Each year, we host a tour guides’ summit for a week here in Seattle. About a hundred of our guides gather to train, brainstorm, and celebrate. Ideas — both great and crazy — are generated. Last year, our Turkish guides proposed my favorite idea: “Let’s host a Best of Turkey tour exclusively for the Rick Steves guides this winter!” I loved it. Our Turkish tour partners arranged the bus and hotels, and we subsidized it so it was really cheap for our guides. The first 25 guides to sign up were on. Needless to say, it sold out quickly.
Our 2014 Best of Turkey “Guides’ Tour” just wrapped up last week, and it was a huge success. But it was more than just fun. Our guides got to experience a country many of them didn’t know before (our Best of Turkey itinerary is one of my personal favorites), and they had the experience of actually being a tour member. Several are raving about the value of a professional guide actually following another guide in a new and at times overwhelming country for 13 days. We hope to make this an annual off-season vacation for our hardworking guides. Together in 2014, they successfully guided about 800 tours on 35 itineraries with 19,900 tour members. I think they deserve a chance to kick back and let someone else do the guiding for a change.
In these photos, you’ll see 25 Rick Steves’ guides (from 12 different countries) enjoying our Best of Turkey tour — riding balloons, sipping tea, getting a flaming shave (extremely close), sitting on a carpet in a mosque with an imam, exploring ancient sites, doing some sexy window shopping, trying out some woolen winter gear — all while following the expert guidance of Mert Taner.
If you are a Rick Steves tour alum, perhaps you can spot your own tour guide: Toni (France tours), Mark (England), Virginie (France), Tricia (Italy), Chris (France), Nina (Italy), Susanna (Spain), Daniela (Switzerland), Sarah (Italy), Jamie (Italy), Nina (Holland), Don (Italy), Andrea (Germany), Etelka (Czech Republic), Martin (France), Stephanie (Netherlands), Gillian (England), Virginia (Italy), Eszter (Estonia), Cary (Germany), Federico (Spain), Colin (Scotland), Nicole (Sweden), and Anastasia (Greece). Do you see your guide?
All of these guides — and about a hundred more — will converge on our offices next month as we kick off our 2015 season of tours. This annual event, a tour guide summit/tour alumni reunion/”Test Drive a Tour Guide” series of lectures, all happens the weekend of January 16-17. For all of the details, click here.
