I like to connect with local people: to talk about their points of views, thoughts, customs and culture - to experience the local culture as it is and not how mass tourism companies masquerade it. The best option to do this for me is to hire a local private guide who is knowledgeable, easy going and likable. Private tours last at least a couple of hours and if the local tour guide isn't likable and knowledgeable in my fields of interests, the encounter wouldn't be of much value for both of us Holy land Tour Guide .

So how to find a local tour guide and get in touch with him or her before travelling?

Of course you can go to your travel agency around the corner and hire a private tour guide. But that's not satisfying:

First of all you won't get to know more about the guide than his first name. And you probably won't be able to contact the guide directly to inform him or her about your travel interests and wishes. So the local guide can't custom the tour for your special interests because he doesn't know them. The encounter at the meeting point is then like a blind date. Both do not know anything from each other: What kind of person is he, what are the expectations, etc.

But thanks to the new possibilities of the internet there came up some good websites helping travellers and locals to connect with each other. There tour guides get an own profile with information about themselves (and on some sites also about guiding experiences, guiding education, unique tours offered, etc.). User reviews also show the service quality of the local tour guides.

These websites help local tour guides to make themselves and their unique adventures public to a broader audience and to get direct market access. Therefore the local guides get higher wages than typically paid by mass tourism companies. As there are no middlemen the prices are anyhow lower than what travellers normally pay at their travel agency. Other industries (like for example the coffee or chocolate industry) are calling this approach fair trade. The travel industry is calling this approach local travel. Their key values of local travel are:

- respect the local culture, local heritage and local people  

- make unique experiences together with local people and save money by spending it locally  

- be sensitive to the local environment.