Tomorrow I will post the introductory entry for our Book Club selection the Giver. No reading assignment for tomorrow, just getting started. There’s a guy named Tom Delgado that I follow on YouTube and support on Patreon. I’ve never met him (online or irl), but I’m a fan of his work. He’s a tour guide. He mostly does NYC videos but if you search around in his channel you’ll find him in Europe and South America also. My girlfriend was getting into these walking videos that didn’t have any talking, but this channel popped up in our feed and I enjoy it much more. I can see his videos not being everyone’s cup of tea, but I find him funny and I really get a lot out of the history and trivia he lays out. But then, it’s little surprise I would enjoy the channel, as I’m someone who thinks that the in-person guided tour experience is really underrated.
After moving to Prague a while back, on a whim, I decided to take a couple of pay-what-you-feel-like small group tours offered by a little three person company, and I couldn’t believe how fun it was and how much it grounded me in the city.
I’ve since hired them to do private tours when friends and family come to visit, and it’s always a great memory maker.
If you are coming to Prague, check out 100 Spires City Tours. They have a smart and funny YouTube channel too (“Real Prague Guides”). Three hours for about 100 Euros. Totally worth it.
I once went on a free walking tour of Annapolis with a costumed guide who was a former heart surgeon. He explained that in the 19th and 18th centuries, men in tights would present their calf as a flirtatious gesture. So now whenever my husband points his toe and extends his ankle, I know he's down to clown or ready to jig. Either way we're about to have a good time.
Insert Dall-E illustration of Rick Steves smoking a giant doobie and saying “When You’re a Tourist, Be A Tourist!” here.
To this point, I’m going to Brooklyn for a wedding in a few months and wouldn’t mind recommendations? Staying at a hotel in downtown Brooklyn. I’ve done most of the affordable Manhattan stuff as well as going to the Museum of the Moving Picture and the Brooklyn Museum, walking the bridge, etc. I’m tempted to mostly just walk around and eat and drink, but is there something big I’m missing?
My mom's a tour guide! Hire Elka Ganeva. (seriously tho the amount of shit she and her tour guide friends know is nuts. Basically, it's very smart, curious people who can't sit still and this is the only work for them) Definite recommend.
Also, those double-decker style bus tours are underrated. I was always kind of disdainful of the concept until I took my senior citizen dad to Rome (a city I know well) and we took a bus tour. It’s a great way to get a sense of a city’s geography when you first get there. A few years later we did a bus tour of NYC (I lived there almost 20 years at that point) - in a few hours you can get a sense of the city, which makes it seem less overwhelming when you don’t know a place well.
I strongly support your “be a tourist” advice and this advice is on balance right certainly, but I must admit to some Tour Guide Anxiety. It’s true that maybe 3 of every 4 tours I’ve been on in my life have been fun or interesting, but it’s so brutal to be stuck with someone annoying or extremely boring for hours and hours.
The best tour guides I've had were basically a college professor, stand-up-comedian, customer service rep, Yelp database, fitness instructor, and clinical psychologist all in one.
I have lived overseas for the past eight years, in two countries, and I endorse this post. Tour guides not only share information with us, but they open us up to the kinds of conversations and insights that you won’t get by just reading a guidebook.
Here’s just one of many examples: Several years ago, when we were visiting Dubrovnik, we booked a tour of Mostar. The tour began with a two-hour car ride with a private driver. He took us through the Serbian part of the country so we could see the differences in architecture, grave markers, and food (we stopped for a snack). Once we got to Mostar, our tour began with a lesson on the authentic way to drink Bosnian coffee in the roastery owned by the guide’s family (miraculously, it survived the war). We then walked around the city and were able to see history as it was still expressed on the scarred buildings and in the mass grave in the center of town. Our guide and her family survived the war, and she shared personal stories with us. Our daughter, greatly moved, hugged her and said she was sorry. Our last stop was lunch, and our guide recommended Bosnian specialties we could try. We finished out the day with an hour on our own, where we enjoyed more typical Mostar sights like those guys who jump off the famous bridge and plunge 60 feet down to the river.
Our driver took us back to Dubrovnik along the coast and pointed out how we crossed borders five times during the two-hour drive, to make it clear how (literally) Balkanized that part of the world is.
All this for about $250! Tour guides help you to a deeper understanding of their home and give you the chance for authentic connections.
Man, I'm the opposite. Never, ever do tours. I advise against them. And I speak as someone who is a great tour guide! I find them exhausting and irritating. I have no problem looking like a tourist.
I travel by myself. A lot. The only person in my entire life I enjoyed traveling with was my son, who was my regular traveling companion from his birth until our last big trip,a cross-country road trip, the year he graduated. When he went off into the world, I've done even more travelling, loved it all, but am much happier finding what interests me and hunting it down. Google is great that way.
So true! It's always worth it to spring for the small group tour -- as opposed to a larger group. We've had some great ones over the years. I wish I could remember the contact info for our Istanbul guide I could share with this group.
The first thing I did when I visited and studied for school in Belfast was take a bus tour, which helped familiarized me with the city layout and the broad strokes of the population and culture. The second thing I did was take a few cabs around town so I could talk to some locals about their life in the city. Best crash course you can get somewhere new, if you know the language!
I went to Medellin on vacation once and a friend of mine recommended that I take a guided tour of the local fruit market. That was something I would never had considered otherwise and it was fantastic. I tried about 10 or so fruits I had never heard of before. I certainly would never had tried a bunch of random fruit at a giant market on my own. It was this one if anyone is ever down there: https://realcitytours.com/exotic-fruits-tour/
Not exactly a tour guide kind of thing but I also like to rent a motorcycle and have someone local lead a ride. Sometimes I like to just get lost in a new place on a motorcycle but other times it's nice to have someone who knows the good roads to just show you.
In a related vein, my wife and I have hosted students from overseas and the pleasure as we derived from those experiences was further enriched by visiting their countries and enjoying be squired around by people who were anxious to show us as good a time as we had provided them. We toured the Netherlands and Slovakia this way, and my wife spent several days in Istanbul being shown around by two students we had hosted and was generously feted by their families. Obviously you can't find a link to these "services" on the Google machine, but if you have the chance to host people from abroad, it provides a great experience on both ends.
Totally agree with this!
After moving to Prague a while back, on a whim, I decided to take a couple of pay-what-you-feel-like small group tours offered by a little three person company, and I couldn’t believe how fun it was and how much it grounded me in the city.
I’ve since hired them to do private tours when friends and family come to visit, and it’s always a great memory maker.
If you are coming to Prague, check out 100 Spires City Tours. They have a smart and funny YouTube channel too (“Real Prague Guides”). Three hours for about 100 Euros. Totally worth it.
I once went on a free walking tour of Annapolis with a costumed guide who was a former heart surgeon. He explained that in the 19th and 18th centuries, men in tights would present their calf as a flirtatious gesture. So now whenever my husband points his toe and extends his ankle, I know he's down to clown or ready to jig. Either way we're about to have a good time.
Insert Dall-E illustration of Rick Steves smoking a giant doobie and saying “When You’re a Tourist, Be A Tourist!” here.
To this point, I’m going to Brooklyn for a wedding in a few months and wouldn’t mind recommendations? Staying at a hotel in downtown Brooklyn. I’ve done most of the affordable Manhattan stuff as well as going to the Museum of the Moving Picture and the Brooklyn Museum, walking the bridge, etc. I’m tempted to mostly just walk around and eat and drink, but is there something big I’m missing?
My mom's a tour guide! Hire Elka Ganeva. (seriously tho the amount of shit she and her tour guide friends know is nuts. Basically, it's very smart, curious people who can't sit still and this is the only work for them) Definite recommend.
Also, those double-decker style bus tours are underrated. I was always kind of disdainful of the concept until I took my senior citizen dad to Rome (a city I know well) and we took a bus tour. It’s a great way to get a sense of a city’s geography when you first get there. A few years later we did a bus tour of NYC (I lived there almost 20 years at that point) - in a few hours you can get a sense of the city, which makes it seem less overwhelming when you don’t know a place well.
Downside is they tend to be pretty expensive.
Food tours are also fun.
I strongly support your “be a tourist” advice and this advice is on balance right certainly, but I must admit to some Tour Guide Anxiety. It’s true that maybe 3 of every 4 tours I’ve been on in my life have been fun or interesting, but it’s so brutal to be stuck with someone annoying or extremely boring for hours and hours.
The best tour guides I've had were basically a college professor, stand-up-comedian, customer service rep, Yelp database, fitness instructor, and clinical psychologist all in one.
I have lived overseas for the past eight years, in two countries, and I endorse this post. Tour guides not only share information with us, but they open us up to the kinds of conversations and insights that you won’t get by just reading a guidebook.
Here’s just one of many examples: Several years ago, when we were visiting Dubrovnik, we booked a tour of Mostar. The tour began with a two-hour car ride with a private driver. He took us through the Serbian part of the country so we could see the differences in architecture, grave markers, and food (we stopped for a snack). Once we got to Mostar, our tour began with a lesson on the authentic way to drink Bosnian coffee in the roastery owned by the guide’s family (miraculously, it survived the war). We then walked around the city and were able to see history as it was still expressed on the scarred buildings and in the mass grave in the center of town. Our guide and her family survived the war, and she shared personal stories with us. Our daughter, greatly moved, hugged her and said she was sorry. Our last stop was lunch, and our guide recommended Bosnian specialties we could try. We finished out the day with an hour on our own, where we enjoyed more typical Mostar sights like those guys who jump off the famous bridge and plunge 60 feet down to the river.
Our driver took us back to Dubrovnik along the coast and pointed out how we crossed borders five times during the two-hour drive, to make it clear how (literally) Balkanized that part of the world is.
All this for about $250! Tour guides help you to a deeper understanding of their home and give you the chance for authentic connections.
Yes tour guides add so much to a visit. We hired three in Rome. One for the Vatican, one for The Palatine, one for Borghese Gardens.
Man, I'm the opposite. Never, ever do tours. I advise against them. And I speak as someone who is a great tour guide! I find them exhausting and irritating. I have no problem looking like a tourist.
I travel by myself. A lot. The only person in my entire life I enjoyed traveling with was my son, who was my regular traveling companion from his birth until our last big trip,a cross-country road trip, the year he graduated. When he went off into the world, I've done even more travelling, loved it all, but am much happier finding what interests me and hunting it down. Google is great that way.
So true! It's always worth it to spring for the small group tour -- as opposed to a larger group. We've had some great ones over the years. I wish I could remember the contact info for our Istanbul guide I could share with this group.
The first thing I did when I visited and studied for school in Belfast was take a bus tour, which helped familiarized me with the city layout and the broad strokes of the population and culture. The second thing I did was take a few cabs around town so I could talk to some locals about their life in the city. Best crash course you can get somewhere new, if you know the language!
If you ever get the chance, the tour guides at Gettysburg battlefield are insanely well versed in every aspect of the battle. Didactic af.
I went to Medellin on vacation once and a friend of mine recommended that I take a guided tour of the local fruit market. That was something I would never had considered otherwise and it was fantastic. I tried about 10 or so fruits I had never heard of before. I certainly would never had tried a bunch of random fruit at a giant market on my own. It was this one if anyone is ever down there: https://realcitytours.com/exotic-fruits-tour/
Not exactly a tour guide kind of thing but I also like to rent a motorcycle and have someone local lead a ride. Sometimes I like to just get lost in a new place on a motorcycle but other times it's nice to have someone who knows the good roads to just show you.
In a related vein, my wife and I have hosted students from overseas and the pleasure as we derived from those experiences was further enriched by visiting their countries and enjoying be squired around by people who were anxious to show us as good a time as we had provided them. We toured the Netherlands and Slovakia this way, and my wife spent several days in Istanbul being shown around by two students we had hosted and was generously feted by their families. Obviously you can't find a link to these "services" on the Google machine, but if you have the chance to host people from abroad, it provides a great experience on both ends.