Palermo : Private Custom Walking Tour with a Local Guide

Pamela was our guide for this walking tour of Palermo. She really knew her stuff and was very pleasant. She was a native English speaker which made it easy to understand her. She has a love of the city which comes through during the tour. Highly recommend her.

Christina shared the history of Palermo with us with passion. She showed us things that we would not have seen on our own, and she even managed to capture the attention of our teens. Thanks, Christina! Great experience!

Margarita was very informative and showed us several points of interest to explore after our tour ended. The 3 hour walking tour was a perfect amount of time.

We had an excellent experience and would recommend this tour to anyone who wants to see Palermo and get a good sense of its history, surroundings and culture. Alessandro, our guide, was very knowledgeable and full of insight. He met us outside of our hotel and went at our pace. He walked us through the history of Palermo and its main attractions. He also showed us specific places that only locals know about. He included some cultural experiences by taking us to a Granita shop and we had cannoli at a Monastery that has historical significance. The tour allowed us to get a good sense of Palermo’s geography, making it easy for us to navigate the city for the remainder of our stay. Alessandro’s English is perfect and his energy was relentless despite the heat. He was very personable and helpful. At the end of our tour he took us to a small grocery store where we picked up water, etc. He also provided recommendations for dinner. Many thanks Alessandro. 😊

Gabriele was an excellent guide for our two hour walking tour of Palermo, his native island. In addition to his huge knowledge on the city, he was able to paint an informative picture of Sicilian social history and life today, including information on cultural traditions, food, local industry etc. He was able to adapt his private tour to our questions and we had a truly wonderful experience. He also sent further information for us to help with more sightseeing and sampling of local culture. Really can’t recommend him highly enough. Thank you Gabriele!

Pamela was a great guide -- she was helpful and flexible. We originally planned for an afternoon tour after we arrived on an early morning flight. She suggested we meet early due to the hot July weather. This ended up being a great idea! She was flexible with our arrival time -- and met us at our B&B and took us to a spot to grab a bite to eat. We were hoping for a more flexible tour so we could decide what else we wanted to see for the rest of the day (our only day in Palermo) -- and she did exactly that. Gave us the overall highlight overview, explained lots of helpful history, and gave us some great recommendations for the rest of the day -- and our next day as we travelled south. Recommend Pamela as a guide and are grateful for her expertise!

Our guide was friendly and easy to get on with. It was a bit disconcerting that one of the first things he told us was that he did not have his badge so may go quiet if around other guides! However this only really happened once. We booked the tour for the evening as we only landed mid day. Sadly we missed a number of attractions by 15 minutes. A shame for the guide as he had to think of more places to take us, although we weren’t certain why we didn’t do some earlier when open as we had a 3 hour tour. It was worth doing despite this as it helped us to recognise the places we needed to see in the city and find our bearings.

Our guide, Tatiana, was extremely friendly and knowledgeable about the town, its history and its culture. Partner and I have had a great time walking around the city with her. She curated the tour according to what we most wanted to see, and she managed the most out of our day despite our schedule constraints. Our guide really was extraordinary, highly recommend.

This was a very mixed experience for our group, so I want to provide a balanced review. About half of our group really enjoyed the tour. They found Riccardo ("Francesco") to be personable, engaging, and an enjoyable conversationalist. He is clearly knowledgeable about Sicily and shared interesting insights from the perspective of someone who lives nearby. It's worth noting that this was their first private walking tour through Viator, so they had no point of comparison. The other half of our group has taken several private Viator tours around Europe, and this experience did not meet the standard we have come to expect. The tour was simply different. Riccardo ("Francesco") explained that he was not a licensed Palermo guide, which meant avoiding many of the city's primary attractions and areas where licensed guides were present. He also mentioned that he intentionally dressed like an American tourist so he would not attract attention. As a result, it appeared that we viewed landmarks from less desirable vantage points and likely missed many of Palermo's iconic sights. One of the group members eventually disengaged from the tour and began using AI to identify notable landmarks and the best photographic locations. The overall level of hospitality, which did not match the standard we've come to expect from other private Viator experiences. The tour also concluded earlier than the time we had paid for because the guide had other commitments. Depending on your expectations, this tour may be a good fit. It certainly was for half of our group. For the other half, who have experienced several customized private tours through Viator, it did not meet the expectations established by those previous experiences. I remain a loyal Viator customer because my previous private tours have consistently been exceptional. I looked for another way to share this feedback directly with Viator but was unable to find one, so I hope this review helps set appropriate expectations for future travelers. This experience simply did not reflect the quality or type of experience I have come to expect from a Viator private tour.

Highly recommend a private tour. Our guide, Margherita, was so informative and it was much easier to have a conversation and learn from her in our small group of 2. We learned about history, day to day life, art, architecture, food, culture from a personal perspective. It felt like talking one on one with a friend. Margherita was so professional and a great guide! Thank you!!