Finding your Family Guide
1. Where to find a Family Guide: Start by asking friends and relatives that have used family guides who they recommend. The best advertisements always move by word of mouth. The second best way to find a reliable family guide is by looking up unsolicited reviews online. After a quick search you should be able to find more than a few choices to look through. Shop around and see which website has the most reviews, you'll get a good or bad feel off the reviews almost right away. Your gut should never be ignored, especially when traveling.
2. Looking at a Guides Profile. Now that you've found a family guide's profile, you need to know what you should be looking for. You want a guide that speaks as many of the languages of the countries, province, and towns that you'll be traveling through as possible. You want an experienced guide that is family orientated and knows how to handle whiny children, because all kids get travel weary fast... Are we there yet, are we there yet.... and so forth. A guide that can handle the stresses of a child's repeat questions and can be trusted with your directions on how to handle the situation is crucial. It is actually not uncommon for many professional family guides to have a small background in psychology and child psychology. These can be some of the best family guides money can buy.
3. Interviewing Your Family Guide: Yay! You've finally whittled your way down to just a few of your favorite candidates, you have to make a final decision from the small lot. One of the first things that needs to be asked of the guide is about matters of privacy. Depending on the age of the children you're taking, the guide should be required to sign a confidentiality clause. If you are taking children with you, then as their guardian you have full rights to know everything they are doing, while telling no one but you.
Making Sure you Have Found a Good Guide
Ask the guide if they can help with the travel planning and trip necessities, especially if they are from the parts of the country you will be traveling through. And, most importantly, ask if the family guide has any prior arrests, criminal records, or child endangerment issues that they may have been found guilty of.
Great family guides are bountiful and as long as you ask the right questions and do your research, your trip will move smoothly and without incident. In the continued series of Family Guides and Traveling as a Single Parent, we'll be discussing, What You Can Expect from Your Family Guide.
