ToursByLocals port guides

By Steve Drosman
This item appears on page 32 of the February 2015 issue.

Planning for a Black Sea cruise, Sept. 22-Oct. 2, 2014,  my wife, Barbara, and I weren’t interested in tours arranged by the ship, as the number of people in each group would preclude any individual attention. After speaking to a number of people, we learned about ToursByLocals.com (1112 W. Pender St., Ste. 500, Vancouver, BC, V6E 2S1, Canada; 866/844-6783, www.toursbylocals.com).

We used their guides for day tours in Nessebur, Bulgaria; Constant¸a and Bucharest, Romania, and Trab­zon, Turkey. They were terrific, and the cost was less than what the cruise line charged for their tours. 

The guides were very knowledgeable, we could ask all the questions we wanted, and, if we had specific interests, we could see sites that weren’t on the original itinerary. We definitely were not on the clock.

I can’t recommend ToursBy
Locals highly enough. I’d use them in the future even if a cruise were not involved.

STEVE DROSMAN

San Diego, CA