Hiring tourist guides, while visiting a new place is
a good idea. Otherwise, you are likely to miss excellent, but little
known, attractions of the place. You if you are planning to visit the
Kashmir valley, it will prove to be beneficial to hire a tourist guide
for local sightseeing etc. Tourist guides in Kashmir are easily
available and most of them speak fluently in English. Some of them even
know French, German, Japanese, etc.
However, one needs to exercise a little caution while hiring as well as
while dealing with the tourist guides in Kashmir, as well as any other
city in India. Given below are some tips for handling Kashmir guides:
Try to avoid hiring tourist guides that are not registered with
the government or the tourism department. However, you can always
hire the ones recommended by your hotel authorities.
Don't get too friendly with the guides. Be polite and give them
due respect, but maintain a little distance.
Do not talk about money matters or take out too much cash in
front of them.
Just like everywhere else, you can always bargain with the
tourist guides in Kashmir also.
If you want, you may give some money in advance. However, reserve
the major portion of the tip till the end of their service.
