How best to find a driver/guide?

Just over 4 weeks before we head off and starting to get the questions rolling in now. Please bear with me!

I%26#39;ve read a lot about hiring drivers to go to the temples, and read an awful lot of first time posters for which person is great (rightly or wrongly, I take these with a pinch of salt as I too am sceptical of them).

What I was wondering is, if we arrive mid afternoon one day, how easy it is going to be to find someone to take us round the temples for the next 3 days? If we want to go by tuk tuk as opposed to taxi, do we hire a driver and then also a guide, or are they typically one and the same person? I know to find someone who speaks English well, but is it a given that they will all be pretty knowledgeable on the temples? I don%26#39;t want to be reading my Lonely Planet guide while I%26#39;m there, kind of spoils the moment I think.

Do we just find someone outside of our hotel or is there a more appropriate place to go to find a driver/guide? We are arriving by bus from PP.

And roughly how much are we talking? Again, couldn%26#39;t remember if it was an amount for the driver and then same again for the guide.

Even more questions to follow I%26#39;m afraid....but thanks for help in advance!

How best to find a driver/guide?

hi I have been to Siem Reap twice now and the last was in Oct 08. Your hotel or guesthouse should be able to arrange driver, tuk-tuk and tour guide for you. You can try emailing your hotel/guesthouse and start checking with them.

Personally I prefer to arrange my guide prior to my arrival especially since I was travelling solo and there were some remote places that I wanted to go. My tour guide help arrange my transport base on my preference and work with me on my itinerary. My guide was recommended by fellow TA travellers.

Only license tour guide are allowed to follow you into the temples so drivers can%26#39;t guide you around. You will need to get a car with driver and a guide separately. Same goes if you are taking a tuk-tuk.

Cost - car with driver USD25/day in Angkor, tuk-tuk USD12-15/day in Angkor, tour guide USD25/day for English speaking. More for other language. You have to pay extra for sunrise and if you want to visit remote area.

this site has a lot of very helpful details www.canbypublications.com

Enjoy the planning. That%26#39;s part of the fun!

Cheers,

Suan

How best to find a driver/guide?

My 2 cents:

It%26#39;s best to hire guides in advance, based on personal recommendations. But I would search through Fodors for those, not here, as self-advertisement is rampant on TA.

Having said that, the best guides are likely to already be booked in high season, so going through your guesthouse to get a guide is the next best option. You%26#39;ll have to tell them specifically that you want to go via tuk-tuk; not all guides are up for that. (For you the chances of an accident are slim, for them, riding in one every day is statistically unsafe). Usually drivers don%26#39;t make very good guides, but there are exceptions. Bring a guide book if you%26#39;re not taking a guide.

Drivers of tuk-tuks are much easier to come by if you%26#39;re going that route and touring on your own. Make sure his equipment looks safe, he speaks English, and negotiate your price up front. Should be around $15 per day for the usual circuit, more for further away, like Banteay Srei, etc.

It%26#39;s dusty in dry season. Have one of your first stops be at a convenience store and pick up a couple of 10 cent facemasks for rides in the tuk-tuk.

Do you mean the people who are up front about being guides, or do you mean that some of the reviews / recommendations which are posted here are from guides who are advertising rather than travelers?

Thx.

Yes, I mean that some of the reviews / recommendations which are posted here are from guides who are advertising rather than travelers.

This is a commonly done practice among some guides and drivers in siem reap and difficult to control on this forum. You can%26#39;t blame them for using every avenue to improve their business, but you can%26#39;t exactly go by that either.

Again, I would encourage you to search fodors for ';tour guide'; in the Cambodia forum if you want to find more trustworthy recommendations.

Hi,

We went to SR in August. We had the same questions as you and decided to hire driver %26amp; guide when we arrived. We hired tuk tuk and separate guide. Tuk tuk aprox $12 a day guide $25. You can use the driver as a guide bur they are less knowledgable than the official guides and once you have come all this way we wanted to make the most of it. It is easy to lose reality of costs and to pay aprox £14 for a private guide for a full day is actually in our terms very reasonable.

We arrived in the afternoon and didn%26#39;t hire a guide for that part day, just a tuk tuk for a brief visit and sunset. We found a tuk tuk better as you can see and feel more without being behind the glass of a taxi window. However it is better to use a taxi for the more outlying temples as it makes reaching them a lot quicker than by tuk tuk.

In short for 3 days would recomend no guide for first part day, guide for rest. Tuk tuk for main temples and taxi one day for outlying temples. You can book these easily at your hotel or guesthouse. The guide will be independant of the transport so don%26#39;t worry about not keeping the tuk tuk if you swap to taxi.

Finally whatever you do you can%26#39;t fail to enjoy this place

Cheers

Dear all,

To help you understand about your trip to CAMBODIA, you might have a look at Kim San, an official tour guide-speaking English and he probably can help you, because I used his services when I was in Siem Reap for a short holiday. His website is http://www.angkor-guides.com/

Thanks everyone, all a bit clearer now. I liked the idea of a tuk tuk becuase it%26#39;s less clinical than driving around in an air conditioned car, but it depends on how we have adapted to the heat and I didn%26#39;t really think about the dust(should be okay but you never know). I think it%26#39;s a good point about getting a taxi to the further flung temples ( next post is going to be about that!) so will take that on board. My preference would be cycling but I can imagine we would be too tired to do much after that!

Ellenem, how do I know if Fodor%26#39;s recommendations on their forum are any more reliable than those here? I can%26#39;t seem to see how many posts an individual has made to determine if they are genuine or not. Although to be fair the more I%26#39;ve read, they just seem to come across more genuine.

Hi Artemis

On Fodors, you can click on someone%26#39;s screen name and see their posts. That will help you get a sense of how objective they are and if their wants/needs match yours.

I%26#39;ve been lurking around this forum for 5 years and even longer on Fodors, and it%26#39;s my opinion that the posters on the asian board at Fodors just do a better job of nailing advertisers. Maybe this is something we can improve upon on this forum as well.

Ellenem - Can%26#39;t you also click on a person%26#39;s name here to see their past posts? I just clicked on %26#39;more about ellenem%26#39; and saw a list of your posts from March 28/06 to now. I always check out a person%26#39;s past posting list to get a feel for if they are a genuine poster or if they are just placing an ad for themselves. I also do the same when checking out reviews of places to stay - a first post always raises a red flag and if there is no history for the poster I will usually discount the review. I have not used Fodor%26#39;s forums but will be checking them out after your recommendation.

Yes, Newfie it%26#39;s the same mechanism here as on Fodors to check someone%26#39;s previous posts. The OP was asking how to do it on Fodors. There, you click on the screen name. Here, you click on ';more about xxxx'; Same, same.

And I agree it is helpful to read through a poster%26#39;s previous missives to see if they are the same kind of traveler I am; it helps build their recommendations in my mind if they are. That%26#39;s why trip reports are so important.

I%26#39;m certainly NOT trying to steer anyone off this board to Fodors, but I would very much like to see the quality of the trip reports on Trip Advisor improve.

We must encourage each other to come back after trips and post!