Originally Posted by
mbgg
You should post this question on the Tripadvisor forum. There is also an FAQ there about hiring local guides.
Yeah, TA Israel forum has a wealth of information and is a great resource. However, beware that there are several megaposters / "Destination Experts" who are tour guides. The forum is really cliquey, and lot of the megaposters are friends or at least have met up in real life. The guides are megaposting on TA for the primary purpose of promoting their business (under the guise of just trying to be helpful to tourists). They don't explicitly self-promote so as to stay within TA's rules, but some of the non-guide megaposters are constantly promoting their guide megaposter "friends" when people ask for guide recommendations. This is not to say that these folks aren't great guides, so, OP, just make sure you read "real" trip reports and reviews by actual tourists who have used particular guides -- and don't just rely on the recommendation of a TA "regular."