Tours By Locals

Hello - has anyone used a tour company called 'Tours by Locals'. They were recommended to us by an Australian couple we met on Celebrity Silhoutte in September.

We are cruising Asia in January and stopping in Bali for nearly 3 days and are looking for a couple of days of sight seeing with a private tour company.

Any recommendations.

Thanks

Margaret

Hello - has anyone used a tour company called 'Tours by Locals'. They were recommended to us by an Australian couple we met on Celebrity Silhoutte in September.

 

We are cruising Asia in January and stopping in Bali for nearly 3 days and are looking for a couple of days of sight seeing with a private tour company.

 

Any recommendations.

 

Thanks

Margaret

Tours by Locals is a booking association that lists tour guides who pay about 45% of their pay for the booking service. The association does advertise and check for local license compliance and you pre-pay for the guide through the Tours by Locals offices but I don't think that they guarantee satisfaction. Most of the guides also work for other services such as Viatours or they have their own guide agency and advertise on web. The local guide gets paid after services rendered once a month so Tours by Locals have your money for a long time before the guide is paid for your services. This information was gained from 2 different guides on two continents in two different years and I do not have first hand information from the company. I use various sources for guides and if I happen to find the guide under their own names on CC or TA and contact them by email to negotiate usually much better rates. Tours By Locals has a quality reputation but their guides use many sources to connect with clients. If I contact the guide through the booking service Tours by Locals then I pay that fee if I choose the guide for the country. I have done it both ways and usually do not have Tours by Locals contact at all as my guides come from Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor. I keep one email going with all the negotiations and also my final email with the guide has a statement of date, time, guide name, sample itinerary , what is included in the price, what is NOT included (meals, entry fees, tolls, admissions for example), pick up and drop off locations etc. A copy of this email states exactly what is to happen with the guide -- what we agreed on. Some guides ((and I bet clients) don't really remember or state what the fee is covering and this is fair for both parties.

Good luck for your trip. We will be there just about the same time in Bali. We are using Dean with Drivers of Distinction and he has been great to work with. He is a fantastic photographer and I hope to stand right next to him and click when he tells me to and get pictures as wonderful as his!

i am using them this winter in 2 or 3 places. working on the 3d now..I have found htey email back with in 48 hours due to time changes.. i will rewriting the guides soon to confirm times and location of pick up in ports they have a car. in Singapore using a woman just to make sure i see something while on jetlag before cruise.

I have used the several times prior to now and hired thru toursbylocals locals again for several stops. They do guarantee the guides and your money is a good investment with them. I also rehired aone of the guides from last. Year this year cheaper . I have found them to be terrific all in all.

We used Tour by Local when travelling to India and Sri Lanka last year. The company was good to use, and we were able to customise our tour to what we wished to see. No problems with payments and our guides were all very personable, interesting people.

Our only disappointment was in Delhi, when we wanted to spend the evening in Chandni Chowk -not an area we felt comfortable exploring on our own.Our guide assured us he knew the area inside out, then it turned out he had never even been there before, and we were his first tour! A huge let down as this old part of Delhi was to be a real highlight, walking around markets, hopefully trying out local cuisine, getting a feel for the place. What was supposed to be 4/5 hours was only about 2 and we ended up back at the hotel, chatting over a couple of beers watching the cricket. He was a nice bloke, but........

This wasn't Tours by Locals fault, they facilitated everything really well. And it could happen anywhere, anytime. I think if I used them again I would maybe use a more 'mature' guide.

You will find the people of Bali, really lovely.

We used them in Hong Kong 2 years ago and I think I might have used them elsewhere. I liked going through the company as our meeting place was confusing and the company responded right away and the guide found us within 10 minutes. I think all of their guides were rated and I only contacted the ones who had great reviews. Our guide was terrific and she took us to some places that we would not have seen in a structured tour. Unfortunately she was no longer on the list when I went to refer her this past year.

Karen

The key is to read the reviews on the person you are considering if a private tour and often you can find reviews on them from trip advisor.

Keith

We had a great experience in Amsterdam with Tours by Locals. Our plane was hours late but she waited on us an amended the tour to accommodate our time. She was knowledgeable. At the scheduled end of our tour we invited her to join us for dinner and had a great extended experience learning more about The Netherlands and her.