Private DC tours offers an opportunity to travel in a Sprinter van with your family. It is…read morecomfortable and easy to see sights along the way. We were able to choose where we wanted to go. Our guide was informative and entertaining. It was a great way to avoid driving around DC by ourselves.

We thought we would be able to see all the monuments in a day. Silly me. I was told the busses…read morewould come by every 10-12 minutes. First stop. 25 minutes. The company did send a minivan to pick us up and delivered us to the first bus stop. We did ok, until we got off then were told that the busses weren't running on schedule. Another 25 minutes. The day was a complete bust. Should have hired an uber or taxi to get around.

Just completed a wonderful 12 day Camino de Santiago hiking tour. The owner, Juan Carlos was…read moreamazing with balancing all 11 hiker's interests & personalities. Lunches & dinners were so impressive with regional foods, especially the seafood. Selected regional wines were abundant & wonderful, both red & white. The town lectures & village tours were a special treat. Loved Javier (the driver) & our multi-talented masseuse / hiking guide was lovely. All in all, a very special trip with a very knowledgeable leader - so glad I used Duperier's Authentic Journeys!

Fantastic trip. Juan Carlos is an exceptional guide. His knowledge, humor, and attention to all…read moreyour needs made this a wonderful memorial excursion. The places you stayed and food, wine were outstanding and not to forget great cigars and cocktails after dinner if you chose to partake. He truly cared that you were having a wonderful time and took every effort to ensure that you did! My wife and I would highly recommend you walk the camino with Juan Carlos. Well worth the cost and your time. You will not at all be disappointed. The trip was really a lot of fun, very educational and just downright a great time! 5 plus stars. Drew and Sharon Brandy

We hit the tour lottery jackpot on this one! We did the DC Monuments Night Tour with 10+ Stops in…read moreJune with Dwayne as our guide. We were lucky enough to be in a smaller van while others were in large busses, so our experience was more personalized. Dwayne knocked our socks off. He crams so much knowledge into the tour, well above and beyond the actual stops. His passion for the city and knowledge of architecture and history were impressive. He also knew his way round the current blockages/construction and was able to avoid politics while discussing the current construction which takes mad skills. He thoroughly answered any random questions we threw at him and had deep knowledge of subjects like the Red Cross and Clara Barton, I've volunteered with them for years and didn't know his fun facts. Dwayne was born for this role and may be the best tour guide I've had in my life. I now question my own passions/interests. Dwayne gave great suggestions for getting the best photos and what else we can do in his city. I wish I had more days here and could do more tours with Dwayne! He is so inspiring!

Chris and Tyrone are amazing! Tyrone is very knowledgeable, providing a wealth of great history. I…read moreenjoyed every stop. It was so worth the trip. Everyone should experience a night tour of DC with Tyrone and Chris! Also, they ensured everyone was accounted for. Tyrone engaged in conversation. We had two stops that were restroom accessible. They even dropped us off at the hotel- JW Marriott! Worth every dime!

The travel consulting company Enlighten Excursions, owned by Deirdre Swinson, provided my husband…read moreand me with outstanding services in planning the five-week trip we made to Europe in May, 2022. This was a complex trip, and we were not familiar with most of the places we wanted to visit. It involved five countries (France, Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) and 13 stops. Generally, we stayed at hotels, but sometimes with friends. Except for air travel to and from Europe, we traveled by train. Enlighten Excursions (EE) managed this complexity adroitly and provided us with a highly satisfactory trip experience. The company arranged our train travel, hotels, and tours, and suggested things we could do on our own. At the onset of planning, we decided together with EE on a budget. Except for an initial consultation fee, we did not pay anything extra to EE. The company's compensation was taken from bookings. We received regular updates regarding spending. Deirdre and her team seamlessly incorporated into the itinerary our desire to visit four different sets of friends in three countries, including transportation to these cities. Our trip itinerary was presented in a highly organized way in an app that was easy to read on our PCs and mobile phones. The walking tours they arranged--both private and group tours--were superb. Our guides were knowledgeable and lively, with a love of history. We enjoyed nearly all our hotels, which were conveniently situated close to train stations and the historic areas of the cities. Several of the hotels had "old world charm." Breakfasts, which most of the hotels bundled into their lodging services, were delicious. It was evident to us that Deirdre Swinson genuinely enjoys travel and wants for her clients to enjoy their travel. She is the consummate travel professional: highly collaborative and thorough, responsive to our needs and requests, and personable. She and her team actually arranged our trip twice: a 2020 trip which we had to cancel because of the pandemic, and the 2022 trip we just took. We cannot recommend Deirdre and EE more highly.

I found Deidre Swinson after deciding to visit Andalucia, Spain. She suggested ways to simplify our…read moretrip of two weeks by staying in 4 cities with day trips to see more rural areas of interest. We loved meeting locals who cooked us a meal and gave me a Flamenco lesson! She arranged personalized tours of each city (Seville, Carmona, the small white villages, Córdoba, Granada and Málaga) so that my husband and I could ask questions and learn. Each of our apartments/hotels were central to the best areas to explore on our own. Deidre is a pleasure to work with and I intend to use her again. Her rates are very reasonable. Instead of going on a huge tour, try calling her to hear her suggestions for a memorable vacation! Cathy

Charismatic guides - check! Entertainment - check! Knowledge and great stories - double check! Add…read morea social mission to eradicate disease, educate others, and better the world and you have the real deal tour company! This is a wonderful experience for locals and tourists alike! Tours For Humanity is a recently launched company and I had to admit, I was a bit skeptical. Very rarely do companies have it figured out and the tour guide can really make or break the trip. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surpised and overwhelmingly impressed with how well-organized the company was, how charismatic the guides were, and how much I really enjoyed the information and stories that the guides gave. It was clear that this group really enjoyed what they were doing and really wanted to make sure that you were having an experience that could not be matched by other tour companies. As an added bonus, they have a really cool social mission. Their outfits highlight various causes and a portion of proceeds go to eradicting disease or educating others. This is a must not just for those visiting DC, but also for locals who could truly benefit from knowing the stories and history behind the monuments that we are fortunate enough to see on a daily basis and often take for advantage. Definitely check them out!

The Hotel Drinking Tour in DC was just amazing. Such a wonderful time and our tour guide Bo was…read moreexceptional!! Great stories, good drinks and lots of laughs. Such a fun way to spend an afternoon.

Our full day on the Royal Trolley Tours was.... wonderful! Edgar, our guide/driver, was very…read moreknowledgeable, entertaining, courteous, respectful, fun, and just a good guy! We met the trolley at the arranged pickup time, and left within 10-15 minutes. Edgar told us about the tour, how things worked, what to expect, and how the day would go. We had to wait within that 10-15 minutes for "Mr. H" to arrive, and take care of any outstanding administrative loose-ends (people that had to pay the balance on their portion of the tour). So, having to wait for that really was no problem. Throughout the day, Edgar pointed out and informed us about the various landmarks/buildings that we drove by along the way. Whenever we came to one of our stops, he pulled over, and explained exactly how much time we had at the site, how to access the site, and where he would pick us up, if it was different from where he dropped us off. Yes, we saw the majority of the monuments/memorials that any tourist would want to see when they visit Washington DC. Our trolley was not brand new, I would call it "gently broken in." It was clean, and you sit on bench-type seats (for 2 people)), that have comfortable red cushions on them. The windows are open, there is no glass, but there are (on the outside), plastic type coverings that can be easily rolled down for inclement weather. When it's hot outside, the breeze coming in through the open windows was truly a welcome blessing. Lunch was provided with our full day tour. It was a good boxed type lunch, with a sandwich wrap with chips. The Trolley Service did have bottled water for all of us too, which you could help yourself too throughout the day. So, would we recommend Royal Trolley Tours - you betcha!!!! Edgar was incredible! The full day tour was wonderful, with enough walking, and enough driving, it all balanced out. This was definitely the way to see the monuments/memorials in Washington DC. Thank you very much Royal Trolley Tours! Denver, Colorado salutes you!

Our first evening in Washington DC was jump started with a fun informative rolling and walking tour…read moreof all the major sites. This allowed us to get our bearings so we could "backfill" in the days to follow. William, the guy with the hat, was extremely informative and knowledgeable. He was also funny and engaging. The tour guide, driver and supervisor were all extremely caring, considerate and patient. You never felt rushed and really felt appreciated as a customer. My wife and I gave this tour a 5 star because we wouldn't hesitate to recommend this company, enjoyed the coverage this tour included and how considerate and caring the staff was. In addition and unexpected, they provided cold water, rain ponchos to keep and dropped you off at your hotel after the tour. Excellent experience.

We did a night tour of DC and had a fabulous experience. Monte was our guide (Bah was our driver)…read moreand was very knowledgeable of DC and US history.

Great experience and excellent way to spend a few days in our capital. Very convenient and…read moreefficient with high quality local guides. They do all the hard work while you enjoy the capital. We were able to see more in less time and the guide made sure we didnt miss a thing. I highly reccomend and would use again!

Wanted to do something different for my husband's birthday celebration so I came up with a day of…read moreactivities and one of them included a helicopter ride. Booked Charm City Helicopters for a private 20 minute tour of Baltimore. Booking: The company is in transition to updating the booking system so I had a hard time booking initially via Google Ads but was able to book instantly when i went direct to the website. After I booked, I received a phone call confirming my booking where I talked to a lady and then also an automated text message and email. Pretty easy! Communication: They send automated text messages leading up to the Helicopter tour. Some of the messages are action items like entering your weight and reminders to sign waivers. One recommendation would be to include the waiver in the text message because it went to spam in my email so I couldn't find it and it held us up a bit when we were ready to fly. If a text message is sent about signing the waiver we should probably create a url for the waiver and add it to the text message. Also if you respond to the text message it doesn't go anywhere since it's not monitored and only for output. Arrival and Rules: Masks are still required for passengers which initially didn't seem awful but the pilot doesn't wear a mask and also the Helicopter was HOT and we were required to wear the mask the entire time. No air conditioning in the helicopter (@ least the one we were in that was black and tan didn't have any). The views were gorgeous but it made the ride uncomfortable on a day where it was 90 degrees. Ride: The pilot was great and delivered an entire history lesson during the flight. We are Baltimore natives but learned a few pieces of history while on tour. The ride was smooth and he let us know every time we could expect any extra vibration. This was a memorable experience. I would recommend for sure but caution if you choose to do it in summer with the current mask requirement. Wanted to do it for my birthday but it's in August so we will wait for sure. We will likely try the Baltimore Annapolis tour in Winter.

Awesome experience! Great staff, knowledgeable and down to earth. Did the 15 minute tour and was…read morecompletely satisfied. Absolutely will book the 30 mins tour in the future!