Shore excursion guides--Good ones, bad ones?

Best ones I have had were non ship excursions.

In St. Kitts we got cab rite outside of the port shops. We were with a couple from our dining table and got an Island tour for only $ 25.00 each that hit the beach, the Romney plantation, sugar mill and more we had him for the afternoon as our guide and driver. He recommended great place for lunch where the locals go. We had a great afternoon and we all gave him extra $.

One time down in Mazatlan we got together with a few others off of our ship and got a private tour in an SUV that we found outside of the port shops. We got the city tour and he took us through the back door for a performance of some dancers for free (There was a ship tour just to see the dancers for more then we paid). He took us through old town, the market place, the Golden Zone and the dance. After the dance you exited through a crafts fair, he saw I was looking at some boots, he took us a couple blocks away to a leather goods store that had much better prices and smithed the boots rite there for a custom fit. I still negotiated the price for us and the rest from our group.

Never had a bad tour guide.

Mostly we have had good guides. If a guide is poor, I make an effort to keep asking questions about the information not given. Usually by the end of the tour the guide has covered what I want to know.

Never taken any excursion with a guide. We do not like the idea of being herded round and told when to get back in a certain place. We always do our own thing when off the ship.

We have had fair to good guides for the most part. We had a great guide in Rome. She was one of the few women who had graduated from some special Vatican school (don't ask me, I have no recollection of its name). In any event, she was a fountain of knowledge on history and we LOVED hearing all of the stories she recounted.