Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa. com. Let's travel together.
Do you like to travel? Do you wish that you could travel more? Well, if you have ever visited another country, you know that English is essential or at least very helpful when you travel.
So, I have some good news. Today, you are going to learn 50 important phrases for travel. You'll learn how to plan for a trip, how to talk about directions and transportation, how to talk at the airport and at a hotel.
And finally, how to tell someone about a trip that you just took. I know that 50 expressions is a lot. So, to help you, I've created a free PDF worksheet that you can download with the link in the description.
Never forget what you've learned, review everything and answer Vanessa's Challenge question at the end of the PDF worksheet. Let's get started with how to plan or book a trip in English. Where would you like to go?
Excellent starter question. Where would you like to go? Also, you can answer this by saying, "I've never been to Rio de Janeiro.
I've never been to Rome. I've never been to Tokyo. " Excellent phrase.
"We should book tickets now. " This verb, to book, means to reserve. We're not talking about something that you read.
This is the noun, a book. This is talking about reserving something. "We should book tickets now because it's a popular destination, so let's book tickets.
" "I hate making plans. Let's just do something spur of the moment. " Spur of the moment means without plan, something spontaneous.
Well, you need to book tickets to go to another country, but maybe when you get there, you don't want to have every hour planned. You like to do things spur of the moment. "Oh, there's a great park.
Let's go there. Oh, that's a cool museum. Let's go there.
" This is spur of the moment. A similar phrase you can use is, "We decided that we'll just go wherever the wind blows us. " Maybe the wind will blow me to that museum.
Maybe the wind will blow me to that restaurant. I don't know. This has the same idea as spur of the moment.
It's not planned. It's spontaneous. Maybe you are the opposite kind of person.
You might say, "We need to make a reservation. " This is a great phrase to know: to make a reservation. You can make a reservation at a popular restaurant, you can make a reservation at a hotel, you can make a reservation for a seat at a concert.
There's a lot of different things that you can make a reservation for. When you go to a museum or somewhere similar, you might ask, "Do you have an audio guide? Do you have an audio guide?
" This is actually a great way to improve your English. Because if you listen to an audio guide in English, as you're walking around the museum, I bet you are going to learn a ton of new vocabulary, some great expressions for describing what you're seeing. This is an excellent way to enjoy something, but also learn some English.
You can ask, "Do you have an audio guide? " When you go somewhere, you can ask, "Do you accept cash or credit card? Do you accept cash or credit card?
" Depending on the country you're in, they might prefer one option instead of the other. And we often use the word cash to talk about physical dollar bills or the physical money of the place that you're visiting. "Do you accept cash or credit card?
Because I only have a credit card. I don't have any cash with me. If you need cash, then I got to come back.
" You might ask, "What are the hours for the museum? What are the hours for the tour? What are the hours for some kind of event or place?
" It's a great question to ask, "When are you open? " What are the hours for something that you want to see? Our final question under this first category of planning or booking your vacation is an excellent question, "What should I pack for?
What should I pack for? " Well, of course, for vacation. Now, this question has another meaning.
It means I want to know what kind of activities we'll do, what the weather is going to be. I want to know, do I need to pack a swimsuit? Do I need to pack a winter coat?
What should I pack for? That means what should I prepare for? This is really helpful as you're trying to fit everything inside your small suitcase, this always happens to me, and you really need to decide, "Okay, what do I need to pack four?
Okay, I don't need three winter sweaters. It's probably going to be not too cold. I'll just bring something else.
" You can ask, "What do I need to pack for? " The next phrases have to do with transportation and directions. I want to help you not be lost in a foreign place with no words to say to help yourself.
So, let's talk about 10 important phrases for transportation and directions. The first one is a great question. You can ask someone else or they might ask you, if you look really lost, you might hear, "Where are you headed?
" This is often reduced to simply, "Where ya headed? " We cut out the verb are and we reduced you to ya, "Where ya headed? Where are you headed?
" If you look really lost, someone might say, "Hey, where ya headed? Can I help you? " This great verb, to head, means the direction that you're going in.
So, you're going somewhere. "I'm headed to the store. I'm headed to the doctor's office.
I'm headed to the metro station. Where is it? " So, someone might ask you, "Where ya headed?
" Or, if you see someone who's lost, you can ask this too, "Excuse me. Can you tell me how to get to the metro station? Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to the subway station?
" It's great to introduce a lot of these questions with, "Excuse me," because you're interrupting someone else and really it is the easiest way to be polite in a simple way. "Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to the subway station? Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to the museum?
" To wherever you'd like to go. "Excuse me, how far is it to the airport? Excuse me, how far is it to the airport?
" You might ask this to your bus driver as you're getting on the bus to go to the airport and you're worried about missing your flight. You'd want to know, is it going to take 30 minutes? Is it going to take two hours?
Is it going to take 10 minutes? "Excuse me, how far is it to the airport? " And then they'll tell you, "Oh, don't worry.
It's just going to take 10 minutes. We'll be there pretty soon. " I don't know about you, but I have had many experiences looking for a bus stop and being so lost.
Sometimes bus stops are not obvious. It's just a little sign or maybe it's just a pole and everyone knows where you should go, except for you because you're not from that area. So, this is a great question.
You can ask, "Excuse me, which way to the bus stop? Excuse me, which way to the bus stop? This way, that way, over here, back there?
" "Excuse me, which way to the bus stop? " "Excuse me, where's the closest ATM? " This phrase, ATM, stands for Automated Teller Machine.
And it's just that machine, some other countries call these cash points where you can put your debit card or credit card into the machine and you can get cash. So, if you happen to go to a store that requires cash, but you have no cash, you can ask this question, "Oh, do you know where's the closest ATM? " "Excuse me, where's the closest ATM.
I need to get some cash. " Great question. And the word ATM is most commonly used in the US.
Some other countries might use other expressions, but if you're visiting the US, ATM is an excellent word to use. Are you hungry? You can ask, "Is there a grocery store nearby?
I don't want to go to another expensive restaurant. I just want to get some simple food that I can cook back at my place. Is there a grocery store nearby?
" Notice the pronunciation of this word. There's two pronunciations. Actually, you can say grocery, grocery with an S, grocery.
But you're more likely to hear, at least that's what I say, you're more likely to hear it grocery, like an SH. Grocery, grocery, grocery store. "Is there a grocery store nearby?
" Great question. "When is the next train? When's the next train?
" If the board with all of the train information is so confusing, just ask someone, "Excuse me, when's the next train? " Great. If still confused, you can ask, "When does the next.
. . leave?
When does the next bus leave? When does the next train leave? When does the next flight leave?
I need to go now. " When does the next. .
. leave? Great question.
Will the departure be on time? Maybe you come from a country where things are always on time and you expect it to be on time, but you realize in the country that you're in right now, things are not on time or maybe the opposite and you need to know, "Excuse me, will the departure be on time? " That's important.
Our final phrase for transportation and directions is actually kind of a two for one. Let's imagine that you're in a taxi, sometimes we call those a cab, and you're at your destination, but maybe the taxi driver is looking for, "Oh, where should I drop them? " You can use this phrase, "You can drop me here.
You can drop me here. " It doesn't mean that they're holding you and dropping you. This is shortened from, "Drp me off.
" To drop off someone means that you're driving them and they leave. You're dropping them off. Maybe you drop off your kids at school every morning.
This is a great phrase to use in a taxi, "You can drop me here. " Or if you want to make it even shorter, you can just say, "This is me. " You see your hotel out the window or you see the place you need to go, you can just say, "Oh, excuse me.
This is me. " Well, this is you here now. This just means, "This is where I need to go.
" You'll often hear this in a taxi and you can use it too. The next 10 important phrases for travel will help you to talk at the airport. They'll help you to speak, but also they'll help you to understand, because a lot of these phrases and questions, you will get asked.
A lot of things get asked when you're traveling, when you're entering a new country. And I want to make sure that you can understand completely. So, let's start with the first one.
You get to the airport. You look around, there's so many people, so many things going on, you feel lost. Well, you can easily ask, "Excuse me, where's the Delta counter?
Excuse me, where's the Delta check-in? " Both of these questions are great for finding where can I go for my airline? If you know what your airline is, and I hope you do, you can just insert that.
"Excuse me, where's the American Airlines counter? Excuse me, where's the American Airlines check-in? " Excellent question to get started.
After you arrive at your gate, you want to make sure that you don't miss your flight. Even though you're there, you're so close, but maybe you need to go down the hall and get some food or go to the bathroom. You need to ask, "Excuse me, when will the plane be boarding?
When will the plane be boarding? " And that means: when will the people be going on the airplane? When will the people board?
"Excuse me, when will the plane be boarding? " If they tell you, "Oh, we'll board in 30 minutes. " Cool.
You have plenty of time. Go get some food, go to the bathroom, stretch a little bit. Excellent question.
If you've ever been at the airport, you know you get asked lots of questions. One of those might be, "What's your flight number? " Especially if you're lost and you're not sure where to go.
And you say, "Excuse me, I'm lost. Can you help me? " They might ask, "Oh, what's your flight number?
" And they'll look either at your tickets or they'll look on your phone or they'll look on the board and they'll be able to help you not be so lost. When you're checking in, you will be asked, "Do you have your passport? Do you have your passport?
" You might be asked a more direct question. They might just say, "Passport, please. Passport, please.
" And as long as you're familiar with the word passport, you know, "Aha, I need to give them my passport. " Just a little note. Make sure that you always get your passport back.
When I first traveled to another country, I didn't know this. And I thought that you were supposed to give them your passport and they kept it until you got on the flight. I don't know.
I was a young traveler. I had no idea. So, make sure that you get your passport after you check in, when you enter your flight.
When you go through security, you'll hear, "Boarding pass, please. Boarding pass, please. " Or when you enter the airplane, they might ask you this, "Boarding pass, please.
" And that's the piece of paper that the airline has printed out, and it has all of your information, your flight number, your seat, all of this stuff is on your boarding pass. You'll also hear the question, "Are you checking any luggage? " Or, "Do you have anything to check?
Are you checking any luggage? " It doesn't mean I'm checking luggage. No, this means that you are giving the airline a big suitcase and they will take it and put it under the airplane.
If you do this, maybe you might need to pay extra. They need to probably weigh your suitcase. So, this is a good question that you will be asked, "Are you checking any luggage?
" Or, "Do you have anything to check? " When you are returning home from your wonderful travels, you might be asked at the airport, "Do you have anything to declare? " To declare.
Usually this means to speak, "I declare that it's a beautiful day today," kind of old fashioned English to use it like that. But in a modern sense, we use this at the airport to mean, if you bought anything, especially anything expensive on your travels, well, you might need to pay a specific tax to bring it back to your home country. So, make sure that you know, so that they don't see something in your suitcase and say, "Why did you not declare this $500 million diamond ring?
" So, you will be asked, "Do you have anything to declare? " And you can say yes or no. Oftentimes when you land in a new country, for example, if you land in New York City, they might ask you, "Is this your final destination?
Is New York your final destination? " If you're going to Chicago, you could say, "No, I have a connecting flight. I have a connecting flight.
" Or maybe your flight is late, so you might say, "I missed my connecting flight. " That's always really annoying because you're going to have to figure something out. Spend time on the phone, spend time at a counter, talking to someone.
But it's a good question to understand, and to be able to answer, "Is this your final destination? " "Yes. " Or, "No, I have a connecting flight.
" So, you finally land in your destination and you need to get your luggage. But what if you can't find it? What can you ask?
That's a great question. You can ask. "Excuse me, can you tell me where baggage claim is?
Excuse me, can you tell me where luggage claim is? " Both of these words: luggage claim and baggage claim are both used interchangeably. And it's a great question to ask if you're trying to find your suitcase.
"Excuse me, can you tell me where baggage claim is? " When you go through customs, you will probably be asked this coming question, "Are you traveling for business or pleasure? Are you traveling for business or pleasure?
" And that means, "Are you coming here because of work or are you coming here just for the fun of traveling? " This is also a question that a fellow traveler might ask you. Maybe when you sit down on the airplane, your seat mate might ask you, "Hey, are you traveling for business or pleasure?
Why are you going to Chicago? " Maybe they'll ask you, maybe they won't. But it's a common question, especially in customs, "I'm traveling for business.
" "No, I'm just traveling for pleasure. " Great. The next 10 important phrases for travel are at the hotel to help you speak naturally and have the right words to use when you get to your hotel.
The first one is when you first arrive at the hotel, you need to check in. So, you can say, "Hello. I have a reservation for Prothe.
" That's my last name. Or you might say, "Hello, checking in for Prothe. " Whatever your last name is, you can insert it here.
That's when you come up to the counter or maybe you call in, in advance, depending on what that hotel does. You can use this phrase, "Hello? I have a reservation under Prothe.
" Or, "Hello. Checking in for Prothe. " You can use either one of these phrases and both are perfectly fine.
"Is there somewhere I can print my boarding pass, bus tickets? " Et cetera. This is a great travel tip.
Most hotels have a business room that has a printer, and most guests can use this for free. So, if you need to print anything, print a boarding pass, ticket, something like this, just ask the hotel this question, "Is there somewhere I can print my boarding pass? " And there probably is.
Great. If you arrive late, you're super hungry, you can ask someone at the front desk, "Is there a good restaurant nearby? Is there a good restaurant nearby?
" Don't feel hesitant to use the staff who works at the hotel for some advice. They really know about the area where you're living, especially that specific area close to the hotel. They might know, "Oh yeah, there's a good restaurant just two blocks over.
Make sure you check it out. You don't need to take the bus and it's open late at night. Go check it out.
" You might ask, "Can I get some more towels? Can I get some more pillows? Can I get some more blankets?
" These are all polite questions and perfectly reasonable at a hotel. "Do you have a map? Do you have a map?
" Most hotels have a map and they will be more than happy to help you find your way around the city. And they often have free maps that you can use to find your way around, "Excuse me, which way to the elevators? " This is especially helpful if you have a lot of luggage and you don't want to go down one hallway and then try another and pull your luggage everywhere, or maybe you're just tired.
It's the end of the day. You're not thinking straight. You just traveled 24 hours from your home country to New York City.
Just, "Excuse me, which way to the elevators? " Maybe you can't even see the sign because you're so tired. I just need a little help.
That's totally fine. When you're booking a room, you might ask, "Can I get a queen bed? Can I get a double bed?
Can I get two twin beds? " Depending on your sleeping situation, it might be helpful to be specific, "Well, it's going to be my husband and I, and my two kids. They can sleep in the same bed, but it might be best if they each had their own beds, so they don't stay up all night.
" So, you could ask, "Do you have a queen bed and two twin beds in a room? " Great. You want to be specific so that you can have the most comfortable time possible.
Oftentimes hotels in the US will have a breakfast option. It's sometimes included and sometimes not in your fee. So, you could ask, "Excuse me, is breakfast included?
Excuse me, is breakfast included? " And that implies, "Is it included in the price that I already paid for the hotel room? " Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not, but it's a great question to ask.
Usually breakfast is not available all day, so you can ask, "Excuse me, what time is breakfast served? Excuse me, what time is breakfast served? " And when you check in, the person who's checking you in, they'll probably tell you those things in advance.
But if you didn't catch it or maybe they just didn't mention it, these are good questions to ask so that you can not be too hungry in the morning when you wake up. Another common way to get food, while you're in your hotel room, is room service. You can ask, "Can I get room service, please?
Can I get room service? " That means someone comes to your door with food that they've made in the hotel. In my experience, in the US this is very expensive and not always the best quality food, but in certain circumstances, maybe this is something you want.
So, you could ask the question, "Can I get room service? " Excellent. Our final 10 important phrases for talking about your travels is to talk about your travel experiences.
That this is when you have finished traveling and you want to explain to someone the great or terrible vacation that you just had. If you'd like to take these expressions to the next level, don't miss a chance to tell me about your city and where I should travel to in your city. In this lesson, you'll get a chance to practice speaking with me and tell me about where you live.
The first important phrase for talking about where you just went is to ask this question, "Have you ever been to Paris? Have you ever been to LA? " When you're telling someone about your trip, you want to see if they've had a similar experience.
Great question to ask if they say, "Oh, no, I've never been to LA, but I would love to. " What a good chance to give them some tips or advice about good things that you did, maybe things they should avoid. And they might be interested to hear what you have to say.
You might hear the question, "What was your favorite thing about LA? What was your favorite thing about Paris? " Well, you can ask this question to someone else, or they might ask you that, and it helps to kind of prompt a conversation about where you just went.
If someone just heard that you went to Paris, the first question they might ask is, "Did you see the Eiffel Tower? " Of course, everyone who goes to Paris sees the Eiffel Tower. Why not?
It's amazing. Every time that I've seen it, even though it's been hundreds of times because I used to live in Paris, it's always amazing. I still love it.
But there are often places that are not touristy that you enjoy. So, you could use this phrase, "My favorite places are off the beaten path. I love finding new places to visit.
" So, "Yes, the Eiffel Tower is great, but I love to find places off the beaten path. " The beaten path is where your feet are beating down the path. There's so many people, everyone is visiting the Eiffel Tower, but over here, there's a hidden cathedral that's so beautiful and no one visits.
But right beside it, there's a little hot chocolate restaurant, "You have to go there. It's off the beaten path. " On the same note, you might say, "There's so many hidden gems in Paris, you could spend years discovering them all.
" Hidden gems. A gem is like a diamond or a ruby. These kinds of precious stones.
And we can use this in a more figurative way to talk about an amazing place, especially somewhere that's hidden, "There's so many hidden gems around the city. It's an excellent place to visit. " On the other hand, what happens when everyone is there?
Well, you might say, "That city used to be nice, but now it's just a big tourist trap. " Have you ever been to Venice? Venice is beautiful.
It's so cool. But now it has kind of turned into a tourist trap. All of the shops, all of the restaurants, all the activities are only for tourists.
It's kind of lost that livable feeling. And I don't know if that's just something that's inevitable, it's going to happen no matter what, or if it's something that can be prevented, but that's the way it is. It's kind of a tourist trap.
Still worth visiting, in my opinion. But it's a tourist trap. When I was 18 years old, I went on a road trip with my best friend and we drove for three days.
In the US, it's extremely common to go on a road trip. We don't have great public transportation. There's not trains that go all over the US in an easy way.
So, instead, we drive and we often take a road trip. This is a common form of vacation in the US, maybe in your country too. Do you ever take road trips for a vacation?
The next phrase for travel is one that you might see more often in writing than in spoken conversation, but I want to make sure you can understand it. It is, "I need some R&R. " And it's often used with the symbol &, and a capital R and another capital R.
This does not mean railroad because sometimes RR means railroad. This means rest and relaxation. So, if you're feeling super stressed and you're just texting with your friends saying, "I think I'm going to go on vacation next week.
I need some R&R. " We don't often say that, "I need some R&R. " But you might write that in a text or write that in a message to talk about, "I just need to take a break.
I need some R&R. " If you need some R&R, you don't want to take a whirlwind trip. I have done this.
It is very hectic. It means that you visit a ton of places in a short period of time or you see a ton of things in a short period of time. It's a whirlwind.
When my husband and I visited Thailand, we only had four days, I think. And we visited Bangkok for a couple of days. And then we took a train, a bus, a taxi, and then another bus to the south of the country, to the beach.
And then we did the same thing to go back to Bangkok, to fly back to where we were living in Korea. It was a whirlwind trip. I wish we had more time.
And someday I'd love to go back and spend a month, two months just exploring the country in a little bit more of a slow pace. That would be amazing. When you travel somewhere far away, you might use this phrase, "I'm so tired.
I'm still suffering from jet lag. " Jet lag. It's one of the worst things when you travel.
If you travel far away, maybe the morning for you is the night where you're traveling to. You need some time to recover. Your body needs some time to not feel tired, to realize what time of day it is.
It's something we don't often think about when we travel to another place that's far away. At least I don't often think about until I get there and realize, "Oh no, it's the morning. I haven't slept for two days.
I have to wait another 12 hours before I sleep. " You are suffering from jet lag. Our final phrase is an excellent one to conclude talking about your travels.
And that is, "I can't wait to go back. I can't wait to go back. " If you had an excellent time, if you're dreaming about it, you can say, "I can't wait to go back.
" Well, congratulations practicing these 50 important phrases for travel. And now I have a question for you. Let me know in the comments, where would you like to go?
Where is your dream destination? Or maybe somewhere that you've already been, and you say, "I can't wait to go back. " Let us know in the comments.
And don't forget to download the free PDF worksheet for today's lesson. I know 50 expressions is a lot. So, download the worksheet, review them, never forget what you've learned, and answer Vanessa's Challenge question at the end of the worksheets.
Thanks so much for learning English with me, and I'll see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. The next step is to download the free PDF worksheet for this lesson.
With this free PDF, you will master today's lesson and never forget what you have learned. You can be a confident English speaker. Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for a free English lesson every Friday.
Bye.
