General question about birding travel, guides (1 Viewer)

[melisande]

I am in the process of setting up a private birding tour for myself and my husband. At the moment, I have had two guides/planners set up various itineraries for us to choose from. We actually like all the itineraries (they aren’t that different), but each outfit seems to have an advantage and a disadvantage and we are trying to decide.

Tour guide company A:

Pros: Very responsive, responded more quickly and offered us a detailed, personalized itinerary very quickly. Responded to emails and Facebook right away. Prices seem reasonable (at least within our budget).

Cons: As far as I can tell this company is completely new. I am quite sure that the birding couple starting it are very experienced birders, know their country’s birds very well, have extensive field experience, know local guides, etc. But as far as I can tell, they are just getting their birding company off the group.

Tour guide company B:

Pros: In business quite some time, with an excellent reputation, many recommendations on-line. The proposed tour seems very nice.

Cons: Much slower response time, was given detailed information about on of their standard 14-day tours and said that we can pick parts of that tour to do. I can easily see how a very nice tour for us could be made from their material and in fact already have a precise possibly in mind. However, the tour has not yet been personalized for us. I mentioned some constraints in my last email and have yet to hear back. Also, no price has yet been given for this tour.

My take in this is that we are hearing so much from company A because they are just starting out, trying to prove themselves, and are probably not actively engaged in guiding at the moment (so they have a lot more time to answer emails).

I really like the responsiveness of Company A, but am wondering if this positive isn’t a negative in disguise (as explained above). Also, while I am sure that the couple starting company A are excellent birders, I really don’t know what their personalities are like. On the other hand, Company B, the established company, has such an excellent reputation, it is pretty much guaranteed that they have good people skills. (Yes, you can be a crack birder and have horrible people skills).

So, to make a long story short, I really want to take a chance with the new company. They seem very responsive, have a great, detailed, personalized tour ready for us, but am just a little hesitant to go with an entirely new group. At the same time. I think it might be really good to go with a new group. They might be trying extra hard to make everything work out. Besides, in my imagination at least, it seems fun to help others get started on their dreams.

Should we take the risk with the new company or not?

 

[Mysticete]

Have you looked for any reviews of either company? Personally, guides that rapidly respond to emails is a good thing, and I would be inclined to give them a chance. If they are new to the business, they will want to make sure you have a good time so you spread favorable word of them to friends. Since it sounds like both itineraries are similar, I would guess this is a proven "birding route" and so one company might not have an advantage necessarily over the other country, unless there are some sort of special access issues.

As for the established company, I don't think good people skills are necessarily a guarantee. Different personalities are going to work better with different types of tours, and not everyone ends up operating on the same wavelength as their guide. We've seen folks complain about guides on this website, even though the tours they went on were organized by major birding tour companies.

 

[melisande]

Have you looked for any reviews of either company? Personally, guides that rapidly respond to emails is a good thing, and I would be inclined to give them a chance. If they are new to the business, they will want to make sure you have a good time so you spread favorable word of them to friends. Since it sounds like both itineraries are similar, I would guess this is a proven "birding route" and so one company might not have an advantage necessarily over the other country, unless there are some sort of special access issues.

As for the established company, I don't think good people skills are necessarily a guarantee. Different personalities are going to work better with different types of tours, and not everyone ends up operating on the same wavelength as their guide. We've seen folks complain about guides on this website, even though the tours they went on were organized by major birding tour companies.

Thanks! I can definitely look around a little more for info on the people at the new company. But I get what you mean about your guides. Also, come to think of it, we know from experience that we have in the past preferred excellent guides with less than perfect personalities to OK guides who were very nice. We actually had a guide yell at us once “So, do you want to see a Buff-rumped warbler or not? It was just here, but where were you?” Still, we had a great time w him overall because he was just such an outstanding birder.

 

[pbjosh]

Melisande, what part of the world are you looking at, and what companies, if you don't mind my asking? A lot of people here have had experience with a lot of guides or might know the guides personally. I don't think there should be any ethical issue with you stating who you're dealing with.

I've guided, I've been guided, I have friends who guide full time... no one is going to get along with every client / guide on every trip, and no business operator is going to succeed in giving an A+ amazing impression to every client - but none of that means that there aren't a ton of great guides and operators out there that overwhelmingly satisfy the majority of their clients.

One of my favorite restaurants has technically adequate / perfectly ok service but with zero personality and with the need to make eye contact to get your server. I still go there all the time for the great food and the service is, well, good enough. Another favorite restaurant has food that is good, but not quite as good... but the staff are so amazing that it balances the experience out. I frequent both

Cheers!

 

[Lerxst]

We have had plenty of extrtemely good guides that did not have any track record / established history of running a tour business. We've also gone with guides from established ones that were not very good. For the first company, if you have their names you can always see if they do a lot of eBirding in the area.

 

[chowchilla]

I've done tours with two well-established companies and had somewhat disappointing experiences with both.

A newer company (well, several years' old) with a sole guide/owner taking you everywhere themselves was rather more successful.

 

[lgonz1008]

I've birded in Oregon, the Bahamas, Mexico, and Panama, every time with local guides, some had a longer history than others (you could find reviews for them on Expedia or Facebook), however, my deciding factor when picking them was how active they were on eBird like Lerxst said.

If these guides are birding a lot and especially if they are guiding clients actively, they tend to use eBird since it can be used as a platform for finding birders who want to try their countries or regions without risking the crazy budgets of big name companies. Plus, it gives a more direct income/positive image to the local community since it was someone from their region who brought the tourists as opposed to a company they've only gotten emails or calls from for the booking.

 

[Deans Sanctuary]

Try Jim Peterson at the Galveston Ornithological Society...A authority on birding known world wide probably even by many folks here on the forum.