Tours with Locals??

Yes, we did in Paris with two separate guides and in Lyon. Read the reviews. I highly recommend the platform, particularly with guides that have to be licensed or have some education or credentials. Let me know if you're looking for something in particular and I can tell you if we have a recommendation.

There are great tours you could go on if you want some extra information in a particular area of Paris. For example: paris-walks.com gives great talks and they are inexpensive. However, for 7 people, it could still get expensive. For more information also see https://community.ricksteves.com/ https://10eloto.com/

Never used them since you have to pay upfront for the entire group, not just yourselves.

Tours by Locals is a booking platform - think Viator, but a lot better run, with more support for both clients and guides, and a dispute resolution service that works. They also vet the guides before listing them. (These things I mention because Viator are appalling at all of them)

As far as I know, all of the guides on Tours by Locals also work independently.

(I'm not sure what the previous poster means by having to pay for all the group. All Tours by Locals tours are private tours)

Simon,
When we cruise or just take a do it yourself land trip, I check for private tours. My experience with Tours with Locals has been that if you like a tour, you can't just pay for yourself and your spouse, you have to organize the tour and recruit more people. If you don't recruit more people the cost of the tour for two people is prohibitive.
I have booked tours where I had to organize, recruit other and collect the payments to pay the tour company, but I have had a bad experience with some people cancelling the tour at the last minute without paying. Therefore, I never book with Tour with Locals.

I have used Viator.com a few times when I couldn't find another tour that I liked, or none was available. I have never had a problem with Viator.

I'm not sure I understand. All Tours by Locals tours are private tours. You pay a fixed price for the tour, the only additional charges the guide can charge per person is for expenses they pay for: entry fees, meals, etc.

If you don't want a private tour then Tours by Locals isn't the platform for you. Viator is probably an ok platform for cookie cutter tours with a dispirate group of people, but our experience with the platform isn't great.

Perhaps some folks are confusing two different entities...Tours with Locals and Tours by Locals.

Ive never heard of Tours With Locals, and can't find them on the inetrnet

Here's their website...

https://www.withlocals.com/?gclid=CjwKCAjw77WVBhBuEiwAJ-YoJOQT_cqX4LJgupJAnAOIenTa4KmP5v-wjIoaDv8rh0tzJcRrvPOWERoCC1sQAvD_BwE

Still never heard of them :) But you can see why I was confused...

But they are always private tours too.. Let's face it - if you're employing a professional for a day you need to pay them professional rates

https://www.toursbylocals.com/

To be clear, this is who we used.

We are currently in Paris, ahead of our Rick Steves' Paris - HOF tour. We've booked 5 tours with Tours by Locals.

1. Full day Paris general tour by Susanne V.
2. Full Day Versailles tour by Vincent D (private car) picked up at our hotel and dropped off at hotel
3. Musee d'Orsay by Catherine C. (recognized French painter to guide us from an art perspective)
4. Louvre tour by Catherine C (again to guide us from an art perspective)
5. Monmartre tour by Susan V.

We just completed tours 1-4 (1 day per tour) and have found all of them excellent tours with great tour guides. Even though Paris - HOF tour does give you some intro of Paris, we've previously taken the 7 day Rick Steves' Paris city tour and wanted our 3 teenagers to see more of Paris (including Versailles). You do pay upfront for the tours. But the guides each reached out to me within a day of booking for confirmation and any customized itinerary. These are all private tours. We had a group of 5 in our family and it really maximized the time and efficiency. When asked, all of them have stated that they are extremely busy right now. Tourism has come back to Europe this year in near full force.

Simon,
To sum it up, TWL tours don't let you book just for two persons only. If you have a large family or friends groups ahead of booking, it might be economical, but not for just two person.

Another step down the ladder of tour guides is Showaround.com; mostly college kids picking up extra cash by showing people around.

They are not tour guides perse and for the most part dont pretend to be but a few are licensed; more someone who knows how to get around and speaks the language.

In my favorite city in Europe a good licensed guide will set you back about 240 euro a day; these kids charge from a low of only tips to some pretty crazy prices, but most are in the 100 euro a day range.

I travel to meet people, see cultures in action but I am not a not the sort that travels to know more than I read in the guide book (but I always read one of two different guide books before I go some place); so the interpreting service and the knowledge of the local transportation sometimes is helpful; especially in challenging places like Albania or Bosnia.

I have found guides on Tours By Locals too; but I always google the names and find them outside of that platform and I have found some really good guides that way.

If I am going to hire a guide of any sort, I contact them and we have a running conversation for a month or two before I lock them in as I cant imagine spending a day with someone not compatible.

Thank you to all who replied. The back and forth actually was quite helpful and clarifying. I appreciate your time to answer.

Lois