A Guide to Selecting Tours
You may need a guide to selecting tours in Charleston. As you start researching your visit to Charleston, the enthusiastic reviews from friends and coworkers have set the bar high. Thankfully, their praise wasn’t overstated – Charleston is undeniably spectacular! However, like exploring any new city, navigating the world of walking tours can be challenging for a guest.
All you really have to work with are anecdotes, articles, and late-night Google searches, you will quickly find yourself sifting through a mix of truths, marketing tactics, and outright falsehoods.
We believe you deserve to make well-informed decisions about how you invest your hard-earned money. This process begins by telling you our story and providing you with some unfiltered facts about the tour industry in Charleston.
Walking Tours
In recent times, there has been a notable increase in low-end tour operators. Individuals who may perceive it as simple to take your money and provide subpar service. Typically offering tours at lower rates, utilizing Gmail accounts, and giving off an appearance as if they just rolled out of bed. They may initially charm you. However, the true colors emerge when you pose a question – revealing a propensity for making things up.
Ghost Tours
Unfortunately, due to lower standards, many of the ghost tours in Charleston are led by young college students or overseen by out-of-town companies with limited knowledge of the city. If a company conducts tours in multiple cities or their guides appear notably youthful, there's a likelihood that the experience may not meet expectations.
Examining their website for relevant insights can be a valuable step, and if these indicators are present, it may impact the overall enjoyment of your experience.
Food Tours
However, despite the presentation by most tour companies, the reality often diverges from expectations.
Over time, these tour companies have cultivated connections within the food and beverage industry. Consequently, many tours now guide you to places easily accessible on your own, offering modest samples of inexpensive dishes while reciting a rehearsed narrative about Charleston.
It's important to acknowledge that not all culinary tours in Charleston adhere to this model, but regrettably, a significant majority do.
CONSUMER EDUCATION
Our guide to selecting tours is based on our extensive research and participation in Charleston’s various tour offerings. When we’re not conducting tours, we’re experiencing them. This immersion allows us to provide a nuanced comparison, similar to evaluating retail giants like Nordstrom, Target, and Walmart, each catering to different consumer needs regarding price and quality. Over the years, our evaluation criteria have focused on three key aspects: Reason to Believe, Context, and Entertainment Value.
Tours led by historians with academic backgrounds, such as Chucktown Tours, consistently rank as the top history tours in Charleston. As educators, we prioritize discussing facts, providing context, and fostering constructive dialogue. We view history from a broad perspective, enabling us to illustrate the interplay between the locations you visit and the people who shaped them.
Most of Charleston’s tours fall into the mid-level category. These tours typically cover a small area around the City Market, presenting a memorized list of historical facts with minimal context and generally rehearsed scripts. While some guides in these organizations may take the initiative to delve deeper into history on their own, these companies often prioritize quantity over quality.
The low-level category includes companies that handle large volumes of tourists. These operations often offer a standardized experience with guides whose historical accuracy depends more on personal motivation than company standards for quality.
Our goal in this guide to selecting tours is not to influence your choice toward or away from any specific tour provider. Instead, we aim to provide a comprehensive overview of the available options, empowering you to make an informed decision that aligns with your preferences and priorities
Three Things To Look For in a Walking Tour
When choosing a Walking Tour, it’s essential to consider the following key factors:
- Reason to Believe: Look beyond a mere recitation of facts. Seek guides with genuine expertise or educational backgrounds. Reviews often mention the word “Knowledge” when guides stand out for their depth of understanding.
- Contextual Teaching: Avoid tours that merely list dates and events without providing meaningful context. Opt for guides who offer insights into the broader significance of the sites and stories they share, enhancing your understanding.
- Entertainment Value: History doesn’t have to be dull. Look for tours that blend learning with enjoyment. After all, vacation is about having fun while broadening your horizons.
By keeping these criteria in mind while reading reviews, you’ll notice recurring themes that can guide your selection of the most enriching and enjoyable walking tours.
Any good guide to selecting tours shows you what to look for
How many tour companies operate in Charleston?
As of the latest count, Eighty Seven tour companies are active in Charleston, with the majority specializing in walking tours. Here’s the breakdown:
Small Bus Tours: Five small bus tour operators can be found in the city, based out of the visitor’s center on Meeting Street. The reality is that they can not promise you a predetermined route. Once the bus is loaded, the city assigns them a route.
Carriage Tours: Currently, there are four carriage tour companies in Charleston. Adhering to strict city ordinances, none of them mistreat their horses. These companies, like the small bus tours, follow a route system. The specific route is determined only after the carriage is loaded. As for the guides, while we are sure some guides are good, our opinion is overall they are not well respected among the guide community.
Walking Tours: The remaining Seventy Eight companies fall under the category of walking tour companies. Most of them offer History Tours, Ghost Tours, and/or Culinary Tours. Some conduct private car tours, while others focus on cruise ships and provide guides for step-on big bus tours.
Let’s delve into that Seventy Eight figure for a moment. About five of these are local companies with a structured business setup. Around ten are out-of-town companies operating in Charleston, and the majority consist of single operators. Some of these single operators have years of experience giving tours in the city – however, most do not.
What does “Voted Best Tour in Charleston” really mean?
The phrase “Voted Best” carries a significant allure when you first read it. Yet, once you delve into its meaning, its impact diminishes. Annually, a local paper releases a “best of” issue, likely a strategic move to enhance readership. You will find categories like “Best Restaurant,” “Best Bar,” and even “Best Tour”.
For the paper, it appears to be a tactic to bolster subscriptions by harvesting emails from “voters”. For the companies, it’s a way of creating the illusion of quality in their product. Consequently, a fervent campaign ensues, urging locals to rally behind their friends. Social media becomes inundated with appeals for votes, all in pursuit of clinching the “Best Of” title.
The result is that unwitting guests are often fooled into believing the award was the result of users voting for a quality product that was vetted by the publication. When it is largely a reflection of locals voting for their friends through a well-run social media campaign.
While Blue Hippo Tours is widely regarded as a great quality tour in Charleston, we choose not to participate in this annual ritual. We choose instead to rely on a more meaningful quality standard – our reviews.
How do I know if someone is a good tour guide?
That’s easy. You can discern the quality of a guide by the respect they receive from their peers. A true professional guide is out giving tours almost every day. In this tight-knit community, we all know one another. We can gauge if someone is proficient in their craft, has a genuine knowledge of history, and conducts themselves professionally. How they interact will tell you a lot about their level of professional respect.
Are tour guides licensed in Charleston?
In short, “No.” The necessity for tour guide licenses ceased several years ago after the city faced legal action. While this requirement used to be mandatory, it is now a voluntary program. Charleston once boasted over 500 licensed guides, and while many still uphold their licenses voluntarily, some do not. It’s important to mention that Bubba probably never took the trouble to acquire a license.
There is an organization here in Charleston for licensed guides called the Palmetto Guild.
The Palmetto Guild comprises a list of certified tour guides who have proven their proficiency through an examination conducted by the City of Charleston. This exam assesses their knowledge of Carolina Lowcountry history, culture, and local regulations. Guild members are dedicated professionals committed to historical accuracy, ongoing education, and delivering an immersive and engaging experience for every visitor.
You can find additional information on licensed guides at the Palmetto Guild website.
Full time guides -vs- part time guides.
Charleston attracts over eight million visitors annually, placing a significant strain on the tourism sector. In response to this demand, numerous tour operators opt for the use of part-time tour guides.
While this approach may be a necessity of fluctuating tour demand, the underlying truth is that proficiency improves with practice. A guide engaged sporadically, perhaps only once a month, is unlikely to sustain the necessary skills for delivering an exceptional walking tour. On the contrary, a guide conducting tours daily is understandably poised to enhance their capabilities and acquire more knowledge over time.
