You are about to spend a ton of money on your flights, accommodations, & maybe even a rental car. Don’t fail to put your money where it really counts: the professional tour guide. But how do you find the best tour guide to experience your destination with? Here is the go-to guide on finding……a guide!
Decide what sites or experiences need a tour guide
First things first. Before you figure out how to pick the best tour guide, look at the first basic question. Where do you need a guide? My blog on planning the perfect itinerary may also help. There are a few key reasons to hire a guide:
There is a ton of history
Don’t just look at sights, immerse yourself in the destination. A great tour guide has a thorough education of the history and intricacies of the place. Destinations come alive when a skilled tour guide brings out the history, mysteries, and comical stories. Additionally, the best tour guides can teach you how the culture is/was different. A fantastic tour guide will tell you the best foods to eat and explain the lens the local people see through. You can spend a fortune getting to an amazing destination and then know nothing about the sights you see. Learning how to pick the best tour guide can avoid this pitfall.
Transportation is included and will make your day smoother & easier, or enable you to see more in less time
This may be essential if you have less than the utopian time needed at the destination. A tour may offer a van or car to get you from place to place. This can be a huge time saver & stress reducer (and save money on a rental car). You will be able to relax with someone that knows the traffic patterns and the best time to see each sight. Be aware that in some countries guides and drivers must be separate. This can drive up costs, especially with private tours.
Don’t just think of standard transportation when you are figuring out how to pick the best tour guide. Think outside of the box! What about scooters? ATVs? Bikes? Waverunners? Segways? Boats? Kayaks? All of these options will get you from sight to sight much quicker, This allows you to spend less time on travel and more time enjoying the destination. Be aware of one potential problem with unique transportation tours. They are typically outside only so if sights require indoor visits this may need to be planned separately.
You want to tour with a special experience included
Food tours are a great example of this type of need. When learning how to pick the best guide, remember that you want one that knows the ins and outs of the experience you are seeking. What are the best foods and the best places to buy them? A guide that has a preplanned way to experience the destination in a special way may make memories you cannot put a price on.
There is a strong language barrier
Some countries have very high levels of English speakers, some don’t. And in many countries, where you travel to within them also dictates language barriers. Go to Rome and you won’t need any help with communication. Go to Palo del Colle in Italy and you will need someone to translate.
End story. See if the barrier is high, and use that information to weigh in on whether you need a guide.
There are potential safety issues
Sometimes, we are drawn to destinations that may be safe overall but have some unsafe places within them. Other times we choose to take a risk to see something beyond beautiful. Hiring a tour guide will ensure you know where to go….. as well as where not to go. This may be particularly important if you are traveling with your family or for women traveling alone in some destinations.
You are spending time in a cruise port
I love private tours that I can set the itinerary for. And, I loathe large bus/cruise company port tours so I came up with my own solution to see cruise ports. I would plan exactly what I wanted, book a private tour, and then go to the corresponding cruise page for my cruise on Cruisecritic and advertise how many spaces I had. We typically had a van that seated 9 or 12 included (we are a family of 5 or 6) in the tour. I would just split the costs by the total number.
I was upfront about our group and I would give the ages of the kids. This was also beneficial, as it typically attracted other families with similar-aged children who became quick friends with ours. The tours were typically 1/3 of the cost per person of the cruise tours. They accommodated exactly what I wanted to see, and allowed me to pick a guide that I knew had a reputation to keep the interests of kids.
Ok, so now you have decided you need a guide. What’s next in determining how to find the best tour guide?
Do you want a large, small group, or private hire tour?
Large tours are typically run by big corporations with a tour guide holding an umbrella for you to follow, earphones to listen to them, and a huge coach to take you from place to place. To put it bluntly, I loathe large tours. They are impersonal and many times quite boring since they cater to general needs.
Additionally, if the tour is labeled “panoramic,” that is a signal that you will be driving a lot and seeing things at times from inside the bus. You will get a lot of facts and history on the coach itself but do little walking around and getting to know the place. We ONLY recommend these types of tours for those with mobility issues as it really is the only comfortable way for them to travel, especially in hard-to-walk ancient cities.
When determining how to find the best tour guide, error on the side of smaller-sized tours, whether public or private.
Do you have special needs or interests that a guide should meet?
Costa Rica
Does your group have a special way to see things? Do you prefer adventure types of tours? Art-centered tours? The options are endless and finding a guide that either has special training in that area or tends to slant toward your needs will make for a far better experience.
Are you traveling with small children, school-aged children, or even teens? Getting a guide that shows reviews that they are great with kids or teens is a wise choice. Not all guides are well-suited for families, even the best ones! It takes a special kind of guide to cater stories and facts to keep the interests of kids.
How do you want to see the place?
Will you walk, drive, or use some unique form of transportation? Should you focus on food, culture, history, or maybe something else unique to the destination? Are you taking a deep dive into history or getting a broader view? Do you have small children to consider when making your tour plans? Does an adventure in the location suit you?
You should also consider seeing the destination in a unique way, something I find Airbnb experiences, Toursbylocals, GetYourGuide, Viator, & Tripadvisor are excellent at helping you find. Does a cooking class suit you? What about a canal ride? Do you want to learn how Parmesan cheese is made? Or tour a winery?
Now dig in
So, you have decided that you want a tour guide, the type of tour, and how you want to see your destination. The next step in how to choose the best tour guide is the guide themselves and the key to this is reviews, reviews, reviews!
Tour Company Preference
Personally, I like the little guy, someone truly invested in the experience of their travelers. But there are drawbacks to everything. You can have a more personalized experience; however, if they are sick, you may be without a guide (I have never had this happen to me over hundreds of tours, but it is possible). To mitigate this, I always keep a few favorites of guides that I liked but did not end up hiring on my TripAdvisor trip. In a pinch, I would contact them and see if they could accommodate my group.
I have also used corporate tour companies and had wonderful experiences. They tend to have a better variety of options in touring and always will have a plan B tour guide for you if the worst occurs. But, if I weigh the experiences, the local tour guide that runs his/her own small business is my favorite.
Whether a large or small company, your next step is to identify those that are well-rated to narrow down the field. Pick your review engine (I prefer TripAdvisor) and start looking. Do searches on how to see a destination and look at the options. On TripAdvisor, click on the tour guide operator itself and you will see all the tours that they offer that have been reviewed. If the tour you want has few reviews, see what the reviews look like on other tours they do and use them to decide whether to hire them.
The key here is to have a maximum of 5-10 guides/companies to take to the next step. Your next tip on how to find the best tour guide is to ask the right questions.
Questions required to understand how to find the best tour guide:
Sight information
Which sights are included in the tour? Which will we see inside, and which will only be from the outside?
How much time will be spent driving to each destination?
This is essential to know. Are you spending a 12-hour day and 6 hours will be on a bus or in a car? Is that really the best use of your time? Sometimes, to see something special and hard to reach, the answer is yes, but make sure the sight is worth it or instead choose sights that are close by, allowing you more time to enjoy your destination.
How much time will have at each place?
This is a key question. If you are getting 15 minutes walking in front of a palace with only a few minutes for photos and a couple of facts along the way, but the palace offers amazing objects to see inside, does that suit your travel values? Do you need a couple of hours there or maybe even a half day?
Does the tour price include entrance fees?
This can make a huge difference to your budget, so know before you go. Keep a record of any payments you make ahead of time and which tours require cash. Understand normal tipping and be sure to take enough out of the local ATM for the upcoming days.
Does the tour price include meals?
This is a bit of a trick question. I’m not one that likes meals included, though I do make exceptions for special locations, like a wine tour. Tour guides will usually take you to a restaurant they have arranged a deal with. My preference is to find the best restaurant with the most authentic food. I use the reviews of other travelers on TripAdvisor. I will not only see the review score but typically read a few good ones and some bad ones. Don’t go to a restaurant in a touristy square or main area. Instead, go a few blocks away and find a family-owned restaurant to really immerse yourself in the location. You will get better food and save a lot of money.
Doe the tour include free time?
If you have a long day or are going to a place you will only see on this tour, be sure to include some free time for shopping and just enjoying the destination.
Will we save time by skipping the line?
This is a huge tip for countries that really value their tour guides. Places like Italy allow professional guides to buy tickets ahead of time and skip the line. This could be a difference of HOURS in waiting just to buy tickets! And on the days you are not using a guide? See if there are advantages to buying tickets in advance online. It may save you hours or even be the only way to see popular places (think the Anne Frank House). You can purchase some on a regular timeline, like 6 weeks in advance, while others can be bought many months out. Knowing when tickets are released (assuming you are purchasing them and not your guide) is essential.
What is the maximum number of people they allow on the tour?
This is important whether you are booking a public or a private tour. If it is a private tour, can they accommodate your group? If it is a public tour, you want to know how intimate the setting will be. IMHO, avoid tours with over 12 people. I believe in immersion and experience and that is next to impossible with a cattle call type of tour. Tours of 6-12 are the sweet spot of tours, allowing you to feel a part of everything you do and meet new friends along the way.
How many hours will the tour last from start to finish?
Not all tour guides list pick-up to drop-off times; you will need to know this. Is there a chance of being delayed? This may not be a problem if you have an easy-going schedule after the tour, but if you have somewhere to be, know this in advance. If you find out you could arrive late and will not be stopping for dinner, but sure to bring snacks.
No matter what your tour preferences may be, use reviews to avoid disappointment
Whether you have special needs or not, the best tip to find the best tour guide is to scour reviews. Don’t allow 500 reviews to scare you. Here are quick and easy steps to look through reviews so you can use them in your search of how to find the best tour guide:
To find reviews
Use TripAdvisor, Airbnb Experiences, Viator, GetYourGuide, and ToursByLocals. Most use a 5-star system. I prefer this over Yelp or Google reviews to hire a guide, but you can make any review system work for your research.
Check the overall score.
I have a pretty hard and fast rule that the minimum I will accept is 4.5 out of 5. I also prefer to see 50 or more reviews that make up that score, though I will make exceptions in many cases, especially for one-man tour companies, as they have less opportunity to get reviews. The overall score is a great comparison of companies/guides.
Order the reviews by date and read through the last dozen or so, as you want to know how good they are now, not how great they were years ago. Expand them and read them fully. Are there hints in there that this guide works in the way best suited for your travel values? Works well with kids? Speaks good English? Tells comical stories? Is vastly educated on the history?
Order the reviews by score
Section out only the bad reviews (1 or 2 stars). Read thoroughly through these, or at least a few of them. Are the complaints something that would have a huge negative effect on you? Or, maybe, would they be a positive for you?
You can easily check reviews for a company in 5-10 minutes by using this method.
Another option on TripAdvisor is to put in a search word and then it will pull up the reviews that have that word. For example, when my children were small, I would type in family, children, and kids (all separate searches) and see if anyone mentioned this in their review, and it would easily bring me to those reviews. I frequently do this for their English-speaking skills, as communication is imperative during your tour. You can do this with virtually any special need or desire in a tour guide.
Is it worth the cost to hire the best tour guide?
That would be a resounding YES! Why spend extraordinary amounts of money on the basics of travel and then get cheap on the actual days you are there? THIS is where the money should go. Get a great deal on a flight and accommodations and invest in seeing the destination! A good travel guide will allow you to understand the history and culture, make your days shorter on travel and longer on experiencing the destination, and allow you to be sure not to miss the best sights and some amazing local spots you would never have thought to visit.
Do we ever do it on our own? Yes, of course, but I am careful to choose the things that make sense to do so. When I research the sites, many have guides within their walls that I can ask questions to or audio tours that negate the need for a tour guide (this is not always the case as they can be boring, when a guide can bring it all to life). That said, you do have a budget, so do your research and decide which days/sights will most benefit from a guide and get booking! To better understand how to plan your full trip itinerary, see my guide to building the perfect itinerary.
