Why Private Tours?

Good question. We cater to international travelers who wish to take advantage of the comfort, safety, time-effectiveness and educational value of a trip that that includes a private English speaking guide, professional trip planning, pre-confirmed hotels and private transfers - without the group experience. Tours Nicaragua would have a lot more business if we offered group tours, but we would also have a lot less customer satisfaction. That is why Tours Nicaragua only offers private tours. Many habitually independent travelers also decide to use our services, since it is the closest thing to independent travel in Nicaragua - without the outdated guide books, lost hotel reservations, potential dangers, wasted time and other hassles.

"Everybody on the Bus"?
A group tour often puts you on a bus, in front of someone who will not shut up or behind someone who has forgotten to bathe, and drives you to the same place that the last big 100 buses have visited and then serves you a set meal made to please the lowest common denominator (read bland) and takes you to the hotels that gives the tour operator the biggest commission (read big and faceless). Those kind of tours are a lot more about the tour company's bottom line than the quality of your travel experience.

We Take the "Tourist" Out of Tours
In contrast, Tours Nicaragua and our private trip services allow you to enjoy Nicaragua exclusively with the people you choose to travel with. We easily remove you from the beaten path and your private guide can recommend numerous eating options based on your own tastes, while our office staff has selected the most unique hotels, based on a criteria of quality, comfort and character. Our guides are highly in-tune to your interests, how you want to pace your trip, when to share Nicaragua's history, nature and culture and when to disappear. This is one reason many of our customers visit Nicaragua with us, even though they do not normally use tour companies and those travelers that have used tour outfitters in the past are normally very pleased with the level of service they receive with Tours Nicaragua.

If We Shop Around, is Someone Else Cheaper?
Probably. The nature of any business is that if you have success you will have competition and that competition often tries to copy what you offer and undercut your price. But at close examination what are the other guys offering? Are they cutting corners to help sales? Do they offer everything optional, to appear cheaper up front and end up more expensive in the end? We have no hidden costs, in most of our programs the only in-country costs we do not include are lunch and dinner, since our clients prefer to have as many dinning options as possible on their visits. There are other issues that are impossible to detect when you are quoting. For example we pay our drivers and bilingual guides more than any other company in Nicaragua. What does this mean to the customer? The best guides and drivers for one, but also a much more content person sharing his country with you. Better service is the end result. Another question with a cheaper quote might be is the tour guide also driving?

Should Your Guide Drive?
With the exception of one of our mountain guides getting you to a rural trail-head in a 4x4 for a hiking program, we refuse to put our guides behind the wheel. The use of driver-guides is common practice across Central America and in Nicaragua. After all, if your guide does the driving, the tour company pays less to run the tour. Prices go down - volume and profit goes up. So why not?

Safety Matters
For Tours Nicaragua the safety and well being of our customers is a primary concern. A guide who is driving not only has a handicap in giving the customer the attention he/she deserves, but is also often distracted from the most critical duty at hand, driving. A districted person driving you around on Latin American roads is a less than ideal scenario. Particularly in a region where public driving habits are often unpredictable at best. In addition our driver stays with the vehicle when you are off exploring or dinning out with our guide, leaving our customers with ample peace of mind to leave their belongings behind in the vehicle.

Vehicle Branding At the Clients' Expense?
Another detail that separates us from the crowd is our total lack of vehicle branding, something unique in the industry. To ease our guide's access in the national parks and museums our guides sport the Tours Nicaragua logo on their shirts and caps. However on the Nicaraguan roads and highways our clients are not shuttled around in a vehicle that screams "tourist!" with brightly painted logos and other traveling billboard paint schemes. In this regard we see absolutely no benefit for our clients to stand out from the crowd.

Your Time and Money Well Spent
Our philosophy is clear. Our company exists to make sure you get the most possible out of your visit, we work very hard to see that you have a memorable, rewarding and safe trip. Tours Nicaragua does not offer extravagant luxury. Your money is not spent on frills, but rather making sure you have the best Nicaragua vacation possible. We feel responsible for your happiness and well being, that's why we would that prefer you book with the competition rather than try to win your business by cutting corners or changing the way we work. Tours Nicaragua invite's you to enjoy the beauty of Nicaragua's nature and culture to the utmost with our unique travel team.