toursbylocals

[fabnfortysomething]

tha above company seems to be popular on trip advisor-anyone any experience of them in this area of the world for cruisers?

 

Lyn

[Softball20]

In the Holland American Board there is a review of the Noordam wherein someone posted favorable comments about this company. Here's the thread:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1466784

 

I have been emailing with them recently about a tour and they've been very responsive & helpful.

[fabnfortysomething]

thanks that's the type of info I need to know

[cruisemom42]

Yes, the organization itself is a broker, but then so are several others that people use frequently. I think it's fair to say that the guides get good recommendations and the tours seem to be well handled. Perhaps at a higher cost; however, sometimes it is a bit more difficult to locate a well-qualified and vetted guide on one's own.

 

I took a tour with toursbylocals in Israel and it more than lived up to its billing.

 

I also have to wonder, just a bit, at the poster with only a few posts (none of which can be located now -- perhaps removed?) who may be promoting their own agenda.....

[Netta7]

For our recent 17 day cruise we arranged our own guides in most locations. We assumed we saved a little money doing so. In Tunisia we couldn't find a guide. The ones on the various private guide websites were either unavailable or didn't respond to our emails. We ended up booking with Tours by Locals as it was the best (only) thing we found.

 

We had a great experience in Tunisia and with Tours by Locals. Having done it, we wouldn't hesitate to use them again. Since we used several private guides on our trip and also used tours by locals (TBL), here are the pros and cons that we saw:

 

- As some have said going through a broker may cost more. We did find, however, that the better known private guides in the major tourist areas were very aware of what everyone else was charging. You need to do your price shopping if that is important to you. It also helps to know what you really want to do.

- TBL let us pay with our credit card in US$ and did not pay the guide until after our tour. The guides we hired directly did not take credit cards. While we are traveling paying by credit card has two advantages - no/less worries about pick pockets and no worries about finding an ATM or being within our daily cash withdrawal limits.

- TBL requires payment in advance rather than the day of the tour.

- TBL can save you some research and organization time. For many of the locations where I hired guides for our family we did a significant amount of research and then emailing back and forth.

 

I am sure there are other items we are missing, but these are the big things we found.

[wheelchairtraveler]

We are looking for a tour from Liverpool cruise dock(Royal Princess) through Wales on July 16, 2015. I use a wheelchair. We need a bus with a lift or a standard vehicle without steps. Any experience with this?

 

We are emailing with toursbylocals.com and they seem very responsive. Has anyone used them in Wales?

Charlotte