From the Las Vegas Strip to the Fremont Street Experience, from the Grand Canyon to Valley of Fire to Red Rock Canyon and beyond, there are lots of places to explore and even more ways to explore them. You can grab books or online guides to lead you. You can just walk around on your own or rent a car to see where the road might lead. You can also book on a myriad of tours and experiences large and small. But for many, hiring a private tour guide might be your best bet.
Here are four reasons you might want to consider taking the plunge and hiring a private guide on your next Las Vegas adventure.
They Can Design A Trip That’s Perfect For You
Let’s face it. Las Vegas can be overwhelming with its massive resorts and hundreds of different things to do. A good private guide can craft an activity, a walking tour, or an entire day’s adventure keyed to what interests you. Here locally I often take families on walking tours of the Downtown. Sometimes they are general, but I also do tours in the same areas with the focus on Mob Las Vegas History, or the Reality TV shows like Pawn Stars, Counting Customs, Big Brother and others. Or how about a Paranormal/Haunted Vegas? Other local private guides do foodie tours and other specialized tours.
Your Local Expert
Not only that, but when you hire a tour guide you have a local expert that you can mine their local expert knowledge. Great place to eat? They can tell you about locals favorites that don’t break the bank, or the little off-Strip bistro opened by an up-and-coming chef who cut their teeth on Michelin Star restaurants at one of the grand resorts.
Plus, in my experience private guides tend to be more experienced and knowledgeable. Many bus tour guides have a good amount of training, but they tend to follow a script to satisfy many different people. If you have questions you’ll have their limited attention as the group guide provides the tour, and tries to fulfill the needs and answer the questions of many people.
The people who become private guides normally are people who worked in tour bus companies and began to chafe at the corporate limitations that bound them. They are looking for something more creative, intimate and satisfying. With a good private guide their sole reason is you. So, ask away! You’ll get an insider’s view and more knowledge than you thought possible.
They Might be Your Best Option if You Have Children or Group Members with Mobility Issues
Lots of groups are worried when vacationing, especially when accompanied by smaller children or members that have mobility needs. Larger tours can end up being frustrating. For the guides it can also be stressful. They are already taxed with leading a group of 15-30 diverse people. Add in a wheelchair or the need to keep an eye on some flighty children and their stress levels multiply.
As a private guide with generally a smaller group, children or those with mobility issues are more of a challenge of how to keep everyone involved and entertained. Plus for me, I have a wife in a wheelchair, and experience with how difficult the world can be when you have physical limitations. That said it is just easier making a tour that is enjoyable for everyone when it is a small group. Personally, long ago I heard the saying “Happy wife, happy life.” I also learned the two follow ups to that – “Happy kids, happy parents ,” and “No one in the family is happy unless granny is happy.”
And again, it is just easier to make everybody in the group happier if it is just one group/family.
Private Guides Might Cost You Less
Private guides generally cost you more, but sometimes they are a bargain. If you are going solo or a couple they almost certainly will be more expensive. But if you are in a group suddenly a private guide can be the cheapest thing out there.
The reason is that most private guides charge the same no matter how many there are in the group. It is the same amount of time and for the most part it is no difference taking a walking tour of one versus 10. The only kicker is if there are incremental costs – like tickets to a museum or access fees to a national park.
So you can pay $45/person for a walking tour, or hire a private guide to do that tour for your group of 10 for $249. My experience is that for most groups of between 5-10, private guides tend to be cheaper than group tours.
There are so many ways to enjoy Las Vegas. Involved as I am in so many social platforms about travel and Las Vegas I often get the question – “Why pay to walk with someone?”
For a lot of visitors to Las Vegas, there is no need. Just strolling the Strip and taking in what they see and experience is amazing. That is more than enough for them.
But for others they love hearing the stories others never hear. They love being led to the nooks and crannies others never see. They adore the stories of the people who built the dam in the middle of a totally inaccessible canyon, built a city of gambling and entertainment from an unremarkable railroad stop. The lights and the glitz, pale for them, beside the stories of the ranchers, mobsters, politicos, singers, widows, gamblers, crooks and cops that made the City of Las Vegas a one-of-a-kind world destination. If that is the case, a private guide might be just what you are looking for in Las Vegas, or any place you visit.
Vegas Private Tours 