Vancouver Tours by Locals

[txmommy2]

Has anyone used Tours by Locals in Vancouver? We are wanting a private guide for our group of 8 in August.

[martincath]

You will hopefully get some replies, naming specific guides used, but as a general note: the company is totally legit, they actually began here in Vancouver but now operate all over the world. Like Uber and similar 'gig economy' setups though, you are not working with employees but independent guides with some degree of scrutiny, at the end of the day every guide is an individual - reviews of the company are nearly worthless (unless it's a compliment or complaint about the website, billing, other centralized matter), it's reviews of the specific guides you want!

 

We've personally found that even with detailed research on specific guides, sometimes you just get a person who comes across differently than you assumed they would 'on paper' - a weird sense of humour, quirky food issues (we have twice ended up with guides who insisted on joining us at the lunch table after we asked them to recommend a good resto - but not eating despite our offer to join us as our treat! They just sat there watching us eat, which was extremely weird - and no, it wasn't during Ramadan or similar, one just said they weren't hungry and the other that they didn't like the resto... which they had of course just recommended to us, so we were very pleased that the food was perfectly decent when it came!)

 

Unfortunately back in the day when we came here as tourists we didn't use TBL - and since we started living here I've given far more tours than I've taken!

 

 

 

 

[psuboater]

Highly recommend Lawrence Tours- Michael is a one man business- he is highly knowledgeable, very kind and thoughtful and gave us a great full day tour. You can book him on Viator or directly through his website  (Lawrence Tours Vancouver) 

[Kirsten T]

I used Tours By Locals in Vancouver in 2022, to kill time between disembarking and airport hotel with elderly parents. It was a great experience; pricey, but worth it. Easy to book, questions were answered by the specific guide very quickly, and the city driving tour was exactly as described - with changes based on my parents mobility issues, no problem customizing. Sandy G was terrific, and she appears to still be doing tours when I just checked.

Edited March 18 by Kirsten T
Should have verified that this was Vancouver!