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A birthday for Britain’s best guides
The Guild of Registered Tourist Guides is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.
The UK’s Blue Badge tourist guides are professional guides who work in every part of the United Kingdom. The Guild was founded 60 years ago to provide a quality alternative to what the press at the time called ‘the spivs and touts’ who were targeting visitors to the Festival of Britain.
The Guild’s aim was to offer visitors guides who are entertaining, informative and accurate. This is still the aim of all Blue Badge guides, who are thoroughly trained and properly examined. The training for London guides takes around two years.
Guides can take groups and individuals. They are also able to theme tours for visitors’ special interests. There are currently 710 Blue Badge Tourist Guides working in the UK. Between them they offer guiding in 34 different languages. They have many different specialities and interests, and can guide on foot, in cars, on coaches, on trains and on boats.
Many guides have recently passed a 2012 venues course, so they are able to offer knowledgeable tours around the sites for the Olympic and Paralympic games.
Visitors who want to book a guide can search the Guild’s website by region, language, special interests, extended touring experience and availability. Guides’ fees range from £127 for a four-hour London tour in English to £340 for a nine-hour London tour in two languages. Elsewhere fees range from £200 to £220 a day for guiding in English and £230–280 a day for guiding in a language other than English. The prices are for the guide, and not per person on the tour.
The Guild of Registered Tourist Guides
Tel: +44 20 7403 1115
Website: www.blue-badge-guides.com
Press contact: Maggie Barnes
Tel: +44 20 7403 1115
Email: marketing@blue-badge.org.uk
For more information contact: