WE THINK... • June 2016
The jury’s out on guided tours
Are you a tour-in or tour-out? Two travel journalists debate the pros and cons of guided tours
You should opt for a guided tour, says Kate Crockett
When in Rome, it’s not easy to do as the locals do. So whether I’m visiting somewhere for the first or the fifth time, for a few hours or a few days, I seek out a local guide to fill in the colour and flavours.
A great guide will take you off the typical tourist trail – like the ‘safari’ guide in San Francisco who drove my family around in a jeep to show us his alternative urban jungle, or the private gourmet guide in Portland, Oregon, who revealed which food trucks to try and which to avoid.
A local can gain access to tricky places. I once met a lady who shared her backstage access at the Bolshoi in Moscow, and then there was the guide who hurried me and a friend through the back door of one of Tokyo’s hottest sushi restaurants, while a two-hour queue formed at the entrance.
Even a guided group tour in peak-season Venice can be a joy with a native and a radio-mic, and an intimate knowledge of the alleyways and bacari. Not that you’ll ever find them again. But that’s part of the experience – living like a local for a brief, memorable moment.
Avoid the guided tours, says Rachel Truman
If there’s one way to bypass a city’s personality it’s by letting a guide take you on a whistle-stop tour. Fine if you’re happy with a tick-box approach, but if you want more depth, step away from the tour group.
I’ve been on good tours and dull ones, and realise I’d much rather miss out on a few historical facts and a coach ride back to the hotel than be hampered by someone else’s schedule.
Explore at your own pace for a chance of the unexpected
You’re more likely to engage with a place and its people when exploring at your own pace. Nothing beats the time I happened upon a hole in the wall in Kerala and ate an impossibly delicious thali on the dusty street. Or when I got lost in Barcelona’s backstreets, stumbling upon a sombre religious procession that ended with a raucous street party and a huge hangover.
If it’s the company of fellow travellers you crave then fine, but I prefer to ditch the crowd and follow my nose. Yes, I may take a couple of wrong turns, but I never know what, or who, I’ll chance upon along the way. After all, isn’t travel about embracing the unpredictable and the sense of discovery?