Monument Valley - cosidering a tour, or not ?
 

Should we book a reservation for a tour in Monument Valley NM, or drive by ourself there?
Thanks in advance for any information offered.

We've always driven ourselves, but you can't go on all the roads that the tours can take you.

Utahtea

We arranged a tour with a Native American and it was very worthwhile. It started a couple of hours before sunset so we could end with the sunset. We stayed at Gouldings Lodge. It was quite nice.
Here is some info from my itinerary that I have saved fortunately!
: Goulding’s Trading Post and Lodge in Gouldings Utah, Monument Valley 1-435-727-3231 just north of AZ border, 2 mi. West of US 163.
Simpson’s Trailhandlers tours: 435-727-3362, Sunset Tour: $35.00 per person. Richard was our tour guide.

The road is pretty bad, red dust but we drove ourselves.We like to be free and stay as long as we want to take a nice picture or to enjoy the view.Paul

you should drive yourself but go in to the main office at monument valley where the self drive tour is but then hire one of the guides there to take you around to things you don't get to see, it's worth it. then if you want do the self drive.

We drove ourselves but would probably do a guided tour if we were to do it again without a 4 wheel drive vehicle. The road was pretty bad and our worries about our old car diminished the experience a bit.

Just something to keep in mind. I made arrangements with one local to take me around in his vehicle. When it came to time to meet "him" another driver arrived instead saying I would be going with him. After paying the first man the tour fee, had to pay for the gas for the van of the second guy before we even started. About hour into tour his vehicle broke down. His wife walked out to get tow truck which I ended up having to pay for. Wrote the Tribal park but never received a reply back.
Be sure to ask if your tour visits Mystery Valley which has more ruins than Monument Valley.

If you go to Goulding's, they do all the arranging with an a.m. and p.m. tour, lasting 2-3 hours each. The price is all inclusive and you get a good commentary. If it's going to be hot, go in the a.m. You can call for info. and reservations, though they always tell us they don't need to know ahead. We always stay at Gouding's.

We enjoyed our tour arranged through Gouldings. I thought the guide was very informative and the 2-3 hour tour was fun. We didn't see anyone else at any of the sites we stopped at and were given plenty of time for photographs.

We arrived mid-afternoon and decided to drive ourselves around but as mentioned above there are places you can't get too without a guide. We spent a few hours driving around until sunset and had an amazing time. The roads were not nearly as bad as I had been led to believe. It was very dusty and the first bit (just after the visitor center) is the bumpiest (it gets smoother after that).

We stayed in Gouldings and looked at taking a tour the following morning. We didn't fancy spending a lot of time on a tour covering the same ground to see a few bit we couldn't get to the day before so skipped the tour and spent the following morning at Goosenecks State Park and Muley Point instead.