GetYourGuide (translated as “Get Your Guide”) is an online platform that offers a wide range of experiences, trips and activities for travellers in one place. It’s a way to choose and book an activity in any tourist destination in the world completely easily. I’ve been turning to GetYourGuide for my travels for quite a few years now and here are my experiences.
What is GetYourGuide and what can be purchased
GetYourGuide is an aggregator of local service providers for travelers, making it easy to discover and book experiences around the world. What you’ll find:
- Tickets, skip the line tickets and combined admissions to major sights; example: tickets to the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museums,
- half-day or full-day group or private trips where you would not be able to go on your own (unless you are driving); example: a day trip from Paris to the Loire chateaux,
- tickets for hop-on hop-off buses that have a route with stops at the most important tourist attractions; example: hop-on hop-off in Barcelona for 24 or 48 hours,
- guidedcity tour, on foot or by bike; example: a bike tour of Vienna,
- food tours, tapas tours, wine tasting and local cuisine, vineyard tours, etc.; example: tapas tour in Madrid,
- Experiences such as a jeep ride through the desert, a boat ride, an outdoor experience or a cooking class; example: an evening sightseeing boat ride in Budapest.
- transport options such as bike rental or airport-hotel transfers; example: transfer from CDG airport to your hotel in Paris.
I open GetYourGuide almost every time I go somewhere, just to see what the destination has to offer and where to go nearby.
Most often, people probably buy tickets to secure entry to the sight and save time waiting in line for tickets.
What I’m realistically looking for are trips out of town, somewhere that can’t be reached by train or bus, or a trip that combines multiple locations to save me time. Boat trips (like on the Greek islands, often by yacht) and then of course food related experiences.
How GetYourGuide works
You go to GetYourGuide and enter:
- thecity you’re going to, like Rome.
- thedate you are in the place (or when you are free for the trip).
The whisperer offers some options straight away, but if you search the whole city, you get all the offers, which you can then filter. I usually do a quick check of all the options first to get a comprehensive overview. Then I filter what I’m interested in (like food) or specify what I want in the search engine (like from Malaga to Gibraltar).
Then I choose from the offers:
- first of all, according to the rating, I don’t take below 4.5,
- I check the program, specific reviews by people (for example, with a wine tour I want to make sure it’s not a god-forsaken booze tour and people value the wine interpretation more than the number of samples).
You can find out what time the activity takes place by entering the date, the number of people and clicking on “check availability”. There is then other information, such as other places where you can be picked up, if that is an option.
You book, you pay. You’ll receive a confirmation by email, and you’ll need to show your ticket on the mobile app, so download it before you leave.
A lot of activities are scheduled for every day, but they only take place when there are enough participants – this can be food tours or some minibus trips for 10 people. There is a theoretical risk that they will let you know in advance that it’s not happening or that they will want to reschedule. That likelihood is small and applies mostly to solo travelers and non-weekend days, but it is there.
In this case, they will simply refund your money (or very likely offer a similar activity from their offer at a discount). I think maybe within 3 working days. It happened to me once, the cancellation confirmation came promptly and the money was in my account the next day.
What are the benefits of GetYourGuide
GetYourGuide has several advantages that I see as important – specifically for me, everyone appreciates something a little different:
- “All” experiences in a destination in one place – not all of them, of course, but GetYourGuide is a very well-known platform and most of the interesting things to do in that location are there (I’m not saying all operators, but the main tours, courses and rides are). So I don’t have to do a complicated search for what to do and where to buy it, I just check GetYourGuide.
- Reviews of people who have experienced it – probably the biggest advantage compared to buying a trip that offers a flyer on the hotel is that you can see how satisfied others were with the offer (stars), including a verbal rating of the experience.
- A proven platform – you can often buy a trip on the spot when you arrive at your destination. But when you plan ahead and want to book online, I prefer not to do it on a “noname” site. I prefer to do it on a well-known platform and then when one travels more often to different destinations, then a platform that one already has personal experience with.
- Flexible cancellation – most GetYourGuide offers a free cancellation option up to 24 hours before the activity starts, which allows me to be sure there will be room for me, but also to change my mind.
What are the disadvantages of GetYourGuide
GetYourGuide also has some potential drawbacks that are good to consider:
- Itmay be more expensive – you can get a similar experience on site for a lower price. I prefer the simplicity of the facility, not having to search for anything. Beware that direct sellers can also stretch you the other way. That’s why I look at the price level of local activities on GetYourGuide just for fun.
- Small offer in less touristy destinations – in big cities, famous resorts and places frequented by tourists GetYourGuide is great, but where it fails a bit are less touristy destinations. Not least because there are generally limited options for what to do there, but often what little there is is sold more locally through hotels and tourist centres than online.
My experience with GetYourGuide
Like I said, I look a lot at multi-site or boat tours and food experiences, either food tours or cooking classes of local cuisine. And I always look at what’s roughly on offer and how much it costs.
One of the nicest things I’ve bought through GetYourGuide is:
- From Santiago: Finisterre, Muxia and Costa da Morte – I didn’t have a car in Santiago de Compostela and I definitely wouldn’t be able to get around the interesting places in a day. This way, I enjoyed a day trip in the comfort of getting from place to place without looking for the bus and waiting for it to arrive, and visited 9 different places, of which 6 or so were really worth it, the rest were kind of filler.
- Kuala Lumpur: Street Food with more than 15 tasting sessions – Malaysian cuisine is not that filling and I didn’t want to miss anything interesting in Kuala Lumpur. A local foodie took us to 3 different street food markets, bought us lots of exotic fruits, enthusiastically told us about local food and showed us local eateries. Like honestly, I knew before I went shopping that if I bought everything I tasted on my own, in whole portions just for me, it would come out to like a quarter of the price (food is really cheap in Malaysia), but it was a great experience and I would be tasting so many different foods in whole portions for a week, some of which I might not have come across and some of which I wouldn’t have dared to buy on my own.
These activities also allow you to meet other travellers. In Santiago, I made friends with two English women on the trip, and in Kuala Lumpur, almost the whole group of us (without a guide) went to a bar overlooking the Petronas Tower.
GetYourGuide mobile app
The GetYourGuide mobile app is available for iOS and Android. Through the app, you can choose an experience, book it, pay for it, and see past experiences. The app also has a mobile voucher that you present, but I’ve only ever needed that as a ticket so far, when I go on a trip through GetYourGuide they just have a list of the few people and ask for a name.
Alternative options for buying experiences, trips and tours
In addition to GetYourGuide there are several other platforms and ways to book experiences, tours and excursions:
- Viator – practically almost the same platform, just a different operator. Most experiences are on both and the prices are more or less the same, but some experiences may differ.
- Klook – also a very similar platform, except that it focuses primarily on Southeast Asia, and if you’re heading there, it offers a much larger selection than GetYourGuide.
- Airbnb Experiences – you can also buy experiences through Airbnb, where there are also individuals who are not found on GetYourGuide or Viator.
- Tiqets – a platform that focuses primarily on tickets.
In addition to online platforms, you can also buy the experience on the spot, especially for boat trips and admissions. The advantage of buying a ticket through an online platform like GetYourGuide is that you book in advance and have a guaranteed seat (which is important for top tourist destinations, which realistically tend to sell out in advance). With trips bought “on the street” again, you don’t have a comparison of ratings, you don’t read reviews.