Are you someone who loves vacationing but sans a travel guide because you think it will sacrifice your freedom? If you are someone who prefers guides over google, we want you to think again. In this new age of Google maps, truckloads of information, and online hotel booking, the jobs of guides are at stake.
Especially in popular tourist destinations like Rajasthan where people tend to travel frequently, people don’t hire a guide. They say it seems ‘uncool’ to them. You must be questioning yourself now, “When I can vacation in my own timeline, why must I hire a guide?”
We talked to some verified guides of Rajasthan Tourism and here is what they have to say:
Guides Over Google – Here’s Why
Local Flavour and Insider Access
A local travel guide gives you the taste of the local culture. It offers you a chance to learn the culture of a new place. And only someone who lives in the local geography can help you with that. Antriksh, a guide from Jaisalmer tells us that his clients often play Holi with him. It also becomes one of their most unforgettable memories.
This is what a guide provides. He bestows a familial connection and he indulges in conversations with you. Unlike Siri, you would not have to scream at your guide for mishearing you. The Internet Age is massive but it cannot provide a personalized touch. The guide will take you to off-beat places like the best place to eat Rabri in Mount Abu.
Safety and Comfort
A local guide provides you a sense of security, insight, and companionship. You will never truly understand the value of a local expert until you see Google Maps leading you to the bizarre lanes of the city. A local knows the place like the back of his hand! Especially in a state like Rajasthan, where narrow alleys aren’t even marked on the map, traveling with a guide becomes much more crucial.
Besides that. local guides can also become your translators and can negotiate on your behalf. Vikram, a guide from Jaipur, speaks both German and English fluently. His clients often mention that he became an asset to them on all their shopping excursions.
Time and Cost-Efficient
You will not only get local insights with a tour guide but also be able to avoid rush hour crowds in popular destinations. Only a guide who has been living there knows how to avoid big crowds. This way you get the most from your trip.
You must also be thinking that hiring a tour guide is an additional expense, so how is it saving any money for you? Verified guides get discounts for most tourist sites and hotels. All the guides reveal how the faces of their clients light up when they have to pay less than they normally would if they were traveling on their own.
Up-to-Date Details and Stories
You might be referring to an article when you’re surfing the net about places to visit in Rajasthan. The article could be outdated but a guide’s knowledge about the area gets refreshed every second.
Amit, an expert guide from Jaipur tells us that he constantly reads about architecture, history, natural phenomena, geography, and many more topics to give his patrons a holistic experience. Because they are trained and verified, they know 100% factually correct information about a place. And they might even tell you satires that have been going around for centuries. These may only be passed down from generation to generation amongst the locals, and the internet isn’t privy to that kind of information.
A native guide will never disappoint you with the plethora of stories he has witnessed throughout years of living there. And hearing them first-hand is way better than relying on a website based on someone else’s travel experience.
Guides Over Google Promote Sustainable Tourism
Hiring a verified local guide helps you to contribute to the sustainable goals devised by the United Nations. You also in turn promote sustainable tourism. With the advent of information available on one’s fingertips, people who share and narrate stories for a living are at a loss. Especially after tourism took a back seat due to COVID-19, guides have been facing severe hardships.
The hiring of local experts generates employment. This, in turn, supplies money to the grass-root level and helps these vulnerable but often overlooked people flourish. When you hire a guide, you hire his intelligence and experience. You keep his passion for travel alive, which made him take up this profession in the first place.
We would also urge you to check out guidesofrajasthan and choose guides over google as they’re promoting local certified local guides of Rajasthan and giving them a much-deserved platform. Hope that when you visit Rajasthan next, you trust a ‘walking talking Wikipedia’ more than the one on the internet!
Follow Rajasthan Studio on Instagram for more amazing art and travel content. Reach out to us on email at contact[at]rajasthanstudio[dot]com. This blog is curated by Rajasthan Studio and written by Hemanshi Agarwal.
