(05-29-2013 06:39 AM)Mango444 Wrote: Holiday Reps
If anyone is from the states you need to let me know if this job is something that exists there. But basically a holiday rep is the person that meets guests at the airport when they arrive on holiday and who looks after them all week taking them on bar crawls and shit like that. You have to make sure you work for a youth brand company otherwise you will be stuck looking after families for the whole season.
I only have advice for guys in the UK or with a European passport, so below are the best companies to apply to,
2wenties
Club 18 30
Escapades
These guys are sleeping with about 50 – 90 women over a summer season absolutely mental and having an awesome time living in cool places around the med.
Tour Guide
I’m thinking about companies such as contiki and topdeck but there will be more out there where the guides I met have a fucking awesome lifestyle traveling from country to country, partying with hot chicks and drinking the night away.
I would be interested to know if there are any cool jobs around the Caribbean or in the states or anywhere in the world that people know of with the same type of lifestyle, particularly if anyone has worked in the roles below
On a cruise ship
I've done both from what you listed above, and got a handful of friends who worked on cruise ships.
First, to be a rep/guide in Europe you need to get a license done. It means anything between 7-12 months of training, every weekend occupied. It ends with the exam, that at least in Poland would have a passing rate not exceeding 40%. The rest just lost their time and money, and could only retake the exam twice. I managed to pass with second approach btw.
Being a holiday rep/tourguide is not as fun as many think. Going cool places, socialize with tourists in the evenings, banging hot chicks almost every night... Thats what most young horny guys think its all about.
I worked in Turkey with young to mid age crowd (say 16-45), being a rep and in Alanya/Antalya region, as well as guiding tours around Turkey.
First, the job itself is simply exhausting. Once a week you get a transfer day, when I worked on the average 19-22 hours non-stop. The rest was routine, visiting several hotels guests were accomodated in, helping them solve issues like breakfast wasn't what I expected it to be/my room doesn't have a sea view, but the package seller said it will have/ where can I find the channel in polish language. Etc. There was no such thing as time off, the shifts were usually 10-12 hrs long. And going to the pool with tourists if you still had some energy left wasn't encouraged by the management, not to mention to be found leaving/entering the room in the night. Imagine some not-so-open-minded man/woman filled in the complaint about the rep. Game over.
The round trips were a pure nightmare. 3000 km covered in 6 days, all the cultural activities that were placed within a week.. Even tourists needed a "week off" on the beach, getting rest after that experience.
I didn't even feel like going for Shisha in the evenings, not to mention game any girls.
But I decided that I might have chosen a wrong company then, so gave it one more try.
Went with the company who was exclusively doing ski escapes to some of the best regions in France. Students only, sweet place - les 3 vallees, the quality of girls was more than good. And I received a skipass, which meant that during the day I could ski as much as I wanted.
I was expecting that to be a sweet escape, altough the money was next to none.
My only obligation was to guide the bus to the France, accomodate the group, make sure everyone gets a skipass, and take general care of them during the week.
The former was simply a nightmare.
Guess what was happening almost every day? Someone would break the leg on the slope, which meant that person needed an assistance to get to the hospital, to stay there, do some translations, dealing with insurance company, and hopefully come back before the next day.
All over and over again. And when there was a day when nobody broke nothing, you could still expect a call at 3 am (One of our folks was drunk after disco, and got into the fight with some local person, can you come and sort it out?)
And it would keep going.
In terms of working on the cruise. You are basically a slave there. Something like a limited working time exists for just a few. The rest is on duty 24 hours a day. And the lines sign contracts for at least 4 months.
Some of my fellow travellers were treating that as a way to save money, but I would never, never ever treat it in categories of playboys' lifestyle.
My point, maybe there are some dream jobs in life, but most of them look good just on paper.