Some Thoughts on Booking Tours: A Get Your Guide versus Viator Comparison

Some Thoughts on Booking Tours: A Get Your Guide versus Viator Comparison | brokeGIRLrich

As I’ve mentioned, possibly ad nauseum at this point, I went on the worst tour of my life this August in Egypt. And, as lots of sane people would probably do in such a situation, I found myself wondering… how did we get here?

I think this was compounded a bit because in July, I also went on a pretty awful tour to Montenegro. I usually plan pretty excellent vacations, so like… how did two of my holidays go so off the rails this time?

And I realised a common thread between the two terrible tours was Get Your Guide.

Now, for years, I booked a day tour or two while on planning vacations and they’ve generally been pretty good. As a matter of fact, some were so phenomenal, we still talk about them nearly a decade later.

Like a full day tour on the island of Hawai’i that was nearly $1,000 per person but was, hands down, the most amazing tour I’ve ever been on that not only included beautiful stops all over the island but also a helicopter ride over a volcano, zip lining through the forests, and an incredible stop at a winery with the most gorgeous views. And this was at a time when $1,000 was an incredible pinch but the tour was so good it was worth it.

My partner and I went on a full-day tour of Venice and the surrounding islands, which was exactly what we wanted to experience: some of the history and culture of the place. The tour was brilliantly organised and hit every touristy highlight you could hope for.

We also went on a full-day tour in Mexico to Chichen Itza, swimming in a cenote, and a fun tequila tasting that he and I rave about to this day.

Even the slightly disastrous Croatia/Montenegro trip this summer had one super clear highlight for both me and the BFF, which is a tour to the blue and green caves.

Do you know what all of these excellent tours have in common? I booked them on Viator. Even the great day in the desert in Egypt that I mentioned, which we went on before embarking on the disaster tour the next day – that was a Viator tour.

When I pulled up my past booking list on Viator, I see a number of generally good or great tours and a few smaller purchases that all also worked out (like a cheap airport transfer or a local sightseeing train ticket I vaguely remember from a trip to Luxembourg years ago).

When I pulled up my Get Your Guide past bookings, I realised it was a much more mixed bag and actually kind of laughed because most of my bookings through there did have some aspect of strange to them. Besides the two downright awful bookings (Special Egypt’s 5-day tour and the Perast, Kotor & Budva Small-Group Day Trip), most of the bookings were small, local activities – like making a mosaic lamp in Istanbul or a canal boat ride in Camden Locks (which was incredibly packed and uncomfortable). Things we just turned up, did, and left – not tours with a lot of moving parts like transportation between multiple stops, meals or hotels. And they were fine.

There was also a Harry Potter Studios and private transfer tour from several years ago which worked out kind of brilliantly, as we were one of the first in the studio and got to walk around nearly empty sets for a lot of our time there, but the BFF and I still laugh at the wildly sketchy pickup, crammed in a small private car with two other strangers, with some kind of foreign music thumping wildly through the speakers most of the way to Watford at like 7 AM. It was incredibly weird. But it did work out.

And I hesitate to say Get Your Guide is just bad. This summer we also went on a full day tour at Hadrian’s Wall that was booked through them that I really enjoyed. And not that long ago I did a day tour in Lisbon that was also fine.

And, very importantly, they did give us a full refund for the disastrous Egypt tour. And there was little fuss and they were very expedient about it. But like… a little diligence on their end would clearly tell them they shouldn’t allow that company to even list on their website. Their reviews, when we delved deeper, were super weird. Quite often five stars and raving about the tour guides, but with hidden lines saying to avoid the tour. Like… what? I mean, yes, I should’ve read the reviews more carefully but also, why would I read 5 star reviews so carefully to look for hidden messages to run?

Also, I would rather not have gotten a refund and instead been able to rave for the next 10 years about how amazing and great our week in Egypt was, like the Hawaii tour or any of the Viator tours.

So I don’t know. I have to say, the BFF and I have agreed to not book any more Get Your Guide tours going forward and I think I may consider that a largely blanket approach in the future.

Have you booked tours with either or both companies? Do you have a preference?

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