Have you been on a guided tour that’s had you snoozing midway through? Tours are often sold on the strength of having a ‘local’ guide—but is that enough?

We’ve all been there at some point; desperately looking for an excuse to break away from the group without offending anyone, bored to tears with the Tour we bitterly regret signing up for.

Tours can be excruciatingly bad for several reasons, but often the Guide is the problem. There was the one in Kalgoorlie, Australia, where the guide pointed out the supermarket and the hospital—to show the town had them, just like everywhere else.

Then there was the tour with the incomprehensible man marching his guests round a temple in Luang Prabang, Laos, on a strict script with not a care in the world if anyone was listening, much less understanding. And there was that guide in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, who traipsed between a succession of entirely unremarkable shops as if they were undiscovered jewels.

One thing these three had in common, though? The guides were born-and-bred locals.

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