What is the job of a travel guide really?

So what does travel guides really do?

Everyone has some kind of an idea or picture in their head about what the job as a travel guide is like. They get to live at a exotic destination, swim in the crystal clear sea, party every night and just enjoy the chill life abroad. All this is also true, but I promise you, it is much more.

I will soon get in to more details, but the main thing is to remember these two things:

1. The guest is always right
2. When ever you wear the uniform, it’s “show time”

So what are the usual stuff travel guides do?

The job picture depends lot on the job itself. Guides can work mainly as a ”regular” travel guide when they basically have a specific area with different hotels that they visit, having different types of service and information meetings. They are the ones who help you through the service phone, guide you at company’s excursions and might even be with you at the airport and on the transport buss from and to the airport.

Then there are different guides who work at one specific hotel. They might be in charge of the sports and exercises at the hotel or maybe they are in charge of the kids club and different sorts of events and shows for the families and other guests. They are the ones jumping behind the tree wearing company’s mascot costume, giving hugs and high fives for everyone.

Then depending on the company and the size of the destination, there are jobs based more on one specific area, for example economics at the destination or different jobs at the airport.

Here are some basic stuff guide job might include:

1. Information meetings and hotel services
2. Answering the service phone
3. Selling excursions and other services, renting cars etc.
4. Guiding excursions
5. Working and communicating daily with local companies and agencies, local police, hospital, hotels etc.
6. Entertaining your guests with different kinds of shows and family events
7. Having kids club
8. Work as a instructor for different kind of sports
9. Show up as a company mascot at different occasions
10. Working at the airport in different kind of forms
11. Go with the guests on the transportation bus to and from the hotels.

 

This all seems very clear and simple, but let me tell you, at this job, almost never anything is as easy or simple as it sounds.

Having an information meeting may actually mean attending a cross-examination held by guests who have visited the location twenty something times and they just want to see if the guide actually knows every rock and tree on the island.

Having kids club can actually mean babysitting kids who have never had any boundaries in their life. You spend the whole day running after them when they just, bite, boob and bully you and other kids with everything that comes to mind.

Answering service phone could be recommending a guest with some great restaurants and translating between the guest and a doctor, or it can mean answering the local police at 3 am, with they telling you to come and collect your drunk guests from the city fountain if you don’t want them to get arrested.

Showing as a mascot at different events isn’t just hugging kids and giving high fives, it is also sweating your soul out from places you didn’t even know possible.

And then all the most ridiculous questions any guest can surprise you with anytime. So the job can include anything from greeting the guest at the airport to forecasting the weather for next two weeks and taking all the blame when it actually rains one week straight, or to be seen as a first class doctor who can tell you from the bite mark on your leg, what bit you and what medicines you should take or to name the trees by the road which were just planted three days ago and you can see the first leave right above the ground. So basically we guides are expected to know anything and everything.

The best part of this job.

Even though this job might be hectic, or even chaotic sometimes and you might find your self doing things that would’ve never crossed your mind, once you tip your toe, your in it and I love every aspect of it. The diversity of the job is amazing and the fact that you can never know about tomorrow makes it all so exciting. You get to learn so much about the destinations you work at, the local people, culture and food. You learn so much about your self, make new, life long lasting friends from different countries, get better on your english and other languages and just learn so much about working abroad with foreign coworkers.

 

What this jos has given to me.

My seasons as a travel guide:

1. First season: At Rhodes as a kids club representative, Summer 2018
2. Second season: In Abu Dhabi as a kids club representative, Winter 2018
3. Third season: In Crete as a travel guide, Summer 2019
4. Fourth season: At Zakynthos as a concept representative, UPCOMING summer 2022

I own so much gratitude for this job. Because of my experience with guide life, I can say hand on my heart that I would not be the same person without all my experiences that it has given me. I have grown so much as a person, and transformed from introvert to an extrovert. My english and understanding for different cultures has gotten significantly better. Now I am so much more open to life and the opportunities I face. During my experiences, I fell in love harder than never before. I also broke my heart harder than never before. I made so dear, life long lasting friends that I am forever grateful.

But more than anything I have fallen in love with the person I have becomed and the way I let myself to be grateful and see the beauty in life. I own this job everything I have gained for myself, my soul and my new attitude for this life. With the experiences I’ve gotten I trust myself to get me anywhere in life I want.