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Hiring a private guide
How to hire a private tour guide
Mario Bernardi was a tour guide for the Italian Ministry of Culture from 1999 to 2008 and has university degrees in Aestetics and the Philosophy of Art—who better to show you around the artistic wonders of Rome? You can hire him at www.ourexplorer.com.Sometimes you want something that goes beyond the pages in your guidebook or the audio tour at the museum.
Though they aren't cheap (see box below on the right), private local guides can be the keys to the most rewarding Italian vacation—and if you're already spending a few grand on the trip itself, what's an extra couple of hundred bucks to make sure all that effort of getting over there was worth it?
How much does a guide cost? The rates charged by private tour guides varies widely based on the guide's experience, the popularity of their destination, and, frankly, however much they want to charge. For a ballpark:
• $35–$90 per hour
• $200–$600 per day
Many guides will offer a "first hour free" sampler of their services.A tour guide can help you tailor your days of sightseeing and shopping to your own tastes, and give you the utmost depth of information about any subject that catches your fancy. Here are just a few offered by one of our partners, Viator.com:
- Tour Paris in a Citroen 2CV
- A private viewing of the Sistine Chapel in Rome
- A private New York walking tour with a professional photographer
- A private tour of Barcelona
- A private tour of L.A.'s Getty Center followed by shopping ion Rodeo Drive
- A private wine-tasting tour of the Chianti outside Florence
- A private Harry Potter black taxi tour of London
- An all-day private tour of the wineries on Australia's Mornington Peninsula outside Melbourne
- A private trip down the Amalfi Coast from Naples to Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi, and Ravello
Local guides know the hidden corners and amazing anecdotes that can help make their city and its history come alive, and can answer all your questions. Yes, with enough guidebooks, history tomes, and Googling you could probably uncover much of this on your own, but it would take a phenomenal amount of time and research whereas a guide can spoon-feed it all to you at the drop of a hat.
If you've never toured with a private guide before, treat yourself to one for a day—or even just a few hours in the morning —in one of the major cities. Trust me; you won't be disappointed. Just make sure it's a licensed tour guide.
How to find a licensed private guide
You can get a list of officially sanctioned and licensed guides from the local tourist office—but that's all you get: a list. Some travel guidebooks will recommend a local guide or two (someone who often doubles as the local stringer the publisher uses to update the information in the book).
Aside from a direct recommendation from a friend who's been there before and used a guide, your best bet for finding a local guide is to book one via a third party:
Like-a-local
You might also check out the local contacts available through www.like-a-local.com. These are often not licensed tour guides (well, a few of those do promote their services here), just locals who are willing to take you on a scooter tour of town, or teach you how to make a pizza, or simple share a dinner at their home.
Since it's more of a grass-roots organization, it has been growing in fits and spurts. Some places (Europe, especially) have better coverage than others. There are 16 countries on the list so far, representing five continents (still missing: Asia).
The service is based in Amsterdam (it was started by a local trio who have been friends since elementary school), so prices are quoted in Euro. Rates vary wildly, but most seem to hover in the €25 to €70 range.
Some examples: a four-hour walking tour of Mexico City (€3), barge the canals of Amsterdam (€25), get a tour of all five New York boroughs (€43), learn to make pizza in Rome (€65), get a private two-day tour of Cairo and the Pyramids of Giza ($85), bike around Barcelona (€30), or have dinner at a B&B in Santiago, Chile (€10).
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This article was last updated in August 2007. All information was accurate at the time.
Copyright © 1998–2010 by Reid Bramblett. Author: Reid Bramblett.
