Do you tour various destinations on regular intervals? Well, you are part of a wider group of global tourists who contribute a staggering $6 trillion to the global economy. With such much money spent on leisure, you deserve to find the best tour guide to ensure value for your money.

Taking time out to travel and tour various destinations is therapeutic. It allows you to connect with nature while unwinding. Touring can be one of the most fulfilling activities individually or as a group.

However, this experience depends on certain key factors. One of these factors is your choice of a tour guide. There’s nothing worse than being on a travel tour with a bad tour guide.

Keep reading for seven key tips for choosing the best tour guide.

1. Always Deal With Licensed Tour Guides

Most states in America have mandatory training and licensing procedure for tour guides. The approach ensures credibility in the course of operation by dealing with credible tour guides. You may need to seek out information from the World Federation of Tourist Guides to establish the various reputable private tour guides.

You may ask yourself if the process needs to be this formal. Well, yes, because your safety and security are important. Dealing with a registered tour guide gives you the confidence and assurance to travel into oblivion without constant worries.

2. Use Referrals or Internet Searches to Get the Best Tour Guide

Your relatives and friends, both online and offline, can be useful in providing referrals. You can choose your tour guides from among your networks who have had positive relations with such guides or through credible sources such as Christopher Sarofim. Referrals allow you to set a standard in terms of anticipation and expectations.

You will tend to have a greater sense of confidence if you work with a tour guide based on their past impressive performance. You may also be able to gather critical information on your guide and the various available options on social media. The information includes the cost implications and the various offers available from various tour guides.

3. Visit the Various Tour Agencies and Conduct One-On-One Interviews

While you may not want to make the process of choosing a tour guide seem formal, making a physical visit to the agency or meeting the tour guide face-to-face is important. You will be able to assess the potential tour guide on a one-on-one basis and make your decision on this premise.

A common mistake you can make as a tourist is to make a booking virtually, then rely on the agency to designate a tour guide for you. Rather, you must follow up by visiting the agency and booking an interview. Once the interview is set, the following are some of the aspects to look out to, to ensure you choose the best tour guide.

4. Confidence

Getting lost in the forest or taking a wrong turn in unfamiliar locations is traumatizing. Long drives also have unforeseen instances of car mechanical problems or flat tires. As a tourist, these uncertainties are anticipated although dreaded.

When faced by such instances, you look forward to your travel tour guide to provide direction. If your tour guide lacks the confidence to take charge of the situation, your leisure trip may be a nightmare.

Before choosing a tour guide interviewing them allows you to validate their ability to take charge. Allow them to elaborate their contingency plans and assess their confidence amidst the uncertainty that tours present.

5. Patience

Traveling for the first time or to a new place is thrilling. Your inquisitiveness on various issues in the course of travel is justifiable. But at times you may end up asking the same questions over and over.

Your choice of a tour guide must depend on their level of patience. Indeed, these tour guides put up many hours of work and cover long distances. But, their ability to handle you with competence and fervor can be a critical determiner of their levels of patience.

6. Enthusiasm

If you have ever taken a group tour you will appreciate the need for an enthusiastic travel tour guide. Tours can be silent and boring with an unenthusiastic guide. But your travel could also be engaging and enthralling with an enthusiastic travel tour guide.

Now, finding a bubbly and lively guide must be your first order of business. Enthusiasm leads such guides to volunteer information about the tour even when not asked. As a tourist, you learn a lot from such tour guides.

7. A Good Communicator

A good tour guide needs not only to be seen but also to be heard. Tourism is an experience that has a lot to see, hear and learn. But you will experience all these if you have a good communicator as a tour guide.

You may be wondering how to identify a good communicator at first sight. Well, you can use indicators as simple as how long they take to respond to queries. If you realize that they take long to reply to such simple queries on email, social media or on the phone that is your red flag.

Bonus Tip: A Balance of Humor and Assertiveness

Touring with an apprehensive and rigid tour guide can be boring. It is never that serious. You may need to choose a tour guide who tickles your curiosity with their good sense of humor.

But, this sense of humor must also require a balance of assertiveness. Seek to find a tour guide who can emphatically warn you of certain risk factors in the course of the tour. In the course of an interview with your prospective tour guides, you can be able to pick out such strengths through questioning them on their approach to past experiences.

Your Search for the Best Tour Guide Should Not Be Mind Wracking

Having a prior process of settling for the best tour guide allows you the confidence to sit back and enjoy the breathtaking travels. These tips to choosing the best tour guide offer you practical insights that will ensure you have an unforgettable experience.

Your search for a tour is now easier and objective. Enjoy, your travels and create memories.

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