Does anyone feel that tourguides on shore excursions give to much information?

[boogs]

Originally Posted by librarygal

One of my favorite things about cruising is getting off the boat and explring the ports of call. But after many cruises and ports I have grown tired of tours put on by the cruiseline. I think the tour guides mean well but they just talk too much!

We get on the bus at the port and for 4-5 hours the tour guide talks and talks and talks and talks!! The volume is too high on the speaker in the bus and they seem to shout into the microphone. The amount of triva and inane information they provide is over the top. By the time we arrive at the scenic or historical attraction I have a massive headache. I just want to look around by myself but are forced to follow the group and tour guide for another few hours and hear massive amount of triva and uninteresting information about everything we see.

Anyone else agree?

I don't get it. Why do you take a tour if you don't want to be on one? A tour is all about seeing and learning about the places you are going to. That requires a guide to explain things about that place. That also requires a person to stay with the guide to hear what the guide is saying - which is, after all, what you are paying for.

Seems like paying for a tour and then wanting quiet and then going off on your own is a foolish waste of money. If transportation is all you are looking for, then take a taxi, rent a car, or take a public bus. Much cheaper. And less annoying to the rest of the tour group when they inevitably end up waiting for you to show up back to the bus because you are on your own schedule.

[Irishman45]

I luv when they tell you where celebs live and even if your on the same road they'll tell you different buildings coming and going always want to ask so which one is it really?

Oh and when in large groups when it comes time for payment some say they have 2 kids to one couple then say 4-6 kids to the next couple - seen it happen with ship staff too, very sad.

[Esjohnso]

It doesn't bother me too much when they talk a lot. What bothers me is when they say stuff that is wrong! I haven't seen that happen much on cruise excursions, but I have definitely seen tour guides in Europe and the US who are clearly just making stuff up. (I'm a historian, so I can tell when they aren't even getting the basics right. And I read a couple of languages, sometimes the tour guides haven't even read the signs right in front of them and they assume none of the tourists can read the local language.) I can stand the talking, as long as the information is correct!

[fleckle]

Originally Posted by Esjohnso

It doesn't bother me too much when they talk a lot. What bothers me is when they say stuff that is wrong! I haven't seen that happen much on cruise excursions, but I have definitely seen tour guides in Europe and the US who are clearly just making stuff up. ..........

You just reminded me of our boat tours at Lake Arrowhead one year. We were scheduled to take a boat tour around the lake with our group the following day, but we arrived there a day early.

Some people we met at lunch invited us to join them on their own tour the first day, so we figured why not do them both.
The guide on the boat kept pointing out the houses around the lake as we went along, telling us the history of each house with interesting little anecdotes about the celebrities who had owned them or vacationed in them and which celebrity's boat we were passing or seeing tied up at a dock.

Then the next day, when we took the boat tour with our own group, we had a different guide who told entirely different stories about who owned or occupied those same houses and boats.

Sometimes I wonder how much of the spiel those guides just make up as they go along, figuring the gullible tourists won't know the difference anyway.

[marco]

Sometimes.... yes. When that happens, I just kind of move out of earshot and admire "whatever" visually, keeping a eye on the group so that when we are ready to move on, I don't get separated and/or left behind.

[jocap]

If you're really cheeky, in some crowded spots like Dubrovnik, or St Mark's Square, Venice, you can get close enough to the many tour groups to hear bits of information..........and then move away.
I do it all the time when geology groups visit our beach.
Jo.

[SuitCaseBears]

Originally Posted by librarygal

I just want to look around by myself but are forced to follow the group and tour guide for another few hours and hear massive amount of triva and uninteresting information about everything we see.

Then do just that!!! I can't believe you're complaining about tours as if they are mandatory. You do know many of us go on cruises and NEVER go on the cruise line organized tours, right?

I either do my own research which will often lead me to private guides or I find out enough to take cabs, walk or rent a car.

It's one thing to complain about things that you can't escape on a cruise. But complaining that an organized tour is organized???

[Tralynn]

So far, we've been really lucky with our tours. In 15 cruises, we've only had 1 or 2 tours that weren't all that great. (Both were booked through the cruise line.)

Now, I research and get recommendations on tours so I can pick out the ones that appeal to me. Knowing as much as you can BEFORE you go is the key.

For the OP, may I suggest that you get a good local guide book for the ports you are going to visit and simply set up your own tour with a local driver. You would probably get more bang for your buck that way and not have to deal with the things that seem to irritate you. Some of these books can be found at your local library as well.

[Happy ks]

We've been on private tours as well as cruise ship tours. Private tours are so much better and if you have a small group of people (4-8) it ends up costing a lot less than a ships tour.

There have been a couple ships tours that were OK. Most of the time, the speaker system is so full of static that all I hear is "to your right is the msghptpe thiehose built in eighteeb dhoyse sdhgoh". My husband does an excellent job of mimicking a tour guide.

Slow buses, slow passengers boarding and disembarking, following a too large crowd, limited time spent at the site you wanted to visit...not for us.

Just as an example, when we visited Pompeii, our private tour guide took us in the opposite direction of the large groups, we were there early in the morning. We had the place to ourselves the first hour and a half, when we started running into the tour groups, what a mess, just a sea of people. Our tour guide was talking just with us and we all had plenty of one to one conversations with her.

[Putterdude]

I am on the excursion to learn so no IMO the tour guide cannot speak to much. However, we have had a few where they go off on their personal rants on politics and that I don't care for.