When Should You Hire a Guide? Hint: More Often Than You Think

While visiting Baja Sur California, Mexico, this spring, I felt a little embarrassed waiting for our hiking guide. My husband and I were about to go on a 2- to 3-mile hike that would likely take us no more than an hour. Did we really need someone to show us the way?

Our guide, Gabriel, picked us up in a truck with damp seats—a clammy reminder of a boating tour the day before—and drove us 10 minutes north of town to a dirt lot near a new housing development. That was my first ego check: Without him, I would have doubted it was a trailhead. Who knows how long it would have taken us to find this place?

Midway up the trail to Cerro de la Calavera—which translates to Skull Hill, a local spot with views over the city of La Paz—Gabriel snapped off a twig from a nearby tree. “Here, smell,” he said, handing it to us. The whiff reminded me of incense. He told us it was copal, a plant that’s native to Mexico and used in Indigenous ceremonies. When a dragonfly flew by, he said that they were a sign water was nearby. Second ego check: I might not have noticed these details without him.

As seasoned backpackers, we probably would have hiked around Baja on our own had the tourism department not arranged the guided outing for us. But without Gabriel, the hike would have been far less interesting. It also would have left us vulnerable—not to other people, but to our own unfamiliarity of the area. As visitors, we are always less aware than locals of weather patterns, environmental considerations, cultural nuances, and potential hazards. Having a local with us provided an extra layer of safety and reassurance I was glad to have. After the trip, I started to wonder—why aren’t we in the habit of seeking out guides more often?

A dozen hikers I talked to for this story said they’re more likely to hire a guide for international trips over domestic ones. A handful of them had hired someone for treks to places like Kilimanjaro, Everest Base Camp, Chile’s Torres del Paine, and Bali’s Mount Batur. However, our trip to Mexico made me reconsider hiring a guide for hiking in the U.S.—and not just for the big mountains. Here’s why.

A guide could save your life

Hiring a guide can be useful if you’re new to backpacking or hiking and want to learn some new skills. But it can also be a great source of peace of mind. That’s true for beginner hikers as well as seasoned folks venturing into new terrain.

Every year, search and rescue teams are called to about 100,000 missions in the U.S., according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA). Of those, an average of 4,500 incidents occur annually in national parks. Researcher Robert Koester (AKA “Professor Rescue“) has been studying search and rescue statistics for decades. Out of 300,000 cases he’s collected so far, he cannot recall one incident that mentions someone needing a rescue or recovery while with a guide. That could be because people who hire guides tend to be more safety conscious in the first place. But it may also be because guides are thoroughly trained to know an environment and its hazards, from weather to wildlife. Unguided hikers, on the other hand, are often just visitors to a place. And if something goes wrong, average hikers may not have the communication resources or first-aid skills to save the situation—whereas guides often do.

While it’s certainly possible to hike safely on your own, hiring a guide can be a great way to mitigate risks whenever you feel uncertain about an objective.

You can really push your limits

Personal locator beacons, GPS devices, and even SOS-compatible cell phones have helped lead lost people out of the woods. However, “There’s no slowdown in search and rescue incidents,” Koester warns. More people than ever before are recreating outdoors, and devices can give them a false sense of safety and encourage them to push into riskier terrain. A guide, by contrast, can provide you the sounding board you actually need to push yourself harder—but in a way that’s still safe.

Perica Levatić, co-founder of 57Hours, an international network connecting guides to clients, says he’s noticed that social media is making the outdoors more popular and accessible, which has its pros and cons. “What the guides tell us is that there are more and more people who are maybe overestimating what they can do, even on guided tours,” says Levatić. Take, for instance, the hiker who was rescued twice in two days from the same Arizona mountain in 2022.

A guide can help you assess your abilities, introduce you to a new sport or teach you a new skill, plan logistics, and provide an overall sense of security. Some of them will also offer to take photos. “When the guide picks you up, you’re in safe hands from that moment on,” says Levatić. Having a guide is especially important when you’re exploring a new mountain range, forest, ecosystem, or trail system you’re unfamiliar with. Having a guide can help you focus on enjoying the hike, exploring more terrain, or bagging a new peak—and less on navigation and logistics.

They can give you a new perspective

In a survey of 1,000 American travelers, 70 percent planned to book a guided tour in the next year, according to Berlin-based travel marketplace GetYourGuide. A majority of those were international rather than domestic travelers. These folks wanted a local to offer an immersive and authentic experience. That can feel more like a necessity in an international setting—after all, it’s easy to imagine you know everything there is to know about a mountain range or forest in your own backyard. However, it’s important to remember that there’s always a lot more to learn. And you can benefit from having a local radically change your perspective anytime you’re somewhere new—even a trail just 50 miles from home.

As a marine biology student, Gabriel provided us with facts about the native wildlife and ecology, as well as a sense of safety, a car ride, and Spanish conversation practice, which we sorely needed. He even took us to a cafe in town for cappuccinos as post-summit treats.

Given the data and the memorable time we had with him, I’ll be hiring a guide more often for my stateside hikes—not just my international ones.