Tour Guides

During our trip we have gone on a lot of walking tours. We have had some good tour guides, and some... less good tour guides.

Our first tour guide was in Frankfurt. He was an American guy living in Germany and was really funny. One example of his humour was that he showed us a Spider-man sculpture on a roof and everybody brought out their phones and he said "Oh, now all the young people bring out their cameras!". It was a small group of around 10 people so we could hear him the whole time. His first language was English so we could also understand him well. We had comfort breaks which was nice to have a rest from walking and we had a stop for lunch at a local market. 

Next in Paris, our tour guide was also our AirBnB host. She showed us around the Palace of Versailles. It was a private tour so we could ask lots of questions. She had a system where every time a person answered a question correctly, they would get a "point" recorded on a piece of paper.

Also in Paris we did a walking tour around all the famous monuments with another guide. She had a microphone which was really helpful since it was a larger group than before. She was also very conscious of the group and helped us stay together by keeping her eye out for people falling behind. 

Our third tour guide in Paris was at the famous Louvre museum. Each tourist person had individual ear buds that were connected remotely to the tour guide's microphone. This meant we could all hear her even though we were not close by. She also regularly stopped for breaks to sit down which was nice.

Next we did a Harry Potter tour in London which was different because it was not as historical as the other tours. The guide had a similar sense of humour to the Frankfurt tour guide. We were standing on the steps of the UK Ministry of Defence building and he said "If the security guards come out with their guns... run!".

In summary, these were the five things that good tour guides did:

1. Stayed with the group - did not walk off too fast

2. Be heard - either spoke loudly, or had a good microphone system

3. Regular breaks - to sit down, go to restroom

4. Made jokes

5. Did their best to not let you get killed by angry British security guards

Thanks for reading! And until next time, be careful around government buildings in England.