I’ve found plenty of inspiration and unusual places off the beaten track. More lie ahead. Trying to navigate winding city streets? Don’t worry – it’s likely I’ve been lost there already.
My first day overseas, about 40 years ago, started with the wonder of visiting two great museums, followed by a drenching as I tried to follow a bad map to booked-out accommodation in the rain, and ended in the refuge of an expensive city hotel room. More mistakes followed, but so did improved planning.
These experiences – plus five years’ academic study that included a stint overseas – inspired a young journalist to become a travel writer and editor.
Four years with one of the best-known publishers on the planet revealed the secrets of budgeted European travel and what was right and wrong with travel guides. Practical support is important to serious travellers, but cultures are what fire their imaginations. Many of these cultures ignore national boundaries.
My passion for European travel comes from a love of the past and an interest in language, without which the stories can never be told.
Seize this chance to travel your way now
Downloading a Raven Guides destination guide to a digital device is easy. The other basic resources are free on this website.
Try Raven Travel Guides’ free report How to get the lowest hotel rate 100% of the time. When you sign up, you’ll also get:
- Free Raven Guides weekly newsletters
- Free regular travel tips
- Free regular inspiration on a host of destinations
You can unsubscribe at any time.
All you need for do-it-yourself European travel is here in the blogs and website menus.
Or check out Raven Guides’ social media presence.
