TL:DR: After using GetYourGuide, we recommend it if you’re looking for reliable walking tours, guided hikes, and cultural experiences. Here are a few key takeaways from our GetYourGuide review:
- It’s a legitimate and reliable site for easily booking tours worldwide from your computer or the mobile app.
- There is a huge variety of tours available in popular destinations, especially Europe. It can help you do everything from making macaroons in Paris, to snorkeling with sea turtles in the Pacific Ocean, or touring Alcatraz in San Francisco.
- Pricing is competitive but extra fees can sometimes apply—as with anything, read the entire tour description.
- Customer service provides flexibility with the 24 hour cancellation policy and assistance as needed.
Tours can make or break your vacation. I know it does for me. That’s why it’s essential to know if the guided tour you’re going on is good.
GetYourGuide is one of my go-to tour booking sites because of its easy booking process and reliability.
GetYourGuide works with local guides to give you the best experience possible without taking advantage of the community you’re visiting.
I’ve often used GetYourGuide in places like Europe and the United States. I did my travel planning quickly because of the many tours and activities available.
Read my GetYourGuide review and add another tool to your toolbox when planning the vacation of a lifetime.
What is GetYourGuide?
GetYourGuide is an online tour operator that organizes activities with local travel companies.
You can purchase everything from skip-the-line tickets to a private tour to guided hikes.
GetYourGuide began when a handful of classmates started the website in 2009. They were determined to change the travel game forever.
The idea originated from a trip that Johannes and Tao–two of the founders–took to Beijing.
Johannes arrived a day early, and Tao wasn’t there to show him around.
The two friends recognized a universal issue: Travelers arrive at new dream destinations but don’t know where to begin.
I like GetYourGuide because their website makes it easier for me to start planning a trip.
By searching through their database, I can find everything from unique tours to the top tours and activities worldwide.
How Does GetYourGuide Work?
Search Desired Location
Most travelers use Get Your Guide to search for guides at their predetermined destination.
In this case, it’s easy to type in the desired location at the top of the Get Your Guide web page.
Several tours pop up after searching for the destination.
Tours with the highest reviews rank highest. From here, I use the filter options that Get Your Guide offers.
If I can’t find a tour from the main search, I select filters like:
- For first-time visitors
- Landmarks & monuments
- Entry tickets
- Family-friendly activities
- Culture & History
- Guided tours
- Viewing points
I often find opportunities I hadn’t thought of, like sandboarding or kayaking through caves.
Choose Your Ideal Tour
Choosing the ideal tour can be difficult, especially with so many options. Keep in mind that the Best-Seller certificate indicates the highest quality tours.
Read the tour description thoroughly, as that’ll give you a clear understanding of what the tour offers.
After finding the perfect tour, fill out the information like name, email, and credit card details.
I could pay for my tour with PayPal, Google Pay, Apple Pay, or a credit card. And there aren’t any hidden fees or booking fees when you book tickets on GetYourGuide.
Once the payment is complete, you’ll receive a confirmation email with all the details for your tour.
That’s it! Booking your own guided tour is that easy.
Pro tip: Visit the promo code webpage and enter your email to receive a one-time GetYourGuide promo code. The code gives 10% off on some tours.
Meet Your Tour Guide at the Specified Location
After purchasing my tour, I received an email stating the meeting point to join the tour company.
Sometimes, the tour operators ask for the local address of your hotel, Airbnb, or hostel.
When I visited Rainbow Mountain in Peru, we sent them our local address and photos of our passports.
Some tour guides offer to pick you up, and others specify a meeting place (or multiple meeting points).
Booking tours through GetYourGuide is simple, but sometimes, the local agency is unclear about the meeting point.
I suggest contacting the tour provider if you’re unsure about the meeting point.
GetYourGuide Review: My Experience With Using GetYourGuide
Public and Private Tours
Most activities through GetYourGuide are public, but there are some private tours.
I prefer booking a private tour when I know I want to be in a small group.
For me, activities in nature–like guided hikes–are more peaceful in smaller groups.
I use the filters to narrow my search to private tours by clicking See More Categories, then Private Tours.
Using the filters on the Get Your Guide website cuts my results in half, sometimes more. From there, it’s easier to find tickets.
Day Trips and Multi-day Trips
Most of the tours I find through Get Your Guide are day trips. Still, there are tons of shorter or longer experiences.
While researching Peru, I used the Duration filter to see 12 pages of cooking classes, sunset excursions, and viewpoint tickets.
The shorter guided experiences help enrich long days. While planning a day trip, I’ll check out the city tours and popular activities.
Get Your Guide also offers multi-day trips, like the Salkantay Trek in Peru. I wanted to do this hike, but it was a significant investment.
While I’m sure that booking multi-day trips through Get Your Guide is fine, my travel companions and I still felt more comfortable booking extensive tours with local companies in town.
Plus, I’ve learned that I can usually save money by booking locally because of the currency exchange.
Self-Guided Tours
GetYourGuide also offers self-guided tours that you can download onto your phone and listen to at any time.
These tours come in audio and visual form. I haven’t purchased any of the self-guided tours yet, but I’ve noticed a few things.
On the GetYourGuide website, I suggest searching for “audio tour [location name]” instead of “self-guided tour.” They’re listed as “Other Experience,” which meant I had to click on the tours to check that they were in fact, audio or visual tours.
I actually found it just as productive to Google phrases like “GetYourGuide audio tour Italy.”
It’s also inconvenient to download the tours since they aren’t all housed on the official GetYourGuide app. The tours are created by different agencies that have their own apps.
You’ll download the app ahead of time and then receive a link to access the tour. Most tours can be refunded as long as they’re “returned” ahead of time and not activated.
Despite being clunky, I did find a lot of unique tours. My favorites were the Paris History of Crime Tour and a complete package of US National Park tours.
Transportation through GetYourGuide
Not all travel booking sites offer transportation services. Get Your Guide works with local drivers to pick you up from your accommodation and take you to the airport.
Airport shuttles are available with a one-way or round-trip ticket.
I first started looking into transportation services through the GetYourGuide website because I’m planning a trip to Mendoza, Argentina.
Booking a ride this way is surprisingly convenient and cheap, even for budget travelers.
Tickets to Attractions through GetYourGuide
Get Your Guide is the perfect platform to use for European sightseeing.
For example, Florence is one of the most popular places in the world to travel to and one of my favorite cities.
Florence is chock-full of sightseeing, and it’s easy to book tours through Get Your Guide.
Just like filtering for specific durations, I filter based on my interests.
The homepage of Get Your Guide has four main categories: Sports, Culture, Food, and Nature.
You can manually select more specific activities by typing them into the search bar or choosing the “Filters” button once you decide on a travel destination.
I love these features because booking an architecture-focused day trip to Pisa one day and a walking tour of Siena the next was easy.
The advantage of touring with a local provider is that they know the ins and outs of their city.
GetYourGuide App
I love booking tickets directly on the app when on a long bus ride or in the car.
When I find tours and activities, I can save them to my wishlist.
Then, I’ll book tours on the guide app or my computer once I return to my Airbnb.
I stay logged into my GetYourGuide account on the website and the app. This way, my wishlist is available on my phone and computer.
Finding the same tour and tour operators on either device is a matter of clicks.
Plus, anytime I have a travel-related conversation, it’s easy to open my phone and bring up some of my top bucket list activities.
DOWNLOAD THE GETYOURGUIDE APP HERE:
Skip the Line Tickets
Sometimes, I’m not feeling a tour, but there’s still a sight I need to see. Skip-the-line tickets are the perfect way to see a popular attraction without waiting long.
The line to see Michelangelo’s David is horrible, but buying my entrance ticket beforehand means more time to explore the city. . . and more time to enjoy wine in the evening.
Unfortunately, sometimes there’s a booking fee for these sorts of tickets.
But sometimes it’s worth the extra booking fees to receive the ticket before others.
Price Guarantee
GetYourGuide offers a price guarantee, which ensures you won’t pay more on their official site than you would through other tour companies.
One time, I booked a tour in Italy and found the same activity for cheaper elsewhere. I contacted Get Your Guide, and they paid the difference!
Before you do this, make sure each tour includes the same things. It pays to compare prices!
Pros
Easy to Use
More than anything else, I love the easy interface of GetYourGuid’s website and app. They take what can be a confusing process and make it simple.
GetYourGuide makes finding activities that everyone will enjoy simple, and I can buy tickets within seconds.
Other travel booking sites don’t always make this process easy. I respect GetYourGuide for prioritizing that.
Great Cancellation Policy
I may be jumping ahead here, but it must be said. GetYourGuide has a worry-free cancellation policy.
I’ll go into more detail later, but the most crucial feature is free cancellation within 24 hours of the tours and activities.
Large Selection of Tours in Popular Destinations
If GetYourGuide didn’t have a large selection of tours, we might not have had this conversation.
But there are many different tours in places like North America, Europe, and Australia.
It’s also nice knowing that local companies are getting paid, too, and it’s not bad for the local economy.
Other travelers will agree that it’s fun daydreaming about travel by looking up tours with a local company.
Cons
Very Few Tours in Some Parts of the World
It’s a bummer that GetYourGuide doesn’t have as many tours in South America and Central America.
I love the rugged travel style of these places, but sometimes I want to do a couple of tours before setting out on the less-trodden path.
GetYourGuide offers tours to trendy places like Machu Picchu. It skips some of the less flashy destinations, like tours around a town or small hikes.
One of my favorite Central American countries, Guatemala, has very few tours to choose from. I was there for two months and never opened the app.
Not Many Nature Tours
Now, this is changing for the better, but I want more adventure activities to choose between.
Sometimes, when I go to a new city, I want to see what the suburbs are like and what adventures await outside the city limits.
Simple tours of little-known locations aren’t as popular because many tourists visit to see the big attractions.
GetYourGuide Cancellation & Exchange Policy
Things come up that we have no control over. That’s why booking tours with a good cancellation policy is essential.
GetYourGuide offers free cancellation for their own tours and activities within 24 hours.
An issue arose while traveling through Europe, so I canceled one of our GetYourGuide tours. I received a full refund, no questions asked!
Be sure to read the fine print of every tour that you book. There could be different rules for each activity.
The cancelation process itself is easy. You go to the Help Center and follow the instructions for Cancellation. The form asks for your booking reference and pin.
There’s less risk when you buy tours that you can cancel so easily.
FAQs About GetYourGuide
Is GetYourGuide legit?
GetYourGuide is legit and a great way to find some of the best activities worldwide!
Countries that don’t have many GetYourGuide options might seem less legit because of the lack of GetYourGuide reviews. I suggest finding activities with many good reviews.
Who is GetYourGuide owned by?
Four former classmates in Switzerland started and own GetYourGuide. Those four are Tao Tao, Martin Sieber, Johannes Reck & Tobias Rein.
Their goal was to create a platform where everyone could find the best activities worldwide, all in one place. Safe to say they achieved this.
Is GetYourGuide the same as Viator?
GetYourGuide is the same concept as Viator, but two different groups of people own them. TripAdvisor, the popular online travel forum company, owns Viator.
Which is better, Viator or GetYourGuide?
Viator and GetYourGuide are fantastic sites that help thousands of travelers find things to do in a specific destination. With that said, both of these are better for different areas.
Viator is better in the United States, while GetYourGuide has many activities in Canada/Europe.
What does “Certified by GetYourGuide” mean?
Choosing an activity with the golden “Certified by GetYourGuide” on the page means it’s a proven quality activity. When I book a tour with this, I have no worries.
If I have to choose between a tour with or without the golden certificate, I always choose the one with it.
The last thing I want to worry about on vacation is whether or not I booked a good tour.
Which countries should I use GetYourGuide in?
GetYourGuide is a good service for booking your tour in the most popular destinations worldwide.
I’ve had good luck with GetYourGuide in Europe, Canada, Dubai, Australia, and even many countries in Southeast Asia!
There are some spots you should keep your expectations low for.
Latin America is a part of the world that doesn’t have many activities available. Even so, I found quality activities with local guides in places like Cusco and Medellin.
Conclusion: So, is GetYourGuide worth it?
I always use GetYourGuide when researching things to do in a new location. This site is valuable and worth your time.
I think it’s the most reliable 3rd party tour site today. I love how they work with locals and aren’t trying to detract from the country’s economy.
If you’re going to Europe this summer, check out the GetYourGuide hotel pickup and all the necessary information for the best day.
I wish Latin American countries had more GetYourGuide opportunities, but I know that time is coming.
My experience with their guides, website, and customer service has been top-notch. Of course, though, just like every other company, you can find GetYourGuide complaints.
Planning the perfect trip is hard. GetYourGuide has opportunities for all of my fellow travelers. From multi-day activities to workshops/classes, GetYourGuide has it all.
Whenever I start my research for my next vacation, I go to GetYourGuide–and I think you should, too!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Phillip Anderson
Phillip Anderson is a freelance travel writer, personal trainer, and adventure enthusiast. With years of travel experience under his belt, Phillip is an expert in finding the best deals through travel apps and websites. He knows how to find cheap domestic and international flights, like a flight to Peru for as low as $350.
When looking for cheap accommodations, Phillip combines his knowledge of websites like Airbnb, Booking.com & Hostelworld with more unique sites like TrustedHousesitters, for even more savings. Whether it’s flights, accommodations, or local experiences, he teaches travelers to make informed decisions, ensuring their adventures are both memorable and economical. For more from Phillip, check out his website, JaywalkTheWorld.com.
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