Pros
The other tour guides are very cool
Going to National Parks
Kontras
Typically driving 8+ hours per day on top of performing tour leader duties. The itineraries are not well designed so the driving days are long and you barely have time at each destination. If guests are late, or there is traffic then your entire schedule is in jeopardy and you are trying to catch up, You are typically working from 5:30am to 9:30pm with no breaks and you are on call if something happens at the hotel or answering client text messages. Many guests have said they don't understand why there isn't a driver or a second guide and were concerned by the long and stressful hours.
Very inflexible schedule; when you commit to them for a season, you don't have control over your trips and they can assign you to tasks last minute. If you were supposed to have a few days off to rest and there is an emergency or a gap in the schedule, they will put you on it and not ask for your input. You are basically "always on duty". Their contract and DOT laws say you can only work 70 hours per 8 days, but we are consistently going into violation and working 10-12 hour days. Management says its the guides fault if they work longer than expected hours even if there was a guest medical emergency, long lines to get into the park, etc.
Your cash bonus at the end of the season as a guide is affected by how the guests rate the itinerary and some other factors that are out of your control; not just your performance.
When concerns, questions, or suggestions were brought to management by several different guides over the last two years, It seems like to me that the company/management doesn't take accountability and tries to find a way to shame or blame the guide.
