Benefits of Hiring a Private Guide

What is a tour guide?

Here at Travels with Audrey we call our local expert guides “local insiders”. Our local expert tour guides are a very important part of our small group tours and custom tours. They have studied volumes of material and have worked hard to earn licenses that afford them special privileges and valuable access. They are permitted access to museums, palaces, and special venues because they have THAT special license. Tour guides are needed for those “official” spots where having a license provides the only access, but a tour guide who is also a local insider is the best you can hope for. 

Even travelers who prefer checking out things on their own may find that hiring a private tour guide, especially when you have a short amount of time and don’t know your way around, is the best way to really enjoy your time in a particular place. Private local guides offer a unique perspective as they are our client’s connection to the local culture. Each tourist destination has its cultural heritage as well as diversity. On your own, you might miss an opportunity to enjoy a newfound cultural heritage wholly. However, through the eyes of a local, you stand to benefit from fresh and unique insights about a location.

What to expect from a private guide

• The guide will meet you in the lobby of your hotel
• They know their city and monuments inside out and when is the best to visit
• They can respond to a request for an unscheduled stop
• Not only do they point out landmarks but they make valuable suggestions for places to visit in your own time at leisure
• Because it is a private tour, you can dictate the focus and the pace
• You can ask all the questions you want and even stop for an impromptu drink or tapas if you like
• If it’s too hot or wet (hardly ever happens!) for an extensive walking tour, or the group fancies seeing something on the spur of the moment, our local guides can easily obtain tickets on the spot for almost all attractions without having to wait in line

How do we schedule our clients’ private tours?

We try to schedule a private city tour on the first morning after arrival. This way, you get a great introduction to the city and country. The private guide will generally be with you for 3-4 hours, taking you around the main sights in the old town with a visit ‘inside’ one key sight. When requested, we can extend the walking tour to take in two major monuments, but we find our clients make best use of the guides in a more informal unstructured way – exploring the best squares, parks and markets and getting a sense of the layout of the city. We recommend this approach for all the major cities we offer custom tours in. Here’s some popular examples of the many that we offer in all three countries:

• Visiting the Vatican on a private guided 4-hour tour including the sistine chapel
• Visiting the Accademia on a private walking tour of Florence
• Visiting the Colosseum and the Roman Forum on a 3 hour private walking tour in Rome
• Visiting Venice on a private walking tour including the Doge palace and St Mark’s basilica

Our guides will not only show you the main sites on the above mentioned private guided tours, but they can also offer walking tours that show you the lesser known gems and the city’s hidden charms and quirks…..

How do we select which private guides to work with? What skills do they bring?

• Each of our hand-picked guides has to bring an area of specialization – whether that’s art, history, gastronomy or architecture
• All of our private city guides are licensed by local authorities which gives them permission to enter and guide inside the city’s monuments.
• Our guides are professionals – they take great pride in what they do and take their job very seriously. Unless you expressly request that shopping be included in your walking tour, our guides will never include shopping time in any tour.
• Guided tours are good for you to get maximum understanding of the place, from its history to its culture, quirks and traditions.
  

  Clients with our local expert guide in Munich/Photo Audrey De Monte

Which scheduled tours do we recommend?

We only work with local expert guides offering our clients private guided tours. We know from personal experience, how infuriating a badly operated group tour can be, and will only book our clients with reliable local providers. When you are comparing the rates for a private guide and a group city tour, please bear in mind that group tours often last just 90 mins and are very general as the guide is aiming to please everybody in the group. Private guided tours are usually between 3 and 4 hours and you have the benefit of being able to ask the guide to tailor the tour to your interests and needs. Remember, private tour guides charge per session so if you are travelling with a small group or family, it is very cost effective as the price of the private guide gets cheaper with each extra person.

Let’s look at an example where a private guide is a lifesaver. Groups can be up to 30 people, who all speak different languages. Your guide will be using a headset and you will be plugged into an earphone. On many of these tours, we’ve found that the reception for the headsets isn’t always sharp, the tour feels somewhat rushed and questions are not encouraged. If your budget doesn’t allow for a private tour, we often recommend hiring a personal audio guide and going it alone. That way, you’ll get some of the historical context but can explore the quieter sections of the monument, which are so special!

Let’s wrap up this blog post with a helpful summeray sheet of what a private tour guide can offer.

	Group Tour	Private Tour Guide
The cheapest option	Yes	No
Information tailored to your interests	x	Yes
A relaxed pace and more tour time	x	Yes
Your guide always speaks English	x	Yes
Extensive knowledge of the local area	x	Yes
Expertise in niche subjects	x	Yes
Option to expand tours beyond just a site	x	Yes

Join Audrey on a custom tours or one of our cultural vacations in Friuli and gain insider access to the Italian way of life.