I've been getting asked for recommendations for guides recently, not guidebooks but guides tourists can hire to show them around a place. Other than specialist guides, I don't recommend them, because I believe guides get in the way of a good travel experience and here are 5 reasons why:
1) guides lessen the impact of culture shock: and a little culture shock is not such a bad thing. Cities like Shanghai, Cairo and Mumbai can be a crazy, chaotic and confusing for first-time visitors, but that's what travel is about - putting yourself in unfamiliar circumstances and embracing the exoticism. You don't want someone setting right your wonderful sense of disorientation.
2) guides get in the way of those assault-on-your-senses experiences: one of the coolest things about travel is visiting places where you're blown away by the sights, sounds, feels, and smells of the place, like a Middle Eastern souq and bazaar, especially a spice souq or fish market. These are places where you want to take it all in, listen to the strange sounds, inhale the fragrant aromas, touch the textiles, enjoy the play of color and light.
3) guides give you their perspective on the state of things: whether it's a destination's history, society or politics, unless your guide was born in the place, is a long-term resident or holds a research degree, the guide's take on things is rarely that of an insider and not necessarily one that you want. You don't know the source of their information. Unless you can be sure you're getting a local perspective or that of an expert, you're better off reading books, talking to locals, and deciding for yourself.
4) guides ruin your chances of interacting with locals: because you're with a guide it's obvious you're a tourist for starters. Guides have their rehearsed lectures and schedules, and chatting to locals, accepting spontaneous invitations to a meal or into people's homes is generally not on their agenda. You also don't know the relationship the guide might have with locals; it may not be a good one.
5) guides make everything too easy: part of the fun (and frustration) of travel is figuring stuff out - deciphering signs, reading labels on packaging, learning how to buy a bus ticket or SIM card. There's a sense of accomplishment when you learn something for yourself and can do things that locals in that destination do everyday - there's a sense that you're fitting in. And you don't want anyone getting in the way of that.

I've recently been interviewed by a couple of bloggers about travel writing, how Terry and I got into it, what we do, why we like it, the joys, the challenges, etc. My first interview was with Liz at Write to Travel, a blog which looks at all aspects of the craft and profession of travel writing, along with the development of her own travel writing career. As I've mentioned before, Liz does an enlightening weekly interview series with writers, the most recent of which is with Angela K Nickerson, an art teacher, tour guide, and now travel writer, and author of 'Journey into Michelangelo's Rome', which sounds wonderful. I'm going to try and get hold of it for our trip to Rome in a couple of weeks. Check out Angela's blog Just Go! If you're interested in travel writing, as everybody seems to be lately (although not for the reasons we'd like), check out the recent post at Perceptive Travel investigating why travel writer's blog and you'll get a bit more of an insight into why they write. There's been so much controversy recently surrounding ethics in travel as a result of the Thomas Kohnstamm Affair, however, Julie Shwietert shares some of the secrets of the trade in the Top 5 Secrets Travel Writers Won't Tell You at the Travellers Notebook, including how those much-discussed discounts can help you. Anne at Instant Native has just posted an interview she did with me as well. Anne provides online concierge services, organizing trips and itineraries for people ('fun menus' as she calls them), and on her blog she provides travel tips, advice on what travel accessories to buy, suggestions for places to go, and stuff to see and do. I've always promoted the idea of becoming an 'instant native', of taking a long slow holiday in a place and living like a local, which I've blogged about before - it's the way Terry and I like to travel when we have time. I'm going to come back to that in future posts and tell you a bit about our time in Turkey, where we're working now.