Is a private tour guide worth the price?
I’m having this come up for a client who asked me the question “is a private tour guide worth it,” And more specifically, in this case, “Is it worth paying top dollar for, what should be, a top quality tour guide?”
Travel is an interesting thing to purchase and has a component that is akin to gambling. This is first true with flights, hotels and even many train tickets, where given availability, moment to moment governs price. (as well as other things, but that’s another blog) We have all seen this. You book a plane ticket for $1000 on year, the next year you come back and it’s$2000. You book a swanky hotel for $800 a night and six months later it’s $400 a night, and so on.
Guiding is largely not like this. Prices tend to move much more slowly and guides tend to have set rates, raising them only as they have to. However, there is still a gambling aspect to this, and this is what I want to unpack.
First, how can it work out? A friendly and knowledgeable local can bring a travel experience up in value perhaps more than anything else. I mean that, whether it's for a few hours or even a few weeks. Insider tips and privileged access are a thing.
Knowledge can bring so much to an experience. That can be historical knowledge such as why this statue is important, or what this mark is (bullet, really?) or whatever. It can be practical such as “We can see the whole museum in the least amount of time if we go this way,” or “This is the best place for coffee when you get off the boat.” Or “Don’t bother with those guys, they just want to sell you some cheap made in China knockoffs, I can take you to the real thing if you are interested. “ At the very least, even a halfway decent guide will make you feel at ease and will make the most of your time.
Sometimes, it goes way beyond that!
Maybe you go into the Sydney Opera house and maybe, just maybe, you get out onto the stage with somebody that belts out a few notes and lets you call out to the back row with the place empty. Maybe your food tour in the Amalfi ends with some chilled limoncello and maybe it ends with some Lemoncello somebody’s grandmother made last year with the sfusato lemons she grows in her backyard and painstakingly peels with no pith at all. Maybe you do a trip down the Philosopher’s path in Gion, Japan and maybe you do it and get to see it from that one temple that largely doesn’t allow tourists, but has one local they let do it because his uncle is the “Shike” of the temple. These things can never be adverstised. Sometimes, they are rehearsing on the stage in Sydney. Sometimes Grandma isn’t giving up any more of her ‘special” limoncello and sometimes the temple has folks meditating and you can’t go in. However, all of these are real examples.
But how can it go bad?
First, every once in a while, you get a guide that just isn’t good. People like me sniff these kind out soon. I will show up to most places already pretty well-informed and I probably studied up before I got to the destination anyway. Maybe I read a novel, maybe I looked at website, maybe I watched a youtube video. Regardless, I’m going to most places already knowing a fair amount and doing my best to know more. I’m the guy that stands at the front of the line or in the front of the van/car and peppers the guide with question after question. Good guides love this and I love it more. Bad guides hate it and I hate it more. Usually, (but not always) you can control this by going through a quality outfit and with a licensed guide (if that country has them).
Sometimes flights go badly even when you are flying on the most expensive tickets. I will take that in stride. Sometimes even the most expensive hotels fall behind in quality and I am much less lenient on this but a bad guide is perhaps the worst thing. I once heard about a guide who got lost in the Medina of Marrakech. I understand where that is, but you are a GUIDE I was livid. I’ve blackballed (personally) that company ever since.
The other thing is that sometimes the guide can be good, but the personal aspect is off. Most guides are knowledgeable and personable. They do a good job and tailoring your experience to you, but even the best have bad days and chemistry is chemistry. Outside of a few African Safari Guides (which is some HIGH LEVEL guiding) the finest guide I ever had was in the Azorean Islands. He knew everything and seemed to KNOW EVERYBODY on Sao Miguel. Everywhere we went, there was a secret something just for us. I loved him, he was the epitome of a Latin Gentleman. He was the best guide on the island and when a certain famous foodie did a special on the Azores. The chemistry wasn’t there, they didn’t get along and that famous guy (when he was alive) wouldn't give the glowing review that I do. Chemistry is chemistry.
I’d say, that at least 9 times out of 10, if you pay more for the better guidance, that will prove to be a high value item. That the guide will take a good experience and change it into something you will remember for the rest of your life. Being who I am, with a voracious appetite for knowledge and travel related knowledge, I’m a soft target for this. I’m also the guy that will read every plaque in a museum and studies for my vacations. However, even if you are just looking for a better, smoother, more efficient experience. Still worth it most of the time. Time abroad is precious and making the most of it, only makes sense.
However for almost everything in Travel, there is a gamble to it. There are bad experiences even with the best guides. I will say this. At a guess, for every time I’ve gotten a complaint about a guide, I’ve had probably 5 stories much to the reverse. Like, a person going back and getting the same guide, or sending a friend to that destination and saying you’ve got to get HIM to show you the markets of Barcelona and teach you to cook real paella. Sometimes, people become friends and book the same guides year after year…. Well, that last one is mostly just Africa, but still. The point is that usually, a high-priced and valued guide IS worth the money.
