Why I Use Viator for Travel Tours

                 I’m always looking to visit a new city or historic place that has a rich heritage and unique history. In my early years (pre-highspeed internet), I used to jump in my car and drive to the location or area of choice without putting much thought and consideration into what I wanted to do once I arrived at the final destination. Before leaving home, I used to spend hours flipping through city maps planning the best routes and arriving early to visit the most popular attractions before the crowds of other tourists arrived. Over time, I started to notice that more and more of my time and effort was spent on finding parking spaces, standing in multiple lines, and walking longer distances from my parked car to the destination’s sales booth. After performing this ritual two or three times, I discovered that my quality time was being spent dealing with the logistics of travel rather than listening, observing, and taking in the sites and sounds of the attraction. Eventually, I discovered the online ease and convenience of allowing the expert tour operators and managers with Viator to perform all those aforementioned laborious tasks for me.
Viator is an online site dedicated to providing information concerning sightseeing tours, day trips, city tours, helicopter tours, and much more.

Leave the Driving to the Tour Operator

  I primarily select Viator for three compelling reasons. First, most tours offer their very own vehicles and drivers, which gives the traveler a temporary break from navigating in stressful traffic. This is especially true if you are traveling to multiple locations within a city. Likewise, if you live in a metropolitan area, then you know how painful it is to fight through traffic congestion every single day. This can be especially stressful if you are driving in an unfamiliar area with unknown traffic patterns, which generally leads to the strong potential of making a frustrating wrong turn. So, if you are trying to drive a Big Bus tour route on your own, then traffic and your unfamiliarity with the location is undoubtedly going to slow you down. I know mobile navigation devices have made life more comfortable, but these convenient devices don’t remove traffic and frequently don’t always select the best route. So, instead, let the expert tour operator’s driver take on the traffic nightmare and route navigation.

Listen to What the Experts have to Say

         The second reason I like to select Viator is because I want to hear what the local tour experts have to say. If you are reading this post, you are very likely to have been on tour at least once in your life. Most Viator operators and tour guides are experienced and trained men and women who have studied history, know the area, the culture, and in many cases, live in the area. Those guides earn their money each day because they pride themselves on providing information that is not commonly known, yet also provides an intriguing story for all listeners. Similarly, in some cases tour operators provide guides that are multilingual or provide mobile audio devices that provide the information in a variety of languages. Finally, most great tour guides I’ve met know precisely how to entertain a group while providing some very fascinating information. Let’s face it. The tour guides final trip tip is based on their ability to give excellent performance, great service and making the experience memorable. So, excellent tour guides are always perfecting their craft, and it is safe to say that if your tour guide is not good—they generally don’t last too long. Plus, most tour operators will not put an unprepared guide in the public’s eye if they are not fully confident in the guide’s ability.
“The tour guides final trip tip is based on their ability to give excellent performance, great service and making the experience memorable.”

Focus on Value, Not on Price

         The third reason I select Viator is that I mainly find their value superb. I’m often amazed at the number of travelers who do not understand the difference between value and price. So, let me start by explaining the difference. Price is the amount one pays to acquire a product or service; value is the utility of that good or service to the consumer. In short, value is a person’s opinion about the amount of worth the product or service has to you. When it comes to selecting a tour, a traveler has to learn to think in terms of value. As this concept applies to a tour, a traveler has to define their most important considerations to make the proper value determination. For example, I value a tour narrator’s expertise, length of the tour, online feedback, and, most importantly the comfort factor associated with the tour vehicle. Note, many tour reviews can be found on the site www.tripadvisor.com. A lot of these factors help me determine the value of a tour, which further helps me to determine the price I’m willing to pay for that particular tour. In short, first determine what is important to you, second translate those essential factors into your own personal value.

Conclusion 

  Now, you are ready to hand over those hard-earned dollars for a tour price based on your perceived value. In the end, there are a plethora of tours on sites like Viator. So, next time you prepare to take a tour of one of your most desirable locations, considered the tour operator’s vehicle comfort, expertise of the tour guide and focus on value.