Who's in control of your tour

[Tulsa Cats]

We returned home from a Royal Princess Holy Land cruise, a few days ago.

We loved the small ships and all the ports, but I want to warn you about some private tour operators. In Turkey, we set our itinerary. Agreed. Loved our tour guide, but when we said it was time to stop for lunch, he took us to a great place he knew.... oh wait, it's a so called carpet school where they fed us olives and showed us $15,000 rugs.

We had no idea until we were in the parking lot. Again, we wanted to stop.... a great place.... oh it's a leather factory. We feel that we wasted several hours of our tour time while people tried to sell us things we did not want. In Israel and Egypt we took more control of our tour and said up front that we did not want any "tours" that we hadn't requested. That stopped the carpet and perfume tours in Egypt before they started. We don't want to be rude to our guides, but we are paying them, so be sure you don't get more than you bargained for.

[cruisemom42]

It's an important point to make. You are in control of your tour, so if something isn't according to your agenda or your wishes, do not be afraid to say so! Guides in Egypt and Turkey are particularly insistent on stops like the ones you mention, but if you tell them "No, we want lunch in a local restaurant" (or whatever), they will shrug and oblige. That's not to say it isn't done in other ports, I think they are just more subtle about it -- for example, don't think for a moment that your Italian guide or driver isn't getting a kickback from that lovely scenic restaurant he suggested for your lunch!

 

I did a private tour in Kusadasi last year, and I was quite clear in my correspondence that I did not want any shopping nor "rug making demonstrations" on my tour. I did not have any issues and shopping was never mentioned.

 

My gut feeling is that if you OMIT to say that you have no interest in shopping, the guides will assume that you're game for it. After all, a lot of American cruise ship passengers do like to shop, and I've heard people complain on tours about not having enough time to shop....:rolleyes:

[greatam]

Happens all the time on tours. The guides in most countries are not paid much, so they make it up with kickbacks from vendors.

 

IF it is not a PRIVATE tour that you have personally arranged, you have no choices as a general rule. And it seems like more and more "tours" (and all the associated web site booking agencies) are merely "seat in coach" run by another operator. So you are crammed on a bus with people from 4-10 other agencies. You really have no choice. The cruise lines also benefit from "shopping" on their tours.

 

This is going to be a BIG problem when a bunch of ships start visiting the Middle East this year. I have spent quite a bit of time in the Middle East recently for business. I have heard quite a few TCN's (third country nationals-primarily from India and the Phillipines working at American Military bases) talking about banding together to provide "tours". They are selling them as "private" tours. BUT they are all going together for transport (renting a bus/buying a van). And you can bet that the souk vendors will pay them to bring people to their little shops.

 

I can see it all now:

"Tour Title"-mosque/souk/museum. A short trip to the mosque about prayer time-oops, can't go in. And women sure can't go into the main mosque with men during prayer. So we will head over to the souk, then go back to the mosque. And after you have been taken to every shop the "tour operator" has an agreement with, THEN you may get to see the mosque (and don't forget to donate to the charity box). So sorry, the museum is closed (this was scheduled last because it costs money to enter, so if it is closed, the "tour operator" saves money). We will take you back to the ship.

[motib]

We returned home from a Royal Princess Holy Land cruise, a few days ago.

We loved the small ships and all the ports, but I want to warn you about some private tour operators. In Turkey, we set our itinerary. Agreed. Loved our tour guide, but when we said it was time to stop for lunch, he took us to a great place he knew.... oh wait, it's a so called carpet school where they fed us olives and showed us $15,000 rugs.

We had no idea until we were in the parking lot. Again, we wanted to stop.... a great place.... oh it's a leather factory. We feel that we wasted several hours of our tour time while people tried to sell us things we did not want. In Israel and Egypt we took more control of our tour and said up front that we did not want any "tours" that we hadn't requested. That stopped the carpet and perfume tours in Egypt before they started. We don't want to be rude to our guides, but we are paying them, so be sure you don't get more than you bargained for.

 

Here how it goes...

you are paying - you are in control!

you have something to say about the guide behavior - don't even wait, say it immediately.

 

now it is well known that guides and bus drivers get commissions from almost every business they will bring tha tourists to. that doesn't mean that they can turn the tour, especially if it is a private one, to a shopping tour. shopping during a tour us part of the fun of it, but once the guide focus us on his commisions it is wrong and unprofessional!

in hebrew we say: "there is no smarter one then the experienced one"

i guess you are now experienced and much smarter...

i can tell you that often i am professional by the tourist to give them time for shopping. i fact the most common complaint from the participants of the excursuons is "we didn't have enough time for shopping!"

last Monday i was guiding a tour to Jerusalem from Ashdod with passengers of Crystal Serenity and all the guide (there were 22 of us) where ordered not to include any shopping sites during the tour because this was a specific of the cruise company.

now, unlike guides in egypt or turkey, i get paid 200$ a day and it is not worthwhile to mass with commisions against company's rules!

i think that such things are more rare in israel but i know it hapends here too!