To become an adventure tour guide, you must first determine which activities you are qualified to lead, or which activities you are willing to learn well enough to safely guide others through. When making this decision, think about your current interests and skills, as they will have a big impact on how you become an adventure tour guide. Regardless of the type of tour guide you want to be, you’ll need to learn CPR and first aid, and you may also need to take a wilderness first responder course.
A wilderness first responder course is a set of classroom and field classes that will prepare you to work as an adventure tour guide teaching you the skills required to perform backcountry medicine. This means you’ll be ready to treat minor to moderate wounds, transport patients, and deal with backcountry mishaps that are bound to happen during your adventure tour guide career. If you decide to work as a guide for a specific adventure company, you may be required to meet additional requirements before being considered for a position.
It’s likely that you’ll need to learn as much as you can about the specific activity you’ll be guiding. Mountain bike guides, for example, will need to not only have exceptional riding skills that they can pass on to tour participants, but they will also need to know how to repair and maintain bicycles. Climbing guides must have a thorough understanding of climbing techniques, as well as anchor placement and safety techniques such as belaying. Take classes or workshops to help you develop the skills you’ll need to become an adventure tour guide in your area, if necessary.
Tour guides will almost certainly need to know a lot about the wilderness or other habitat where the tour will take place. This is necessary not only for tour guests’ education and entertainment, but also for their safety: a guide working in the desert, for example, will need to have a working knowledge of plants and animals in order to educate tour guests as well as to help guests avoid plants and animals that can harm them. Throughout the trip, the guide will need to pay special attention to keeping himself and his passengers properly hydrated.