In message , Mrs Redboots
writes
Ian Jelf wrote to uk.transport.london on Mon, 1 Nov 2004:
the people I'd had the day before from another part
of the UK didn't venture outside Covent Garden during the r free time
because they wouldn't have dreamed of getting a tube or bus......)

I can never understand this attitude - for me, part of the challenge of
a new city is working out how to use it's public transport!
Indeed, it is for me, too. But such views, while not unknown are very
uncommon.

That said, do bear in mind that by definition I tend to deal with people
who book guided tours, so they tend to be the ones most likely to want
everything arranged for them. The problems arise when they want to do
something that isn't in an itinerary or is during "free time" but want
to be hand held to that, too.

I had very considerable grief from three American ladies a few months
ago up here in Birmingham. They had a City Tour with me for half a day
and then wanted to visit "Cadbury World" at Bournville. They had three
more days completely free (their husbands were attending a conference).
No amount of telling them that there were four or more trains an hour
from a station virtually next to their hotel cut any ice. They wanted
to know why I hadn't taken them there and kept saying that, while on
vacation, they didn't want to have to go around "figuring things out".
I felt very exasperated and this is perhaps an extreme example but it
does happen.

--
Ian Jelf, MITG, Birmingham, UK
Registered "Blue Badge" Tourist Guide for
London & the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk