Hire A Local Guide

There are tons of apps and online resources to get to know a place, especially the major destinations. Group tours allow you to cover many sites in a short time (but be prepared to be herded like cattle and constantly moving). Download an offline-accessible walking tour for easy tourist cities like Paris, London, Barcelona and Amsterdam; make sure yours includes a metro map or grab one at your hotel. Preorder hop on hop off bus/boat tickets and a booklet of metro tickets, and you’re all set. We like the open air Vedettes du Pont Neuf in Paris and the London Pass (has its own map app).

Pompeii, Italy.
Koh Phi Phi, Thailand.
Vatican City, Italy.

To really make a place come to life, however, I love to hire a private local guide. Especially when traveling with kids, a walking tour (sometimes with driver if outside the city) is not much more than paying for a family to go on a large group tour. It is so great for historical ruins like Pompeii, Ephesus, Athens and Rome, because guides bring history to life with iPads full of photos. A guide is also great for large museums: not only do they prebook tickets and get to skip the line, they know the must see pieces and how to engage the kids.

Learning about the slave trade, as well as Freddy Mercury’s birthplace, Zanzibar Island.

A private driver/guide is also incredibly useful in a place where the alphabet is different and you don’t speak the language. A guide saves you the frustration of navigating or driving. We highly recommend a driver/guide to take you to sites outside the city. I’ve been incredibly relieved not to be driving the German autobahn in the snow or finding my way to the floating market outside Bangkok. And if a car breaks down, you don’t have to worry! A local guide provides security for the tourist in you and in-depth culture/history for your inner traveler.

Floating market outside Bangkok.
Broken down in the Serengeti.

Most importantly, a private guide allows you to go at your own pace; if you know your kids poop out, condense a tour to end early or extend it to build in food breaks (or do a walking food tour). When your kids are acting up, as they inevitably do, you can change course, because it’s your tour. You also get the benefit of a guide that will cater to your kids’ ages, while fielding the questions of curious adults as well. Be sure to mention your kids’ ages when you book, and make sure the guide is experienced/comfortable touring kids. Before you wrap up, don’t forget to ask, “where do you like to eat?” You’ll get great local spots without tons of tourists.

Tired of touring Rome.
Cranky in Ephesus.

Few Americans in the marketplace in Sirince, Turkey.

A really good local guide brings the place to life, sharing history and culture, sprinkling in their own experiences and taking you to places off the beaten path. When asked, most guides are open to candid sharing on all kinds of topics.

A “ruins” market, Budapest.
Fall of Yugoslavia Tour, Mostar.

Both our Mostar guide Miran, who was a child during the Yugoslav war, and our Budapest guide Juli, whose grandmother survived the ghetto, taught us so much about religious wars first hand. Our Turkish guide Chevy has scheduled all kinds of Turkish and Greek local tours for us, but our best experience was joining him at one of his favorite local restaurants. Our safari superstars Moody and James kept us safe, informed and entertained during our week safari in Tanzania. Our amazing guide Mohammad spent several days taking us to the sites of the Moroccan desert, even his childhood home. Yes, it is a job, but these guides are so good at bringing themselves and their stories to their work that the destinations are inextricably linked with our warm memories of our guides.

Todra Gorge.
Moroccan salt mine.
Kasbah Telouet.

We often find private guides and tours from Tours by Locals, Trip Advisor, Viator or sometimes through agencies. Another option is to simply Google “local guide” and your destination. In the 15 years we’ve been traveling internationally, we’ve had one guide we wouldn’t recommend, and another couple that were average. Far more of our experiences have been great, and some of our guides have even become friends. While we’ve toured with a handful of transplants (typically Americans or Europeans who’ve studied and lived in the destination many years), my favorite guides are born and raised in the country.