International Travel Guide Interview

We do a lot of international travel and find it extremely helpful to have guides that can answer virtually any question as it maximizes the benefit we get out of our time in each country.

During a recent trip thru six countries in Central Europe we had the privilege of being guided, and spending many fun hours, with an amazing chap (Matej) who hails from Slovenia.  He was kind enough to take the time to detail the life of a guide.

 

How long have you been a guide?

I have been a guide for the past 10 years.

 

Why did you decide to be a guide?

I got to know one tourist guide through family friends and she was the one who introduced me to the nature of this profession. I kinda liked the idea of traveling from city to city, hotel to hotel. This would give me an opportunity to live (shortly) in some of the most spectacular cities in Europe that I couldn’t live in if I would have to pay for it. In this scenario, I would get paid. This was the fantasy that led me to chose this lifestyle or at least the pursuit of it. The other thing that i like is, that my season is about 7-8 months long. I work from end of April till end of October. I take November off and do only a couple of tours later in December. Then I take a long break.

 

 

What training does it take to be a guide?

There is no official training or school, but you need to get a license. All the guides have to pass an exam at the Tourism and Hospitality Chamber of Slovenia which is one of the branches of  Slovenian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. That is how you get your license.The exam is in three parts and you have to pass them in order. First part of the exam is a written paper on a minimum three day trip simulation with all the details about it. All of them. You really need to write about all the technical things that you have to do as a tour manager on such a trip. From calling the hotels, restaurants, bus drivers, arranging wake up calls and all the info given to the clients (breakfast time and location, wake up call, etc.) This is the easiest part. Once the board approves your paper you can continue with the second part. Six fields of theoretical knowledge (touristic geography, history, ethnology, psychological view on group guiding, art history with archeology; and basics in doing business in tourism and trip planning). You are given the extensive list of literature where you can find answers to 160 questions. About 25 for each topic. You later draw an envelope with six questions, one for each field. You have to answer almost perfectly to at least five of them. The committee is known to be lenient on just one of those questions, so you really have to know your stuff when you get there. It’s expensive if you don’t. The third and last part is the hardest for the most people. It is a full day bus trip. They give you a route and you have to prepare for all of it, although you do only 30 minutes of it on the day of exam. You don’t know beforehand which section of the trip you will have to guide. All the candidates get together on the same bus with the committee and the candidates draw envelopes again. Each envelope has a section of a trip written in it. A lottery really. Then the candidates take turns. You have to participate on the whole trip, even if you get to guide the first section and you are basically done after half an hour. This part is where most of the candidates flunk at least once. But all in all, this is a pretty easy and inexpensive way to get into a profession if you compare it with a college education for example. That being said, you can get the license  and start working quickly, but the real studying only just starts after that. Because if you don’t study and prepare well for the job, the companies might not hire you the second time.

 

 

What countries do you typically guide in?

I have started my career with day trips in the country (Slovenia)  and city tours in the capital where I live (Ljubljana). This is my base. But since it’s a small country that neighbors a few countries that rank much higher on a typical tourists to do list and it can also get a bit boring doing same things all over again,  I also do multi day tours in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. Additionally I do two to three trips per year that go through Italy (Venice), Austria, Hungary, Czechia and Slovakia.

 

 

What is the most unusual thing that has happened during a tour?

The last unusual thing that happened was a flat tire on a highway in the middle of Hungary. It was my first flat tire ever. It has never happened before in 20 years since I got my drivers license. What was even more unusual is the fact that the client got on his knees even before I did and started helping me fix it. That Canadian gentleman will be always in my memory, wink wink. It was also unusual that he and his wife got cold really fast when we arrived to Bratislava one morning. It was two degrees above freezing point. That was really unusual.

 

There was this guy, a tourist, moping around in the hotel lobby in Hvar, Croatia and he decided to hug one of my clients out of despair. He came to him out of nowhere, hugged him and started crying on his shoulders. Since there were no other available rooms he had to pay €800 a night for a room with a park view and that was the reason for his behavior.

 

There was also this lady, a client from South Africa, who decided to show her breast to her female (only) friends in the middle of the restaurant where we had lunch. Unfortunately for me and the driver who were also in the same room, she did it in a very discreet way so nobody else saw ‘’them’’ but them.

 

 

What are your favorite countries and cities to visit?

I haven’t traveled much outside of my ‘’business area’’ so to speak…. so business wise I have to say it is Split, Croatia. A lot of people don’t like it that much, especially if you compare it to much more famous Dubrovnik. But Dubrovnik is a bit too perfect for me. Just tourism. Practically no locals are living in the old town anymore. It is beautiful though. Split is different. Unique Roman and medieval architectural mix of the old town adjacent to a very busy and ugly commercial port and socialist high rises on the outskirts with some more roman ruins around them. It still has some of its original vibe, there are locals everywhere even in the city center and I think it is going to stay like that for a while even though the tourism is on the rise.

 

I am getting more and more fond of Budapest. Nice architecture, affordable prices and some really unique bars and  tourist attractions.

 

I love Prague. I have a couple of really good friends up there. Beer is still cheaper than water. What more do you want?

 

Since I can’t go to the Moon….Fuerteventura is a very good substitute. Amazing place. Next door Lanzarote is spectacular as well.

 

Difficult question really. So many nice places near me….I mean, Venice is just two and a half hours by car…and speaking of Venice and Italy…if I would have to visit just one country for the rest of my life it would be Italy. Soooooo many cities and towns plus the beautiful language, the people, the food, the wine, the lifestyle… I am thinking of going to Trieste (James Joyce, Illy coffee, brutalism architecture, Habsburgs – google it 🙂 just for a coffee this Thursday. One hour by car from where I live. Or half an hour more by bus for €7,00. So yeah. Italy. Hands down. But actually when you get there, your hands are all over the place just trying to talk to the locals, hehe.

 

For a more leisurely way of travel  – I don’t want to tell you because the place I visit most often is getting visited by less and less people and I want to keep it that way. The numbers have ‘’split’’ in the last decade. Which is great. I would like to kiteboard on my own around the ‘’golden horn’’.

 

And to all of the readers traveling from Venice to Dubrovnik or Vienna, Budapest, Prague- skip Slovenia. Nothing to see here. No quaint gothic towns, no beautiful mountains with emerald rivers, no alpine lakes with thousand year old castles perched on the edge of the cliff, no caves with trains and underground canyons, no exceptional wines or food. Nothing. And people are the worst. Sarcastic as hell.

 

 

What did you do before you were a guide?

Different student jobs. Warehouse. Call center. That kind of stuff. Boring and dull. Being a kiteboard instructor on the other hand was super fun, but also very much underpaid and quite exhausting most of the days. Having great colleagues in the team helped me endure through three seasons. It was fun, like I said, but I am glad those days are behind me.

 

 

You are studying in another area.  Tell us about that.

Yes, I went back to school. I am studying psychotherapy at the Sigmund Freud University in Ljubljana. I am finishing my bachelors in few months and my third year of specialization in June.  One more year and I will start with my masters. It is a long process but it goes well with tourism since the season is low in the period when I have lectures. There are just two and a half months of overlap when things get a bit hectic, stressful and crazy for me. Luckily I know some good therapists, hehe.

 

What brought you joy this week?

I have met with some friends that I haven’t seen for a while. Some good food and wine while catching up. I also bought a couple of good books. Reading and socializing. Apart from table tennis this is the best thing you can do for your brain. No joke.