There are two honest ways to get a custom trip planned by someone who knows the place. One is a traditional travel agent, who sits in your country, knows the suppliers and builds the trip for a fee, a commission, or both. The other is to put the trip in front of the local people who will actually deliver it and let them propose. Both have a place. This page is about telling them apart, because the wrong choice costs you either money or a week of emails.
How a Name Your Price request works, step by step
- Describe the trip. Destination, dates (or a month if you are flexible), who is traveling, what you want to see, how fast you like to move, and your budget, either per day or for the whole thing. The form takes about five minutes; the section below says what to put in it.
- Approved local partners see it. Only licensed guides and small local agencies we have approved in that destination can view the request. They see the trip and the budget, not your name or contact details.
- Offers arrive within 48 hours. Each partner who wants the work sends an offer: a day-by-day outline, what is included, the price, and their cancellation terms. You are emailed as each one lands.
- Compare and ask. Offers sit side by side in your account. Each has a message thread; ask for a change, a different hotel category or a lower price, and the partner can revise.
- Accept and pay. When one fits, accept it and pay by card. This is the first moment any money moves. Contact details are then exchanged, and you deal with the partner directly for the rest of the planning.
- Travel, then review. After the trip you are invited to review the partner; only travelers who booked through TravelDaddy can.
Requests for a single tour or a single day work the same way and are usually answered faster; the tour request form is the short version of the trip form.
Name Your Price vs. a traditional travel agent
| Traditional travel agent | Name Your Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Who plans the trip | An agent in your country, using suppliers they know | Local partners in the destination, competing |
| How many proposals | Usually one, revised | Several, side by side |
| Cost to you | Planning fee, supplier commission, or both | No fee to request; our share is inside the accepted price |
| Flights, rail, cruises | Yes, and this is their strength | Not sold; partners can include transfers and domestic trains |
| Speed | Days to a first proposal, in our experience | Offers within 48 hours |
| Who you talk to | The agent; the local operator is behind them | The guide or agency that will deliver the trip |
| Groups of 10+ | Better equipped | Possible, but ask first |
| Best for | Complex multi-country air, luxury rail and cruise, large groups | One country or region, private guides, day-by-day touring |
When a traditional agent is still the better choice
We would be doing you a disservice if we pretended otherwise. Use an agent, or a specialist operator, when:
- The trip is mostly air. Multi-country itineraries with open-jaw flights, positioning segments and tight connections need someone who can ticket, re-ticket and hold the airline to account. Name Your Price does not sell flights.
- You are a group of ten or more. Coaches, group hotel blocks, dietary matrices and a single invoice for a company or a family reunion are an agent's daily work. Local partners can run the tours for such a group, and some will quote the whole thing, but ask before relying on it.
- The centerpiece is luxury rail or a cruise. These are sold on allotments and fixed departure dates by operators with their own terms; an agent who specializes in them will know which cabin to avoid. Local partners can build the days before and after.
- You want one accountable party for everything. If something goes wrong on day six of a twenty-day trip across four countries, an agent is a single phone number. Name Your Price gives you a direct line to each local partner, which is better inside a country and worse across several.
- Visas, insurance and paperwork are the hard part.
Where Name Your Price is clearly stronger is the trip inside one country or region: a week in Andalucía, five days around Lisbon and Porto, a Barcelona stay with two day trips. There, the person pricing the trip is the person who will meet you at the station, several of them are pricing it at once, and you can see who they are and how we checked them before you accept.
What a good request includes
Partners can only price what you tell them. The requests that get the best offers, in our experience, contain:
- Dates, or a window. "May 12–19" beats "spring". If you are flexible, say by how much; shoulder-season dates often unlock better guides.
- The party, precisely. Ages of children, anyone with mobility limits, a grandparent who needs a slower pace, a teenager who will not do museums before eleven.
- Must-sees and must-nots. Three of each is plenty. "No bus tours, no cooking class, yes to the Alhambra" tells a partner more than a paragraph of adjectives.
- Pace. One anchor activity a day, or two? Free afternoons? Partners tend to over-fill unless told.
- Budget, with its scope. Say whether the number covers tours only, tours and hotels, or everything on the ground except flights. A total or a per-day figure both work; "about $300 a day for the two of us, tours and transport, hotels separately" is ideal.
- Hotel level, if hotels are included. Three-star central, four-star with a pool, a parador: a category is enough.
- Where you are coming from and going to. Arrival airport and time, departure, and whether you want transfers built in.
Realistic budgets, by example
These are illustrative ranges from the offers we see, for ground arrangements only, flights and hotels excluded unless stated. Live prices on individual tours are on the cards below and on each listing; a request will get you the real number for your dates.
- A couple, three days in Lisbon, two private days. A full day to Sintra and the coast with a guide and vehicle, plus a half-day food or neighborhood walk: plan on roughly US$600–1,000 for the two tours together, depending on whether entrance tickets and tastings are included.
- A family of four, four days in Barcelona. A private Gaudí and Gothic Quarter day with timed tickets, and a Montserrat day with a driver-guide: roughly US$1,200–2,000 for both days, tickets making much of the difference.
- A couple, ten days across Andalucía. Private guides in Seville, Córdoba and Granada, including monument tickets, with private transfers between cities: roughly US$2,500–4,500 depending on how many guided days and whether a driver stays with you throughout. Hotels on top.
- A single private half-day in Madrid, Porto or Seville with a licensed guide. Commonly US$200–400 for the party for a walking tour; more with a vehicle.
If your number is below these ranges, say so anyway. Partners can often propose a shorter day, a walking rather than driven itinerary, or a guided morning and a self-guided afternoon, and the offer will tell you exactly what was cut. If you are new to booking private guides, our guide to booking directly with local guides explains why the same day can cost less here than through a large marketplace.
Fixed-price private days from Lisbon, bookable now
★ Founding partner TDRun by a local partner
Sintra & Belém in One Day – Private Tour from Lisbon
- ⏱8 hours
- 👥Private tour for 1–12 people
- 📍Lisbon, Portugal
★ Founding partner TDRun by a local partner
Fátima, Nazaré & Óbidos – Private Full-Day Tour from Lisbon
- ⏱8 hours
- 👥Private tour for 1–14 people
- 📍Lisbon, Portugal
★ Founding partner TDRun by a local partner
Évora UNESCO Heritage & Chapel of Bones – Private Day Tour from Lisbon
- ⏱9 hours
- 👥Private tour for 1–10 people
- 📍Lisbon, Portugal
Fixed-price private days in Spain, bookable now
★ Founding partner 
Your guide: Nevis
Art and Gastronomy of Madrid
- ⏱8 hours
- 👥Private tour for 1–10 people
- 📍Madrid, Spain
★ Founding partner 
Your guide: Abdellah
Barcelona City Tour
- ⏱4 hours
- 🧭Private driver
- 👥Private tour for 1–350 people
- 📍Barcelona, Spain
★ Founding partner HYour guide: Harry
The heart of Granada. The Christian and Islamic heritages
- ⏱1.5 hours
- 🚶Walking
- 👥Small group for 1–8 people
- 📍Granada, Spain
Ready to name your price?
Describe the trip and the budget. Approved local partners send offers within 48 hours; compare them side by side, and nothing is charged until you accept one and pay.
Name Your Price →Frequently asked questions
Does it cost anything to post a Name Your Price request?
No. Posting a request is free and carries no obligation. Nothing is charged until you accept an offer and pay for it, and you can let a request lapse without doing anything.
How quickly do offers arrive?
Partners in the destination answer within 48 hours, and you are emailed each time an offer arrives. Most requests for a single city get their first offer well inside that window; a ten-day multi-city itinerary takes longer to price and may use most of it.
Who sees my request?
Only approved local partners who work in the destination you named. Your name, email and phone are not shown to them; the request shows your dates, party, wishes and budget. Contact details are exchanged only after you accept and pay.
Can I negotiate an offer or ask questions?
Yes. Each offer has a message thread; ask about the hotel category, swap a day, or say the price is above what you had in mind. Partners can revise an offer. Keep the conversation inside the thread so the final offer you accept matches what was discussed.
What does TravelDaddy not sell?
International flights, and rail or cruise tickets as stand-alone products. If your trip is mostly air and rail logistics across several countries, a traditional agent or a specialist operator is the right tool; our piece below says when. Local partners can include ground transfers, drivers and domestic trains inside an offer.
More travel tips
Questions about a tour or a request? Email [email protected] or call 1-877-YES-DADDY (toll-free USA & Canada) or +1 786-454-3666.