The Acropolis

My own opinion: save your money. You don't need a tour guide. Just bring a good guidebook such as RS's and you'll be fine on your own. The site isn't all that large. Use your money to buy a nice Greek salad at one of the outdoor cafes as you walk down the hill.

We have used guides from the local TI and were pleased with them. The fee was reasonable.

Agree with Tom. You don't really need one. You can get the main info out of Steves' book on Greece.

I disagree that you can equate a tour book description to a live guide. While you can get basic info from the guide book, it will not answer questions or provide special insights that just cannot be covered by the printed word. We find that a live guide adds a lot. When you consider how much you spent to get there, my bulk at spending an extra 20E for a memorable tour.

There are local guides. They meet you at the entrance where you buy your tickets. They are a little more organized than it sounds. Some of them (perhaps all of them) are certified to be guides. When you arrive, just ask the prices. You may be able to ask someone who is departing who they used and if they were happy with the service.

My boyfriend and I used a tour guide for a private tour (just the 2 of us) that we found outside the Acropolis Walls, there were many of them there. We really enjoyed her information, English was great, and to be honest, the best part was that she was able to take lots of pictures of the 2 of us together. HOWEVER, when it was time to pay her at the end, there seemed to be a discrepancy regarding the price. We thought she originally said 7 Euro for an hour which was the only reason we agreed to use her in the first place as we are not tour/guide people. We thought to ourselves that was almost too good to be true, and of course it was because at the end she was asking for 70. Now, we are not sure if we just misheard her or what, and paid her the 70 regardless so as not to cause any trouble, but it was definitely NOT worth almost $100. I don't know if this is some kind of common scam, but just make sure the price is very clear beforehand. Max I would have paid for one hour with her (for 2 people) would be about 20 Euro.

There is a lot of half-right information here. Yes, a guide can make it more meaningful, if you have NO background at all. However if you want to D-I-Y, the Rick book is VERY good and step-by-step. If you use it, Pull that section out easier to read as u proceed. I've taken people along to GReece with me on 10 trips, and Rick's is now the basic DIY I give them. It's most useful if you also study it ahead, not read it for the first time on the site. ALSO, Rick has an AUDIO guide you can download free if you have a smart-phone or tablet etc. Yes, there may be licensed guides at the gate but the trouble is, you can't count on it. Most times I've been there, there were none around. If you get one, who is "collecting" a group on the spot, and 3-4 others sign up, then your cost may be lower. But Jenessa, your guide was NOT a scam. Only licensed guides are permitted to guide you in Greek sites and museums. Licensing requires 2+years of full-time study of art,architecture, history etc etc and passing a Stiff Exam. The most well-regarded group tour (up to 18 people) athenswalkingtours.com charges €36 for a 3.5 hr visit to Acropolis & surrounding area. Context Tours for same (limited to 6) charges €70 per person or €330 per grp. Others may charge even more. You get what you pay for.

For more price-comparison, this is an excellent link to private tour-guides http://tourguides.viator.com/Listing.aspx?Country=Greece&Region=Attiki&City=Athens Has individual profiles of each (many are expats from UK/US), descriptions of background, rave reviews and typical tours. When you click 'complete profile' you find that most charge about €60 - €70 per hour for up to 6 people... so for a group, that seems quite a buy. However, they usually have a minimum of 3 or 4 hours, usually the latter. So ... no scams, Jenessa, just the going rate, for people who have to make a living after all.