I have been traveling the world since the age of six, which is almost 60 years. I am no Rick Steves but I am pretty adept at putting complicated trips together for my family which usually ranges from 3-5 people (all adults or young adults). We currently are on Day 3 of an 18-day trip through Eastern Europe and Italy. While I and other family members have been to Italy many times as well as the other countries we are visiting, none had ever been to the Czech Republic. I put a lot of time into the planning and was quite careful and methodical in selecting our tour company. I also relied on past experiences, so my selections were well informed.
I went with a private company to tour Prague which we just completed today. I went that route because it was a city with which I was unfamiliar and so that we could clearly hear the guide and understand her. I also chose the private tour approach so that we could tailor the tour to what we were interested in and have it presented at the intellectual level that worked for us. We also did not want to smell other people’s cigarette smoke all day.
The tour was handled very professionally from the beginning when I booked it in January through to the last minutes with the guide. The company stayed in touch for five months and confirmed everything one last time before we left the US. The tour focused on our interest in history, music and architecture just as we asked.
Renata was our guide. She was on time, came with maps, supplemental material and even a book with pictures to help us understand some of the restoration work. Renata is well educated, articulate, energetic and knows her stuff. She is an adult with much tour experience and takes her job very seriously. She gives you reliable facts, not fabrication or embellishment. We had planned for a half-day tour but ended up asking for more time after about 3 hours with Renata. So we had a full day, the first day and 3 hours the second day and then we were ready to go on our own. Prague has a long complex history and unless you read extensively before you come, without a guide, you cannot piece it all together so that it makes sense and you will miss the subtleties that help you understand how the people think and why the culture is as it is. The city has well over 1 million people with a complicated layout in parts and you need to use your feet, trams and maps (google) to get around.
I strongly recommend this company. They are reasonable in price and will work with you to provide the product you want. I feel certain they are more than capable of providing an excellent tour to people of all ages including teens and children.
Do your homework and don’t select the easiest approach. I know Aviator is owned by Trip Advisor and hope they will not take offense but based on my past experiences, Prague is too complex a city to use Aviator.
Note: I am using Aviator for other aspects of our trip.
