Travelling safely with a guide you found here

Every guide profile is public before you contact anyone: photo, vehicles, countries, languages, services, the trips the guide has joined and the reviews received.

We look at new guide profiles by hand and keep out of the home page and the search results those that are empty, duplicated or have nothing to do with overland travel.

A review of a guide can only be written by the creator or an approved participant of a trip that guide actually joined, and only once the trip is over. There are no reviews from strangers.

Travelers and guides can report and block each other from any profile or trip page. A person reads every report.

In some countries, where the licensing authority publishes an official register, we automatically look up the licence number a guide enters. If the register lists a licence with that number under the same name, the profile shows a green "Licence verified" badge, with a link to the register so you can check it yourself. We repeat the check every month and remove the badge if the licence disappears or expires.

The Founding Guide badge marks the first 200 guides who joined GuideMeet. It says the guide has been here since the beginning. It is not a verification.

We do not verify identity documents, permits, insurance or vehicle ownership. Apart from the licence check above, a profile is what the guide declares.

The "Licence verified" badge confirms that the licence exists in the official register, not that the person you are talking to is its holder, nor that the service is good or safe. Where it matters, ask to see the licence card when you meet and compare the name.

We do not handle payments, deposits or refunds. You agree the price with the guide and you pay the guide.

We do not guarantee that a guide is competent, available or will behave. We give you what you need to check it yourself.

We do not read private messages unless a conversation is reported.

Read the whole profile, not just the photos. The vehicles and countries listed must match what you actually need.

Look at the trips the guide has joined and at who wrote the reviews. A guide with three finished trips tells you more than any badge.

Ask specific questions in the inbox: which stretch, how many days, which vehicle the guide drives, what happens if a vehicle breaks down, who carries the recovery gear.

Get the price, what it includes and what happens if you cancel in writing, in the GuideMeet inbox.

Do not pay the full amount in advance to someone you have never met. In some countries a small deposit for permits or fuel is normal. A full prepayment to a foreign account is not.

Before a long trip, do a short video call. A real guide is happy to show the vehicle and the gear.

Check permits, border rules and insurance with official sources. Guides know the terrain; they do not replace your embassy or your insurer.

Say clearly what you can and cannot do. A guide who turns down a route is worth more than one who improvises.

Ask what vehicle, experience and gear the traveler has. You are allowed to say no.

Put price, duration and what is included in the inbox before the trip. If something goes wrong, that is the record we can look at.

Ask only for the information you need. Passport scans belong at border posts, not in chats.

Do not pass a traveler's contact or plans to other guides or operators without asking them first.

Pressure to pay now, to an account that is not in the guide's name.

A profile with one photo, no vehicles and no trips that promises everything.

Someone who will not answer basic questions here but insists on moving to another app right away. Planning on WhatsApp is normal; dodging questions is not.

Prices far below every other guide in the same country.

Requests for your passport, card details or a copy of your ID in a chat.

Agree the meeting point in a public place, in daylight, and tell someone at home where you are going.

Keep your own navigation running even when the guide leads. You should always know where you are.

Carry your own emergency contacts, insurance number and the local emergency numbers, on paper.

In remote areas, agree beforehand what happens if a vehicle cannot continue.