The practice of guiding, as a profession, is not to be overlooked or underappreciated. Guiding is a skill, an often academically-accredited qualification that elevates a destination’s capability to showcase attractions and other areas from baseline to beyond expectation. Read more on this in the article "Tour guides: Noticing or Knowing" on eTurboNews.

Tour guide in Mexico

Armed gunmen ambushed 22 Carnival cruise ship passengers on a tour of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico last week - WFAA.com reported.

This is terrible news for the travelling public, the shipping company, and all the people in Mexico who depend on tourism for their livelihoods.

I’ve been doing private and scheduled shore excursions in Iceland since 1988 and to think that something like this could happen in my country makes me shiver. So far, so good in Iceland – a country where police does not carry guns and women leave their children sleeping in the baby pram outside grocery stores while they shop.

My thoughts are with the tourist guide who’ll remember this incidence for the rest of his/her life.

Great northern lights in Iceland

The northern lights gave a good show last night, according to an Iceland tour guide colleague who searched for the northern lights last night. "They gave a good show for 20 minutes. I'd give it 6.5 on the scale of 10," he said.

For the past few months we've struggled to see good lights in Iceland, mostly due to the cloud cover, but also due to lack of activity. In December 2012 for example we had many snow days. Needless to say, when it snows it is cloudy which means they block the view.

The near future though looks very promising as far as northern light displays are concerned.

Reykjavik Bike Tours offers private northern lights tours in winter.