Essay topics: TPO-16 - Independent Writing TaskDo you agree or disagree with the following statement?The best way to travel is in a group led by a tour guide.Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

A significant part of people assumes that traveling within a group which is led by a guide is the best way to travel. Although I could understand the reasons on which the belief is based, I cannot agree on it because of the reasons which will be discussed in details below.

Firstly, a huge part of enjoyment which is connected with traveling goes from submerging in a novel, unknown culture, language, traditions. Traveling with a group ruins this idea because a traveler is surrounded by people who belongs to the same culture and often uses the same language. Additionally to it, a guide of a group strives to create comfortable and convenient surroundings for them; as a result, such tourists acquire distorted experience from the journey.

Secondly, being a part of a group often assumes that people have to move, walk and visit landmarks together like an army regiment. Under such conditions people may feel that their freedom is limited and they cannot do what they really want to. To illustrate the idea, we may imagine that we visit a museum and our guide demonstrates us a masterpiece of Rembrandt. This picture may be so fascinating that a member of the group would like to spend more time looking at it but the group has to move to the next image. The person would definitely feel frustrated and disappointed. In case, a person travels without a group and a leader, one may devote and distribute his time freely.

Finally, traveling on your own is cheaper than participating to a group of tourists because the group guide as well as service of people who designed and organized the trip ought to be paid from money paid for the journey. Additionally to it, guides often have agreements with local stores, restaurants and hotels. A group guide promoted certain places for having dinners, certain stores for buying souvenirs. It needn't say that prices at those places are way above average and the guide gets paid a share of the revenue earned by the promoted places. By contrast, a single tourist may freely choose a cheap or expensive restaurant and buy souvenirs in local markets and as a result save a considerable amount of money.

To wrap up, at the first glance traveling as a part of a touristic group with a guide has some advantages; at the same time, closer look at the proposed idea reveals some disadvantages which dramatically undermine it.