Private tours in Europe cash only.

[GreenFamily]

This is a general question for cruises in Europe. I am a first time cruiser. What would be the risk of booking a private tour that accepts cash only on the day of the tour? Some require a small deposit using a credit card but don’t state the cancellation policies. I see these tours advertised everywhere, but it doesn’t come up in the forum. Thoughts? 

[NotADopey1]

We used a private tour in Rome.  Paid cash by wiring money.  Any questions I.e. cancellations, itinerary changes and refund were handled via emails.  Ask for references prior to sending any payment. It was the best tour we ever had.

[mnocket]

Anytime you send cash to a stranger, especially one in another country, you are taking a risk.  The best you can do is look for references and decide for yourself if the risk is worth it to you.  Personally, I have no problem finding and booking tours from reputable companies that accept credit cards and offer full refunds for cancellation - right up till the day before the tour.  Now if the tours you're looking at don't require you to send a cash deposit in advance, I guess the only real risk is that the tour may not happen or they may claim an inflated price once you show up.  Maybe it's a common practice and perfectly normal, but I haven't gone that direction. 

[Nebr.cruiser]

We've done quite a few private tours in Europe that we paid in cash the day of the tour.  Also in other places.  Some do require a deposit, some don't.  We haven't had a problem, and I actually like it when we don't pay until the day of the tour.

 

Even last December when we had to cancel a South America cruise last minute (3 days prior), and some of the tours we arranged required a deposit, every company quickly refunded our payment, even one that had a non-refundable clause after a certain date. 

[SbbquilterUT]

We often book tours through individuals - each has specified a cancellation policy so perhaps reach out to the company and ask.  Generally we have booked our spot and then had to pay by 48 hours before the tour.  We have also really enjoyed " free" walking tours in many cities to get our bearings - but please tip the guide at the end of the tour the amount you see paid tours if you enjoyed the walk.  

[GreenFamily]

I found a few private guides who are art historians. I really like what they offer and can’t afford to use Context Travel. Thank you for reassurance that the tours may be legitimate. I’ll reach out to them by email. 
 

I agree the walking tours are the best way to get oriented. The themed walking tours in London are the best. 

[CruiserBruce]

I think almost all of our private tours over the last 20 years have been paid in cash at time of tour. At least 90% of them.

[GreenFamily]

Thank you so much! 

[CDNPolar]

If you cannot find the cancelation policy and you cannot find reviews of the tour companies that you are considering, I would not send any amount of deposit in advance.

 

Cash on the day?  Yes, and we have done that, but there was no deposit, and there was obviously a trust factor that we were going to show up.  But, the ones we have done like this we have found through reviews and one of our best ever was talked about here on Cruise Critic.

 

We typically use Viator which is an aggregator, and not a tour company, but we use them because they have good cancelation policies.  You can find independents on Viator as well, and they are not all mass tour companies.

 

You can however with Viator have the tour canceled last minute if there are not enough people signed up - especially with the independents.  This has happened to us a couple of times and then we were left without a tour that day.

[GeezerCouple]

51 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

If you cannot find the cancelation policy and you cannot find reviews of the tour companies that you are considering, I would not send any amount of deposit in advance.

 

Cash on the day?  Yes, and we have done that, but there was no deposit, and there was obviously a trust factor that we were going to show up.  But, the ones we have done like this we have found through reviews and one of our best ever was talked about here on Cruise Critic.

 

We typically use Viator which is an aggregator, and not a tour company, but we use them because they have good cancelation policies.  You can find independents on Viator as well, and they are not all mass tour companies.

 

You can however with Viator have the tour canceled last minute if there are not enough people signed up - especially with the independents.  This has happened to us a couple of times and then we were left without a tour that day.

 

We've never sent any cash/cash equivalent in advance for a private tour/excursion.

We *have* paid a deposit, or occasionally the entire amount by charge card, but ONLY if there was a very clear written and reasonable cancellation policy IN WRITING in a document they sent us by email, something other than a blurb on a website.  And in that case, we try to use our Amex Plat charge card.  Amex seems to have the best customer protections, and we figure the Plat flavor might be even better in case of a dispute (but we've never yet had a dispute 🙂 ).

 

We've always found our guides by Googling something like "CityName private tours" or similar.  And then we send a few emails to likely prospects.  And then... we find out who is the most responsive and also willing to customize.  That way, we can spend more time here and less time there, depending upon our interests.

As we are finalizing the itinerary, we'll usually ask something like, "Given what we've been asking about, do you have any other suggestions about what we might want to include?"

 

We also have no problem with "cash on the day", although we still prefer charge cards in case anything goes sideways (but we've never yet had anything go sideways either 🙂 ).

 

Yes, that "trust factor" has been at the back of our minds, especiallly the first few times we arranged private guides.  As mentioned above, we'd have really hated to be left standing there with no guide showing up.  It would often be almost impossible to get an "on the spot" guide who was really good, or get someone on the spot at all!

 

When there wasn't anything special, such as on a Caribbean island where there wasn't a specific site/sight for an extended stop, a couple of times, we've spoken with a taxi driver on the spot, however.  Then, we usually ask to be driven around the island, and we ask about any special suggestions, be it "views" or "history" or whatever.  On one island, we asked them to stop at 2 or 3 of the nicer hotels so we could take a look for a longer return visit.  Once we had a few hotel names to look at, and another time, we left it to the guide. That worked very well, both times.

In fact, one of the best was when, as we were leaving the first hotel on "our" list, the guide said something about adding another hotel he thought we might especially like.  It was nearby, so we said, "okay, let's take a look".  Well...  That guide had really "heard" what we had been discussing prior to our arrival.  That was indeed the very best, at least for us!

That was a guide we had read about here on CC, too, or we wouldn't have found them.

 

We don't join groups, so cancellations due to "small numbers" doesn't come up.  It's "private", just for us, which also allows customizing.

We have created groups a couple of times, in advance, from our Roll Call.  Twice, it was in the Caribbean, when we chartered a large catamaran.  In that case, it was expensive enough that "sharing" would be nice.  It was also large enough that "sharing" with a small group wouldn't be any problem.  And we had already figured out the "itinerary" so everyone knew in advance.

 

Note:  There's "trust" issues all around.  On the best itinerary we ever found (for a cruise excursion) in the Med, we arranged everything a guaranteed it with our charge card.  Then MIL had a medical emergency, and on short notice, we had to cancel... but we had the others in our group plus the guide...!  So I scrambled, notified everyone, had the charge card switched to another of the group, and... they all went without us.  😞  That was also a dynamite cruise itinerary, one we've never seen again (althoough I've kept looking!).

 

It took a bit of extra planning and emailing in advance, but it was worth it:  the guides always turned out to be excellent.

GC

[navybankerteacher]

Of course the person wanting the tour does not want to risk paying in advance - and perhaps not getting what he wanted.  Similarly, a really good tour operator would not want to wait for the last minute to see if someone shows up at the pier.

 

Why should he take a risk you’d not accept.   So: you either take your chances on finding a worthwhile tour when you get off the ship - or you do your research and pay a reasonable deposit and have something ready to go.

[CDNPolar]

22 hours ago, GreenFamily said:

This is a general question for cruises in Europe. I am a first time cruiser. What would be the risk of booking a private tour that accepts cash only on the day of the tour? Some require a small deposit using a credit card but don’t state the cancellation policies. I see these tours advertised everywhere, but it doesn’t come up in the forum. Thoughts? 

 

One additional thing to consider is that you know very well the sail away time at the end of the day and that any private tour that you are going to book can guarantee you back well before sail away time.  Ships don't wait for stragglers.  If you are not there at back on board time and the ship sails, it sails.

[lynncarol]

In addition to cruising, my husband and I travel independently a lot.  Almost always, if it is an individual tour operator they want paid in cash. We have found this to be true for guides in Russia, Europe, Africa, Australia and South America. Frankly, only once have I ever paid an individual in advance and it did not end well. (Fortunately, it was less than 100 dollars). Our bank does not charge  for foreign ATM fees, so that is what we usually do: the day before, we get the money out, then bring it with us for the tour. That way, no carrying large sums of money around and we can get the exact amount needed.