If you really want to learn what happens on the streets of a city, you’re best off talking to someone who’s lived there. In the Dutch city of Utrecht, five people are about to become tour guides … five people who used to be homeless. Their training from the tourism bureau will help them with the more formal aspects of their duties, but it’s the time they lived in the streets that will make their perspectives interesting.
The tours, called “Utrecht Underground,” will begin on September 13, 2009. They’ll be 75 minutes long and cost a mere €5. In addition to the usual sights of the city, guests will get to see where their guides “used to sleep or do drugs.”