Ian Sutton
1000+ Posts
An interesting discussion sprung up on the travel section of a wine forum I post on, and felt like something worth exploring here.
Do you go on guided tours on your holidays, and if so what has your experience been like? Any great highlights, or frustrating wastes of time?
Guided tours may range from traditional ones in popular tourist locations, through tours where a guide is essential / obligatory to get access, private driver / coach guided tours of a wider region, to the more eclectic where locals volunteer to show you around their city to let you see 'under the skin'. There are also tours involving Segway machines, boats, golf carts, and fiat 500s and no doubt many more.
We're not big on these, as evidenced by the small few we've done in Italy:
1990 (my first visit to Italy) - Pompeii (OK IIRC) & Capri (6 if us hired one of the old colourful taxis and it was a very enjoyable tour around the island. Split 6 ways it was good value too).
~ 2005 - Museo Pietro Micca (tour guide compulsory for exploring the underground counter-mining tunnels in Torino. Good atmospheric setting and I could follow some of the tour in Italian, as I'd read up enough to understand the story).
~ 2010 a tour of the (fake) Medieval settlement (Borgo Medievale) in Torino with multi-lingual headsets, but I found that bit frustrating, so I picked up what I could in Italian.
Barring that the closest things are an organised group walk in the countryside near Castino (a little south of Langhe wine region), plus a visit to a balsamic vinegar producer, but as there were just two of us visiting, that was more like a winery visit.
Worst ever 'guided tour' was in the UK - The London Dungeon near Liverpool St Station. A succession of sets supported by badly scripted ham acting. I would not recommend it if it were free.
Do you go on guided tours on your holidays, and if so what has your experience been like? Any great highlights, or frustrating wastes of time?
Guided tours may range from traditional ones in popular tourist locations, through tours where a guide is essential / obligatory to get access, private driver / coach guided tours of a wider region, to the more eclectic where locals volunteer to show you around their city to let you see 'under the skin'. There are also tours involving Segway machines, boats, golf carts, and fiat 500s and no doubt many more.
We're not big on these, as evidenced by the small few we've done in Italy:
1990 (my first visit to Italy) - Pompeii (OK IIRC) & Capri (6 if us hired one of the old colourful taxis and it was a very enjoyable tour around the island. Split 6 ways it was good value too).
~ 2005 - Museo Pietro Micca (tour guide compulsory for exploring the underground counter-mining tunnels in Torino. Good atmospheric setting and I could follow some of the tour in Italian, as I'd read up enough to understand the story).
~ 2010 a tour of the (fake) Medieval settlement (Borgo Medievale) in Torino with multi-lingual headsets, but I found that bit frustrating, so I picked up what I could in Italian.
Barring that the closest things are an organised group walk in the countryside near Castino (a little south of Langhe wine region), plus a visit to a balsamic vinegar producer, but as there were just two of us visiting, that was more like a winery visit.
Worst ever 'guided tour' was in the UK - The London Dungeon near Liverpool St Station. A succession of sets supported by badly scripted ham acting. I would not recommend it if it were free.
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