钟琬婷的托福满分作文

By Zhong Wanting

 Traveling has always been one of the most important and popular choices of relaxation. It is always an enlightening and enjoyable experience to visit a new place of interest and explore the captivating landscape. However, the way in which people choose to travel varies. Some people choose to travel in a tourist group with a guide, whilst others prefer to explore a city on their own. 

 In my opinion, it is not a good option to travel in a guided group. May it be a dazzling metropolis, a refreshing seaside town, or the breathtaking wonders of nature, it is a more enjoyable experience to visit a place by yourself. You can always wander off on a less famous but equally fascinating route, which is not usually available in a tour guide’s schedule. You can make excursions to commonplace alleys or hidden caves, which best embody the essence of the charms of local culture, while a tourist group may not normally set its foot upon the place, simply because it is not a well-known tourist attraction. The excitement and wonder of traveling lies in discovering a place in your own explorations, which is something a tourist group can not provide. 

 If you travel by yourself, you can control the time and pace of your journey at ease. You can linger in a place of interest for as long as you like, taking your time to fully appreciate the delights of a certain attraction. However, in a tourist group, the time you spend at any spot is strictly limited. It is always excessively disappointing if you have only caught a fleeting glimpse of a beautiful chapel before been chivvied on along with the other tourists. The guide rushes you on to one destination after another. In the end, you remember only the names of various places, and most of the time you are left with blurred memories. A tourist group trip does not help you fully understand a place of interest. You can only make a journey memorable by traveling alone. 

 Another annoying aspect of traveling with a guided group is the huge number of fellow tourists. In a trip, they are all clustered around a certain object of interest, completely obscuring your view if you lag behind. Unfortunately, it always takes a fierce struggle to wriggle to the front. In addition, the babble of the whole group renders it impossible to hear the guide’s explanations. On the other hand, if you are traveling alone or with some close friends and relatives, you can always keep the experience of travel private to yourself. In this way, traveling has not degraded to a battle to keep ahead; instead, it is truly a way to help you relax and enjoy yourself in a leisurely environment completely void of tension and anxiety. 

 All in all, I do not think that traveling in a tourist group with a guide is the best way to enjoy yourself. I believe it is better to journey alone or with a tight knot of friends, which reveals the true nature of travel----to fully relax in a foreign place of interest.

   广东实验中学  高二（1）班  钟琬婷