Six Types of Tour Guides to Meet on Safari to Uganda

Uganda is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Africa. It receives more than a million tourists per year according to the tourism report of 2018.  Most of these come to see the natural beauties of Uganda, visit family and friends, have business meetings, and hold political engagements. Any visitor to a country would love to have someone to guide or take him/her around the different destinations he/she would wish to go. The persons who help and direct visitors to their preferred destinations are normally called tour guides.

The tour guides do a tremendous job in making tourists have a convenient, safe, insightful, and memorable experience in Uganda. The tour guides in Uganda are actually are a pillar to a visitor’s stay. Without a good guide, a visitor can never have a good time in Uganda. Uganda having friendly people in nature, it offers one of the most hospitable guides in the world.

Most of the guides give great customer care to their clients but we cannot rule out the fact that sometimes some tourists/visitors get bad experiences with tour guides in Uganda. Nonetheless, the tour guides in Uganda convey remarkable services to the visitors. Most of the guides in Uganda are English speakers though some can speak Swahili, French, and German.

The guides in Uganda are categorized by the different roles they play on a visitor’s stay and here are some of the types of tour guides a tourist is likely to encounter on the Uganda holiday.

Driver Guide

This is a type of guide whose only role is to drive a tourist/visitor to his would-be destinations. This kind of guide may also give the visitor insightful information about the destinations the visitor wishes to go to but this is not mandatory. This is done with the consent of the tour guide and the visitor. Driver guides are popularly offered by any Uganda car rental company. Today in Uganda, tourists have a tendency of hiring a car with a driver and travel around the country without any other tour-related services included in the package.

Site Guide

These guides are found at popular and historical tourist destinations or tourist attractions. These guides’ role is to take the visitor around the premises of the tourism structure or establishment. These guides are well vast with the necessary information about the tourism place from its history and the activities to excite the tourists.  Such guides in Uganda are found in tourism establishments like the historical and traditional palaces, religious structures, museums, heritage sites, and other cultural and ancient sites.

Safari Guide

The safari guides are the most popular guides in Uganda. These are the guides that take tourists to the various tourism destinations on tailor-made, exclusives and group safaris in Uganda. These guides are well equipped with all the necessary information about the various tourism destinations in Uganda. These guides not only drive the tourists to the various destinations but also direct and engage them in the different tourism activities at the destination for instance game drives, nature walks, hiking, and birding to mention but a few.

These guides come up with an itinerary (travel plan) that is supposed to be followed by the tourists while touring around Uganda. These are also in charge of the checking-ins of the visitors at the different accommodation facilities on the trip. They literally do most of the ground travel work for the tourists while touring in Uganda. The safari guides are normally recruited by a tour company to guide their clients to the different tourist attractions in Uganda.

Game Ranger

The game rangers are more or less like destination guides but these normally deal in helping the visitors in search for the various wildlife animals in the national parks. The game rangers are workers of the Uganda Wildlife Authority a body responsible for monitoring and managing the national parks and other protected areas. The game rangers know the national park to the dot thereby giving the tourists a high chance of experiencing or encountering their most preferred wild animals in a certain national park. In case a tourist needs one he/she has to pay 20$.

Gorilla and Chimpanzee Patron

These guides are specialists in guiding visitors on gorilla tracking and chimpanzee tracking experiences. The gorilla trekking and chimpanzee tracking activities are very unique tourism activities that require specialized personnel to handle them. These patrons are responsible for taking visitors through the forests in search of the gorillas or chimpanzees in a certain park. These guides better know the routes and the hideouts of the primates and also have rich information about them that makes the visitors’ trekking an insightful, informative, and exciting experience.

City Tour Guides

The city tour guides could be called local guides. These guides help out visitors to take them around a certain town or city encountering the different popular tourism spots. These guides know almost each and every route and spot in the city and can easily lead a visitor to his/her preferred spot he/she wishes to visit. The city tour guides are normally used by the backpackers.

The tour guides are tourism personnel that create the great moment of truth to tourists and their work should always be regarded highly. Without their help and hospitality, a visitor can never have a great stay in Uganda. Therefore, it is commendable for every visitor to always respect and also tip these amazing people for the job they do.