Travel PR (www.travelpr.co.uk) is delighted to be working with the Institute of Tourist Guiding (www.itg.org.uk) and its 1,400 Blue Badge Tourist Guide members across England, Northern Ireland and Jersey, to increase awareness of the benefits of booking a professional guide. 

Blue Badge Tourist Guides are the best in the business and offer walking tours, guided visits to attractions and heritage sites, themed tours, coach tours and excursions with private cars. Entertaining, reliable and professional, a Blue Badge Tourist Guide's knowledge and expertise will turn a good visitor experience into a great one. The guides can take you on a tour of world-class museums and galleries, palaces and churches, cities and towns – from the British Museum to Windsor Castle, from York Minster to Stonehenge, from Liverpool to Bath and many, many more places besides. 

Wherever you choose to go with a Blue Badge Tourist Guide, their insider know-how ensures you will have a memorable visit. In London, Blue Badge guides have special guiding privileges at the Tower of London, St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey.

All Blue Badge Tourist Guides have undergone lengthy training courses accredited by the Institute of Tourist Guiding and are required to pass demanding exams to be awarded the much-acclaimed Blue Badge.

Guides ensure their tours are compliant with the most up-to-date government guidelines and regulations on social distancing and COVID-19 safety. Faced with travel restrictions, many enterprising guides have also turned to offering inspiring virtual tours. 

Says the Institute of Tourist Guiding's Joint President Carole Hiley: “The past year has reminded everyone of the many delights the UK has to offer, and what better way to explore them than in the company of an expert guide, who can bring your chosen experience to life? Blue Badge Tourist Guides are highly skilled at adapting their tours to their clients and can tailor-make one that's perfect for your area of interest. A professionally guided tour is a great way to keep families entertained too; the Blue Badge Tourist Guide not only does all the hard work (leaving parents free to relax) but can also adapt the itinerary to the age range and attention span of the group”.

Blue Badge Tourist Guides are not just perfect for UK residents, enabling us all to discover more about our own great nation, but also for visitors from overseas. Between them, the guides speak some 42 languages fluently, including sign language.

Looking for a thoughtful gift? Blue Badge Tourist Guide Vouchers are priced at £185 for a half-day private tour (up to four hours, morning or afternoon) and £295 for a full-day tour (up to nine hours), spent exploring Britain's fascinating heritage. Prices are per group, so a tour can work out as a great-value option per head with families or groups of friends taking a tour together. For more details visit www.britainsbestguides.org/voucher.

The Institute of Tourist Guiding is committed to developing, maintaining and promoting professional standards in tourist guiding. As well as Blue Badge Tourist Guides, who specialise in regions, it represents professionally qualified Green Badge Tourist Guides who are qualified to take tours in specific towns and cities, and White Badge Tourist Guides who work at heritage sites.

Media and publications interested in commissioning or sampling the exemplary Blue Badge Tourist Guiding service for themselves, in return for an article (print and/or online, with photography, of a pre-agreed length, to be published in 2021) should contact Travel PR to make arrangements.

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Press:  For more information or to arrange a tour with a Blue Badge Tourist Guide at a location to suit you, in return for a commissioned article, please contact Karen Carpenter (k.carpenter@travelpr.co.uk; 07879 458 482) or Sue Ockwell (s.ockwell@travelpr.co.uk; 07831 126 356) at Travel PR.