One of our favorite things to do when traveling to a new place is to do a walking tour. This allows us to get an overview of the area and, it most cases, a local guide who shares their enthusiasm for the place.
We’ve tried a few options including tours from the local tourist center or booking agencies with mixed results. Sometimes good but sometimes over crowded, expensive, or more of a sales pitch for specific restaurants & shops. Then we discovered Guruwalk (https://www.guruwalk.com/). This is a ‘free’ tour that operates on tips. We have tried them in several countries and have been impressed by the quality and enthusiasm of the tours. The guides seem to genuinely love their cities and, in addition to the tour, offer a wealth of recommendations of other places to visit and eat during your stay. Many times there are selection of tours based on area of town or interest (e.g. history, architecture, etc) And the price …. You chose how much to pay. For us it depends on the location (Paris is more expense than Slovenia), length of the tour, and quality but we typically give around $20-$40 per person.
This is how we met Fernando in Merida. I was visiting Merida by myself (my wife’s flight had been delayed) so I decided to try a tour on a spare afternoon. I had signed up for a ‘Photo Tour of Merida’. It was described as a tour through the historic part of town with a background of the history plus an opportunity to get advice on how to take amazing photos. Any type of camera was welcome and the guide would help you with subjects, framing, and lighting, etc. I turned up at the designated time (4pm) and meeting place (SE corner of Parque Santa Luicia). I met Fernando. We was already in the park and chatting with various other people there - he was friendly with everyone. It turns out that I was the only one scheduled on the tour - I was mid week, off-season, and we were still returning from covid restrictions. We waiting for a bit just in case other’s showed up as unscheduled walk-ups but it was just me. Despite being only one customer, Fernando took me on an amazing tour. He taught me some framing techniques to get the best shot along with iPhone settings to adjust the color, flip the photo, and shoot in B&W. It was a lot of fun to see the city from different perspectives. The photo tour was included with a history of the town (e.g. seeing the Mayan pyramid stones used to build the church) and recommendations to his favorite restaurants (e.g. Taqueria De La Union).
The tour was so good that we did it again two weeks later when my wife was able to join. That was May 2022. We also hired him again in May 2023 and July 2024 when we had family visiting us in Merida. Fernando no longer offers the photo tour on Guruwalk (for 2 reasons - 1 not much interest and 2 he started evening classes to be a chiropractor) but he does offer several tours around Merida. He can be found on Guruwalk or via his own website here https://fernandin.com/
I strongly recommend him for a fun and informative tour.
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