Private Tour Guides
 

We are planning a trip in October and looking for private tour guides (half day)in Seville, Toledo and Granada. Any suggestions? and if so how much should we expect to pay?<BR>Thanks!

Just out of curiosity - - what do you mean by half day private tour - - drive you around - - and then you see the sights on your own? or take you into places? If so, then a half day is just barely, barely enough for the Alhambra alone? Are you only looking for "orientation" to each place?<BR><BR>I don't know if there is a centralized company that would have guides in each of these three destinations (quite possibly), or if you also want someone to get you from A to B to C also.<BR><BR>When, in October, and how many of you in the "we"?<BR><BR>Any chance you see where I am going with this?<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>

Hello Rex,<BR>Good questions. There are 2 of us.<BR>We're looking for orientation tours. Hit the highlights (without getting lost) and return to the places we like best. My favorite was a 5 hour walking tour of Venice - there were 6 of us and the tour was tailored to architecture, churches and alley ways - we went into a few places. Had lunch and gelato. I'd like to find a local English speaking guide in each location.<BR>Thanks for writing back - any suggestions for Seville, Toledo and Granada - we're heading to Palma for a week too if you can help there, that would be great!

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Terry,<BR> Was the person that guided you though Venice architecture etc with a tour company or a private guide. I'd be interested in a private guide for Venice. <BR> No personal experience on Spain to pass along. S

I am also curious about the prices of private guides. And does private mean truly private? One on one (or two)? or one on six? In other words, do people share that don't necessarily know each other, and still call that a private guide?<BR><BR>What is a typical price, not just Venice or Italy or Spain? In europe, in general?<BR>

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We just returned from our trip to Barcelona, Madrid and Granada. We didn't have a private guide for Granada or Madrid. Get the audio to go through the Alhambra and that should be enough. In Barcelona, we did hire a guide, an American woman who had her own car and showed us most of the city. It was a private tour for only my family. It was reasonably priced and our guide was fun and interesting. Her name is Debi and her e-mail address is [email protected]. Have fun.<BR>Ellen

Do you mind being more specific with reasonably priced? Was it based on how many people? Were there others with the group, not traveling with you?<BR>

Jill,<BR>Debbie's rates depend on what kind of tour you take and how many people are in your group. Ours was a private tour with only my husband, 2 children and myself. I believe she only gives private tours for individual groups. But you should e-mail her and ask her. Her address is [email protected]<BR>Ellen

Can't answer about Spain - did a full day private tour (husband & I) in England - guy drove us to places (including Windsor Castle) and was very knowledgable - can't remember the price - $300 US dollars - anyway the big negative to me - we were expected to pay for his lunch - and he chose the most expensive place in Windsor. Made me feel taken advantage of - but now, a couple of years later, I do feel that if you only have a short time in a city - it's a great way to go.

hmmm...<BR><BR>so, $250 for a half-day, and the tour guide picks up the lunch tab for all (party of three). does that sound fair?<BR><BR>hmmm...<BR>

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Check with the Spanish Tourism Dept. Registered guides must be licensed, meaning they have taken tests in a variety of things--history, botany, language, etc.<BR>Because I am a writer, I wanted to get the most out of our visit to Sevilla during Holy Week, we hired a guide. I found here through a tourism web site. Her name is Susanna Perez and her e-mail is [email protected] She is fluent in English and German and leads group tours as well as the individualized service she provided for my husband and me. She quoted 100 euros for four hours or 200 for eight. We wound up using a few hours here and there, adding up to seven. We paid her 175 euros and bought her dinner. All our travel was on foot, but if you go by bus or taxi, you pay.<BR>We enjoyed her company and she went out of her way to help me get the information I needed, and even lined up a couple of interviews.<BR>Vera

Oh my gosh. Thank goodness for those licensing requirements. I can't believe how close I came to hiring a guide without the necessary botany background!<BR><BR>What will some people try to get away with? Trigonometry illiteracy?<BR><BR>

I just returned from Andalucia & I hired a walking tour of Granada the Royal Cathedral of Ferdinand & Isabel & the Albacin, but not the Alhambra from magicalspain.com. It lasted about 2 hours, very informative and casual. $110.00

Did they cover all the botany to yur satisfaction?

KUDOS - we second Jim's comments on very good private guided tours of Granada with www.MagicalSpain.com. We also did Seville 3.5 hours (app $130 with wine and tapas) and day tripped in Jerez wine country with MagicalSpain's Dan O'Beirne. <BR><BR>THUMBS DOWN - We also hired a nice sorta-english speaking Spanish guide in Madrid for the Prado (3hours $145 -no wine and tapas) but he couldn't really understand American accents and we couldn't get his Spanish-British English mix...moral try for bilingual expats if they know their history and culture or Spaniards if sure they speak/understand American english.