The private tour is the upgrade. Here is what it buys.
What “private” actually includes. How many people are really in the group. Whether the car, the drinks and the hotel pickup are in the quoted price. Reviews of the VIP and luxury tours you can book anywhere in the world.
Six countries where a private guide costs less than the coach.
Cairo and Hanoi will put a car, a driver and a guide outside your hotel for what a group day trip costs in western Europe. Six places to start, and the best upgrade in each.
In the USA the upgrade is a helicopter, a limousine or a boat.
Vegas from the air after dark. A car and a driver for a full day in New York. A skyline cruise off Miami with the bar open. Four kinds of American day out, and what each one starts at.
A quarter of these tours never touch dry land.
Yachts out of Dubai Marina, catamarans off Los Cabos, the Bosphorus at sunset with the engines cut. Charter the whole deck or take a cabin on somebody else’s. Both are here, and the gap between the two prices is smaller than you would guess.
What a VIP ticket actually gets you past.
Sometimes it is the queue. Sometimes it is a locked terrace, a lounge at 555 metres, or a table at the front with the drinks already poured. These are the ones worth the difference, and what each one skips.
- 1Desert Safari with VIP BBQ and Optional Quad Bikefrom $30
- 2Cu Chi Tunnels & Mekong Delta Tour with VIP Limousine Transferfrom $56
- 3Legendary Venice: Doge’s Palace, St Mark’s & VIP Terrace Accessfrom $76
The luxury tours travellers book more than any other.
Every luxury tour we have reviewed →One yacht in Dubai Marina, one saloon boat on an Amsterdam canal, one helicopter over the Strip after dark. These fill first, and this is what earns each of them the slot.
1
Amsterdam Luxury Canal Cruise + Unlimited Drinks & Bites option
Spend about an hour cruising Amsterdam’s canals aboard a small electric boat, with live commentary from guides such as Sophia, Arnoud, or Franz. You’ll pass Jordaan, the Anne Frank House, Rijksmuseum, Magere Brug, and the Bridge of 15 Bridges. Choose the drinks and bites option carefully, since inclusions can vary by departure.
From · $18
Read our review →
2
Dubai Marina: Luxury Yacht Tour with Breakfast or BBQ Option
from $15
3
The Luxury Yacht Tour with Live BBQ Option
from $19
4
Desert Safari with VIP BBQ and Optional Quad Bike
from $30
5
Cu Chi Tunnels & Mekong Delta Tour with VIP Limousine Transfer
from $56
6
Luxury Saloon Boat Cruise with Cocktails & Waffle
from $21
7
Las Vegas Helicopter Night Strip Flight Tour with Optional Dinner
from $89
8
Luxury Cruise Trip to Orange Bay with Lunch
from $53
What a luxury tour costs, top to bottom.
Every tour here grouped by the per-person price. The bottom band is the one that surprises people: a private guide and car in Cairo or Hanoi comes in under a group coach seat in Rome.
Private guides and drivers in Egypt, Vietnam, Morocco and Mexico, airport fast-track, and VIP entry on a night out.
The standards: a yacht afternoon, a desert camp with a 4x4, a full day with a driver, skip-everything entry at the big sights.
Whole-boat charters, helicopter flights, multi-day all-inclusive itineraries and the once-a-trip bookings that earn it.
Private, VIP and all-inclusive are three different promises.
Private means the group is yours; it says nothing about the vehicle. VIP usually means entry, not a guide. All-inclusive is the only one of the three that reliably covers lunch and drinks. Check the pickup zone before you book the hotel, and check whether the figure quoted is per person or for the whole car.
Three upgrades that change the day, not just the seat.
Plenty of tours labelled luxury are the same coach with better upholstery. These three are a genuinely different day out from the group version.
The Golden Triangle by private car
The three cities sit at the corners of a 720-kilometre triangle, and the coach version runs to a timetable built around lunch stops. With a car and a driver you leave for the Taj at four in the morning, reach the east gate before the light comes up, and sleep on the road to Jaipur instead of waiting in a car park. Most itineraries run three to five days and quote for the car, so four people pay close to what two do.
- 1All Inclusive Private Taj Mahal Luxury Tour from Delhi by Car★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,564 reviews
- 23-Days Private Golden Triangle Tour: Delhi, Agra & Jaipur by Car★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,098 reviews
- 3Four-Day Private Luxury Golden Triangle Tour to Agra and Jaipur From New Delhi★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 807 reviews
A camp with nobody else in it
The shared desert safari is a convoy of 4x4s to a compound with five hundred other people and a stage. The private version takes one vehicle, drives further out, and parks where the dunes are empty for the twenty minutes either side of sunset that everyone actually came for. In Morocco that means Merzouga and a night under canvas; out of Dubai it is an hour inland and back by ten.
- 1Desert Safari with VIP BBQ and Optional Quad Bike★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 7,349 reviews
- 2Majestic Desert: 3-Day Luxury Journey from Marrakech to Fes★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,437 reviews
- 3Dubai Red Dunes with Sandboarding, Camel Ride, Falcon & VIP Camp★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 965 reviews
Chartering the deck
A cabin on a shared cruise puts you on someone else’s timetable and someone else’s swim stop. Charter the boat and the route is yours: the Bosphorus after the ferries stop, Dubai Marina at dusk, the Cabo arch before the day boats arrive. Charters quote for the vessel, so the per-person figure falls fast once there are six of you, and most crews will take a request.
- 1Dubai Marina: Luxury Yacht Tour with Breakfast or BBQ Option★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 21,528 reviews
- 2The Luxury Yacht Tour with Live BBQ Option★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 13,665 reviews
- 3Luxury Sunset Yacht Tour with Snacks and Drinks★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 4,723 reviews
Four luxury bookings that will not wait.
Most of this can be arranged the night before from a hotel lobby. These four run on a fixed number of seats, a licensed slot or one departure a day, and in season they close weeks out.
- 01Burj Khalifa VIP Experience Level 152 Lounge AccessThe lounge floors hold a set number of seats each evening, and the sunset slot is the one that goes first.
- 02Las Vegas Helicopter Night Strip Flight Tour with Optional DinnerHelicopters fly with a fixed seat count and a weight limit per aircraft. The night flights over the Strip sell out earliest.
- 03Ha Long Bay Day Trip – Luxury Cruise & Buffet LunchThe good cabins are a handful per vessel, and in the dry season they are gone months ahead.
- 04Legendary Venice: Doge’s Palace, St Mark’s & VIP Terrace AccessAfter-hours access runs as one small group at one time each evening, and it is capped by the room it walks through.
Dubai sells the upgrade better than anywhere.
The city is built for it. A yacht out of the Marina at golden hour, a lounge on the 152nd floor, a 4x4 into the dunes with dinner already lit. Nowhere else stacks this much of it into one place at this price.
Every Dubai day out →
The newest luxury tour reviews.
More recent reviews →
Punta Cana VIP Party Cruise with Snorkeling & Double Slide
Read our review →
VIP Club Crawl with Party Bus, Express Entry & Drinks
Read our review →
VIP Rock Pass: Includes SKYLIFT, Beam, Rooftop Garden
Read our review →
Top vip one hour private flight royal breakfast on board
Read our review →