Here's a way to get a better tour guide for your travels

You can book a tour and pack yourself onto a bus with a group of tourists, but will you see the best sites? Will you experience the real town, or will you just get a package deal like all the rest. I think our method of touring a destination is the best bang for the buck with our "better tour guide!"

When I met Tom, I had traveled, but not like this. When he travels, he likes to get personalized service, and he knows how to do it. When we get off the plane, or disembark from our cruise ship, Tom finds a local taxi driver who can speak our language. He then commences with the haggling. Yep, Tom will do a good-natured bit of haggling with the driver and come up with a price that is good for us, and good for the driver as well. He rents the taxi for a day, and the driver comes with it.

If we’re staying in one location for several days, all the better, the driver is usually very excited to know he’ll have several days of guaranteed income.

We normally research the area before we arrive, and I usually purchase a travel book so I have a lot of the area sights already mapped out to visit.

When we get in the taxi, we simply tell the driver all the places we want to visit, and let him plan a day for us. (He's our better tour guide.) We also make certain he knows he can show us anything he thinks would interest us as well. We’ll pass up a visit to a standard sight to get a view from the inside. Let me give you some examples:

1. Barbados – When we disembarked from our ship, the driver was happy to show us the sights of Barbados. In the process, we saw houses that the islanders called home, met the man’s daughter who was walking home from school, and visited the far side of the island where the locals fish and swim. We stopped at a hilltop viewpoint to catch the sight of a distant cove, and ate ice cream at a local shop, for a fraction of the prices offered at tourist destinations.

2. Roatan, Honduras - We visited an iguana farm and fed the iguanas, saw the real Fantasy Island mansion where the series was filmed, shopped with the tourists at local shops, and stopped off at a bird sanctuary where we held birds and cute little monkeys. We saw local homes and others built by expatriates from Europe and the U.S.

And for lunch, we stopped at a seaside restaurant that had to be the best seafood we’d had in years. We ate lobster, fresh-baked coconut bread, shrimp and pasta, salad and beer to wash it down. The cost, for both of us, and the driver, was $40.00. We were told it would have cost half that if we had been locals, but the price was reasonable anyway.

3. Rhodes, Greece - On a trip to Greece, we stopped off on the island of Rhodes. We visited traditional Greek ruins, but the highlight of the trip was a tour of the countryside. The olive orchards covered the hillsides creating a picturesque tapestry of trees and field crops. As we wound through the little country roads, we exclaimed at the quaint houses and little roadside taverns.

We visited a tiny countryside shop that appeared to be nothing more than someone’s home. There were olive orchards outside, and inside were tiny tables with a few locals seated around them. Another couple from the U.S. was visiting as well. There was a tiny wood stove in the center of the room, and the proprietor placed potatoes atop the stove and covered them with a little lid. As they roasted, we were served ouzo, one after the other. We were encouraged to lift the potent, liquorish-flavored liquid and down it in one swallow. Then it was customary to all exclaim o-pah!, loudly for all to hear. After a few rounds, we declined additional imbibement.

We were then shown the local dance, which consisted of locking arms and dancing round and round the little stove, kicking this way and that as we moved in a circle. We were served a meal of baked lamb, those nicely toasted potatoes, fresh tomatoes and goat cheese. And of course, more ouzo. After our meal, which set us back about $25.00, we went for a look at the olive oil presses nearby. Where else can you get an experience like this? Not on a package tour!

When we see a place in this manner, the days are always packed with special experiences that nobody else will enjoy in just the same way. We are able to stop and take photos whenever we want instead of when the tour bus stops and unloads all 40 or so passengers, and there’s no worry about whether we’ll be able to hear the tour guide telling about the next stop on the itinerary. Our "better tour guide" is talking for us to hear, not a crowd. We can ask questions, detour from the route, or eat wherever we choose.

We tend to have out of the ordinary experiences far beyond what other cruise passengers enjoy, and our stories tend to gather a lot of listeners. Other passengers may have seen one or two places, but we normally see a whole list of fascinating sites.

It’s not for everyone, but for those that are adventurous, hardy and up for an exhausting day so full of memories you’ll have others green with envy, get yourself a taxi and experience the world on your own terms with a "better tour guide." You’ll surely be glad you did!

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