The best way through an old town is a tuk-tuk with the sides open.
Which Lisbon hill run stops for the viewpoints. What a whole day in a Jaipur auto-rickshaw costs. Whether the Bangkok night circuit beats the temple morning. Reviews of the tuk-tuk, rickshaw and cyclo rides you can book.
Four rides that explain the whole idea.
A Lisbon hill loop, a Bangkok night circuit, an Angkor run and an all-in Colombo day. What each one costs, and what the people in the back seat said afterwards.
01The first rideTrue 4Hour Private Tuk Tuk Tour: Discover Lisbon with a Local!Four hours, one driver, and the Alfama lanes a coach cannot turn into. The ride most first-timers in Lisbon end up taking.- 02After darkBangkok by Night: Temples, Markets and Food Tuk-Tuk TourTemples lit up, a flower market at midnight and a wok on a pavement. Bangkok makes more sense at 11pm on three wheels.
03The temple runAngkor Wat Private Tuk-Tuk TourAngkor is spread over a plain and the tuk-tuk is the local answer to it. Your driver waits at each gate while you walk in.
04The all-in dayPrivate Tuk-Tuk City Tour with All Entry FeesColombo with the entry fees already paid, so nobody haggles at a temple door. The whole city in one fare.
Portugal put tuk-tuks on its hills and never took them off.
Lisbon runs more of them than anywhere in Europe, Porto works the riverside, Madeira takes the switchbacks above Funchal. Three kinds of Portuguese ride, what it costs to get into one, and which city it suits.
Six countries that built their sightseeing around three wheels.
Portugal took them up its hills, India never called them anything but autos, Thailand keeps them loud, Sri Lanka charges by the day, Cambodia parks them at temple gates and Spain went electric. Six places to start, and the best ride in each.
The tuk-tuk rides more travellers take than any others.
Every tuk-tuk review on the site →One driver, a few hours, and a route worked out over years. These are the ones the back seats fill up on, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
True 4Hour Private Tuk Tuk Tour: Discover Lisbon with a Local!
See Lisbon’s hills, viewpoints, Belém, Alfama, and historic squares on a private four-hour electric tuk-tuk tour with a local guide.
From · $108
Read our review →
2
Guided Tour by Tuk-Tuk & Optional Douro River Cruise
from $20
3
Private Guided Tuk-Tuk Tour with Hotel Pickup
4
Private Lisbon Sightseeing Tuk-Tuk Tour: Alfama, Belém & More
from $52
5
Bangkok by Night: Temples, Markets and Food Tuk-Tuk Tour
from $79
6
Private City Tour by Eco Tuk Tuk
from $28
7
Lisbon Highlights: Private Tuk Tuk Tour Adventure Sightseeing
from $84
8
CuChi Tunnels&Mekong Delta-Boat,TukTuk,Coconut Village SmallGroup
from $32
Lisbon: the hills are the reason the tuk-tuks are there at all.
All of Lisbon on three wheels →
Alfama is a staircase with houses on it, and the tram queue starts at nine. A tuk-tuk takes the same lanes, waits while you photograph the miradouro and has you at Belem in time for lunch.
Alfama, Graça and Belem in one loop
Up through the Alfama lanes to the Senhora do Monte terrace, down to the Baixa, then the river road out to Belem. The route every Lisbon driver knows by heart, and the one to do first.
Electric, and it climbs better
The eco tuk-tuks pull the gradients without the two-stroke racket, which matters when the driver is telling you what you are looking at. Same lanes, no diesel in the photographs.
A driver who does the talking
The difference between a lift and a tour is whether anyone explains the azulejos, the earthquake and why half the city faces the water. Book the guided version if this is your first day.
A tuk-tuk at night is a different city altogether.
Bangkok runs a midnight circuit that only works on three wheels: a wat lit from below, the flower market at full tilt, a wok on a pavement, then back into the traffic. Cambodia and Portugal do their own versions once the heat comes off the day.
The city run is the ride almost everyone books first.
One driver, three or four hours, the landmarks in an order that works on a one-way system, and a seat you climb straight out of at every stop. Take it on the first morning and the rest of the trip gets easier.
What a tuk-tuk ride actually costs, country by country.
Every ride on the site, grouped by price. A full day in a Jaipur auto-rickshaw comes to less than a coffee and a pastry in Lisbon, and the gap runs the whole length of the list.
City runs, old-town loops, and the all-day auto-rickshaw fares in India and Sri Lanka.
Half days with the driver to yourself, food circuits with the tastings paid for, hotel pickup at the front end.
Whole days with a guide in the back seat, multi-stop country runs, and the vehicle booked for your party alone.
In India nobody says tuk-tuk. They say auto, and it is the transport system.
A yellow-and-green auto-rickshaw for a full day in Jaipur costs about what a city taxi charges for twenty minutes. Old Delhi does it by cycle-rickshaw instead, because nothing wider fits down Chandni Chowk.
Every Indian ride →
Three rides that do not work in anything else.
A bus cannot turn into them, a taxi will not wait, and on foot they take the whole afternoon.
The Alfama Lanes
Alfama was laid out before anyone imagined a car, and the streets are barely wider than a doorway with a tram squeezed through the middle. A tuk-tuk fits, stops on the cobbles at the Senhora do Monte terrace, and picks you up again forty metres further down where the steps come out. The drivers work the same loop a dozen times a day, which is why they know exactly when the tram queue clears.
- 1Private Lisbon Sightseeing Tuk-Tuk Tour: Alfama, Belém & More★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 4,277 reviews
- 2Old Town TukTuk Tour and Scenic Viewpoints in Alfama★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 974 reviews
- 3Express Lisbon | City Center and Old Town Tuk Tuk Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 606 reviews
Chandni Chowk by Cycle-Rickshaw
The wholesale lanes off Chandni Chowk are wide enough for a handcart and nothing more, and the whole market moves through them on foot and on pedal power. A cycle-rickshaw rider takes the gaps a walker would not risk, at head height above the crowd, and it is the only way to cover the spice market, the wedding-card lanes and the silver alleys in one morning. Sunday is the day everything shuts.
- 13-hour Old Delhi Heritage Walking tour with Rickshaw Ride★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 240 reviews
- 23-Hour Old Delhi Heritage Walking tour with Rickshaw ride★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 158 reviews
- 33-Hour Tuk-Tuk/Rickshaw Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 137 reviews
The Midnight Food Circuit
Bangkok eats late and its best stalls sit hours apart on a road system that turns solid at rush hour. After ten the traffic thins and a tuk-tuk becomes the fastest thing on the street: a wat lit from below, the flower market at its loudest, a plate of something cooked in front of you, then the next one. The stalls close when they sell out, so the route is decided by the driver on the night.
- 1Midnight Food Tour by Tuk-Tuk★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 2,054 reviews
- 2Michelin Guide Street Food Tour by Tuk Tuk★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 1,274 reviews
- 3Bangkok Tuk-Tuk Tour by Night with Chinatown Street Food Meal★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 635 reviews
Open sides, three wheels, no doors: what that means on the day.
A tuk-tuk seats two adults comfortably and three at a squeeze, takes luggage on your lap, and has nothing between you and the weather. Monsoon rain arrives sideways, the midday sun cooks the back bench, and a two-stroke engine is loud enough to drown out a guide. The fix is the same everywhere: ride early, ride after dark, or ride electric.
Four tuk-tuk rides that will not wait for you.
Most of this can be arranged from a hotel desk the night before. These four run on gate times, market hours and one driver with one vehicle, and there is no second departure.
- 01Angkor Wat Private Tuk-Tuk TourAngkor opens before dawn and the drivers who do the early run are taken the day before. Arrive at six and you are behind the coaches at every gate.
- 02Bangkok Midnight Food Tuk Tuk TourThe night circuit is built on stalls that shut when they sell out. One vehicle, one driver, and nothing later in the evening to switch to.
- 03Private Tour of Chandni Chowk, Tuk Tuk & FoodThe wholesale lanes only work in the morning and the whole market closes on Sunday. A cycle-rickshaw through Chandni Chowk is an early booking or no booking.
- 04Sigiriya Guided Tuk-Tuk TourSigiriya is four hours out of Kandy and four hours back, so the tuk-tuk leaves before light and your driver is committed to you for the entire day.
Sri Lanka hires the tuk-tuk by the day, driver included.
Colombo drivers quote for the whole city with the temple entry fees already inside the fare, which is the end of haggling at every door. In Kandy the same arrangement buys the hill roads, the lake and a tea factory before dark.
- 1Private Tuk-Tuk City Tour with All Entry Feesfrom $23
- 2Kandy Private Guided City Tour by Tuk Tukfrom $6
- 3Colombo Tuk Tuk City Tour -Sightseeing Entry Fees & Food Includedfrom $34
Alfama, the terraces, Belem: the Lisbon loop in the order the drivers do it.
The miradouros
Up to Graça
Belem
A stop to eatCountries, and the cities inside them
The newest tuk-tuk and rickshaw reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Albufeira City Tour & Best Beaches 2h (TukTuk or Jeep)
Read our review →
Agra: Street Food Tour with Spice Market on Tuk-Tuk Ride
Read our review →
Agra: Private Full-Day Sightseeing Tour by Tuk-Tuk or Cab
Read our review →
Agra: Old City & Street Food Tour in Car, Tuk Tuk or Bike
Read our review →
Agra: Skip The Line Taj Mahal Tour With Optional Tuk Tuk
Read our review →
