Tell Rick what you think about our Guides' Marketplace

Could you post a direct link? I cannot find it on the site easily.

What a terrific idea! I am sorry I don't have any specific or helpful suggestions but certainly will support whatever you all decide. I would be interested in anything!

Maybe they want posts in this new Forum.

I presume that rs is not Rick Steves.

There's an introduction if you have a look at the top of the Guides' Marketplace Forum.

Share your experience with the services offered in the Rick Steves
Guides' Marketplace.

Please share any feedback about your experience with the services
offered by Rick Steves guides via the Guides' Marketplace, or request
other services. This is a family adventure and it's great to be able
to share notes.

Learn more about the Guides' Marketplace.

The link leads to https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/guides-marketplace

There's quite a lot when you go over there. Walks and talks and hotels and blogs and all sorts. From the best horses' mouths.

I'm impressed. And I don't impress easily.

Well done Rick Steves' gang...

So so so sorry Nigel (lol) but rs on this thread is exactly “that” rs.

Please take a look everyone. This is above and beyond. Not only is RS and Company greatly impacted by Covid but all those guides in Europe. They have and are continuing to lose business (aka income to pay the rent/mortgage/food). This new Marketplace is clearly designed to help them. Extremely thoughtful by rs and company. Above and beyond!

Just "took a look"! That's awesome!! Thank you rs and all guides who are participating in this very worthwhile marketplace.

This is clever and proactive. Gut gemacht!

I love this idea and wish we could take advantage of some of the accommodation offered now. I hope this type of information stays linked to the website in future years too. Bravo!

This is great! If virtual touring all I’m going to be able to do this year, I’ll do it. Having done enough tours, I know that these guides will be informative and interesting to “tour” with. Plus, it’s nice to be able to help out.

It also supplies information in a single spot that usually requires hunting through guidebooks and the Internet to discover. We have learned over the years, that finding a private guide for certain interests (our particular interest has been tracing my husband’s father’s WWll journey) prevents fumbling around on our own to sites that aren’t easily accessible. But, as that is not always cheap, it is reassuring when you know the standards to expect from the guides.

Nigel, thanks for providing the link because I couldn’t figure out where to find it. And, I hope this stays up permanently.

Great idea.

Useful for us as we’ll be settling into our “second” country (dual nationals) for many months later this year. I will definitely call on a guide to show us some things in our new region. The links to their guesthouses are very useful, too. Thanks.

I'm interested in the property that Stephen McPhilemy has in the Berner Oberland but I'm blowed if I can find a link to it, or which hotel it is. We will be going back to that area eventually and I'd like to try to keep it "in the family" if I can.

There's a distant picture of somewhere in or near Lauterbrunnen but I can't make it out.

It looks like it’s Hotel Oberland in Lauterbrunnen. I went through his posts on Facebook and then double checked on TripAdvisor.

Loved Taylan and Carrie!!!!

How lovely to put a face and experience with a name. Looking forward to reading/watching on the weekend :)

Hi. This is great. I have watched interviews with Anna Piperato, Stacy Gibbon, and Stephen McPhilemy on Sara Murdoch's Adventures with Sarah facebook page. I hope Sarah joins this list soon. Her videos have helped make quarantine bearable.

Nigel, you can see Stephen's hotel, Hotel Oberland, on his facebook page. The conversation with Sarah Murdoch is posted there too, dated May 25. I enjoyed it.

Thank you, Rick and team, for adding a new resource for us to explore.

...Sara Murdoch's Adventures with Sarah facebook page.

Debbie, that page is terrific isn't it??!! Not being a FB member, I'm grateful that she's generously made it public. She has a public twitter page too.

https://twitter.com/sarahrmurdoch?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Love the idea of a showcase for RS guides' talents and all the knowledge they have to share; will spend some time exploring that function and thinking about the question. :O)

Thanks for the Twitter info, Kathy. I also am not a FB member and really do appreciate efforts like Sarah's.

I was supposed to start best of Spain June 15, then came the Covid19. Luckily, I found a Spain experience on marketplace. Federico Garcia Barroso is giving virtual Madrid museum tours. Federico was a past guide of mine so I was thrilled to sign up for the Prado tour. Federico is an excellent virtual guide. I enjoyed it so much I signed up for the Reina Sofia tour. Interesting, I am working on a 1000 piece puzzle of one of the paintings in the tour.

Thanks Rick and Federico!

It has been a while since there have been comments here - maybe some of our newer viewers won't have seen it.

bump

I think its a great idea, to help the guides through this situation. I know they gave it a lot of thought, but I find the name "marketplace" a bit misleading. I initially thought that meant they were going to be selling things, like crafts or local foods. But I cant think of a better term.

I envision a market square somewhere in Europe with different stalls for the different guides all showing what they have to offer and allowing travellers - or virtual travellers - to browse and shop...

I thought they were going to be selling tangible items, but I’m loving the intangibles. Since I can’t spend my money in country, I signed up for France with Vero and love it. Not only does she do a travel blog with videos, but some parts are written in French with the translation following so we can practice our language skills. She is traveling to truly “backdoor” places, so it’s giving us new places to consider.

Anyone whose been to Volterra and had Annie as a guide probably also did the wine tasting with her husband. He’s offering virtual wine tastings which I’m going to check into when my whole family is together. Hopefully those 100% wine tariffs don’t kick in.

One thing I thought more guides would be doing, is offering genealogical research services. I saw at least one does. One service that might be in demand (said only half-seriously) is facilitating payment of ZTL and traffic infractions.

This is a great idea. I hope people take it vantage of it so we can help keep our guides for the future. Over the weekend three friends and I took a cooking class from Alfredo in Napoli. We are all in four different locations and not able to travel to each other or anywhere else due to the pandemic. Alfredo was very easy to communicate with and very responsive. We paid him via PayPal and he emailed us recipes ahead of time. We decided we would watch only and not try to cook along with him. No we didn’t get to taste the food. But we do have the recipes and we did get a little view of Naples from his balcony. As always you pick up a few cooking tips and I’m sure we will utilize these recipes. It was fun and I got to be with my friends Kinda. He only had to redirect us one time