I was really captivated by the idea of \u200b\u200beverything free in this world and especially such travel opportunities! Only if recently I myself “ate free cheese”, now I have decided to return the favor to my dear Universe and do something good, of course, for free!

Receive email approval from above and beyond follow the news in the group where announcements of applications for greeters periodically appear;

First “Catch” an alien interesting to you (not forgetting to correlate their language and other abilities with the guest’s wishes) and declare their desire to become a gritter for him on certain days and hours;

From the project coordinator get guest contacts, quickly write off with him and make an appointment without forgetting about feedback with the coordinator, so that he is aware of what is happening;

meet the guest, take a walk-chat-rejoice over mutual acquaintance, as well as take a joint photo (even a selfie) and ask to leave a review about a trip on Tripadvisor: a link for St. Petersburg and for Moscow;

keep on hunting to new foreign guests in your city!

Directly about your experience in participating in this project I can tell you a little while, since my griter debut took place recently. I was going to show Dostoevsky's Petersburg to an aspiring Italian photographer, but in the end we went around, it seems, the entire historical center of the city, since the weather and free time allowed it. In addition to traditional conversations about Russian culture (vodka-girls-bears), during a walk I took my new acquaintance to the famous Pyshechnaya on Bolshaya Konyushennaya, and the tour ended with a delicious dinner, which I received as a "thank you" for the hospitality. I will not hide, it was nice)

She shared a much richer experience of "guest management" with me one of the most active Moscow gritters Vera Kukoleva…

Vera, please tell us what curious cases happened with your excursionists in Russia?

It’s very touching to watch how foreigners are diligently trying to learn to read Russian and remember basic expressions. Instead of a long and terribly difficult "hello" sometimes it turns out the familiar "hello!" With which tourists intend to demonstrate their courtesy in shops and hotels. Well, “Pestopakh” instead of “Restaurant” is a well-known story.

Once, excursionists from America asked, "where do I usually buy nesting dolls." Immediately I imagined how I go every weekend to sell Russian folk toys at a student discount. I had to tell that almost exclusively tourists buy dolls.

And what negative emotions can you get from gritter?

Negative impressions of excursions remain extremely rare. Rather, they are the exceptions that confirm the rule that gritter always brings only joy. Sometimes it’s a shame when guests are completely not interested in anything related to the history of the city, its architecture. They just want to “chat for life”, and preparing the tour is useless. And for each walk I carefully prepare myself in advance: I select material, try to find something new and interesting.

The project is free, but it’s always nice to receive “thanks” for your work. In what ways did foreign guests thank you?

It is very nice when guests bring me souvenirs from their country. Once a group from Brussels presented a box of real Belgian chocolate (delicious-delicious!), And tourists from Italy brought a traditional Neapolitan pendant pendant for good luck. Some foreigners, knowing that the program is free, want to express gratitude with a tip and pay for the excursion, but I never take money: for me it spoils all the charm of a walk.

The meeting with tourists tourists recalls a meeting with good friends. We freely communicate, exchange stories about life in Russia and abroad. I give guests advice on how best to spend time in Moscow, where to go, how not to get lost in the subway. Often we maintain relationships after a walk and really remain friends for a long time. And who would think of taking money from friends? Therefore, I fundamentally refuse to “pay”.

I thank Vera for a piece of her experience that she shared with us, and I hasten to torment others with questions creator of the Moscow gritter community Alexey Sotskov…

Alexei, please tell us about how the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating such a project was born?

A few years ago, I was going to go to New York and looked for free excursions conducted by the residents there. I came across the Big Apple Greeter community, created to combat the stereotype that New York is a gangster city. Local volunteers showed guests not famous sights, but the real life of the American metropolis, which turned out to be not so dangerous.

I really liked the idea of \u200b\u200bthis project and I decided to organize something similar in Moscow. The emphasis was on linguistic students who lack language practice. There are a lot of conversation clubs and thematic lectures in foreign languages, but usually you have to pay for participation in them. And excursions for foreign guests are free conversational practice, and even in an extremely informal atmosphere. In many cities, gritters are mostly people of age who have a lot of free time, and in Russia, on the contrary, there are more young people.

How official is this organization and does it have some kind of “head office” that manages all the regional ones?

So far, the virtual Global Greeter Network manages everything, which, however, has its own real president and even several departments responsible for marketing, accepting new members, etc. Every year, meetings of the global giter community are held in various cities. There are plans to transfer the organization’s activities to the “official channel”, but so far this is all at the design stage. It's funny, but some members of the Global Greeter Network, for example, all the same Big Apple Greeter, exist in a completely official form and are even sponsored by the city hall.

I suspect that with such support, the New York gritter community is the most developed among its colleagues from other countries.

That's right, Big Apple Greeter is the most advanced, because they stood at the origins of the movement that originated already in 1992, while their "official bosses" Global Greeter Network appeared only in 2005. At the moment, the Association of New York gritters has more than 70 people who conduct about 150 excursions per month. True, it should be noted that such a high figure is achieved due to domestic tourists, that is, Americans from other states. We, unlike Big Apple Greeter, are more focused on working with guests from abroad.

Then let's just move on to the Russian griter movement, tell us a little about its performance.

The Moscow community of gritters will soon be 4 years old, and the St. Petersburg community will only function for 10 months. 70 participants registered in the capital, in Northern capital - about 40. As for the number of excursions, it very much depends on the time of year. About 50 trips with foreign guests a month are held in Moscow per season, and only 20 in winter. In St. Petersburg, the numbers are still quite modest: only 40 excursions since the community was created. However, it should be noted that the number of interested tourists is increasing annually, so we hope that we will continue to grow and develop!

All that remains for me is to thank Alexey for an interesting conversation and wish the gritters of both capitals more interesting guests from around the world!

Our tumultuous 21st century dictates its rules to us. Before our eyes, a generation of people is growing who prefers to order everything directly to their home. Be it food from the supermarket or paying for plane or train tickets. At the ticket offices of airports and railway stations, there are less and less queues every year, because all tickets can be ordered and paid online, the same thing happens with tours.

At the moment, there are several services with which you can order and pay for excursions online without leaving your home. And in this article, as it’s not hard to guess from the title, we will tell you about one of the most popular excursion services -.

Tripster.ru - A project that, since 2013, has been conducting individual tours in 300 cities of the world. During this time, the site has earned a solid reputation and literally overgrown with positive reviews from enthusiastic customers. The creators of the project conceived it as a service of unusual excursions with an individual approach to each traveler.

Tripster is ready to offer you:

Guides with eyes burning from their own tours. Among them, only interesting, enthusiastic people: historians, art historians, architects, journalists. They themselves, “from and to”, specially develop their routes so that you are breathtaking from impressions!
Original excursions. “No banal excursions” - this is the motto of the Tripster.ru team. Each path contains a secret and adventure. Whether it’s a journey through the rooftops of a city or museums of modern art.
Individual approach. The service does not conduct tours for a crowd of tourists with banal memorized historical information. Everything is different here. All the guide’s attention is only for you and your companions.

Tripster News: Black Friday with Tripster

From November 23 to 26, 2017 Tripster offers discounts in numerous directions, among which almost all European capitals and not only!

You can find out more about the promotion.

Official site Tripster

Official site Tripster.ru (Tripster.ru) -. Answers to fAQ and customer reviews.

Service Tripster.ru allows you to:

Choose a unique author's excursion on the site, which was invented by the guide himself. Read more about everything about her and the guide, get acquainted with the reviews of those who have already visited her.
In advance, online, book a convenient date and time for you.
Talk with a guide before paying for the tour without leaving home.
Pay immediately not the entire amount, but only 16% of the cost of the tour. The rest is paid on the spot already to the guide. Moreover, if your excursion for one reason or another does not take place, the money will be fully refunded to you.

As you can see, the site’s conditions are transparent and very simple, and the services are designed to provide an individual approach to each customer.

Pros of booking excursions online at Tripster.ru

If to speak in a broad sense about the benefits of shopping excursions online, then we highlight the following:

it gives you freedom, which is very suitable for people who like to plan their trip themselves and not depend on tour operators.
it saves you time - you no longer need to surf the Internet for hours collecting information about excursions, the entire list with a description and cost is already on the site before your eyes.
it saves your nerves in peace - you no longer need to bargain with local sellers of tickets for excursions and worry that you can be deceived (who ever bought an excursion from their hands locals, well knows what it is about).

In the case of Tripster, it’s also important to understand one more thing - the site presents a unique product that you simply won’t find with tour operators!

Find excursions from Sputnik8

Sputnik8 is a St. Petersburg project, the headquarters is located on Vasilyevsky Island, so St. Petersburg residents can support the local manufacturer and order excursions on their website. Only the Sputnik8 website right on the excursion list page will show you their schedule by day of the week, time, number of reviews. The site presents a large number of group tours to which you can join, it is the cheapest and most proven format.

Find Trips from Tripster

Apart from the first three sites is Tripster. The first three sites offer guided tours from certified professional guides, but offer guided tours from Russian-speaking local residents. Only these people will be able to take you to the ruins of the pubs of Budapest, to show you flamenco in Barcelona not in the theater for tourists, but in bars for local residents and provide the most informal communication. What could be more interesting than gossip from the locals. Moreover, not professionals tend to try very hard, this more than compensates for the lack of experience.

Our compatriots, coming out from behind the Iron Curtain, conquered the whole world. Many of those who left found themselves in a new residence in the field of tourism and offer their own programs that will allow you not only to see the sights declared on the tour, but also talk about life behind the burg with direct participants in this life, and receive invaluable advice on further independent inspection of the city.

All trips on Tripster are individual, group tours on this site are not represented.

Find excursions from Weatlas

Weatlas is a Moscow project, the main office is in the throne. Now the base of excursions on the site is more than that of competitors, and much more. Therefore, the site implements a convenient search system for excursions by topic, type of transport, price and even user rating. On the first page only the most popular excursions are shown, use the search, you will find much more.

Weatlas has concluded agreements with City Sightseeing Tour buses in 18 cities around the world, where there is a translation into Russian. This is a popular way to get to know an unfamiliar city in a short time. As a rule, these buses assume an unlimited number of entrances and exits during the day for which you bought a ticket, they will take you past all the significant sights of the city, and through headphones you can listen to a city tour in Russian.

Find excursions on GetYourGuide

This is a German office with headquarters in Berlin and Zurich. On the GetYourGuide website you can choose not only excursions, but also buy tickets to museums, parks and other tourist attractions around the world. Prices in Europe there may be significantly lower than on Russian sites. The interface has been translated into Russian, it is not necessary to print tickets for excursions, it can be displayed from the smartphone screen. But you need to be careful, many excursions are conducted only in English, always pay attention to the language.

In some countries with expensive public transport, such as the Netherlands, it is sometimes cheaper to take an excursion to GetYourGuide in English than to pay for an independent trip, it will work out that way.

In this post:

Excursions in 300 cities from Tripster.ru

I, like most modern people, prefer to use the Internet system with maximum benefit. With it, you can order and pay online, or call a taxi. And from time to time I use the service of ordering and paying for online excursions. If I go to a country with a huge number of attractions, then to use my free time effectively, I use the service . Therefore, we consider all its advantages and capabilities in more detail.

Features and Benefits Tripster

The site has been operating since 2013, but for this relatively short time, I was able to earn the trust of a huge number of travelers. What is most interesting, the people who created it decided to take a completely different approach to organizing excursions. It involves the organization of non-standard excursions, according to the preferences of each client. This is rarely seen.

Features of the company Tripster.ru:

Guides who themselves are delighted with their excursions. These people themselves design the route in such a way that every guest of the city will be delighted. So that breathtaking, from new amazing places and facts. Among the guides are people of different specialties. These are architects, and journalists, and art historians, historians, and so on;
Originality. The company uses standard approaches. Her motto is “No to standard excursions.” Each walk is unique and inimitable, regardless of whether it is a visit to museum complexes, or “walks on the roofs”;
Individuality. The service of unusual excursions does not work with crowds of tourists. Only individual programs are conducted for one traveler and his companions. That is why I personally liked the system, I do not like platitudes.

Opportunities:

Self-selection of author's excursion. That is, you yourself get acquainted with all the excursion programs of this or that guide, compiled by him independently. Read reviews of people who have already used this excursion program. And only then you decide whether this option suits you or not.
Advance booking online. Personally, I am very pleased with this service. Booked a convenient day and hour, arrived in a country or city, rested. And then you can go on excursions.
Payment. There is generally a chic option. Make a prepayment, you have the opportunity to total 16% of the total cost. You give the rest of the money to the guide directly at the meeting. But that's not all - if, for any reason, you can’t visit the tour, the money is returned.

In my opinion, excellent conditions, a unique service of individual excursions. You can find out more about all the offers on the official Tripster portal - experience.tripster.ru.

Benefits of online tour bookings

The list of advantages of online booking excursions in Tripster is quite impressive. But I would like to dwell on the most important points:

Complete freedom of choice (independence from tour operators, ideal for people who want to plan their time independently);
Time saving. There is no longer a need to spend hours on the Internet choosing the most suitable excursion option. Everything is in one place;
Calm A tourist can be sure that he will not be deceived, they will not sell tickets for excursions at inflated prices and so on.

The portal is really unique, you will not find this with any tour operator in the whole world.

How to place an order and pay

The process of finding the right option, booking and payment on the official portal is quite simple. For example, I do this:

I enter the portal Tripster - excursions from local residents;
I enter the desired city or country into the search engine;
I choose the excursion I like;
Determine the appropriate day and time;
I contact the guide and clarify all points of interest;
I enter personal data (last name and first name, e-mail, phone number);
I pay, sometimes I pay only 16%, and the rest is already in place, to the guide.

There are some more interesting points. As soon as you make the payment (by Visa or Mastercard - it doesn’t matter), the guide will open your phone number and you will see it. Now there is an opportunity to contact the guide at any time, before the appointed day of the tour. But until you pay, communication is possible exclusively on the portal. Well, as you can see - everything to the point of banality is simple, easy and affordable.

Standard excursions are becoming a thing of the past, when a crowd of tourists simultaneously tries to keep up with the guide, take pictures, remember at least something from the speech, full of numbers, dates, historical references. In the 21st century, an individual approach wins, taking into account the needs of each client, which boasts. Clients are offered an exclusive created by a person who knows everything about his city and is able to captivate and intrigue the traveler.

Who conducts the tour

In places of tourist congestion, both in megacities and in small towns, there will certainly be people of a creative warehouse who have considerable knowledge. Among them may be professional historians and local historians, library workers, journalists and architects, teachers and art historians. The main thing is that these are partial, enthusiastic, sociable people with whom it is very interesting to spend time.

The future guide is registered on the site Tripster.ru, is interviewed, presents a topic, receives help in creating a unique project. The authors set prices themselves, but the competition is very high, so overpricing the cost of services is not in their interests.

Reviews of people about sightseeing trips are full of gratitude and appreciation, allow you to better understand the specifics of the project.

Project Features

Created in 2013, the Tripster project began as a communication club where tourists exchanged impressions and shared valuable advice. As the community grew, it went into autonomy, and over the course of several years turned into a kind of travelers club. The customers who register on the site are offered unusual excursions sponsored by local residents.

Indeed, who else can so fascinatingly, competently tell the story, customs, curious facts from the life of the city and its inhabitants? The walk, organized according to the author’s scenario, will show local attractions in an unexpected perspective. From local residents, the tourist learns information that guides from hotels or tour agencies never tell.

The first experiences of amateur excursions were successful and attracted new customers. In all corners of the world, Russian-speaking guides were sought, well versed in various fields - from wine and coffee to high art. If you have something to tell about your city, you can try your hand and earn extra money.

In addition to standard trips to places of worship, tourists:

explore the hidden corners of the city;
rise to the roofs and fall underground;
tasting different varieties of coffee and tea;
get acquainted with the technology of wine production;
try themselves in pottery and painting;
attend master classes in national dances;
set off backstage.

Family trips that were interesting to all family members, regardless of age, turned out to be very popular. These are walks for curious why, the wonders of the Moscow Kremlin, Moscow-city skyscrapers. For children from 14 years old, fascinating quests with treasure hunts, riddles and prizes are offered.

Tripster provides the client with new features:

non-standard approach;
individual programs;
an extensive selection of excursions around the world (409 cities);
preliminary online booking;
payment on the spot;
safety guarantee.

Service designed for independent travelers. Mass excursions with a large number of people are not provided. Everything is purely individual. Only you and your companions enter the group. The guide himself sets the maximum number of wards, usually no more than 10 people.

How to choose and book an excursion

So, you have decided on a trip and want to make it interesting and informative. Your actions:

go to the official website;
enter the selected city or country in the window;
read the offers and mark the option you like - look at the number of stars and read reviews;
select a free day on the calendar and put down a convenient time;
contact the guide and discuss the details;
indicate your data (last name, first name, phone, email address);
pay 16-20% of the total cost;
you give the rest to the guide personally.

Users praised the benefits of shopping excursions online. You get freedom of action, do not depend on the tour operator, save time and save your nerves. The contract between the client and the site administration guarantees security and is legally binding.

Payment Details

People don’t like to pay in advance for services. The service provides the user with the opportunity to first get acquainted with the future guide and make sure that the excursion program suits him.

At the first stage, communication takes place in the form of correspondence on the site. Having finally decided, you transfer the advance payment to the guide. This can be done using Visa or Mastercard.

After this operation, you get the guide's phone number. He, in turn, opens your number, and you can keep in touch until the appointed time.

The main payment takes place immediately before the tour. If for some reason the meeting does not take place, the money will be returned to the card in full.

Promotions from Tripster

To return part of the money spent on the purchase of an excursion, the authorization on the site allows you to use promotions, discounts, often timed to some significant date or before the holidays.

Promotional codes of both periodic and continuous action are posted on the site.

If you set a goal and track information about discounts, you can save from 5% to 10%. To use a nice gift:

come in;
select a tour by clicking the "Order" button;
indicate date and time;
enter the current promotional code at the bottom of the page.

The decision must be made quickly. Short promotional codes are valid for a short period - from 2 days to a week. The exception is long-term promotions, but the percentage of discounts will be less.

The project continues to evolve, covering new, unknown corners of the planet. As a result, you will fill your vacation with new experiences and meet smart, enthusiastic people. You won’t be bored!

How to find interesting excursions from locals to the Tripster Travel Club. Tripster - unusual excursions from local residents. Service of excursions from local residents.