Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 138, Hotel Tour Desk.
You're listening to English as a Second Language podcast episode 138.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
On this podcast, we're going to be talking about making a reservation in a hotel to take a tour.
Let's go.
Hi, is this where I can get information on tours?
Yes, I can help you with that.
What type of tour are you thinking about?
There are some great city tours that are half day or full day.
You know, we've explored the city a lot since we've been here.
I was actually thinking of a side trip.
Oh, sure.
We have excursions to nearby attractions.
There are one-day trips or two-day overnight trips depending on which one you pick.
I think I'm interested in a hiking trip to the mountains.
I'm big on nature.
Are the overnight trips expensive?
Not at all.
They are very moderately priced, starting at $120 and up.
Here's a brochure on the three hiking tours that are available.
All three are guided tours, and meals and transportation are included.
Do I need to book ahead?
Yes, this company requires that you make a reservation 24 hours ahead.
Great.
I'll take a look at the brochure.
Can I book that here at the hotel tour desk, or do I call the company directly?
I can book that for you.
Just stop by when you've made a decision, and I'll take care of it for you.
That's great.
Thanks a lot for your help.
It's my pleasure.
Let me know if you have any questions.
I will.
Thanks at a hotel, and we are talking to the person who works at the tour desk, the place where you can go in a good hotel to reserve a tour.
A tour t-o-u-r can be anything from a couple of hours to a couple of weeks.
A tour is a general term we use for, usually for when someone takes you somewhere and serves as your.
We would call guide G U I D, E And they're called the tour guide.
And that's the person who who knows all of the information and tells you the information and takes care of all of the uh arrangements that you need when you are traveling.
In the dialogue, Sam asks Nan, the person working at the tour desk, if this is the place to get information on tours.
She says it is.
And asks, what kind of tour are you thinking about?
What are you planning?
There are some great city tours that are half day and full day, she says.
A city tour, C-I-T-Y, a city tour, of course, would be a tour of whatever city you are in.
So here in Los Angeles, the city tour would take you to the beach.
It would take you to Hollywood and so forth.
A half-day tour, H-A-L-F hyphen D-A-Y.
Half-day, of course, would be four hours usually, three to four hours.
So from eight in the morning till 12 noon usually, or from 1 in the afternoon until 5 pm, that would be a half-day tour.
And a full-day tour, of course, would be the entire 8 hours or 10 hours.
Sometimes you go on a tour, it can last as much a day tour of 12 hours.
Well, Sam says that they've explored the city, and so he doesn't want to take a city tour anymore.
To say we have explored the city means we've already looked around at the things to see here in the city.
To explore usually means to go somewhere where very few people or no one has gone before.
And we talk about the great explorers, people who went places where no one had gone before them.
But here, as a verb, to explore, it just means to look at, to visit different places.
Sam says he's actually thinking of a side trip.
A side S-I-D-E trip towards would be for example, you go to a big city like Los Angeles, but you want to travel down to see San Diego, which is about two hours from here driving.
So you go down to San Diego, then you come back to Los Angeles and stay in Los Angeles some more time.
So San Diego is a side trip.
It's a trip you take from the place where you are visiting.
NAN says that we have excursions to nearby attractions.
And excursion E-X-C-U-R-S-I-O-N is usually a short trip to somewhere, to some interesting place, usually less than one day.
So we're going to take an excursion to the Los Angeles Zoo, for example, to see the animals uh and, and the actors?
We keep the actors in cages in a zoo here.
I'm just kidding.
Uh, we should, but we don't.
So you take an excursion to the zoo.
That would be a short trip, or an excursion to the beach.
An attraction A-T-T-R-A-C-T-I-O-N.
An attraction is just an interesting place to visit, usually for someone who is a tourist.
And of course, a tourist, T-O-U-R-I-S-T, is someone who is visiting, someone who is on vacation.
And attractions could be, for example, Disneyland could be an attraction.
Venice Beach is an attraction.
Any place that's interesting to visit is an attraction.
The tour person also says that they have overnight trips.
And, of course, an overnight O-V-E-R-N-I-G-H-T trip is when you go somewhere and you stay at a hotel, and maybe for one or two nights, and then you come back to the hotel where you are staying.
So a side trip could be an overnight trip as well.
Sam says that he's interested in a hiking trip, and to hike is to walk, usually in the mountains or somewhere out away from the city.
He says that he's big on nature.
To say you are big, B-I-G, on something is an informal expression.
It just means that you like it a lot.
I am big on singing.
I like to sing.
Not very well, but I am big on it.
I like it.
I enjoy it.
Sam asks if the tours are expensive and the tour uh operator we would probably call her the tour desk person says that they are moderately priced.
When we say something is moderately M-O-D-E-R-A-T-E-L-Y priced P-R-I-C-E-D.
To say something is moderately priced means it's not expensive, but it's not cheap C-H-E-A-P either.
To be cheap means to be very inexpensive. not to cost very much money.
So it's not a lot of money, but it's not a little money either.
It's somewhere in between, moderately priced.
The prices of the tours, according to the tour desk person, are $120 and up.
When we use the expression with money and up, we mean that it can be more expensive.
It can cost more money.
So the tours are $120 and up means the cheapest tour, the least expensive tour, is $120.
But there are more expensive tours also available, $140, $160, and so forth.
So the expression and up is used when you're giving the lowest price of something, but also telling the person that there are more expensive items or things that you are selling.
The person Nan then gives Sam a brochure, and a brochure B-R-O-C-H-U-R-E is a piece of paper, sometimes with pictures on it, sometimes it's folded and it gives you information about something that you are interested in buying.
Usually, often we use brochures for tours, travel tours, so people can see pictures of where they are going to be visiting, get information about how long the tour lasts and so forth.
You can also have a brochure for something you are selling.
So you're selling, for example, if you are going to buy a car and you go to the place where they sell cars, what we would call a car dealership or a car dealer, D-E-A-L-E-R, someone who sells new cars, you can get a brochure about the car that will give you pretty pictures and information about it.
Nan says that all of the tours they have are guided tours, G-U-I-D-E-D, guided tours.
And to be guided means, we said before, that the person who runs the tour is the tour guide, right?
Well, a guided tour is a tour that has someone who is in charge, someone who is giving you information and is the person who works for the tour company.
Sam asks if he needs to book ahead.
To book, B-O-O-K, you probably know means to make a reservation, to reserve.
And to book ahead A-H-E-A-D means to make a reservation in advance, a day before or two days before you are going to go.
Nan says that you do need to make a reservation 24 hours ahead.
Sam says, can I book here or do I call the company, the tour company, directly?
When we say I'm going to call them directly D-I-R-E-C-T-L-Y, we mean I'm going to call their headquarters.
I'm going to call their company and make a reservation with the home or the main office.
Nan says, no, you can make the reservation here at the hotel.
Just stop by when you've made a decision.
To stop S-T-O-P by B-Y, two words, means to go somewhere, and in this case to go back to the tour desk somewhere and give the information.
So to stop by means to return or to go somewhere for a short period of time.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a native rate of speech.
Hi, is this where I can get information on tours?
Yes, I can help you with that.
What type of tour are you thinking about?
There are some great city tours that are half-day or full-day.
You know, we've explored the city a lot since we've been here.
I was actually thinking of a side trip.
Oh, sure.
We have excursions to nearby attractions.
There are one-day trips or two-day overnight trips, depending on which one you pick.
I think I'm interested in a hiking trip to the mountains.
I'm big on nature.
Are the overnight trips expensive?
Not at all.
They're very moderately priced, starting at around $120 and up.
Here's a brochure on the three hiking tours that are available.
All three are guided tours, and meals and transportation are included.
Do I need to book ahead?
Yes, this company requires that you make a reservation 24 hours ahead.
Great.
I'll take a look at the brochure.
Can I book that here at the hotel tour desk, or do I call the company directly?
I can book that for you.
Just stop by when you've made a decision, and I'll take care of it for you.
That's great.
Thanks a lot for your help.
It's my pleasure.
Let me know if you have any questions.
I will.
Thanks.
The script for today's podcast was written, as always, by Dr Lucy Say, and we thank Lucy for her work.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
We'll see you next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
This podcast is copyright 2006.
