When you hear “tour”, you might be thinking about a long day on a narrated sightseeing motorcoach (we’ve actually taken one of these that I highly recommend – but I’ll save that one for a separate blog post). Planning a trip to a new city can be overwhelming. Trying to check off all the key landmarks on your own can be hard. Visiting a country where you don’t speak the language? Only have a short time in a city full of beautiful sights? Whether you’re visiting a new city for a day or a week, using a private professional tour guide can help you navigate a new city and check off all your must-sees in popular destinations.
Perfect for solo, couples or group travels, professional guides can get you in and around large cities and regions. Local tour operators usually hire locals who have inside knowledge of the area and often offer “hidden gem” add-ons that the average tourist might not know about.
We’ve mostly had great guide experiences. However, when choosing a guide, be sure to read their reviews and/or ask friends who have visited your destination for their guide referrals. Use Google, Facebook or sites like Viator to review potential guides. European guides are licensed professionals. They are passionate about their cities and offer tours in multiple languages. Tours are usually offered in half, full or even multi-day itineraries.
After you’ve selected a tour company or narrowed the choice down to one or two, discuss the time and specific landmarks you’d like to visit. Compare prices and modify their suggestions as needed. The advantage of a private tour is that the itinerary can be customized to allocate more or less time at a landmark depending on your interests. We loved using a private tour guide to get the most out of our time in the large cities of Athens and Milan. We currently have private tours scheduled for an upcoming trip to Tuscany and Florence.
Be sure to discuss the mode of transportation with your guide. City tours are often walking tours that combine local transportation options like subway, bus or trolly transfers to traverse larger areas. Van or private car tours are popular when touring larger regions. Also confirm if the tour begins at your hotel or if you need to meet the guide at one of the starting landmarks.
We’ve tackled travel with and without private guides. Private guided tours give a more personalized and in-depth visit to popular landmarks. They also provide a safe means of navigating a large city and can also make it easier to travel together. For example, there will be eight of us during our upcoming trip to Tuscany. As such, we opted for a private guided tour of medieval cities in a luxury van so we can all travel together.
During our trip to Northern Italy last year, we only had one day in Milan. We used Milan Private Tours to squeeze in all the “must-sees” on our lists. Using my research pins in Google Maps (see my prior blog about using Google Maps in your travel research) our professional guide Alice helped us develop the perfect ½ day itinerary. It was primarily a walking tour with a bus transfer between different areas of Milan. Alice purchased our entrance tickets in advance for the “skip the line entrances” – a must in Europe to avoid crowds, helped us find parking and arranged lunch at a “locals” restaurant.
Private tours are also great for solo travelers. During her recent solo trip to England, our youngest daughter hired a private tour guide with City Unscripted Tours to take her around on her second day in London.
Using a guide helped her to confidently navigate a large city like London, provided a travel companion and offered lesser-known facts at each of her destinations.
Her London Itinerary with CityUnscripted:
- The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square
- Tower of London
- Tower Bridge Exhibition
- Covenant Garden
- Neal’s Yard
Sometimes tours can be arranged during long airport layovers. When our oldest daughter and son-in-law had a long layover in Istanbul, they researched layover options. They discovered that because most flights through the Istanbul Airport (IST) have a 7-8 hour layover, Turkish Airlines developed a program to show transfers the city as they passed through. They were able to get a cheap day visa and take the bus tour of the city – stopping at several major sites to walk around and explore. This was an amazing way to make the most of their long layover, stay awake(!), and not get bored in the airport! Best part – the tour was offered totally free!
Lastly, try booking a tour at an alternate time i.e. sunrise, sunset or night tours. Night tours can offer cooler and less crowded opportunities to see popular landmarks. Years ago, when visiting Washington, D.C. we booked a night tour of the of D.C. monuments for a different perspective. By the time we reached the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial it was raining and offered a chilling contrast of the daylight view of the monuments.
Finally, if you had a great tour, don’t forget to offer your private guide a gratuity and leave them a great review!