What is a Guide?

A tour guide takes visitors on guided tours at historical or culturally relevant sites that are unfamiliar to them. Guides share interesting information and entertaining insight into the places to provide tourists with a more in-depth experience. Following the lead of a tour guide in a foreign place usually guarantees that you will not get lost, and you will find the best spot to see and have a great meal, or a fun night out.

Guides sometimes obtain vocational training in travel or tourism, but they are not required to have a degree to hold this position. Language skills are great to have, and experience in the service industry, such as hotels or travel trades, can also be useful.

You will be walking around a lot as a guide, so make sure you are at least more fit than the average tourist if you take on this job. You should not shy away from speaking in public. Unless you advertise yourself as a Zen guide, you will be expected to keep the info and fun titbits coming all day long.

What Does a Guide Do

There are certain skills that many guides have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed customer-service skills, detail oriented and physical stamina.

Learn more about what a Guide does

How To Become a Guide

If you're interested in becoming a guide, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 61.0% of guides have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 7.6% of guides have master's degrees. Even though most guides have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Guide

Top Guide Jobs Near You

Guide Career Paths

In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of instructor you might progress to a role such as consultant eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title senior project manager.

Average Salary for a Guide

Guides in America make an average salary of $34,479 per year or $17 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $68,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $17,000 per year.

Average Guide Salary

$34,479 Yearly

$16.58 hourly

$17,00010%

$34,000Median

$68,00090%

See More Salary Information

What Am I Worth?

Roles and Types of Guide

The role of a guide includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general guide responsibilities:

Set-up and clean-up equipment needed for educational programs lead science-based, field-oriented, outdoor educational programs work as part of a team of environmental educators to accomplish education objectives effectively communicating program content in an appropriate
Responsible for booking owners and guests staying on property both by phone
Demonstrate strong customer service skills. Assist desk staff with check in process, waivers

There are several types of guide, including:

Tour Guide

Role:

Average Salary: $32,323
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Overview How To Become Job Description Jobs

Escort

Role:

The responsibility of an escort is to guard individuals or people on sightseeing and tours through places of interest such as art galleries, public buildings, and industrial establishments. You are to describe your points of interest to group members and also respond to their questions. For every place of interest, there are laws to be obeyed. Therefore, you must ensure your visitors abide by the establishment or tour regulations and safety practices. To entice your visitors, you will greet, register visitors, and also issue any necessary identification badges for safety and identity.

Additionally, you are to distribute brochures on every place of interest, show audiovisual presentations, and explain establishment operations and processes at your sites. You are also expected to provide directions and other important information to visitors. Other responsibilities include ensuring safety by providing first aid, directing emergency evacuation, and providing information about wildlife and their habitat to avoid unnecessary situations.

As an escort, you must put your visitor's safety first. The basic skills of an escort are excellent communication skills, passion for traveling, creative thinking, and the ability to respond to emergencies quickly. The average salary of an escort is $29,000 yearly. Escorts must have a bachelor's degree in Communication, Criminal Justice, or other related fields.

Average Salary: $29,252
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Overview How To Become Job Description Jobs

States With The Most Guide Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active guide jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where guides earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Guide Jobs By State

Rank	State	Number of Jobs	Average Salary
1	California	94	$40,307
2	Florida	42	$32,341
3	Nebraska	29	$31,985
4	Ohio	25	$39,970
5	Texas	25	$36,160
6	Alaska	22	$41,325
7	Colorado	22	$35,068
8	New York	21	$36,936
9	Virginia	20	$38,601
10	Massachusetts	18	$32,337
11	Illinois	17	$31,686
12	Georgia	15	$38,002
13	Washington	14	$40,788
14	Pennsylvania	14	$37,970
15	Oregon	13	$40,724
16	Michigan	13	$31,283
17	North Carolina	12	$35,942
18	Montana	11	$31,525
19	Arizona	10	$32,707
20	Tennessee	10	$30,999
21	Indiana	9	$39,873
22	Missouri	9	$32,737
23	Minnesota	9	$28,561
24	Connecticut	7	$41,165
25	Utah	7	$32,751
26	Maine	6	$34,652
27	Delaware	6	$30,524
28	Arkansas	5	$33,878
29	Maryland	5	$32,982
30	Nevada	4	$32,343
31	Alabama	4	$31,247
32	Wisconsin	3	$39,188
33	Hawaii	3	$35,628
34	Oklahoma	3	$32,963
35	New Jersey	3	$33,519
36	South Carolina	3	$31,240
37	Kansas	2	$38,676
38	Vermont	2	$37,732
39	Wyoming	2	$33,774
40	West Virginia	2	$32,812
41	New Hampshire	1	$39,419
42	Mississippi	1	$32,615
43	Rhode Island	1	$30,320
44	Iowa	0	$38,576
45	Idaho	0	$37,794
46	New Mexico	0	$35,351
47	Kentucky	0	$32,613
48	North Dakota	0	$32,352
49	South Dakota	0	$30,826
50	Louisiana	0	$31,240

Guide Education

Guide Majors

Business

16.2 %

Psychology

10.3 %

Communication

7.0 %

Guide Degrees

Bachelors

61.0 %

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 25.8% of guides listed brand awareness on their resume, but soft skills such as customer-service skills and detail oriented are important as well.

Brand Awareness, 25.8%

Product Knowledge, 12.3%

Safety Rules, 11.6%

Customer Service, 8.1%

Safety Procedures, 4.9%

Other Skills, 37.3%

Choose From 10+ Customizable Guide Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Guide templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Guide resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

Guide diversity

Guide Gender Distribution

Female

51%

Male

49%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

Among guides, 50.7% of them are women, while 49.3% are men.

The most common race/ethnicity among guides is White, which makes up 67.3% of all guides.

The most common foreign language among guides is Spanish at 50.1%.

Online Courses For Guide That You May Like

Advertising Disclosure

1. Patient Safety

Preventable patient harms, including medical errors and healthcare-associated complications, are a global public health threat. Moreover, patients frequently do not receive treatments and interventions known to improve their outcomes. These shortcomings typically result not from individual clinicians’ mistakes, but from systemic problems -- communication breakdowns, poor teamwork, and poorly designed care processes, to name a few.\n\nThe Patient Safety & Quality Leadership Specialization covers...

2. Fire Safety: Become A Fire Safety Expert

4.5

(291)

Become an expert in Fire Safety, Fire Hazards Control, Fire Evacuation Plans, and Fire Risk Assessment...

3. Fire Safety and Prevention Planning

4.2

(1,217)

Become an expert in understanding "Fire Safety" and "Prevention Planning" for your workplaces and organizations...

Show More Online Courses For Guide

Job type you want

Full Time

Part Time

Internship

Temporary

Best States For a Guide

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a guide. The best states for people in this position are Alaska, Connecticut, Washington, and Oregon. Guides make the most in Alaska with an average salary of $41,325. Whereas in Connecticut and Washington, they would average $41,165 and $40,788, respectively. While guides would only make an average of $40,724 in Oregon, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. Alaska

Total Guide Jobs: 22

Highest 10% Earn:

$65,000

Location Quotient:

13.76

$41,325

Avg. Salary

View 22 Guide Jobs In AK

2. Ohio

Total Guide Jobs: 25

Highest 10% Earn:

$79,000

Location Quotient:

1.28

$39,970

Avg. Salary

View 25 Guide Jobs In OH

3. Oregon

Total Guide Jobs: 13

Highest 10% Earn:

$67,000

Location Quotient:

1.64

$40,724

Avg. Salary

View 13 Guide Jobs In OR

Full List Of Best States For Guides

How Do Guides Rate Their Jobs?

Top Guide Employers

We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ guides and discovered their number of guide opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Eastern Mountain Sports was the best, especially with an average salary of $33,596. Salesforce follows up with an average salary of $59,862, and then comes Eddie Bauer with an average of $27,391. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a guide. The employers include Humana, Gamerant, and Mindbloom

Most Common Employers For Guide

Rank	Company	Average Salary	Hourly Rate	Job Openings
1	Bonobos	$66,514	$31.98	27
2	Salesforce	$59,862	$28.78	52
3	National Park Foundation	$47,067	$22.63	19
4	Flagger Force	$37,086	$17.83	12
5	Sonic Automotive	$37,045	$17.81	15
6	Grove Collaborative	$36,655	$17.62	11
7	The Escape Game	$36,640	$17.62	17
8	Origin	$36,509	$17.55	9
9	The Program	$36,365	$17.48	4
10	See Jane Run	$36,099	$17.36	4

Guide Videos

Robert Half 2014 Finance and Accounting Salary Guide - extended

Kerbal Space Program - Career Mode Guide For Beginners - Part 8

WATCH THIS IF YOU WANT TO BECOME A WEB DEVELOPER! - Web Development Career advice

Updated April 6, 2023

What is a Guide?

What Does a Guide Do

How To Become a Guide

Guide Career Paths

Average Salary for a Guide

Roles and Types of Guide

Tour Guide

Role:

Escort

Role:

States With The Most Guide Jobs

Number Of Guide Jobs By State

Guide Education

Guide Majors

Guide Degrees

Top Colleges for Guides

1. Stanford University

2. University of Pennsylvania

3. University of Southern California

4. Boston University

5. New York University

6. George Washington University, The

7. Pennsylvania State University

8. Harvard University

9. Yale University

10. Cornell University

Top Skills For a Guide

Choose From 10+ Customizable Guide Resume templates

Guide diversity

Guide Gender Distribution

Online Courses For Guide That You May Like

Best States For a Guide

How Do Guides Rate Their Jobs?

Top Guide Employers

Most Common Employers For Guide

Guide Videos

Guide Related Careers

Guide Related Jobs

What Similar Roles Do

Resume For Related Jobs