How do I become a better tourist guide for my own city or country?

1/22/2013 10:16:52 PM

Despite how cheesy this may sound, read the Wikivoyage entry on your city or a travel guidebook if you are expecting to be a tourist guide for someone. Guidebooks such as Lonely Planet (or anything else really) can help you give a historical background on famous landmarks and then you can talk to your friend about that and your own knowledge. There are some ‘touristy’ activities that simply don’t engage in when you’re a resident.

One other thing that I do often is to look up food or photography groups within your city. Many of these organise free walking tours around the city and this can be an excellent way of exploring aspects of the place you live in, and when showing around a friend, such a walking tour feels more personal / intimate than going on an organised tour. They can also help you discover hidden gems within your city you might not have been aware of.

1/21/2013 8:43:50 AM

When, while travelling, I visit some friend, the things that I enjoy most are:

  • meals at home, or at least in local restaurants. I remember a small restaurant in a famous beach resort in Portugal with no tourist inside, while tourist traps where only few hundred meters away.

  • local life explained. Christmas time in Tuscany has so many customs that you can’t understand if you are not with a local friend.

  • shopping. A mall in Stockholm or a bazaar in Istanbul is not the same as a tourist or as a foreign friend.

In short, the best tourist guide is someone who makes me practice: si fueris Romae, Romano vivito more.

1/20/2013 10:41:47 AM

Your question reminds me of a quote from a quantum mechanics teacher I once had:

Only after teaching a subject twice, one may begin to understand it.

Apart from hosting the occasional Couchsurfer, I have no experience myself in being a tourist guide. But I guess: to become a better tourist guide, be a tourist guide. I think in many places, tourist guides are often student jobs, relying not (only) on professionals but also a lot of amateurs. Therefore, if you’re genuinely interested in becoming a better tourist guide, you could apply to be one in your own city or region, maybe during the summer months (or weeks). I’d expect that this means following a few classes and then heading out in the city centre. You’ll tell the same story on every trip but might get different questions on every trip, that you would need to figure out. That’s probably a highly effective way to learn the touristic information for your city or region.

1/20/2013 2:01:21 AM

One option is to go on a tour of your own city.

It sounds odd, but it’s really not – I’ve often been on a city tour and found people from that city on it. Sometimes they’re with out-of-town friends, or are new to town, but there’s no reason not to!

Sydney, for example, has the hop-on, hop-off bus that you could take.

Obviously that’ll still only take you to the ‘tourist’ spots, but you’ll find out more about the city.

In Vancouver, in discovering what is on and available to see and do, I keep an eye on Inside Vancouver and similar websites, as well as the Vancouver subreddit to see what’s going on, events, festivals and so on.

On twitter there are usually events and tweets about ongoing stuff and promotions.

In addition if you like the history side of things, check out your museums. They’ll have a wealth of information that will help.

Your library is likely to have – obviously books – but also sometimes guest speakers about your city, workshops and the like.

Volunteer! Most major cities have a volunteer website or two, and that can range from working with homeless, helping out at the zoo, at big sporting events (the London Olympics were famous for their friendly, helpful volunteers) and so on.

Credit:stackoverflow.com‘

About me

Hello,My name is Aparna Patel,I’m a Travel Blogger and Photographer who travel the world full-time with my hubby.I like to share my travel experience.

Search Posts

Latest posts

Popular posts