EzyRoute vs Viator
TripAdvisor-owned tour marketplace vs free curated routes
Viator is the largest tour and activity marketplace by inventory, with over 300,000 bookable products across virtually every destination. It's owned by TripAdvisor and inherits both the strengths (scale, reviews, brand trust) and the weaknesses (paid placement, sameness across competitors) of that ecosystem.
When each is the right choice
Pick Viator when…
- ●You're booking a multi-stop day tour where transport and logistics matter
- ●You want extensive reviews on a specific product before you commit money
- ●You're traveling to a remote destination where independent walking isn't practical
- ●You want familiar customer service with TripAdvisor's booking infrastructure behind it
Pick EzyRoute when…
- ●You're comfortable walking yourself and just want to know where to walk
- ●You don't want to compare 80 nearly-identical walking-tour products to pick one
- ●You'd rather spend the booking budget on better food than on a guide
- ●You want a creator's personal route, not the highest-margin product surfaced by an algorithm
Feature comparison
Created by named local creators
Every route has a named human author with a declared relationship to the city
Authentic local-favourite spots
Hidden gems and creator-favourites, not the top algorithmic results
Free to use
No tier system, no per-route payment, no booking commission
Opens directly in Google Maps
One-tap save creates a Google Maps list in your own account
Curated, ordered itinerary
A sequence, not a search result — the order matters
Personal creator notes per stop
Why this place, when to go, what to order — written by the creator
Mobile-first
Designed for the phone-in-hand, walking-the-city use case
No ads on route pages
Clean reading experience without sponsored placements
How the two products differ in practice
Scale is Viator's defining property. 300,000 products is more than any traveler can usefully evaluate, and the platform's job is to rank them — by popularity, by review volume, by commission rate, by the operator's marketing budget. That ranking is genuinely useful for high-stakes bookings: a day trip from Cusco to Machu Picchu where the operator's quality matters, a desert safari where you absolutely need transport.
For the lower-stakes "what should I do today in this city I just landed in" question, the ranking model creates a paradox. The most visible products are the ones bought most often, which become the most reviewed, which become the most visible — a flywheel that surfaces the popular and buries the better. The platform isn't doing anything wrong; it's just optimising for booking volume.
EzyRoute is the inverse architecture: small inventory, named creators, no booking. A route either exists because a specific local published it, or it doesn't exist at all. The discovery problem of "which of 80 walking tours should I book" doesn't apply because there is one route per creator-city-theme, with their face attached.
Common issues with Viator
300,000+ products is breadth, not curation — finding the right tour is the work
Commission and ad placement shape what you see first
No itinerary for the unstructured parts of your day
Frequently asked
Can I use both Viator and EzyRoute on the same trip?+
Yes, that's a common pattern. Book your structured day tours and ticketed attractions on Viator. Use EzyRoute for the unstructured days, evenings and meals between them.
Does EzyRoute have customer service like Viator?+
We have a support email for routes and accounts. We don't have booking-related customer service because there are no bookings on EzyRoute.
Are EzyRoute creators paid the way Viator operators are paid?+
No. Viator operators are paid per booking through commissions. EzyRoute creators are paid through tips and dedicated creator programmes — never through reader bookings, because we don't sell bookings.
Why is EzyRoute coverage smaller than Viator's?+
Because EzyRoute only ships a route when a real local creator has published one. Viator aggregates the whole tour-operator inventory. We grow slower and the depth per city is the trade-off.
Is Viator the same as TripAdvisor?+
Viator is owned by TripAdvisor and shares the booking infrastructure. TripAdvisor focuses on hotels and restaurants; Viator focuses on tours and activities.
Why travelers pick EzyRoute
Three structural choices that show up on every route, every city.
Named local creators
Every route has a face attached. You can read the creator's profile, see their other routes, and decide whether their taste matches yours.
One-tap Google Maps
Saving a route creates a list in your own Google account. No new app, no separate map, no copy-pasting addresses.
100% free
No tier system, no per-route pricing, no booking commission. Creators earn through tips and creator programmes, not from readers.
Methodology: Comparison treats Viator as a representative tour marketplace. The points apply broadly to similar marketplaces including Klook and Civitatis, which we may add as dedicated comparisons in future. Content last updated 2026-05-21.
Ready to explore like a local?
Skip the tourist traps. Discover routes curated by locals who know their city best — for free, on Google Maps.
Browse Local Routes