This blog may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy for more info.
If you’re researching activities for a trip then you’ll almost certainly come across Get Your Guide, but are they legit?
This third-party booking site has tons of tours, but it’s important to make sure that they’re trustworthy before making a booking. So to give you the short answer, yes, they can be trusted.
We’ve booked tours with Get Your Guide all over the world, so we’re well-versed in the pros and cons of using this site. However, to be honest, it’s not our favorite option and in this blog post, we’ll explain why, and share some tips for using the site that we’ve learned along the way.
So settle in and let’s get into Get Your Guide!
Is Get Your Guide legit?
Yes, Get Your Guide is a legitimate company. In fact, they’re a huge company offering over 60,000 tours around the world. It’s a bit like Booking.com, only for tours rather than hotels. They make it easy to book tours and they won’t steal your money. In our experience, they offer great customer service too, so you’re in good hands if there’s a problem with your tour.
We like the fact that they’re transparent about reviews, and it’s easy to filter them. For example, you can apply a filter to see if families liked the tour, which is handy for parents. There are also options to see reviews from couples, solo travelers, and groups of friends, too.
Are tours more expensive on Get Your Guide?
No – or at least they shouldn’t be! Get Your Guide has a lowest price guarantee so you’re not paying more to go through a third party. This gives us peace of mind that we’re getting a good deal when booking a tour, but if you do find the same tour at a cheaper price elsewhere, Get Your Guide will refund you the difference. This includes if you find a better price on the company’s direct booking page!
To be honest though, we have found that Viator is better at this than Get Your Guide. We’ve claimed money back many times from them after seeing a last-minute deal elsewhere, and it’s always been a super quick and easy process.
Get Your Guide vs Viator
Get Your Guide and Viator operate in the exact same way, but we do prefer Viator overall. Viator has over 300,000 tours, which is 5x more than Get Your Guide! So Viator is our go-to when looking for tours because they offer us a lot more choice.
Not only that, but Viator is owned by TripAdvisor, so that level of brand trust is pretty hard to beat if you ask me! I mean, TripAdvisor is literally the go-to review site for travelers around the world, so this adds an extra layer of trust. But, with that being said, they operate much the same and both are legitimate websites.
We also prefer Viator’s interface. It’s more user-friendly and after booking all of your tours for a trip, Viator allows you to see them in order like a travel itinerary. We find this feature so useful! You can check out Viator here if you want to compare the two sites!
What are the benefits of booking through Get Your Guide?
Free cancellation
One of the things we like the most about booking online with Get Your Guide is that it offers free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start time on most tours. This is so useful when you’re not 100% sure what your plans are going to be, but don’t want to miss out on an in-demand experience! We’ve also taken advantage of this to make sure we get the best weather for certain tours, as some experiences are just better in the sunshine.
Same currency, so lower transaction fees
When you book a tour directly, you usually have to pay in a different currency from your own, which means incurring transaction fees. And trust me, those can really add up! However, with Get Your Guide, you can pay in your own currency which means you actually save money. I mean, why waste money on transaction fees that could be spent on food, coffee, or beer?
Buy now, pay later
The “buy now, pay later” option can be so useful when booking expensive tours in particular. I think we’ve all all been in the position where you want to secure your spot on a popular tour, but you want your next paycheck before you spend the money. Being able to pay later makes budgeting so much easier, and since Get Your Guide offers free cancellation on most tours, it’s very low-risk, too.
Fast refunds
We’ve had to cancel tours with Get Your Guide before, and we have always received our refunds promptly, without any hassle. We love knowing that if our plans change, we won’t have to fight to get our money back, because who wants that headache?
Recent reviews
Reviews from 10 years ago aren’t really that useful, so we like that Get Your Guide is transparent about exactly when each review was posted. We usually use the filter feature to show the most recent reviews first. Plus, only people who booked through Get Your Guide are allowed to leave reviews, whereas on sites like Google Maps and Facebook, fake reviews are much more common.
Communication directly with the tour operator via an online chat
Get Your Guide makes it super easy to converse with the tour operator directly once you’ve booked your tour. We’ve used this feature before to let companies know about dietary requirements, request add-ons, ask questions, and of course to arrange pickup. It’s easy and takes the middleman out of the equation!
Lowest price guarantee
Well, of course, we like the fact that Get Your Guide saves us money! It’s nice to know that we’re getting the best price possible without having to spend hours shopping around or take risks with a less reputable website.
Related Read: Planning to rent a car during your travels? Our blog on if Discover Cars is legit will help you out!
What are the negatives of booking through Get Your Guide?
Booking last minute can be hard
Probably the biggest issue we’ve had with Get Your Guide is that it’s hard to make same-day bookings. In fact, I have often found that today’s date is often just grayed out when I go to book, which happens far less frequently with Viator. We’ve also been rejected for a next-day booking before – only once, so it’s not a frequent issue, but we weren’t thrilled about it!
You need to double-check pick-up locations with the provider
My biggest piece of advice when booking with Get Your Guide would be to double-check the pickup location after you make a booking. Wait for the confirmation email to come through and make sure that the pickup location is correct so that you can amend it if necessary. We had a mix-up once and ended up having to Uber to another hotel for pickup, which was a bit stressful and a waste of money. We had totally missed the mistake in the email, so learn from our mistake and check it carefully!
They will email you afterwards
You know how it goes, you buy one thing from a company and they’ll email you until the end of time. Well, Get Your Guide is no exception to this rule, so after booking one tour with them, you’ll definitely get a lot of emails pestering you to book more tours. Personally, I’m not a fan of this but it is easy enough to opt out, so it’s a relatively small price to pay overall.
What is Get Your Guide customer service like?
It’s really good! Their customer service team is very responsive, and we have never had to fight for our money back, either. In fact, refunds are processed in a few days, so we really can’t complain at all.
What has been our personal experience with Get Your Guide?
Over the years, our trust in Get Your Guide has only grown. The more we use them, the more we trust them, and we wouldn’t hesitate to book a tour through them.
With that being said, we do prefer to use Viator. Viator is our go-to for booking tours, as we prefer their interface and the fact that they have so many tours available. However, sometimes there are instances where we can’t find the exact tour we want to do on Viator, and that’s when we use Get Your Guide. It’s a great site but Viator just has way more choice!
Don’t Forget Travel Insurance!
If you’re looking to save money on travel insurance, we currently use and recommend SafetyWing. We’ve been using their coverage since 2018 and they’ve had our backs when we needed emergency flights and got sick overseas.
SafetyWing is one of the cheapest providers out there and covers everything from medical costs to lost luggage, travel delays, and emergency flights. A huge difference we’ve found between them and other companies is that they let you take out a policy AFTER leaving your home country. We’ve also found it handy that it’s a monthly payment rather than a lump sum, and you can get a refund for unused time.
SafetyWing has helped us out in some scary situations before and their affordable coverage has given us peace of mind. You can read our honest review of SafetyWing for all the pros and cons.
Thanks for reading!
Hopefully, this blog helped answer any questions you had about booking tours with Get Your Guide. Yes, Get Your Guide is a legitimate website and it’s trusted by travelers all over the world. While Viator is still our go-to for most experiences, we have used Get Your Guide frequently.
Wherever your future travels are taking you, we hope we can help you with your trip! Check out our blog for travel tips and advice for destinations all over the world!
Is Viator Legit? Our Viator Review based on Experience
5 SAFEST Places to Escape the Cold this Winter