One thing that many travellers seem to leave until they actually arrive at their destination is organising their day tours. This can lead to travellers significantly overpaying for tours as they don’t have an idea of prices. This is what prompted us to write this GetYourGuide review as their service is undoubtedly the one of the easiest and best way to book day tours when travelling in Europe.
In this review, we’ll outline exactly how the service works, the advantages and limitations of booking with them and how it compares with some of its top competitors.
Table of Contents
What is GetYourGuide?
GetYourGuide is a website that allows you to conveniently book all your day trips, skip-the-line tickets, walking tours and much more on one easy-to-use platform. It takes the hassle out of planning any organised activities and allows you to choose from a wide variety of options.
How Does It Work?
One of the great things about using GetYourGuide is that they make it very easy and straightforward to find the tours that you’re after and book them. The first step as a user is going to their website or download the app, putting in your destination and dates of travel.
After your initial search, all the possible tours and activities will be displayed including their prices, reviews from other users and a short description. If you’re after a particular type of tour, you can use GetYourGuide’s handy filters on the left-hand side of the screen to narrow down the choices available.
If a particular tour or activity catches your eye, then you can click on it to read more information and understand what is included.
The detailed tour page will share critical information such as where the tour meets, the supplier, booking conditions, what languages are available, what you need to bring and detailed customer reviews.
If you scroll down to the bottom of the individual tour page you can also see the name of the company that runs the tour if you want to do some further research and check the reviews on other platforms like Tripadvisor.
Once you’ve decided on the best tour, you can check the availability on the individual tour page and then add it to your cart.
Hit ‘Checkout’ if you don’t want to book any additional tours and then you’ll simply have to enter your details and payment option. You can also use this opportunity to enter in any promo code or gift voucher if you have one.
You can choose between PayPal or credit card and GetYourGuide will also tell you until what date and time you make a cancellation and get a full refund. There is typically no booking fee when buying a tour.
Once that’s done, you’ll get a confirmation from GetYourGuide with everything you need to know about the tour you’ve just booked. This will include things like the meeting point for your tour guide and what to expect on the day. Simple as that!
If you want to find a tour for your upcoming trip to Europe then simply click here to begin your search!
Is GetYourGuide Legitimate & Reliable?
If you have never heard of GetYourGuide you might wonder if it’s a legit and reliable service.” The answer to both those concerns is a resounding “Yes”.
GetYourGuide has worked tirelessly over the last few years to establish itself as one of the leading tour booking services, particularly in Europe, and the countless reviews that you find on their website will speak to that.
Their easy-to-use website and customer experience also means that the booking process can be significantly more reliable than if you’re dealing with other websites.
Pros of using GetYourGuide
If you’re looking for a quick checklist about what we think are the best reasons to use GetYourGuide then this section is for you!
Great User Experience
When travelling overseas to a new country you don’t want any unnecessary headaches. You don’t want to risk booking something that is below your expectations and not having anyone to contact if something goes wrong.
One of the top reasons we suggest using GetYourGuide is that everything about booking with them is easy. From selecting your activity to finding out all the details to paying for your tour, you have a great user experience by using a highly intuitive website and booking process.
Huge Variety of Options
GetYourGuide offers a huge amount of tour options, particularly for Europe, so it means you’re able to book all your activities in one place.
From skip-the-line admission tickets, city walking tours, day trips to nearby attractions or even nightlife tours you can organise them all in one place.
This means you don’t need to keep track of multiple bookings in different places or deal with booking on websites that might not be secure or are difficult to navigate.
Price Guarantee
For many travellers, particularly those on a tight budget, it doesn’t matter how great a service is if they have to pay a lot more than the alternative options. That’s why GetYourGuide’s price guarantee is a fantastic initiative.
It simply means that if you find the tour that you’ve booked cheaper elsewhere on the day you booked for then GetYourGuide will refund the price difference. It guarantees budget travellers additional peace of mind when booking an activity.
Transparency
One of the big things that I like about GetYourGuide is that there is complete transparency with regards to who is operating the tour.
While other aggregators hide who runs the tour, with GetYourGuide you can clearly see the name of the company that will be operating the activity that you’re booking.
This means that you can do your own independent research before booking the tour (GYG does have their own review system but there might not be many reviews if the tour is new) and also more accurately assess pricing.
24/7 Support
When travelling around the world, tours will start at different times and issues might arise at odd hours, therefore you can have some comfort in the fact that GetYourGuide has 24/7 customer service support. You can reach them via various local phone numbers, through WhatsApp or via e-mail if the query is less urgent.
Limitations of GetYourGuide
While GetYourGuide is a great option for many destinations there are some limitations to keep in mind when booking with them.
Huge Variety of Options
Okay, so we’re aware that we listed this as an advantage of using GetYourGuide as well. However, for some tour options, there are a lot of similar tours available which can make it difficult to choose which one is best.
For example, if searching in popular cities, you might have to sort through a lot of walking tours or guided tours of attractions to work out why some are cheaper than others.
While we would personally prefer to have more options than less, it’s worth keeping this mind if trying to find a tour in a popular destination and if you’re short on time.
Tour Descriptions can be Confusing
Continuing on from the issues arising from having a huge variety of options, it’s worth making sure you pay attention when booking your tour to understand exactly what you’re getting.
Many tours offer options such as transfers and admission to certain museums or attractions but these aren’t always included in the initial price displayed. Instead, there is a cost added when you go through the tour booking process.
It’s worth paying attention to the ‘Includes’ section of the description which does typically outline what is included in a tour.
Can Be Overpriced in Offbeat Destinations
While GetYourGuide’s selection is fantastic in most major European destinations that we’ve travelled to, options can be overpriced and limited in more offbeat places where tourism is still developing.
For example, on recent trips to cities such as Sarajevo in Bosnia & Herzegovina or Baku, Azerbaijan we were able to find more affordable tour options with local companies that weren’t listed on GetYourGuide.
While this might certainly change over time, it’s worth keeping this in mind when travelling to offbeat places where many local tour companies haven’t yet listed on international aggregator sites.
Alternative Sites To GetYourGuide
If you’re considering using this service after reading this GetYourGuide review, you might be wondering how it compares to other popular ways of booking day tours and attractions.
Booking Direct
Many travellers prefer to book tours directly with the tour provider rather than through an aggregator, however, this isn’t always as simple as it could be.
Firstly, many individual tours simply won’t have invested in an easy-to-use website like GetYourGuide and secure payment process. Furthermore, if travelling in a non-English speaking country you might have to deal with a poorly translated website!
GetYourGuide also offers a best price guarantee so if you find a cheaper price online for the same tour on the same day, then simply let GetYourGuide know and they will refund you the difference.
Viator
Many travellers, particularly in North America, are used to booking with Viator rather than GetYourGuide. Generally, I have found GetYourGuide to have better options than Viator in Europe. I also like that GetYourGuide tells you exactly who is running the tour.
However, during recent travels in California & Arizona, I found that Viator tends to have more options than GetYourGuide for US-based options.
Klook
Klook is similar to GetYourGuide in a lot of ways, however, while in recent times Klook has expanded to offering booking options around the world, it’s best for travelling in Asia.
If you’re wanting to book a tour in Asia then it’s certainly worth comparing what’s available on Klook vs GetYourGuide to see what is the best option for you.
Klook also has an easy-to-use website and payment process, while also allowing users to credits and redeem them if booking several trips.
Airbnb Experiences
Airbnb Experiences were created to allow visitors to a city to book more unique tours run by locals than what they would typically expect to find off a website like GetYourGuide.
However, I have noticed in recent times that more and more standard tour companies are appearing on Airbnb Experiences while more and more local tours are also appearing on GetYourGuide.
This means that the difference between the two platforms is shrinking and you, therefore, might find similar options on both platforms. Both websites are easy-to-use and reliable, so it’s worth exploring both options if you’re after a more unique tour in the city you’re travelling to.
Booking a tour on GetYourGuide is incredibly straightforward, if you’re travelling soon, click here to browse options at your destination!
Did you find this GetYourGuide review useful? Have you used them before? Let us know in the comments below!
Thank you. Your blogs have been very helpful and informative while planning my trip to Scotland &Ireland.