Tired of guide books? Get to know a city like a local with guided tours by locals at trip4real.
Travel Guides (Photo credit: Vanessa (EY))
Are guide books all that useful? Don’t get me wrong, they’re great for the initial stages of planning a holiday or city break. They cover everything the city has to offer whether you’re looking for the best beach to lay on for then next seven nights or the off-beaten track to find that gem most tourists miss out on.
And that’s the problem with guide books; there isn’t enough detail. If there was you would end up with an encyclopaedia sized book to carry around! Let’s be honest, if you’re lucky half of the book is relevant to your interests and if you’re luckier your guide book will have a page of information (but it’s usually a paragraph description) on the things you really want to know about.
That’s why guided tours make so much sense. And who better to tell than a local? Unless you’re lucky enough to know a friend or family member to show you around, this can be tricky. But then I heard about trip4real.
trip4real offer a number of great tours by locals in Spain. What’s great is that they’re categorised by interests such as sport, food and drink, culture and attractions making it easy to find the perfect tour.
They seem reasonably priced too, so it even appeals to a budget traveller like me. If you factor in say the price of an audio guide at an attraction (which aren’t great anyway) you get a lot more value for your money. With a guide you can ask questions and there are tours where audio guides aren’t provided, like trail running in Barcelona – for just €20! I even saw a three hour guide of the Gothic Quarter in Barcelona for as little as €12!
What’s nice are the little bios for each of the local guides so you can get to know them even before meeting them in person and find out what makes them an expert. You’ll find some of the local experts are historians or stylists or photographers by trade so they really know what they are talking about and you’ll receive a tour that specifically meets your interests. It just seems a much more personal way to see and explore the city. This is essential if it’s only a weekend break for example where every minute is precious – no getting lost either!
It’s not all walking tours either if that’s not your thing. There are tours on segways or if you’re looking for something a little more unique, vintage bike rides or even exploring via a side car! After all, experiences are what we really take away from a great holiday aren’t they? And this is only scratching the surface of what to see and do in Barcelona! I loved my time a few years ago in this great city and cramming everything in four days was fun but exhausting. If I had a guide I would have saved time and effort in seeing only what deserves to be seen.
Cycle through Barcelona on a vintage bike!
They have plenty of Spanish cities to choose from, even some of the less known places and even the islands like the Canaries and Balearic. Madrid is on my bucket list so I’ll be sure to book a few tours then. They also offer gift cards which make a great present if someone’s going away for their birthday or aim to visit a new city every birthday like myself!
