To all Certification Training Participants – Go and Explore – Visit as many regional natural and cultural attractions as possible!
This list below is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but it’s a good start. Visiting these locations will support and enrich your knowledge and understanding, and we encourage all local guides to visit as many of these locations as possible.
Let us know what you think should be added to the list, as well as what your favorites are and what you learned in each location.
CPTG Assignment: Choose to EITHER: 1) create a tour outline for a destination or 2) write a review with relevant tour guide details for a location or attraction. Anytime prior to testing, submit your work via a post on the class Facebook page or via email to the class leaders. This assignment is worth 5% of your final exam grade.
If you choose to do 1) a destination outline, see this outline of a tour to the Valley of Fire (a circular route via Overton) as an example of what we’re looking for: Tour Outline Example, Valley of Fire. It is fine if you chose a walking tour location such as a portion of the Strip or downtown for your outline. You can keep it as a basic outline as per the example (which is intended to provide a quick study and also a place for your notes), but it’s also fine if you include things based on your experience, observations, and research, or discuss how you would guide for this destination.
If you choose to do 2) review a Location or Attraction, then your assignment needs to include observations of practical tour guide information, ie, layout of stops, entrance procedures, group procedures, coach staging and parking areas, restroom locations, hours of operation, distances, timings, etc.
If you are new to guiding in and around Las Vegas, we encourage you to choose locations that all guides should know (ie. Strip, Downtown, Hoover Dam, Red Rock). If you are more experienced locally, we encourage you to visit locations you wish and/or may guide to but are not yet familiar with. These assignments will enrich your local knowledge and hone your practical tour guide skills.
DESTINATIONS:
The Strip (and individual properties, know present and past)
Downtown Las Vegas (individual properties, present and past, DTP, Symphony Park, Arts District)
Hoover Dam and Boulder City
Red Rock Canyon and Visitor Center
Valley of Fire State Park and Visitors Center (can not chose tour outline!)
Grand Canyon – West Rim
Grand Canyon NP – South Rim
Death Valley NP
Zion NP
Bryce Canyon NP
Lake Mead NRA (marinas on lake and river, Eldorado Canyon)
Horseshoe Bend
Lake Powell
Monument Valley
ET Hwy/Area 51
Los Angeles (enroute)
Los Angeles (on day tour from Vegas)
Other – for CPTG assignment, “Your Selection”
SPECIFIC LOCATIONS/ATTRACTIONS:
The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Sign
Specific properties on the Strip or Downtown
Hoover Dam
Downtown / Fremont Street Experience / Fremont East
Mob Museum
Symphony Park: Smith Center & Lou Ruvo Institute for Brain Health
Zappos and the DTP
Neon Museum
Nevada State Museum
Las Vegas Springs Preserve
Atomic Testing Museum
Clark County Museum
Natural History Museum
Spring Mountain Ranch State Park
Mormon Fort
Lost City Museum
Mt. Charleston / Spring Mountains Visitor Gateway, Visitor Center
Floyd Lamb State Park and Tule Springs
Rhyolite and other Mining Ghost Towns, large and small
The mountains in all directions (compare/contrast/notable information and sights)
Your choice ___________________________