| The Pompeii tour guide trap is easy to fall into since it | | | | Generally it is common for the "on-the-spot" Pompeii |
| even affects relatively respectable channels. Lets go | | | | Tour "guides" take you into the site, give you a quick |
| through them one by one. | | | | tour around and then leave you to continue "to explore |
| 1. Booking Pompeii Tours Through Private Drivers and | | | | the site on your own". |
| limousine car service companies. | | | | Why do they do this? Why do they leave you in the |
| This is perhaps the easiest way to when it comes to | | | | middle of the site? Your are left by them in the middle |
| booking Pompeii tours. This happens when you arrive | | | | of the site of Pompeii so that they can rush back to |
| at Pompeii using a pre-booked private car. Private | | | | the gazebo to get their names on the list in time to do |
| drivers are found generally through a car-service | | | | another tour with more poor clients. Who would have |
| website or a network of agencies that feeds them | | | | imagined! |
| with customers. | | | | The result is that you'll have to continue by yourself |
| When you arrive, once the driver has gained your trust, | | | | exploring rather than to be shown a more appropriate |
| you will then be suggested additional services to | | | | tour escorted from start to finish for a couple of hours. |
| enhance your visit. | | | | I am not saying that every single guide outside the site |
| But here is the rub. | | | | that is of a poor quality. There are good quality guides |
| Quality private drivers doesn't necessarily mean quality | | | | there too. But the risk for your the client, of finding a |
| private guide. This is a case of misplacing your trust. | | | | guide outside Pompeii in this way is that you end up |
| The drivers look to add to their income by offering | | | | with a poor quality guide, because you do not have the |
| extra services and add the services of a guide. They | | | | opportunity to choose your guide due to the waiting list |
| charge you the customer the full price, and then they | | | | system. Even if you meet a guide outside that you do |
| look for the guide via cell phone. But the drivers rarely | | | | like, the waiting list system means you get allocated |
| want to pay the guide their official fee. | | | | whoever is next on the list. It is all a question of luck of |
| Frequently, it's also happening at the last minute, so the | | | | the draw. |
| quality of the guide you will get tends to be a lottery. | | | | You may ask yourself, how could all this happen in |
| You should know that the better guides may work | | | | such a world famous and important site? And you are |
| once for these private drivers once or twice with the | | | | quite right to ask. It is through mismanagement and |
| private drivers they know already; but thereafter, they | | | | corruption in the industry, but that is a whole different |
| tend to avoid the experience because they don't get | | | | article. Lets look at a final group that you could also run |
| the right money they should be paid for their services. | | | | into - the Pompeii site Guards. |
| For example, I have worked with virtually all the drivers | | | | 3. Pompeii Site Guards |
| in the Bay of Naples for 20 years, and I have my own | | | | The Site Guards are responsible for controlling the site |
| preferred pre-selected group of drivers. However, it is | | | | and keeping visitors safe. But the most frequent |
| extremely rare these days that I accept work of this | | | | complaints I hear are about the things that are in their |
| kind. | | | | control:- |
| 2. On the spot Guides: | | | | People complain about |
| These are local guides at the main entrance to the | | | | * The stray dogs |
| Pompeii archaeological site. Many of these "guides" | | | | * The dirtiness of the site of Pompeii |
| began working in the tourist shops many years ago. | | | | * Lots of houses inside the site are closed. |
| They learned a few words of some foreign language, | | | | * There is no one to ask information or direction. |
| and from this let's say, they auto-qualified themselves | | | | Why all this is happening? |
| as guides. | | | | Because the guards sometimes offer their services to |
| You know that just deciding one day that you are a | | | | visitors who are inside a site and need information |
| local guide does not mean you have the qualities to | | | | rather than doing their own job of controlling the site |
| communicate what a place really means to visitors. | | | | and ensuring people are safe. They began doing this in |
| This may do for certain places in the world, but for the | | | | a similar way to the self-declared guides decades ago, |
| complexity of Pompeii, it is not enough. Many of these | | | | and they are still there. |
| self-declared guides are still there getting their clients at | | | | If you get hurt, rather than being there giving |
| the entrance of the site half a century later. Today | | | | assistance, some site guards are working illegally as |
| since the end of 2008, they have created a kind of | | | | guides. |
| formalized booking gazebo or tent outside of the main | | | | In my opinion, each person is their own profession. |
| entrances of the site of Pompeii. Whatever the | | | | Leave the guards to guard the site. If you want a |
| system, the risk that you run is the same....and this is to | | | | guide, book a decent guide before arriving. |
| end up with a very poor level of guiding. | | | | |