Tour Guides

Even if you are travelling independently sooner or later you will want to do something that requires a guide. A good guide can turn an otherwise uninteresting tour into something thrilling and captivating. In contrast a guide who seems simply to be going through the motions and treating their job as more of a chore rather than a passionate hobby can lead to you switching off from what they are saying in a matter of minutes.

Having experienced both good and bad guides on recent trips to Cairo and Rome here are Lazyshark's tips to finding a good guide:

1. Do you homework - Reviews posted on travel websites can be very helpful in choosing a good company and avoiding the bad ones. (but you need to take this with a pinch of salt)

2. Ask around - Other travellers you meet may have done the same trip as you are considering.

3. Try to meet the guides before booking - You can often have a quick chat with them over the phone. Do not be shy of asking question to give you an idea of whether they know their subject.

4. Ask the operator - Not quite as good as having a chat with the guide but the sales people in the kiosk should be able to answer your questions about the guides, levels of qualifications etc.. If they can't then it is probably a bit of a shabby operation.

5. Level of experience - One way of ensuring that you get a good quality guide is to try and get someone with higher level qualifications. This reminds me of going on a trip into the Kakadu National Park. The first guide I went with was a young unqualified guy who was very nice but not particularly knowledgeable about wildlife. His main role seemed more to be about driving us from point A to point B. The second time I went with a more experienced naturalist qualified guide who pointed out the multiple bird and plant species that we passed and was briming full of fascinating information which really brought the tour alive.

6. Consider smaller independent tour companies - From previous experience smaller independent companies tend to employ guides who are doing the job more for the love and joy of it and their passion for the subject matter shines through more brightly.