OUR LICENSES AND MEMBERSHIPS

ALL OUR GUIDES ARE LICENSED

All our tour guides are official tour guides, certified by the Government of Catalonia. Some advantages of hiring an official tour guide are:

• Proven knowledge and reliability
• Legal authorization to explain inside heritage sites and museums (please note that some privately owned sites might limit our right to explain within their premises: Palau de la Música Catalana, Casa Lleó Morera, Hospital de Sant Pau i de la Santa Creu…).
• Right to skip lines with small groups in most local sites and museums (although access might depend on tickets availability – we pre-book tickets for you for the sites where it’s usually needed)

WE ONLY USE DRIVERS WITH A PROFESSIONAL DRIVING LICENSE

Our tour guides do not drive. When you are hiring a chauffeured service, we’ll also provide a dedicated professional driver, with the required professional license and a SP plate (standing for Public Service). For more information on the laws applying to professional drivers why our tour guides don’t drive, click here.

TOURISM ASSOCIATION MEMBERSHIPS

Are you ASTA member Travel Agents?

No. Asta is the American Society of Travel Agents, and according to their website they are the “world’s largest association of travel professionals“. However and despite what you might have read in other sites, as an American association they have no power to regulate who can welcome travelers from abroad, nor are the sole institution who can verify genuine tour operators. Each country has the right to set their own laws for local tourism companies, and in Spain each region has the authority to decide who and how tour services are provided within their territory. Tours in Barcelona and the Catalonia region are ruled by the 158/2012 Decree of the Government of Catalonia, that states what services are specific to Travel Agencies, and what services can be operated by other providers. We are NOT a Travel Agency, but according to such decree Travel Agencies are the only ones authorized to provide combined trips (over 24 hours long or including an overnight stay), and that does not include the kind of services we provide, which is typically individual tours of 2 to 12 hours. What means we are completely legally entitled to provide the services we provide. In the other hand, only tour guides licensed by the Government of Catalonia are legally allowed to explain within the premises of BCIN museums or monuments (BCIN – Sites of National Cultural Interest). This is why we ONLY use certified tour guides.

Do you belong to any other tourism association?

In Spain tour guides are not required to be members of any specific association, but out of their commitment with our profession, most of the guides in our team are members of local tour guide societies such as Aguicat and APIT, being even actively involved in such societies boards.