Will Stricklin

Review of Hemingway House

WORST TOUR GUIDE EVER!!! Our tour guide Alisa tol...

WORST TOUR GUIDE EVER!!! Our tour guide Alisa told us to go inside and wait, the tour would begin in a few minutes. Now one would think, a few minutes, thats like 3-5, maybe 10 minutes, not with this lady, that means 20-30 min. It was enough time to completely walk through the house, read all the placards and find ourselves back in the original room. Most of the people waiting on the tour ended up leaving and going off on their own.

By the time the tour started, we might have had between 20-25 people. Alisa gave us her spiel about recording her, "I don't want to be a youtube star", or talking while she is talking. When we got to the dining room, she attempted to make a joke, no one laughed. She repeated it, motioning to the group that she wanted a reaction, where most of the group managed to force out a chuckle. A young girl with a family from Argentina, (mom and dad spoke fluent english), in a very low whisper asked her mom "why was everyone laughing". The little girl who didn't understand the poorly orchestrated joke nor the subsequent forced response from the crowd, simply wanted to know the story being told and was in NO WAY distracting the group. Instead of the grown woman leading the tour simply talking over this young girl and continuing, she stopped, rudely kept looking at her watch as if to time out the non-existent distraction and finally asked the family to leave the group, citing that it was distracting her from doing her job. Once the family had left, she started the entire room speech over again, expecting us to laugh at her horrible jokes...again.

By the time the tour ended at the back of the house just above the stairs to the basement, we had only about 7-10 people in the group. Even now, at the end of the tour, she scolded a woman holding her phone to her chest in fear she was being recored. Alisa, if you are reading this, the only reason anyone would want to record you it to show how rude and obnoxious your are. This is where she preceded to tell us how great of a job she had done and that we should tip her, yea, not happening.

What makes this a bad situation is not that she asked a bothersome tourist to leave, that would be understandable. She asked a family from another country with small children, who were 100% not being a distraction to leave. If what she said was true, and this place is in fact a national historical landmark, then she as a staff member should be an ambassador of our country to foreigners coming here to sample the history of the greatest country on earth. A well trained, seasoned tour guide would and could guide a group and not let the soft tones of a small child hinder them from doing their job. Instead, she came off as the over sun tanned, drunk American looking to make enough scratch in tips to run and buy the next bottle of booze while she passes out on a bench by the martello. Volunteer or paid employee, there is no excuse for her behavior. Luckily we caught up with the Argentinian family, ensured them that not all Americans are like this and found out they had received a refund. The house and grounds are beautiful, the cats are cool and the gift shop staff are super nice. The tour guide experience really soured it though. Maybe just get another tour guide and avoid Alisa.