Tour guides in Krakow/Prague/Budapest

We took the Prague Walking Tours Explorer Walk and loved it (http://www.prague-walkingtours.com/tours.htm). It was great! Our guide was extremely knowledgeable, especially about the architecture found in the city, and the boat ride was really a great way to see Prague's best sites from a totally different perspective.

In Prague we had a private walking tour - we found a gentleman named Martin either here (pretty sure he's in Rick Steves?) or Tripadvisor and he was very good. Very into art and architecture. I have his email ... you can Google it and find his name.

[email protected]

For Budapest I highly recommend you to get in touch with the "Budapesting" team. They mostly do day trips out of the city, but also day do city walks, we have tried one of their tours to the countryside and it has been a great experience, they are young entrepreneurs also renting out rooms and apartments. You can email them on:
[email protected]
Also the Eger tour we tried is here:
http://budapesting.com/tours

Andrew Durman is listed in Rick's guidebook in Krakow. He is an excellent guide--we hired him to pick us up at our hotel and take us to Auschwitz. He lived in the US for a few years and can really bring in the perspective of a local. He'd be great.

I agree with Sarah!!

Andrew Durman served as our tour guide for Krakow. This was the first time that my wife and I had tried having our own personal guide. Andrew had been highly recommended by a close friend and he was excellent. He had lived in the United States and was knowledgeable about American culture and Polish culture. Andrew obviously loved his homeland and was eager to share its history and customs. Under his guidance, we not only enjoyed our travels but learned a great deal.

Peter Polczman in Budapest (budapestyourself.com) Anna Gega in Krakow ([email protected], http://www.leadertour.eu/index-EN.html 0601-151-293)
Katka Svobodova in Prague (praguewalker.com)

For Prague, Martina Cermakova did a great job for a group of us over a couple of days in June. She knows history and architecture, her English is excellent (studied in college). She has her own website which I can't find, but you can also try http://tourguides.viator.com/tour-guide-martina-cermakova-1212.aspx.

Andrew Durman - he was recommended by many people on the internet and so I decided to book his services for a Saturday in Krakow before the Easter Sunday this year (April 2013). I could not have asked for a better tour guide - he was highly engaging, delightfully funny and so knowledgeable about the history of Krakow. He took us around so many sites that we'd have definitely missed otherwise and had his own little ways of beating the crowd at the tourist spots. Even spent an extra hour with us despite already having pre-Easter celebration plans and bought us lunch while we were on another tour so we wouldn't be left starving on the way!
This is a tour guide that is not stingy with neither his time nor knowledge - cannot recommend him enough!

Andrew in Krakow. Hands down. He is just amazing. He speaks excellent English and has such pride in his heritage. As others mentioned, he lived in the states (back in the early 1980s, I believe), so he has a command of American customs. He is just that kind of gentle, warm-hearted guide you hope you can find everywhere. His rates are more than reasonable, esp. for the amazing experience he provides. He has been known to go pick up folks from Budapest or Prague and bring them back to Poland and then drive them around for Poland sights-- can always ask if this is something you are interested in. As a previous poster mentioned, he also knows how to avoid all the crowds-- make sure you ask him his opinion on timing for the various things you want to see (i.e. critical to get to Auschwitz before 10am if you want to walk through by yourself...) Lastly, he mentioned that he takes holiday for the whole month of July, so likely he couldn't assist you then.