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Often the best way to explore a new city is on your own two feet. Jeff Mikos, founder of Free Chicago Walking Tours, is no stranger to that idea—the inspiration for his business came from a meaningful international trip. “My wife and I took a year off to travel the world in 2015,” he says. “While in South America we stumbled upon free walking tours in almost all the major cities, including Santiago, Cusco, Quito, Cartagena, and La Paz. After the first few, I began to think that there was an opportunity to bring this style of tour to the USA. Having grown up in here, launching the business in Chicago made perfect sense.” Free Chicago Walking Tours offers guided strolls seven days a week, and covers two miles over two hours, including iconic areas like the Loop, Chicago River, the Magnificent Mile, and Lincoln Park. “This makes the city accessible to anyone, regardless of their budget,” Mikos says. “Chicago can be quite expensive, and our tours give guests the opportunity to experience the city like they never have before, while saving a few bucks too.” To give Budget Travel readers a taste of the company, Mikos shared a special stroll just for us. Print it out, then, get ready...get set...get walking! The Budget DIY Magnificent Mile Walking Tour: Michigan Avenue—a.k.a. the Magnificent Mile—is Chicago’s largest shopping district and second in the USA only to New York City’s Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. But you don't need to spend money to enjoy yourself on this famous strip. In fact, we think the best way to experience the splendor that is Magnificent Mile isn’t by shopping at all of the stores along the way, but hitting lesser-known destinations, such as a rotating gallery, a gorgeous church, and being face-to-face with artifacts from the world’s most famous and historically significant sites. The best part? It’s all free.  Starting Point: The awning of the Drake Hotel on Lake Shore Drive just east of the corner of Michigan Avenue. We like starting here for a variety of reasons. The Drake Hotel was essentially the city's first “resort." In the 1920s, this was an escape for Chicagoans as it sat on the shores of Lake Michigan. Today you can still live like a 1920s socialite by visiting their Palm Court for afternoon teatime (not really budget-friendly, but quite nice for $45 per adult, open daily from 1 to 5 p.m.). The road you’re on, Lake Shore Drive, is home to some of Chicago’s most expensive real estate, and for good reason: those unobstructed views of Lake Michigan and access to Oak Street Beach. The road changes name west of Michigan Avenue to Oak Street, which is home to some of Chicago’s most exclusive boutiques and high-end shopping. Stop No. 2: The corner of Delaware Place and Michigan Avenue. Sitting on the corner is the Fourth Presbyterian Church. The church is a product of combining two other churches on October 8, 1871. Unfortunately, the next day was the start of the Great Chicago Fire, and the church was destroyed. It was rebuilt and relocated to its current spot in 1940. The best place to snap a breathtaking Instagram is across the street (on the east side of Michigan Avenue) or from inside. The church is open daily at 7:30 a.m. Please respect the congregation with your noise level. Stop No. 3: The John Hancock Center, 875 N. Michigan Avenue. You'll be right across the street from the John Hancock (or right in front of it). It’s officially called the John Hancock Center because the original plan was to have multiple buildings. However, the builders couldn't convince the owners of the Casino Club (located directly behind the JHC on Delaware) to sell their property, and thus we have only one building. The John Hancock Center is home to the 360-degree Chicago Observation Deck, located on the 94th floor. Some say it has the best views of Chicago. We don't disagree with that, but we do disagree a little with the $20 price tag to get there. Instead go up two more floors to the 96th floor and visit the John Hancock Signature Lounge. The views are free and incredible as well, plus you'll get to enjoy a tasty cocktail too. Stop No. 4: Water Works Cultural Center, 163 E. Pearson Street (corner of Michigan and Pearson). This spot is often overlooked because many don't know a.) what's in the building and b.) that it’s open to the public. The visit will be quick and cool. This is the new and functioning home to Chicago’s water pumps (well, four of them). Inside, along with water pumps, you will find a variety of helpful guides to answer questions. Stop No. 5: The Famous Chicago Water Tower, 806 N Michigan Avenue. This is the famous Chicago Water Tower that survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 (one of only a handful of buildings north of the Chicago River that remain today). The gorgeous building is a symbol of Chicago’s recovery from the fire. It has undergone a couple of renovations since the 1870s and is now home to a rotating—and free—gallery. Make sure you stop in to see what's showing when you visit. Stop No. 6: A leisurely stroll south down Michigan Avenue. Your final destination will be the Tribune Tower near the south end of the street by the river. This is by far the biggest stretch (1/2 mile) of walking that you will do on this DIY Magnificent Mile Walking Tour. Soak in the sights and the sounds. You’re in the thick of what Michigan Avenue is known for: shopping. The rents here for stores are incredible, at more than $500 per square foot per year. Many stores on this strip don't make money; they are there for branding and marketing purposes. Chicago’s Peninsula Hotel, the largest Disney store in America, and the Warwick Allerton Hotel all call the Magnificent Mile home. The Warwick was home to the Tip Tap Room, a lounge on the 23rd floor of the hotel that made a name for itself with its signature drink: the Moscow Mule. Final Destination: The Tribune Tower, 435 N. Michigan Avenue. This is one of our favorite buildings in the city. The Tribune Tower is beautiful. It has a storied history and is home to many real artifacts from sites all around the globe. The building is the result of when the Chicago Tribune (the largest Chicago newspaper) hosted a contest in 1922 to design the most beautiful office building in the world. $100,000 of prize money was available, and the winner would receive $50,000 of that. Over 50 entries were received, and the neo-Gothic design you’re looking at today was the winner, from a small architecture firm from New York City called Howells & Hood. When the winner was selected, there were many “experts” that believed other entries should have won. To this day, there are rumors that the contest was fixed, but thus far there is no solid evidence to support that theory. Prior to the construction of the tower, the owner of the Tribune Company, Colonel McCormick, instructed his employees to bring back artifacts from historically important sites from around the world. These artifacts were collected and then incorporated into the building’s exterior. Make sure to take a walk around and see all the pieces the company collected that are now on full display.  Where to go from here? Great question. Before you go just anywhere, look across the street. The glazed terra-cotta structure in front of you is the Wrigley Building—one of our favorites. The clock on the south tower is almost 20 feet in diameter! Just another 0.7 miles south along Michigan Avenue is the entrance to Millennium Park and Cloud Gate, a.k.a. the Bean, artist Anish Kapoor's first public outdoor work. Have your camera out to capture your reflection in its surface. Another half mile south from the Bean is Buckingham Fountain. If you need a break from walking, you’re just a few steps from the most photographed bridge in Chicago: the Du Sable Bridge, named after the first known settler of the region. The American flag, Illinois State flag, and Chicago flag blowing in the wind alongside the buildings on the Mag Mile are a popular photograph. With the money you have saved on this DIY walking tour, you can afford to purchase a ticket to the Chicago Big Bus hop-on, hop-off bus, which departs just north of the bridge on the east side of Michigan Avenue. Or take an architectural boat tour that boards right at the bridge as well. All of the companies will have representatives vying for your business and should cost $30 to $45 per person.

Our friends at Cheapflights.com are celebrating Earth Day 2016 with a story by Toronto-based travel writer Jessica Padykula (@JessPadykula) spotlighting “eco-innovating” airports from around the world. Here are some of the airports that are leading the way in sustainability: Changi International Airport in Singapore is considered an overall top airport experience by savvy travelers, and it leads the way in eco-friendliness too. Here you’ll find more than 900 skylights (which cut down on electricity for lighting), indoor gardens, rainwater harvesting, and even a butterfly garden and a nature trail. Pearson International Airport in Toronto is pioneering a cool new mode of sustainability by introducing a honeybee apiary to help support food security and farming in the area surrounding the airport. San Francisco International Airport has bragging rights to the U.S.’s first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold Certification for its Terminal 2. More than 90 percent of the terminal’s construction and demolition waste was recycled, the airport planted more than 2,000 trees to reduce CO2 emissions by 120 tons per year, and water usage has gone down by more than 57 million gallons per year. East Midlands Airport in the U.K. installed two commercial-scale wind turbines, producing 5 percent of the airport’s electricity, and since 2012 the airport has been achieving “carbon-neutral” ground operations. Denver International Airport has installed four solar arrays, bringing its total solar capacity to 10 megawatts, the most of any American airport and enough electricity to power more than 2,000 homes each year.

Tipping really shouldn't be so hard. The service was good, you leave a token of your appreciation, and everyone is happy. Not so fast. This is one of the most difficult aspects of travel to navigate, since you have to take into consideration everything from how employees are paid to cultural traditions that could have you embarrassing yourself and your waiter just by leaving that 15 percent (apps like GlobeTipping—which gives advice for tipping in restaurants, hotels, and more in 200 countries—can help you along). We consulted experts and avid travelers for their thoughts on the scenarios that trip up travelers most and got their advice on how to avoid awkward situations. CRUISE STAFF In the old days, cruise lines provided an envelope and suggestions for how much to tip the crew members with whom you had direct contact during a sailing. Now it's the norm for major cruise lines to automatically add the tips to your bill (which could take you by surprise), especially in the U.S. and the Caribbean. "In the last 10 years or so there's been a trend toward automating [tips] where the cruise line said 'we'll take care of that for you if you just mark this off on the bill,'" says Spud Hilton, editor of the San Francisco Chronicle's travel section and Bad Latitude blog. While some cruise lines make it possible to adjust the included tips if you wish, on others those included tips have become mandatory and cannot be adjusted. In this case, says Hilton, "the tipping is no longer about you and the person giving you good service—it's about service in general on the ship." And that service, he says, can even extend to things the cruise lines shouldn't expect passenger tips to cover—including employee education. Always check with your cruise line to find out if tips are included (and whether or not they can be adjusted) before setting sail. WAIT STAFF  We've got tipping in the U.S. down when it comes to restaurants—leave 15 to 20 percent unless there's some outstanding circumstance. It's not so cut-and-dried abroad. A general rule for tipping in European restaurants is to leave a couple of euros if you're happy with the service, rounding a 47 euro bill up to 50 euros, for example. But in Denmark and New Zealand, no tip is expected at all. And be on the lookout for service charges that are included in the bill. In Norway, a 10 percent service charge is typically included (though you should leave 10 percent if it is not). But be aware that in some places, that service charge doesn't always cover the full tip. In Aruba, for instance, 15 percent is automatically added to the bill (this is distributed to everyone, including the kitchen staff). If you were happy with the service, leave an additional 5 to 10 percent and give it directly to your waiter. When in doubt, ask the hotel staff what the local customs are for tipping at restaurants. It's confusing when Europeans travel here as well. A couple years ago, the bar at a trendy New York restaurant started automatically adding 20 percent tips to bar tabs, since waiters were sick of being stiffed by European visitors who may not have been aware of customs on our shores. BELL MAN The tipping conundrum gets all the more confusing when you arrive at a big hotel with a flotilla of staff members on hand to assist you. One person grabs your bag from the car, another wheels it to reception, and yet another delivers the luggage to your room. You could get dizzy tossing around dollar bills. It's better to give one handout when you've reached your room. "The person who usually takes your bag from the car to check-in doesn't really expect to be tipped," says Peter Shankman, an entrepreneur who spends 85 percent of his time traveling, "They usually rotate their shifts (with the other porters delivering bags to rooms). The person who brings the bag to my room is the one I tip." STAFF IN CHINA AND JAPAN Believe it or not, tipping is considered rude in China and Japan, and is just not done. That goes for cab drivers, restaurant wait staff, and workers in hotels. But there is a big exception to this rule that could take even the savviest traveler by surprise. Keep reading to find out! SHUTTLE VAN DRIVERS Those courtesy shuttles you take from the airport to the car rental parking lot and from your hotel into town shouldn't be viewed as a completely free ride. Whether there's a jar for tips or not, you should hand off a dollar or two to the driver as you're getting dropped off. "If I have really heavy bags, I usually give the driver a few bucks," says John DiScala of Johnny Jet. HOTEL HOUSEKEEPING "Housekeeping is probably the most controversial—and misunderstood—tipping subject in hotels," says Charlyn Keating Chisholm, editor of About.com's hotels and resorts site, who has written several blogs on the topic. "Many people don't, but you should definitely be tipping the maid at your hotel," adds DiScala. "And if you tip every day instead of at the end of your stay you'll get the best service." A couple of dollars per day is acceptable. And when there's no official envelope for tipping, it's best to leave the money under the pillow instead of on a dresser, DiScala advises—in the latter case, maids may think the cash is not for them, and leave it behind after they clean. Even better, he says, find your housekeeper in the hallway and pass her a few dollars while thanking her for work well done. One caveat for this is if you are staying at a small inn or B&B. It's usually the owners themselves taking care of the tidying up, so forgoing the housekeeping tip is perfectly acceptable. CONCIERGE You don't need to tip a hotel concierge for sketching the route to the best local sushi joint on your map or arranging an airport shuttle. But if a real effort has been made to get you tickets to a sold-out show or a table at an impossible-to-book restaurant, the concierge deserves a special thank-you for his or her efforts. Tip somewhere between $5 and $20, depending on what you've requested, says DiScala. Slide the cash to the concierge in person or have it delivered to them inside one of the hotel's envelopes with a brief message expressing your gratitude. TOUR GUIDES Tips for guides are rarely included in tour prices, and are expected whether you were shown around the Roman Colosseum for an hour or the Great Barrier Reef for an entire day. "Generally speaking, $3 to $4 per day (in local currency) is acceptable for guides of shorter tours and $7 to $10 per day for full-day tour guides," says Andrew Schrage, co-owner of Money Crashers Personal Finance. When in doubt, ask the tour operator what is considered an acceptable tip—the question comes up so often that many agencies even post the information on their websites, he says. When we say this is standard worldwide we mean it—yes, even traditionally non-tipping countries like China and Japan (see, we told you there was an exception). But making a big show of passing over a few yuan or yen is still frowned upon. "Ideally, you would not give the tip directly after someone has done a favor for you," says Greg Rodgers, who runs several Asia travel blogs, including one on About.com. "That is like paying for the service. Instead, giving the tip at a later, unexpected time would be better." Most tours in China will include transport back to your hotel or the airport, so wait until the final goodbyes, not right at the conclusion of the tour. According to Rodgers, just taking cash out of your pocket is the worst way to tip in Japan. Put the money in an envelope and seal it before passing it to your guide. Have you experienced a tipping scenario that confused you that wasn't covered here? Tell us below.