How to find unusual excursions from local residents

Many independent travelers have long mastered the skill of independently organizing excursions, but such events do not always take place in the most informative way. Sightseeing tours bought from agencies can result in a rather large amount, and walking in a crowd of tourists trying to catch at least a fraction of the information is not always comfortable. Therefore, excursions from local residents are gaining more and more popularity today. This option is very convenient, because it involves an individual approach, takes into account all the wishes of the tourist and in general can carry much more interesting information than a standard guided tour. Where to find local residents who know everything about their city, and how to order a tour from them, we talk in detail in our article.

What is a tripster?

In 2013, an interesting resource called Tripster appeared on the Internet, which initially was a kind of platform for travel enthusiasts, in which tourists exchanged their opinions and made recommendations on visiting a particular attraction. But in just a few months the site was transformed into a real club of travelers, where it became possible to negotiate with the locals on the organization of excursions.

Today on the site you can order individual tours of the sights in 485 cities around the world. In 2018 alone, more than 210 thousand people used the services of the service, most of whom were satisfied with the service received. And there is nothing to be surprised: after all, the guides are local residents, very creative and enthusiastic people who know much more about their city than the employees of travel agencies.

Who will be interested in the service?

First of all, Tripster is designed for independent, not package travelers. The site provides the opportunity to find unusual excursions from local residents who, in addition to standard walks in the sights, will show you secret corners, organize tasting tours and allow you to plunge into the cultural life of the city.

Inquisitive and active tourists who are bored with monotonous excursions will find particularly attractive Tripster. As part of such events, travelers manage to climb the little-known roofs, from where the best views of the city open, and lower themselves underground, test their creative abilities in pottery, art and dance, track the technology of wine production and try different varieties of tea and coffee. As a rule, excursions from Russian-speaking local residents are as saturated as possible and fully meet the interests of tourists.

Benefits & Features

Tripster services offer several important benefits, including:

1. A wide selection of excursions. As we mentioned above, Tripster organizes tours to 433 cities in the world. Several guides can work at one object at once, so finding a suitable option here is not difficult. And in addition to the most popular destinations on the site, you can find little-known cities, the locals of which are ready to create for tourists all the conditions for the most complete familiarization with iconic places. It is noteworthy that today excursions from local to local are in great demand. For example, residents of Moscow often go for a walk in the sights in the company with a guide who combines the story of the objects with fascinating quests, puzzles and prizes.
2. Consideration of individual requirements. This is one of Tripster’s greatest strengths. Firstly, the tour will be formed exclusively for you and your companions and you will not find outsiders at the event. Many local guides recruit a group where the maximum number of people does not exceed 10. If you are more, then this question is discussed individually with the guide. Secondly, the tour will be organized in accordance with your interests. To understand how important this is, it is worth recalling at least guides from Turkey or Egypt, with whom the bulk of the tour takes place at textile, leather and carpet factories, rather than at the attraction itself.
3. Possibility to book a tour in advance. If you know the exact dates of your trip, then using the Tripster system you can make a preliminary reservation of the tour. And it’s very convenient, because you don’t have to look for the right person yourself on the spot, spending valuable time on it. A good guide will take care of all the nuances of a walk and try to do it in the best possible way.
4. The opportunity to speak with the guide before booking the tour. The site provides communication with local residents who provide their services. You can ask them any questions you are interested in and only then make a decision about the reservation. And after making an advance payment, you will be provided with the contact number of the guide. Thus, you will have the opportunity to contact him and discuss in more detail all the details.
5. Small prepayment. After you arrange an excursion with a local resident, you need to pay 20% of the total cost of the service. This is done to ensure that the conductor was confident in the seriousness of your intentions: after all, you reserve a certain time, which will be denied to other customers. The rest of the amount you give to the guide in person.
6. Promotions and discounts. Tripster often offers its users discounts. To take full advantage of the shares, you must register on the site. Often you can find various promotional codes here: some of them are valid only a few days, but provide a good discount (up to 10%), others are longer, but the size of the discount in this case will be small (up to 5%).

How to book a tour?

So, if the dates of the trip are determined, and the travel plan is drawn up, it's time to take care of the main part of the tour - excursions. Using the Tripster website is quite simple, but we decided to draw up detailed instructions for working with the system for you.

We are located on the main page of the site, where you can see two search graphs at once: one “Where are you going” - in the middle from the top and the second “Where are you going” - in the center. Both lines perform an identical function. Enter in any of them the direction we need (in our case it will be Munich) and click on the "Find" button.

At our request, the system was able to find 28 offers. To clarify the parameters of your search, we will use the form given above, in which we indicate the dates we need, the number of people and the price range. Then click on the "Find" tab.

After adjusting the parameters, the number of offers was reduced to 3. In order to get acquainted with the excursions presented by local residents, we click on the photo.

A new window opens in front of us, where you can see information about the guide, information about the tour itself, as well as the reservation calendar. Busy days are highlighted in pink, free days are highlighted in green. Below the calendar are reviews of tourists who have already used the services of this local resident. Be sure to read the opinions of other travelers about the guide and his organizational abilities. Having studied the information on all three proposals, we opted for the most budget option with a large number of positive reviews. Now we click on the date we need in the presented calendar and proceed to the next step.

After we clicked on the planned date, a form appeared in front of us. It is important to indicate the day of the proposed excursion, the number of tourists, first and last name, email address and telephone. Below is a field in which you can ask the guide all your questions. We draw your attention to the fact that by filling out this form, you are not booking a tour, but only declare your intention. You can finally reserve the date after the guide answers the questions asked.

When you make the final decision on booking an excursion, you need to make a prepayment of the service. It makes up 20% of the total tour amount. Payment can be made by credit card or bank transfer. We choose a convenient method for us in the appropriate form. Here you can ask the organizers a question and cancel the order if you are not satisfied with the answers of the guide.

If it is more convenient to pay with plastic, then click on the "Pay by credit card" tab. In the new window, the fields where you want to enter the card data will appear. If it’s easier to make a transfer, then by clicking on the "Pay by bank transfer" button, you can find out the necessary details.

After payment, a notification of the transaction will be sent to your email inbox. You will pay the rest for a personal meeting with the guide. This is how the site works with excursions from local residents.

Is it possible to cancel a reservation

If you make a prepayment, but suddenly the trip breaks, the Tripster website is ready to refund you. The main thing in this situation is to contact the guide as soon as possible and inform him about the cancellation of the reservation. After that, it is important to notify the site support service by writing an administration letter to [email protected]. Funds will be refunded in accordance with the system return policy:

1. the money will be refunded in full if you inform us of cancellation at least 5 days before the planned excursion
2. if the cancellation occurs less than 5 days before the agreed meeting, the site is ready to refund the prepayment only if the trip is interrupted for reasons beyond the control of the tourist (for example, canceling a flight)

It is also important to consider that if a local resident, having agreed with you, spent his own money on the purchase of entrance tickets or made other expenses that cannot be compensated for canceling the tour, the prepayment will be refunded minus the amount spent by him.

Output

Excursions from local residents are a tempting alternative to standard tourist walks. On the one hand, they provide an opportunity to enjoy the sights of interest to you in an individual format, on the other, they open up much more interesting information about objects. At the same time, the organization of the walk takes place on a day convenient for you, taking into account exclusively your interests.

Find an unusual excursion from the local

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