June
2008
My Tour Guide Itinerary0
Day 8 : Andermatt – Hotel La Claustra
6:15am: wake-up call for all rooms
7:00-7:20am: breakfast (school dining room)
7:22am: group departs for bus station
7:29am: bus departs for Chur (arrives 7:42am)
7:42am: group continues to train station
7:56am: train departs for Disentis/Muster (arrives 9:11am)
9:19am: train departs for Andermatt (arrives 10:25am)
10:25am: group continues to taxi stand (taxi prebooked)
10:30am: via taxi, group continues to La Claustra Hotel (arrive 11am)
11am: presentation of Mr. Sawiri’s project followed by hotel tour followed by refreshment (included)
1pm (intended) group depart via taxi for Andermatt (this time could change)
1:30pm group explore Andermatt (Attraction TBA)
3:20pm: group assembly at Train Station3:30pm: train departs for Disentis/Muster (arrives 4:42pm)
4:45pm: train departs for Chur (arrives 6:02pm)
6:02-6:55pm: free time in Chur
6:55pm: group assembly at bus station
7:05pm: bus departs for SSTH (arrives 7:15pm)
Lessons Learned:
1. If as a tour guide you are handed an itinerary, do not trust that it is complete and accurate. Check the information, confirm that you understand the routes and transportation, and (where applicable) confirm with the destinations that they are expecting your group.
2. Check with the person who prepared the itinerary and with the destinations to see whether they are expecting to be paid! There was a bit of a shock for me as we were wrapping up our visit to the hotel: not only had the (prebooked) taxi not been paid for, the hotel itself was expecting payment for the coffee and tea served to us when we arrived (the itinerary I was given said that refreshment was “included” – I took this to mean “paid for”, not “part of the day and subject to fees”), and to top it all off the hotel’s bill offered charges for our guided tour, the presentation, and the use of a projector and laptop in said presentation! (In fact, the hotel was expecting to submit its own charges as well as a bill for reimbursement (they paid the taxi driver for the roundtrip) directly to SSTH, and not to our group as we left – but it was still quite a surprise.)
3. As our textbook says, be ready to be flexible. I could have insisted on completing our tour as written, leading the group in a cold rain through the village of Andermatt and out to the Devil’s Bridge and back… …and they would have been wet and cold and miserable and annoyed. Instead I changed the itinerary to suit the weather and needs of the group, and everyone was happier with the result.
