Laughing at yourself might be the most underrated travel skill going. That's the takeaway from a round-up of stories by Intrepid Travel's local tour leaders, who reveal how humour has rescued everything from first-day nerves to traffic standstills on their small-group trips.
Take Alex Gilisho, a 25-year-old leader raised in Kenya's Maasai Mara who guides trips in Kenya and Tanzania. His icebreaker is the tale of his first-ever flight, from Zanzibar to Nairobi, which he took dressed in full Maasai attire — machete included. Security had questions. He eventually flew, though the machete had to go in checked luggage. Once a group has heard that story, nobody panics about misplacing their gate or their liquids. He's also candid about safari logistics: when nature calls inside a national park, you can't leave the vehicle, so groups learn to improvise what he calls 'bushy bushy' — a phrase that apparently makes everyone relax about alfresco toilet arrangements.
Michael Atallah, an Egypt leader based in Giza, got a humbling lesson when his group spotted an ice rink in Cairo. He'd never skated, but his travellers insisted, bought him a ticket and ended up walking him around the rink by both arms. Once everyone had seen their guide flailing like a newborn gazelle, trying something new themselves seemed easy.
Humour also defuses genuine problems. Cambodian leader Chanchesda Por was guiding from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh during the King's Birthday holiday when the bus hit severe traffic. With guests tired and frustrated, she announced they weren't lost — just enjoying extra time with the same view — and quipped that Cambodian traffic is like a meditation session, minus the meditating cars. The jam didn't clear any faster, but the mood turned around: guests started chatting and taking photos instead of stewing.
Then there's Saygu Sezen, a 38-year-old Turkish guide and Intrepid's 'Leader of the Year', who improvised voiceovers for a group of chickens he spotted wandering through a Perth family's bedroom on a home-security camera — complete with the heartbreaking punchline that the owners had 'left us for a turkey'. His summary of why any of this matters: guests rarely remember the exact date a monument was built, but they always remember laughing together in front of it.
Why should travellers care? Because these stories capture what small-group touring is actually good at. A guide who can laugh at themselves sets the tone for a whole trip — it loosens nervous first-timers, smooths over delays and breakdowns, and turns awkward moments (the bathroom mishaps, the botched local customs, the wobbly first attempts at anything) into the memories you actually retell. If you're deciding between touring solo or with a group, the human factor is a bigger deal than brochures suggest.
Intrepid Travel Blog
