Guide or Companion?

Guide or Companion?
Sep 10, 2009 09:01	#11
GUEST35100	I am traveling to China alone but with a travel group which includes hotels, transfers and some tours as well. However occassionally there will some free time and free evenings. Not knowing the language and the country (BJ, Xian, SH) I would like the company of a personal tour guide + companion where you a get a chance to do some touristy stuff but also maybe go for dinner and drinks - So to hire someone from a service like viplily for this - is that a good idea or are is it risky??

Sep 10, 2009 09:01

#11

GUEST35100

I am traveling to China alone but with a travel group which includes hotels, transfers and some tours as well. However occassionally there will some free time and free evenings. Not knowing the language and the country (BJ, Xian, SH) I would like the company of a personal tour guide + companion where you a get a chance to do some touristy stuff but also maybe go for dinner and drinks - So to hire someone from a service like viplily for this - is that a good idea or are is it risky??

Sep 10, 2009 20:50	#12
ELLYSE Points: Join Date: Oct 30, 2005 Status: Offline	If you want someone in Shanghai, drop me an email at yahoo.com\|ellyse99 and put "TravelChinaGuide" in the subject line.

Oct 13, 2009 10:33

#13

YOOCO
Points:
Join Date: Oct 12, 2009
Status: Offline

I have just join travelchinaguide. And I thought travel companion is just another type of tour guide, in a more relax and flexible way? I have never thought that travel companion means a bad words or anything relate to sex!
I found some of the reply quite against travel companion here! For me, as a Chinese. I don't have any good feeling with those government register tour guide. All they are doing is just tell you some make up story of the place and bring you to shopping mall where they get commission.
I have post ad for myself as a travel companion and I believe in this web site people are more serious. Not like that very obvious web - http://www.viplily.com/. As soon as I went in to that web, it's just full of girls's pictures with their weight, height and age. Anyone who is not fool can tell what kind of business they are doing!!!

Oct 13, 2009 11:35	#14
APAULT Points: Join Date: Mar 11, 2006 Status: Offline	Yooco: what I think most of us mean by 'travel companion' is a person that you can travel with as a friend. Instead of travelling on your own you look for someone suitable to shjare the experience with. So it is not normally a guide, but if you would like to make friends with someone who is visiting your area and show them around.....great :)

Jun 10, 2010 04:52

#15

HERBEAT
Points:
Join Date: Mar 17, 2009
Status: Offline

Hmm... I think I have the right to give a bit explanation of what the guide and companion do. I worked for travel agencies as a professional tour guide (meaning I have the certificate), but at the same time, I work for myself as travel companion.
For the professional guide part, it's more like a ermm... how to say... You offer you professional service to the guests, no matter where they come from and no matter what their attitude to you(some may very chozy and difficulty to guide).
My situation was very good, compared to the normal professional guide since I only do the VIP English-speaking guide. That means I'll get payed very well by the travel agent. And at the same time, you get tips from your guests. Normally since there will be around 40 guests and the tips would be really high.
But to the normal guides who work for the travel agency, they get paid poorly by the agency, especially the ones who work for the Chinese group. I don't think it's ok to show the exact number since it's still kind of privacy for the guides. But hm... they'll have to either take the guests shopping with commission, or they'll try their every best to persuade the guests to visit more places, by beautiful words and also some psycology knowledge. Even the guide her/himself doesn't want to get the commission, the driver would ask for it. So you'll have to do something which could make the trip not that pleasant.

The high standard guide, especially the English-speaking ones from travel agency, could be a great companion for you. They don't have any pressure from the travel agency, the driver or anyone. So the only thing they concern would be to take very good care of you and try to make your journey pleasant and enjoyable.

But since that level of guests are not that many, they'll have to take some part time job as a private companion or something if they want to. So there will be very expensive travel companion as well... But that kind of companion will really make your trip a huge difference.

And the so-called "under ground" companion would be another totally different story. The big difference is that they don't have the certificate, and that most of the time they offer special service.

Oh, another thing.... no matter it's a professional one or not, there will be true friendly feeling...

Oct 30, 2011 02:33	#16
GUEST15278	HI RITA, I AM PLANING TO VISIT YUNNAN IN NOVEMBER 2011, NEED YOUR KIND SUGGESTION PLS AS I DON,T WANT TO BE CHEAT BY SOME ONE PLS. TAKE CARE MR KHAN HOTMAIL.COM\|QKAFRIDI

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