50 Important English TRAVEL Phrases
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, “Drop 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
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this lesson. With this free PDF, you will master
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