well-designed tour

My tour guide was impressive. Only 16 years old but very mature, polite, and knowledgeable. And her English was excellent. I ended up with a private tour, since it’s the off-season and they just changed the time of the tour to start at 2pm instead of 6pm. The tour takes you to all the major spots in Plovdiv and provides a nice overview of the whole city. It was also interesting to hear a little bit about what it’s like to be a teenager in Plovdiv.

Apparently, they just began giving these tours in July, and they have quite a wide variety of volunteers. Some of them are students like my guide was, and some are older and working. It might be that they stop giving the tours in the winter because then the streets become icy and slippery, and of course there are far fewer tourists, so pay attention to their Facebook page to confirm the time of the tour and that it’s still taking place.

In general, I’m a big fan of these “free tours” (which are now found everywhere – I’ve taken them in Dublin, Paris, Sarajevo, and Tallinn, among other cities), where the guides work for tips and donations. Not only do the tourists get more out of the city they are visiting, and only have to pay as much as they thought the tour was worth, but I’m pretty sure that the guides generally make more money this way as well — at least when they get large enough groups on their tours.

nlgenxer, USA