In recent years, startups have been rapidly conquering the travel market: Uber has long been conquering a niche from traditional taxis, and vacation rentals are taking the place of traditional hotels. But that’s not all - with the help of online platforms, travelers can easily find a guide among local residents who will willingly introduce the country from the inside. We have selected seven of the most interesting online services and applications.

Tours by Locals

Online platform Tours by Locals over the nine years of its existence, it has managed to unite more than 2,000 guides and cover 159 countries. Only very small areas of shallow lagoons remain undeveloped, for example, Crooked Island, an island that is part of the Bahamas.

Here travelers can either offer their own route to the guide or choose an existing one. For example, for those who prefer quiet and secluded places, the service offers an eight-hour excursion to the picturesque regions of the South Island of New Zealand. The journey begins at Akaroa Cruise Port with a meeting with a local guide. The program includes viewing almost all the picturesque landscapes of the Canterbury region - in eight hours tourists will see the Rakaia Gorge, Lake Coleridge, the Porter Pass mountain pass and Christchurch, the third largest city in New Zealand. In addition to exploring the Southern region, the program also includes a traditional dinner. The country's national cuisine is represented by exotic Maori dishes - fried scorpions and larvae, snails and sheep's eyes.

Also on the online platform there are less intricate routes - for example, excursions to the main attractions of Western Europe. On the website you can book both a group tour and an individual one. Accordingly, the price will depend on the choice - usually it does not exceed $100 per person.

Show Around

The Show Around online platform is considered one of the leading travel startups: the service has gathered more than 80 thousand local residents under its wing and is already available in 204 countries.

Unlike a number of other similar services, Show Around performs only one function - finding a guide. The excursion route is planned after choosing a temporary companion; there are no ready-made options here.

Perhaps the main advantage of the platform is the business cards of local guides. Here you can find literally everything - detailed information about the interests and knowledge of the culture of the region of each registered guide.

A tourist can rate his guide and also write a comment. “This helps guides not to become complacent and creates an environment of healthy competition that motivates people to work at their best,” says Show Around founder Linas Sablowski.

The average excursion price is about $15 per hour.

Show Around has had an iOS app for a long time, and recently the mobile service became available for Android users.

Shiroube

The approach of the Japanese online service Shiroube is somewhat different from the others - first of all, the tourist selects the section of interest, for example, “Art and History”, “Nature and Adventure”, “Food and Wine”, and only then begins to look for a guide. Using the site is very simple: there is an advanced search that allows you to select the language, age and even gender of the guide. Each guide has his own profile, where tourists can see photos, main interests and offers.

There is no ready-made excursion base here - the local guide comes up with a personal route for each client. However, the service developers still collect some statistics; for example, the website regularly updates lists with the most common locations and recommendations. So, during a trip to Shanghai, local residents suggest walking along Nanjing Street and trying dumplings - a dish similar to dumplings, but prepared according to an old Chinese recipe.

The service is focused on having fun with visits to nightclubs, various workshops and non-tourist pubs, and the price of an excursion usually does not exceed $400 for a group of four people.

The creators of Embark.org chose a narrower niche for themselves - the service is suitable for lovers of active recreation and extreme sports. As the developers note, the platform is more focused on creating a community with one common interest - a passion for active travel. As a result, the creators managed to combine business with pleasure - to unite fans of extreme tourism and give non-professional guides the opportunity to earn money.

This platform is good because it makes it possible to find a person who will organize active recreation for you, even in the center of a big city. For example, together with a guide you can try your hand at rock climbing in the forest of Fontainebleau, the journey to which from Paris will take no more than 40 minutes. Half of all offers are excursions for several days. The service offers such extreme activities as a three-day rafting trip in India, kayak racing in Croatia and an eight-day hike to a peak on the border of Valle d'Aosta and Piedmont in Italy, all in the company of a local guide who knows his stuff.

The site also has a blog where travelers talk about their experiences, which will help you choose from a variety of options what is right for you.

Prices for guide services start at $80 per person for one day.

The Vayable online platform, created just last year, has already earned the attention of The New York Times, CNN and The Wall Street Journal.

The service is focused on the central cities of Western Europe and the UK. The developers approached the project thoroughly: local guides will not only tell you, but also teach you. For example, one of the proposals is a course on photography of Paris at night. The guide will take tourists around the Latin Quarter and the Seine embankment, and also tell them how to take good night portraits.

Rent a Guide

The German startup Rent a Guide offers guide services for all possible types of vacation leisure activities - from dinner in the best national traditions on the 123rd floor of the Burj Khalifa tower to a hot air balloon flight or a jeep safari in the Arabian deserts. For those who love walking, Rent a Guide will prepare tourist excursions to the capital cities of Western and Eastern Europe.

A hot air balloon ride will cost $300 and a jeep safari will cost $45.

The online housing rental platform Airbnb launched the Trips project relatively recently - last fall. Currently, the service operates in 12 cities and offers more than 500 excursions. The startup is more focused on entertainment that local residents can talk about. For example, you can visit a violin workshop in Paris, ride in vintage cars, and even take part in a marathon in Kenya.

“We want to bring back the element of magic to travel, with people at the center,” said company CEO Brian Chesky.

In addition, here you can try your hand at charity and take part in socially significant events, such as helping stray dogs and a master class on creating art from garbage.

Unlike other online platforms, Trips has a very functional application, so with the help of Airbnb and its new service, you can literally plan a trip from start to finish.

In this post:

Excursions in 300 cities from Tripster.ru

I, like most modern people, prefer to make the most of the Internet. With it, you can order and pay online, or call a taxi. And from time to time I use the service of ordering and paying for online excursions. If I go to a country with a huge number of attractions, then in order to use my free time effectively, I use the service . Therefore, we will consider all its advantages and capabilities in more detail.

Opportunities and advantages of Tripster

The site has been operating since 2013, but in this relatively short time, it has been able to earn the trust of a huge number of travelers. What's most interesting is that the people who created it decided to take a completely different approach to organizing excursions. It involves organizing non-standard excursions, according to the preferences of each client. This is rare to see.

Features of Tripster.ru:

Guides who are delighted with their excursions. These people themselves develop the route in such a way that every guest of the city will be delighted. So that it will take your breath away from new amazing places and facts. The guides include people from different specialties. These are architects, journalists, art critics, historians, and so on;
Originality. The company uses standard approaches. Its motto is “No standard excursions.” Each walk is unique and inimitable, regardless of whether it is a visit to museum complexes, or a “walk on the roofs”;
Individuality. The service for unusual excursions does not work with crowds of tourists. Exclusively individual programs are conducted, designed for one traveler and his companions. That’s why I personally liked the system; I don’t like platitudes.

Possibilities:

Independent choice of the author's excursion. That is, you yourself get acquainted with all the excursion programs of a particular guide, compiled by him independently. Read reviews from people who have already used this excursion program. And only then decide whether this option suits you or not.
Advance booking online. Personally, I am very pleased with this service. I booked a convenient day and time, arrived in the country or city, and rested. And then you can go on excursions.
Payment. This is actually a great option. To make an advance payment, you have the option of only 16% of the total cost. You give the rest of the money to the guide directly upon meeting. But that’s not all - if, for any reason, you are unable to attend the excursion, your money will be returned.

In my opinion, excellent conditions, unique service for individual excursions. You can find out more about all the offers on the official Tripster portal - experience.tripster.ru.

Advantages of online booking excursions

The list of advantages of online booking excursions to Tripster is quite impressive. But I would like to focus on the most important points:

Complete freedom of choice (independence from tour operators, ideal for people who want to plan their time independently);
Save time. There is no longer any need to spend hours on the Internet, selecting the most suitable excursion option. Everything is in one place;
Calm. A tourist can be sure that he will not be deceived, that excursion tickets will not be sold at inflated prices, and so on.

The portal is truly unique; you won’t find anything like this with any tour operator in the whole world.

How to place an order and payment

The process of finding a suitable option, booking and paying on the official portal is quite simple. For example, I do this:

I enter the Tripster portal - excursions from local residents;
I enter the desired city or country into the search engine;
I choose the excursion I like;
I decide on a suitable day and time;
I contact the guide and clarify all points of interest;
I enter personal data (last name and first name, email, phone number);
I make the payment, sometimes I pay only 16%, and the rest of the payment is already on the spot, to the guide.

There are a few more interesting points here. As soon as you make the payment (with a Visa or Mastercard - it doesn’t matter), the guide will see your phone number, and you will see it. Now it is possible to contact the guide at any time, before the scheduled day of the excursion. But until you complete the payment, communication is possible only on the portal. Well, as you can see, everything is simple, easy and accessible to the point of banality.

Our turbulent 21st century dictates its own rules to us. Before our eyes, a generation of people is growing who prefer to order everything directly to their home. Whether it's food from the supermarket or paying for plane or train tickets. Every year there are fewer queues at the ticket offices of airports and railway stations, because all tickets can be ordered and paid for online, and the same thing happens with excursions.

At the moment, there are several services with which you can order and pay for excursions online without leaving your home. And in this article, as you might guess from the title, we will tell you about one of the most popular excursion services -.

Tripster.ru is a project that has been conducting individual excursions in 300 cities around the world since 2013. During this time, the site has earned a reliable reputation and literally acquired positive reviews from enthusiastic customers. The creators of the project conceived it as a service of unusual excursions with an individual approach to each traveler.

Tripster is ready to offer you:

Guides whose eyes sparkle from their own tours. Among them are only interesting, enthusiastic people: historians, art critics, architects, journalists. They themselves, from start to finish, specially design their routes so that you will be breathtakingly impressed!
Original excursions. “No to banal excursions” is the motto of the Tripster.ru team. Each path contains mystery and adventure. Be it a journey through the rooftops of the city or museums of modern art.
Individual approach. The service does not conduct tours for crowds of tourists with banal memorized historical information. Everything is different here. The guide's full attention is only for you and your companions.

Tripster News: Black Friday with Tripster

From November 23 to November 26, 2017, Tripster offers discounts on numerous destinations, including almost all European capitals and more!

You can find out more about the promotion.

Tripster official website

Official website Tripster.ru (Tripster.ru)— . Answers to frequently asked questions and customer reviews - .

The Tripster.ru service allows you to:

Choose on the website a unique excursion created by the guide himself. Read more about it and the guide, read the reviews of those who have already visited it.
Book a date and time convenient for you online in advance.
Chat with the guide before paying for the tour, without leaving your home.
Do not pay the entire amount at once, but only 16% of the cost of the excursion. The rest is paid to the guide on the spot. Moreover, if your excursion does not take place for one reason or another, your money will be fully refunded.

As you can see, the terms of the site are transparent and very simple, and the services are designed to provide an individual approach to each customer.

Advantages of booking excursions online on Tripster.ru

If we talk in a broad sense about the advantages of purchasing excursions online, we will highlight the following:

This gives you freedom, which is very suitable for people who like to plan their trip themselves and not depend on tour operators.
This saves your time— you no longer need to spend hours surfing the Internet collecting information about excursions; the entire list with descriptions and costs is already on the website in front of your eyes.
This saves your nerves peace of mind - you no longer need to bargain with local ticket sellers for excursions and worry that you may be deceived (anyone who has ever bought an excursion from local residents knows well what this is about).

In the case of the Tripster, it is also important to understand one more thing - the site presents a unique product that you simply will not find from tour operators!

Read more about ordering and paying for excursions on Tripster.ru

I was truly fascinated by the idea of everything free in this world and especially such opportunities in travel! Only if recently I myself “ate free cheese”, now I decided to return the favor to the dear Universe and do something good, of course, for free!

Receive approval from above by e-mail and further follow the news in a group where advertisements for applications for gritters periodically appear;

First “catch” a foreigner who is interesting to you(remembering to correlate your language and other capabilities with the wishes of the guest) and declare your desire to become a griller for him on certain days and hours;

From the project coordinator get guest contacts, promptly contact him and arrange a meeting, not forgetting about feedback from the coordinator so that he is aware of what is happening;

meet the guest, walk, chat, enjoy mutual acquaintance, and also take a photo together (even a selfie) and ask for feedback about the walk on the Tripadvisor website: link for St. Petersburg and for Moscow;

keep hunting for new foreign guests in your city!

Directly about your experience of participating in this project I can tell you a little for now, since my gritter debut took place quite recently. I was going to show Dostoevsky’s St. Petersburg to an aspiring Italian photographer, but in the end we walked around, it seems, the entire historical center of the city, fortunately the weather and free time allowed it. In addition to the traditional conversations about Russian culture (vodka-girls-bears), during the walk I took my new friend to the famous Pyshechnaya on Bolshaya Konyushennaya, and the excursion ended with a delicious dinner, which I got as a “thank you” for the hospitality. I won’t lie, it was nice)

Shared much richer experience of “guestkeeping” with me one of the most active Moscow gritters Vera Kukoleva…

Vera, please tell us what funny incidents happened to your excursionists in Russia?

It is very touching to watch how foreigners diligently try to learn to read Russian and remember basic expressions. Instead of a long and terribly difficult “hello”, sometimes you get a familiar “hello!”, with which tourists intend to demonstrate their politeness in shops and hotels. Well, “Pestopakh” instead of “Restaurant” is a well-known story.

Once, excursionists from America asked “where I usually buy nesting dolls.” I immediately imagined how every weekend I go to sales of Russian folk toys at a student discount. I had to tell you that almost only tourists buy nesting dolls.

What negative emotions can you get from grilling?

Negative impressions from excursions are extremely rare. They are, rather, exceptions that confirm the rule that grilling always brings only joy. Sometimes it’s a shame when guests are completely uninterested in anything related to the history of the city or its architecture. Such people just want to “chat about life,” and preparing an excursion turns out to be useless. And for each walk I carefully prepare in advance: I select material, try to find something new and interesting.

The project is free, but it’s always nice to receive a “thank you” for your work. In what ways have foreign guests thanked you?

It’s very nice when guests bring me souvenirs from their country. Once a group from Brussels gave a box of real Belgian chocolate (delicious!), and tourists from Italy brought a traditional Neapolitan pendant for good luck. Some foreigners, knowing that the program is free, want to express their gratitude by tipping and paying for the excursion, but I never take money: for me it spoils the whole charm of the walk.

Meeting a gritter with tourists is like meeting good friends. We communicate easily, exchange stories about life in Russia and abroad. I give guests advice on how to best spend time in Moscow, where to go, how not to get lost in the metro. We often stay in touch after a walk and actually remain friends for a long time. Who would even think of taking money from friends? Therefore, I refuse “payment” on principle.

I thank Vera for a piece of her experience that she shared with us, and I hasten to torment you with questions creator of the Moscow gritter community Alexey Sotskov…

Alexey, please tell us how the idea of creating such a project was born?

A few years ago, I was planning a trip to New York City and was looking for free tours led by the residents themselves. I came across the Big Apple Greeter community, created to combat the stereotype that New York is a gang town. Local volunteers showed the guests not famous sights, but the real life of the American metropolis, which turned out to be not so dangerous.

I really liked the idea of this project and decided to organize something similar in Moscow. The emphasis was placed on linguistic students who lack language practice. There are a lot of conversation clubs and thematic lectures in foreign languages, but you usually have to pay to participate in them. And excursions for foreign guests are free conversational practice, and even in an extremely informal setting. In many cities, gritters are mostly older people who have a lot of free time, but in Russia, on the contrary, there are more young people.

How official is this organization and does it have some kind of “head office” that manages all regional ones?

Everything is currently managed by the virtual Global Greeter Network, which, however, has its own real president and even several departments responsible for marketing, accepting new members, etc. Every year, meetings of the global guitar community are held in various cities. There are plans to transfer the organization’s activities into an “official channel”, but for now this is all in the design stage. It's funny, but some members of the Global Greeter Network, for example, the same Big Apple Greeters, exist in a completely official form and are even sponsored by the city mayor's office.

I suspect that with such support, the New York gritter community is the most developed among its counterparts in other countries.

That’s right, Big Apple Greeter is the most advanced, because they were at the origins of the movement, which began in 1992, while their “official boss” Global Greeter Network appeared only in 2005. Currently, the New York Greeters Association has more than 70 members who conduct about 150 excursions per month. However, it should be noted that such a high figure is achieved due to domestic tourists, that is, Americans from other states. We, unlike Big Apple Greeter, are more focused on working with guests from abroad.

Then let’s just move on to the Russian gritter movement, tell us a little about its indicators.

The Moscow community of gritters will soon turn 4 years old, and the St. Petersburg community has been functioning for only 10 months. There are 70 registered participants in the capital, and about 40 in the Northern capital. As for the number of excursions, this very much depends on the time of year. During the season in Moscow, about 50 walks with foreign guests are held per month, and in winter - only 20. In St. Petersburg, the numbers are still quite modest: only 40 excursions since the creation of the community. However, it should be noted that the number of interested tourists increases every year, so we hope that we will continue to grow and develop!

All I can do is thank Alexey for the interesting conversation and wish the greeters of both capitals more interesting guests from all over the world!

Many independent travelers have long mastered the skill of organizing excursions on their own, but such events are not always carried out in the most educational way. Sightseeing tours purchased from agencies can cost quite a large sum, and walking in a crowd of tourists trying to catch at least a little information is not always comfortable. Therefore, today excursions from local residents are becoming increasingly popular. This option is very convenient, because it involves an individual approach, takes into account all the wishes of the tourist and, in general, can contain much more interesting information than a standard excursion from a guide. Where to find locals who know everything about their city and how to book a tour with them, we tell you in detail in our article.

What is Tripster?

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

Today on the website you can order individual tours of attractions in 485 cities around the world. More than 210 thousand people used the service in 2018 alone, most of whom were satisfied with the service they received. And there is nothing to be surprised here: after all, the guides are local residents, very creative and passionate people who know much more about their city than 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 sightseeing tours, will show you secret corners, organize tasting tours and allow you to immerse yourself in the cultural life of the city.

Curious and active tourists who are bored with monotonous excursions will find Tripster especially attractive. These events allow travelers to climb up to little-known rooftops for the best views of the city and go underground, testing their creativity in pottery, art and dance, tracking wine production techniques and tasting different types of tea and coffee. As a rule, excursions from Russian-speaking local residents are as eventful as possible and fully meet the interests of tourists.

Benefits and Features

Tripster website services have a number of important advantages, including:

Wide choice of excursions. As we mentioned above, Tripster organizes tours in 433 cities around the world. Several guides can work at one site at once, so finding a suitable option here will not be difficult. And in addition to the most popular destinations, you can also find little-known cities on the site, whose local residents are ready to create all the conditions for tourists to get the most complete acquaintance with iconic places. It is noteworthy that today excursions from locals for locals are in great demand. For example, Moscow residents often go on trips with a guide who combines a story about the objects with exciting quests, puzzles and prizes.
Taking into account individual requirements. This is one of the most important advantages of Tripster. Firstly, the excursion will be organized exclusively for you and your companions and you will not find strangers at the event. Many guides from local residents recruit a group where the maximum number of people does not exceed 10. If there are more of you, then this issue is discussed individually with the guide. Secondly, the excursion will be organized according to your interests. To understand how important this is, it’s worth remembering at least the guides from Turkey or Egypt, with whom the main part of the tour takes place in textile, leather and carpet factories, rather than at the attraction itself.
Possibility to book a tour in advance. If you know the exact dates of your trip, you can make advance tour reservations using Tripster. And this is very convenient, because you don’t have to look for the right person on the spot yourself, spending precious time on this. A good guide will take care of all the nuances of the walk and will try to do it in the best possible way.
Opportunity to speak with a guide before booking an excursion. The site provides communication with local residents providing 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. This way, you will have the opportunity to contact him and discuss all the details in more detail.
Small prepayment amount. Once you agree on a tour with a local resident, you need to pay 20% of the total cost of the service. This is done so that the conductor is confident in the seriousness of your intentions: after all, you are booking a specific time that will be denied to other clients. You give the rest of the amount to the guide at a personal meeting.
Promotions and discounts. Tripster often offers discounts to its users. To take full advantage of promotions, you must register on the site. You can often find various promotional codes here: some of them are valid for 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 travel dates have been determined and the travel plan has been drawn up, it’s time to take care of the main part of the tour - the excursions. Using the Tripster website is quite simple, but we decided to provide you with detailed instructions on how to use the system.

Step 1. Finding a suitable option

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

Based on our request, the system was able to find 28 offers. To clarify the parameters of your search, we will use the form 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 presented excursions conducted by local residents, click on the photos.

A new window opens in front of us, where you can see information about the guide, information about the excursion itself, as well as a booking 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 other travelers' opinions about the guide and his organizational skills. After studying the information on all three offers, we chose the most budget option with a large number of positive reviews. Now click on the date we need in the presented calendar and move on to the next step.

After we clicked on the planned date, a form appeared in front of us. Here it is important to indicate the day of the proposed excursion, the number of tourists, first and last name, email address and telephone number. Below is a field in which you can ask the guide all your questions. Please note that by filling out this form, you are not yet booking an excursion, but are only declaring your intention. You can finally reserve your date after the guide answers your questions.

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

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

Is it possible to cancel a reservation?

If you have made an advance payment, but the trip is suddenly cancelled, I am ready to refund you the funds. 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 this, it is important to notify the site’s support service by writing a letter to the administration at [email protected]. Refunds will be made in accordance with the system's refund policy:

the money will be returned in full if you notify the cancellation of the reservation at least 5 days before the planned excursion
if the cancellation occurs less than 5 days before the agreed meeting, then the site is ready to refund the prepayment only if the trip is disrupted due to reasons beyond the tourist’s control (for example, flight cancellation)

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 if the excursion is canceled, the prepayment will be returned minus the amount he spent.

Conclusion

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

Trip excursions. Tripster - unusual excursions from local residents