I just got back from a weekend in Chicago. I like to travel, and I get off the farm as frequently as is practical, but while in my younger days it tended to be me, a backpack and a guidebook, these days, I find a nice guided tour to be much more efficient.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m still DIY about most things, but there are a few factors that, to me, make it worthwhile to have somebody else leading me around.
First, if you’ve never before visited a given city or country, there’s always a little bit of culture shock, and it always takes a little time before you get comfortable. You’re focused on all those questions in your mind: Am I in a bad neighborhood? How does this public transit system work? Am I going to get arrested for jaywalking or something stupid like that? What is this food item, and should I eat it?
So you’re already distracted. The second thing is, you’re trying to actually take in the scenery, the experience, to actually enjoy the place/thing you’re visiting. If you’re trying to read a map and a description while you’re looking at the thing you’re supposed to be looking at, you’re not really traveling, you’re just leading your own little tour group of one. Let’s face it: half the time, you’re already thinking about how you’re going to get to the next place you’re going.
It’s even worse if you’re the one with the guidebook and you’re trying to read the description to somebody else. You’re not really able to just enjoy being in the moment.
And, logistically, there’s nothing like the challenge of planning an adventure before you’re even at your destination. Maybe those two things that seemed really close together on the map are actually a lot further than they seem. Maybe that particular subway stop is closed, or that landmark is under construction. The wait at the restaurant might take a lot longer than you planned for; on the flip side, you might find that the famous museum everybody told you about is interesting for all of five minutes, leaving you with a lot of extra time.
Here’s where a guided tour saves the day. The tour guide isn’t dealing with culture shock. Neither are they distracted by trying to experience the moment; they’re there solely to make sure you’re having a good time, and frankly, they’ve already seen that famous house or park or intersection three times this week.
And, they live in the place you’re visiting, 24/7/365. If there’s something that throws off the logistics, they can compensate for it. They know how long a certain segment of the tour takes, and they’ve got reservations for lunch.
Furthermore, they know that little tidbit of trivia that you somehow missed when you were reading the book. They’re not just guides, they’re entertainers; their livelihood depends on them being experts at the same thing you’re trying to squeeze in between booking a hotel and finding your passport in your sock drawer.
There’s also the “theme” factor, wherein the tour has some attribute that makes it an experience above and beyond just seeing the sights. For example, when Kara and I were in Chicago a few months ago, we took a Segway tour, which, aside from being informative and educational, carried the added bonus of us being able to zoom around the fountain from the start of “Married with Children” on electric scooters. On my more recent visit, some friends and I went on a food tour that focused on regional specialties. We still learned about history and architecture as we walked, but having that unifying theme made it that much more fun; it wasn’t just “let’s learn about this city,” but rather, “let’s learn about food, which we love, and how the subjects of food and local culture are intertwined.”
Now, please take this post with a big grain of salt. Given enough time and knowledge, you can certainly put together an amazing visit to any destination, tailored precisely to what you want to do. Of course, I know not all tours/guides are created equal, and if you get a bad one, you might as well not have one at all.
But, I tend to assume here that you’re not moving to England for a year, but rather, that you’re visiting London for a wedding, you’ve never been there before, and you have exactly 6 hours on a Thursday afternoon to see the highlights of thousands of years of civilization. Neither do you have the time/energy/expertise to read through multiple guidebooks and websites to make this the vacation of a lifetime.
Again, efficiency is the key word: you get a good flavor, some nice trivia, and a good, if general, experience. But should you love the location so much that you come back someday for a longer visit, you’ve got a good jumping-off point to start your own exploration.