Private Guides and the Acropolis
 

Looking through this forum, many people hire taxi drivers (George, Spiros etc.) as their private guides. Does anyone have experience with them as guides at the Acropolis and National Archaeological Museum in Athens? Do they walk with you and provide guide services or do they just take you there?

Generally, I do not think the taxi drivers provide guide services within the archaeological sites or museums.

We hired a taxi driver to take us on a tour to Delphi. He provided commentary on things of interest on our tour route, but with the exception of the museum at Thebes, we were on our own at the actual sites and museums. At the museum at Thebes, our driver only popped in to specifically show us a few things, then left us to look around at our leisure.

At the entrance to the Acropolis there are guides that will approach you and take you on a private tour if you want.

I think those taxi drivers are basically used to see/get to sites outside of Athens (like Delphi as chepar noted or Cape Sounion). The Acropolis is right in the Plaka and no taxi is required to get around to the museum either (bus/metro etc). I would think a professional tour guide at each site would be cheaper and more well informed....just a thought.

From my experience with Greek taxi drivers, I wouldn't waste a brass farthing trusting them as guides to serious archaeological sites. Without exception, their knowledge of even the most rudimentary facts of classical Greek history is appalling.

There are professional guides, as chepar says, at the entrance to the Acropolis. Use them, or just buy a proper guide book, like the Blue Guide.

Would you expect a New York cabbie to know even the one-sided Americocentric propaganda taught in US schools about Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury? Why would you imagine an Athenian driver would be less ignorant of his country's history?

Isn't it a double edged sword - we who are priviledged enough to sightsee the world and yet but then criticize that it wasn't all that WE wanted it to be . . . Thank God we are even able to see the world He created! Come on, folks, we, the travelers, . are priviledged . . . stop complaining that the world doesn't fit into our little minds and just "experience" the adventure of it all. . . .

sorry - you lost me, suellen.

Sorry, I didn't intend to be overly sensitive to this particular subject . . . it's just that after reading a lot of people's expectations unmet, travel is diminished into that, unmet expections instead of new experiences without expectations . . .

My friend and I hired a private guide at the Acropolis. It was about $10 a person, but that was about five years ago. She approached us after we bought our entrance tickets. It turned out great. She spoke excellent English, walked at our pace, and gave commentary for an hour (I think it was an hour). We were very pleased.