☆Let’s Think
Compare the benefits and possible downsides of the two choices in
the question in terms of safety, convenience, flexibility, freedom, costs, and
others.
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Safety & Security |
Freedom & Flexibility |
Convenience & Efficiency |
Interaction w/ Others |
Costs |
Others |
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Guided Tour |
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|
Self-Guided Tour |
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☆Hints for Points
To go on trips organized by
a travel agency with a guide
1. Inexpensive: Group
discounts make it less expensive than a self-planned tour despite the guide fee.
2. Safer: It protects tourists
from potential dangers like injury, theft, robbery, etc.
3. Efficient: The travel
agency does the arrangements and booking and the guide knows everything necessary
for entertainment and learning.
To plan your own trip and
explore without a guide
1. Free
and flexible: Planning is at the discretion of the traveler and decisions can
be impromptu.
2. More
interaction with the locals: Absence of a guide facilitates closer interaction
with the people in the destination.
3. Free
from commercialism: You can contact places and things that are not set aside
exclusively for tourists, such as a local market place or a community event.
☆Essay for Ideas and Expressions
The traveler in one of Dave
Mason’s beautiful songs, Mystic Traveler,
would not join a guided group tour because the lyrics goes “He is an unraveler”,
which connotes to anti-establishment. The song is said to be about Jesus Christ probably
because of the title and such phrase as “when he takes your heart, you are not
alone”, but it also seems to me to hint that there is some deep experience that
we expect in traveling. Whether this traveler is Jesus or Jack in the street, he is not a
consumer but the stranger and outsider, and the interaction with him reveals
the secret of life and merges the souls of those involved with him in love and eternity,
which few in guided group tours would experience. A guided tour may well be a
best, but may not be the best.
Traveling is an action driven
by various reasons. We may travel to find something new: a new land, a new
friend, or a new self. We may travel to see the world, to visit the places of
our ancestors, or to challenge ourselves. We might also travel for fun. However,
the word “travel” seems to connote an action driven by a dire need for
something essential in our inner life. Depending on the need, we choose the
best form of traveling that fits the need. Those who want to see the world may explore
by and for themselves so that they can directly have a feel of the place they
are visiting. Friends who travel for bonding may choose a guided tour with the
itinerary arranged by the agency to maximize the time to enjoy themselves, while
a group of insect collectors may be disappointed if they are taken to a famous café
in downtown Paris instead of being left free to go into the forest nearby to
observe indigenous critters. Traveling means much more than merely taking a sightseeing
tour. A traveler is an explorer of reality, seeking meaningful interactions
with people or nature outside the person’s daily life. For this matter, a self-guided
tour seems to be the most natural because a guided tour is an extension of
daily life.
A guided tour is a
commercial attraction which is a win-win product between the tour industry and
busy workers in the developed world. Tourists who want to enjoy themselves away
from home and work, experience something exotic, and make some good memories
choose a guided tour for convenience and safety, and they usually go in a group
because of the spirit of the saying, “The more, the merrier.” The tourism
follows the rule of the economy of scale. Booking for transportation,
accommodation, and attractions such as local theaters and restaurants in large
numbers lowers the costs. The tour guide entertains the tourists and safely takes
them back home. It is probably the most popular style of traveling as a leisure
activity, although it is not certain that people find it the best way to travel
because it hardly ever provides more than it promises like other mass products.
Perhaps I might be too
romantic, believing that people want more than a package tour out of traveling,
believing that they want some special experience on their own. However, DIY travels
are in fact very popular around the world. My home country Japan is not an
exception. Excerpts from a classic travelogue written in the medieval Japan, “Oku
no Hosomichi, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, are in junior-high
textbooks. In 1962, Makoto Oda, a Japanese student from the University of
Tokyo, who was then at Harvard, traveled around the world alone with only a
return airline ticket and 200 dollars. After the journey, he wrote a
travelogue, Nandemo Miteyaro, I’ll Go
and See Everything, which became the bestseller in Japan. Now, many people
around the world travel without a guide. Travel agencies have started providing
customized tours to meet the needs of both experienced travelers who are fed up
with package tours and people who are from the beginning interested in specific
destinations which happen to be out of the tourism network. Thus, a guided tour
is not the best choice for many.
The word travel encompasses
a broad range of activities related, either directly or indirectly, to our
existence, while a guided tour is just another form of consumption. The best
way to travel efficiently as a leisure activity is to join a tour led by a guide.
However, the best way to travel varies depending on what the traveler is in
search of, and I believe we all want to be a mystic traveler deep in our heart
when we say, “I’ve got to hit the road.”
☆Sample Responses
Sample 1
【Thesis】A guided tour is usually conducted in
a group, and I find it better than traveling individually without a guide
because a guided group tour is inexpensive and guarantees safety and
satisfaction.
【Supporting Details】It allows us to visit popular
sightseeing spots with group-discount rates that are at least 20% off for a
score of tourists. The guide’s recommendation and lecture help the tourists to
make the most out of the money they paid for the tour. A comparison between a
school trip and an individual family trip would clearly show how much more
effective and efficient a guided group tour is.
【Counterargument-treatment】An obvious downside is the lack of
freedom, but it is necessary for most travelers to avoid a disaster. A visit to
an unfamiliar place tends to cause problems such as disorientation, loss of
belongings, and involvement in crimes. To avoid such disasters, an organized
tour is offered by the industry. Also, a group tour offers options not to join guided
tours, so it is more flexible and freer than you think it is.
【Conclusion】Considering risks and disadvantages associated with
traveling without a guide, I do not have much problem in saying that a guided tour
is a better way to travel. (202 words)
Sample 2
【Thesis】Joining a tour with a guide may not be the better than traveling on your
own depending on the goal of the trip.
【What is Traveling?】Traveling is an action driven by various reasons from curiosity to new
places and peoples to testing oneself to a way of soul-searching.
【Group Tour with Guide】A guided group tour is an attraction which is a win-win product between the
tour industry and the busy workers in the developed world. Safe and well-organized
tours offered with reasonable charges based on economy of scale meets the
demand of novice travelers who want to make the best of what they can pay for
their leisure time they secure in their tight schedules in this commercialized
world.
【Solo Tour】On the other hand, taking a self-guided trip has been in fact very
popular since ancient times. The popularity seems to be related to our primal
urge to go beyond our comfort zone and go through experiences that will
connects us with the world.
【Conclusion】Thus, fulfillment a solo travel can give you is better in quality than
what a guided group tour can. (172
words)
Write
your draft on this topic. Give feedback to other people’s drafts, asking
questions and making suggestions.
