Category Archives: special events

Today my son and I decided to do some market research by checking out the new bus tour of Buenos Aires.  And he was very excited to take some pictures.  Honestly, I cringe at the thought of taking a bus tour with a bunch of strangers without having control of the tour.  I think bus tours only work when your group is very larger and I always recommend private tours for smaller groups.

 Based on my experience today and any other day I’ve taken bus tours anywhere else in the world:

1. No control of tour time. After purchasing my ticket online to be ahead of the game, I headed to the 3pm bus tour, having a very positive attitude about this new bus tour.  When I arrived I was informed the only spots left for the bus tour was at 5:30pm.  How could that be?  I bought my ticket at 12pm online.  I accepted the tour for 5:30pm but I had to wait 2 ½ hours for the last bus. 
2. Device malfunction.  Very high tech, every seat had its own set of headphones in 10 different languages.  I tried plugging the headphones to the outlet labeled English but the plug would not go all the way in.  Then I finally got it in the outlet labeled Spanish… no problem I speak Spanish.  Of course, only the right headphone worked.  So I asked the gentleman next to me to if he could hand me the spare set… only to find out that only the right headphone worked on this one as well.  And it was so loud I had to place the headphone halfway off my ear so I wouldn’t lose my hearing.
3. No one to point out.  Being a city tour guide, I’m very familiar with the sights of the city but I noticed my son was just looking at random things than what was on tour… could it be he’s just too young to show interest.  No, absolutely not!  I looked around and no one was looking at what they should be looking at.  So then I started to point things out as the audio mentioned them so my son could understand what was being said.  I noticed others paying attention to me.
4. Recording not matching location.  Another reason why many didn’t know what the automated system was talking about because the recording spoke about a sight after we’d past it.  Some were lucky to turn back around.
5. Completely missed some sights listed on map/handout.  Granted it was Sunday and many fairs close off the streets but I couldn’t help get angry that we missed almost the entire neighborhood of San Telmo.  I decided to take this tour on a Sunday to prevent going during traffic (weekdays are hell for a big bus tour – hard to maneuver the city). 
6. No time to stop and walk around each neighborhood.  I always like to do a little bit of walking around neighborhoods to see how locals live their lives but the bus didn’t let you browse and then come back.  Yet if I would have made the earlier bus, I would have been able to get the next bus in half an hour but no, I was on the last bus.  Why was I on the last bus?  Because there wasn’t any availability, though I arrived 5 buses before and bought my ticket online being well prepared.  But hey, that’s a bus tour!
7. Obnoxious people.  The lady behind us had the nerve of having a 20-minute phone conversation during our tour.  Smoking!  Can you believe a lady right next to us was smoking and every time the wind blew my way I got a mouth full of ashes? For god sakes, my kid was breathing in ashes and smoke. And her mother behind us started smoking too!  Oh and she was the same lady talking on the phone during the tour. 
8. Lost in Translation.  In the middle of the tour, my son fell asleep… I guess it was too boring, well frankly, it was.  I took his headset so that I could listen to the tour in English.  His headset only had one headphone working too.  I have to admit the English wasn’t bad but sometimes things were translated wrong.

All I have to say is you get what you pay for!

Why BAlocal Private Guided Tours are sooooo worth it!

1. There is no waiting around.  We meet you at your hotel or where ever you’d like us to meet you at a time specified by you.
2. We are human guides!  You can ask a question at any time and we’ll have an answer.  If you can’t hear, we’ll repeat it for you. 
3. As we pass or stop by a sight, we speak to it while pointing it out.
4. If a street is cut off, we’ll get out of the vehicle and walk to the sight or find the best way to get there in the vehicle.
5. We tell anecdotes of the places you see giving more life and feeling to how the city and the people function.
6. It’s your tour!  If you want to stay in one place more than another because it strikes your fancy, by all means that’s what we’re going to do.
7. You won’t have to listen to any obnoxious people you don’t know.
8. Most of our tour guides are native English speakers and if they are not, their English is excellent!
9. And the number one thing that makes BAlocal so great…. our tours are FUN!