The other day I talked about our annual review process, when we fly our guides in for our yearly summit and hammer out the details to make our bus tours the best and richest experience possible. You’ll notice that while we’re determined to maximize the experience we offer, we have to maintain our budget, too. Here are a few examples of changes where we reached consensus:
In 2009, we were trying to visit both the concentration camp at Dachau and have a quick stop in Munich for a beer-hall experience. It was both rushed and emotionally jarring. Guides oriented their groups to Dachau, and then the group members only had time to see the documentary movie and museum — or explore the grounds — before rushing into Munich for the beer hall. We decided to skip the Munich visit and do Dachau more thoroughly: orientation, museum, and time to explore the barracks and camp. Then, as we process that powerful experience, we’ll drive straight to a peaceful village in the foothills of the Alps.
Like every tour in Bavaria, we tour Mad King Ludwig’s fairy-tale castle of Neuschwanstein. While that postcard-image, most thrilling castle is on everyone’s list, Ludwig’s boyhood home — Hohenschwangau castle on the neighboring hill — is more historic. It gives a much better context in which to appreciate Ludwig and his Romantic Age. For our two Europe tours, we decided to get an earlier start (which means less free time in the afternoon) to visit both castles — first the older Hohenschwangau and then, with a fine historic orientation, the Disney-esque Neuschwanstein. We can reserve timed admissions to both, so the morning is both memorable and extremely efficient.
We routinely hire local guides (since it’s a passion of mine to let our groups enjoy a local voice and expert to complement the lead guide) and, concerned about tiring our tour members, use these great guides for only two hours. If you hire a guide, you pay basically the same half-day rate for a two-to-four-hour tour. I encouraged our staff to keep guides longer for more teaching. For example, after the two-hour Uffizi Gallery tour in Florence, take a coffee break and follow it with a one-hour old town walk featuring Roman, medieval, and modern aspects of Florence (which complement the Renaissance Florence walk we offer upon arrival in town).
Our popular Best of Europe Family Tour goes from Rome to Paris. A highlight is an overnight in an argriturismo (farm house). For this pastoral, hands-on experience in Tuscany, a highlight for the parents has been a tour of its winemaking facility and a wine tasting. The children were busied with some other non-alcohol-related activity. I suggested that we introduce the kids on our tour to Italy’s wine culture — and even let them enjoy a taste or two (if the parents are OK with that). When I was a 14-year-old kid touring Germany with my parents, friends we visited actually served their children “training beer” or “near beer” to drink along with the adults and their serious beer. Wine (and beer) can be a respected part of a cultural and social scene, and American kids can appreciate that as European kids do (without actually “drinking” until they are an appropriate age).
On that same family friendly tour, we decided to swap out the wonderfully Gothic Sainte-Chapelle church in Paris for a Seine River cruise. The cost is about the same. The kids have seen lots of churches by this point of the tour. Not doing the church takes the crush off an otherwise demanding Paris sightseeing day. Doing the cruise gives us something memorable to do in the evening. It stretches the activities by taking some of the time pressure off daytime hours, yet stays within our budget.
Whenever we enter a big city (like Paris) by bus — or hire a bus for a transfer from a train station, boat dock, or airport — it is efficient not to go directly to the hotel, but to take advantage of our bus and driver to get a guided orientation tour. This lets us efficiently see sights we likely wouldn’t get to otherwise.
In Bruges, the Half Moon Brewery tour is great, but eating there is like eating at a Belgian TGIF. This year, we’ll still tour the brewery. But then, rather than tasting beer and having lunch there, we’ll enjoy our beer-tasting in a characteristic pub in town. These pubs generally don’t want an American tour group killing their time-honored ambience in prime evening hours. But it’s our hope that we could invade the place early, around 5 p.m., for a beer-tasting session with the option for tour members to linger for dinner there.
With all our meetings, I realized that I was under-appreciating the local expertise of our guides. We don’t need to supplement their guiding skills by hiring local guides for city tours, as we would have back in the days when I was guiding and most of our guides were generalists. These days, most of our Spanish guides are Spanish, and our French guides are likely French. Many of them also work as local guides; they can capably do local tours. They prefer to do this. And they can give the tours in the context of what the tour members have already learned and experienced on our tour. Local guides are territorial, and their claims to their turf can be backed up by local laws. While it may be illegal for one of our guides to overtly guide a tour through many Italian cities, it’s perfectly OK in Britain. (In cases when it’s illegal but we want our guide to lead the tour anyway, we have to hire “silent local guides” who get paid but just accompany our group silently.)
More tour changes later.
Feedback from future customers on your decision to place more focus and time on Dachau will be revealing to RS ETBD. One man’s “powerful” is another’s “depressing.” It’s a fairly sterile, museum-like atmosphere but many visitors are visibly disturbed by the photos. I was asked several times by my German acquaintances why I went there. As for lead guides as full time local guides, it depends. Our own guide in Spain and Portugal was energetic, multi-lingual Helen who enunciates clearly and is very easy to understand. Some of the local guides had accents and speaking styles which were much less easy to grasp especially when customers are tired and distracted or in noisy surroundings. In addition, some local guides used inadequate amplification systems/whisper sets. So perhaps lead guides doing All the guiding will be provided consistently higher quality, more reliable equipment. But I think putting the entire tour guide burden on the lead guide is going to be very tiring for lead guides even if they are paid more for taking on the added responsibility. It also takes away the chance for RS customers to get a different perspective from a local specialist. Variety is the spice of life.
Rick, this traveler values local guide perspective, knowlege and personal experiemce. Easy examples include francesca, Rome guide extra-ordinary. Her in-depth guiding through the forum and borghesi gallery opened my mind with a rainbow of insightful history, artist inspiration and art object illumination. Fernando in madrid,sang and “storied” the prado nuseum, taking away every ache from my tired feet. The tales of the local guide in barcelona, playing chilhood football in the tree grove next to gaudi’s cathedral, during the many years work was stopped, opened other vistas even the most skilled, well prepared non-local lead guide could not. Yes, Rick your lead guides are the best of the best. Yet herr jung, lived those times and places he guides tours through. Be very sure before making changes, that the changes really are for the better. Larry from springfield. (p.s. please forgive typos)
I lived in Europe for 11 of my first 17 years; 6 and 1/2 years were spent in Munich. I toured Dachau many many times, with friends visiting from the USA, on school field trips, with my family — my most memorable time, however, was with our co-ed scouting leader who was a surviver of concentration camps. He showed us his tatoo and spoke briefly about the experience. We toured the site in silence on our own and then rejoined him. I remember asking how the people in the town of Dachau could not have smelt what was burning in the ovens and do something to stop the horror. There was no answer – I applaud the decision to skip the beer hall and spend more time at Dachau so that history perhaps won’t be repeated again. Also kudos to your group for including the kids in the cultural aspect of wine/beer in Europe. My parents took us to farms in Italy where we learned the wine making process, played with the cows and goats, and after tasting wine, elected to drink plain old grape juice. We also went to breweries, for example in Andechs where the monks brewed stark (dark) beer to help them get protein as they fasted during lent. We saw the incorporation of alcohol in moderation as a cultural event — not something to be hidden from children.
Excellent choices. Dauchau on your tour changed my life.
I found the local guides to be a weak link in my 2005 Germany, Austria, and Switzerland tour. Munich guide Gabi recommended a shop that we just had to try. I took a peek inside and knew it was not for me. I was surprised that my tour mates bought cuckoo clocks* and other stuff there. I would have liked to wait around to see Gabi get her cut on the purchases. Vienna guide Elizabeth scolded us for walking too slowly, causing a few people to leave the tour. A one mile walk at 2.5 mph takes 4 minutes longer than at 3 mph. Couldn’t Elizabeth have spared 4 minutes? Her constant “ja” at the end of every sentence soon lost its charm. Susana Minich, our lead guide, would have done both tours better. *Everyone loses interest in cuckoo clocks after the first few windings. Everyone. Realize that you will wind it for only a few weeks and pay accordingly. Keep the packaging and give the clock as a wedding present to someone you don’t care for.
I respect what Chip said about his local guides (and cuckoo clocks drive me crazy – each one should come with a cat to eat the mechanical cuckoo) but in our tour of Spain and Portugal I found most locals to be exceptionally good and only one to be a bit disappointing. The local guide in Barcelona was especially sharp. So was the married pair at al hambra. We had a very good one in Seville. The lady in Madrid was capable as was the furiously energetic one in Lisboa. Even our hiker guide at Salema exceeded expectations. A very young man at La Mancha was painstaking in his efforts but we couldn’t understand his English – at that point in his guide career. By now I’ll bet he’s better. One other man was excellent in his knowledge and communications but had the burdensome task of explaining almost every artifact in a museum. It is going to take a super human Lead Guide to totally replace local guides and some customers might be disappointed by the Principal Guides’ need to paint special sites in broad brush strokes so they don’t become hoarse and lose their voices from overuse. We use specialists in every facet of business, military, religion, entertainment and government for a reason – they are acknowledged experts in their specialty.
I love river tours and glad to see the Seine cruise which I would take any way. I was a little disappointed in our Austrian local guides but all other local guides have been superb.
Hi, thank you very much. good job. Ian Eisenberg
I’d add Diane to my list of people who write on the basis of experience,logic and the school of hard knocks. There are SEVERAL others. When you get down to it, maybe rick’s respondents really inform his blogs on almost all subjects. Let’s face it, Rick is a little bit like the blind man trying to determine what he is feeling when he feels an elephant’s leg. Not that there is anything wrong with that. It’s just one person’s point of view. And, of course, in the land of the blind, cyclops is king.
If you want to incorporate the Munich beer experience and Dachau into the same trip, I would suggest a night of revelry in Munich at Hofbräuhaus, Augustiner, or even the Chinese Tower in the English Garden if the weather’s good. Then take the S-Bahn to Dachau the next morning. I took some friends there after doing just that. Everyone went from giddy to silent for 3 solid hours. It was a sobering experience.
I remember going to Dachau for the first time. When our German landlady found out we had been there, she asked, “Why did you go to see our shame?” We told her we needed to try to understand what happened–how people could do that to other people. That exchange led to one of the best, most enlightening conversations I’ve ever had, anywhere in the world with anyone. At the time, she was 70, and had lived through 2 world wars in the basement of the house we shared with her. She reminded us that basic civil liberties were the first casualties–freedoms of speech, assembly, religion and the press. Who was left to say “NO” when those who would have spoken were already dead or in prison? Fear is strong ally–or enemy–and dreadfully controlling. Not excusing, you understand, but her point of view was very revealing.