IELTS Speaking Vocabulary - Talking about Travel and Vacations

hi my name is Kara and in today IELTS speaking lesson video we are going to talk about holiday vacation places you've been to your examiner might ask you where have you gone on vacation before or where will you go on vacation next so let's learn some phrases to talk about travel number one on our list we have take a vacation or go on a vacation to somewhere they both mean the same thing take a vacation or go on a vacation you can use this phrase instead of travel if you are singing travel too much in your response take a vacation means that you stopped your work or your stop your school to visit somewhere so for example if you are talking about the future you can say I will take a vacation to Thailand or I will go on a vacation to Thailand with my family next winter if you've already gone on the vacation you can instead say I took a vacation to Thailand or I went on a vacation to Thailand both of these phrases work instead of travel okay next on our list we have take a sightseeing tour of somewhere this means that you hire a guide hire a person to show you around an area they take you to different places no notice here they'll show you more than one place during a sightseeing tour so for example I could say I took before a sightseeing tour of London we hired a guide and he showed us so many different places around London or for the future tense we'll take a sightseeing tour of London when I go there next fall sound good number three on our list go sight seeing this just means that you see the sights you go to interesting places interesting places now to go sightseeing you do not need to hire a guide the way you do need to during a sightseeing tour so here hire a guide you don't need to do that when you go sightseeing you can do it by yourself for example when I went to London I went sightseeing and I saw Big Ben sound good next we have go on a cruise when you go on a cruise you are on a very big ship a large boat and you go from city to city to city while you are on the cruise so you could say last winter I went on a cruise in the Caribbean with my family or next Christmas I will go on a cruise with my family in the Caribbean sound okay alright next on our list we have signed up for a guided tour or sign up for guided tours now guided tours are a little different from sightseeing tours because they're usually just in one place in a small area so here I will write one place they are for a specific part of a city now sometimes they cost money and sometimes they are free so they may or may not cost money and they're usually just in one place I could say my family and I signed up for a guided tour of a castle in Germany or we will sign up for a guided tour when we visit Switzerland so we see everything there is to see sound good ok let's move on to next on our list come on package holiday this meets that all your expenses are together your travel your accommodation your food your activities everything you will need to pay for on vacation is all together in one price people like going on package holiday because they don't need to worry about money during their vacation so you could say my family and I prefer to come on package holiday when we go on vacation so we don't need to worry about money ok cool next on our list travel during the offseason offseason is talking about the time of year when not a lot of people are traveling so not a lot of people traveling offseason traveling during the offseason can be really nice because it's usually cheaper and places aren't so crowded for example you could say I went to the Coliseum during the offseason so it wasn't too crowded and I got a lot of nice pictures offseason changes it depends where you are in the world but usually in the West off season is from November until March ok so all it means is not a lot of people are traveling then if you don't travel during the offseason then it will be crowded and more expensive you could tell your examiner I wish I had travel during the offseason because when I went to the Coliseum it was too crowded sound good all right let's move on to have the time of my life or you could also say the holiday of a lifetime that means you went on the best trip ever you went on a vacation so good you will never forget the wonderful time you had so you could say when I went to Jordan last year I had the time of my life or I really really want to go to Egypt I really think it would be the holiday of a lifetime best trip ever okay now it's time to focus on words that describe tourist attraction words to talk about the specific things you saw while you are on your vacation so let's dive right in first we have scenic and scenery these words are obviously related but they're a little different so let's take a look scenic is an adjective a DJ that means you need to use it with a noun so I might describe a scenic tour for example I went on a scenic tour of the countryside in Switzerland so you can see there I use it with a noun scenic tour scenic hike scenic sightseeing what-have-you whereas scenery is a noun so I'll put m4 noun this you can talk about perhaps ocean scenery perhaps you could say the ocean scenery in the Philippines is so beautiful or the mountainous scenery in Switzerland is to die for so beautiful to see word that we have see a breathtaking view of something breathtaking is when something is so amazing it takes your breath away so you stop breathing because you're so excited so breathtaking takes your breath an example of this I might use is for Petra so I have been to Petra before so instead of saying see I would say saw I saw a rep taking view of Petra while I was in Jordan so think of amazing places you've seen that took your breath away and tell your examiner I saw a breathtaking view of this while I was on vacation next we have sandy beach or rocky beach so when you go to the beach by the ocean look down at your feet is it sandy or is it rocky an example of a place with the sandy beach might be Mexico you could tell your examiner I stayed at a beautiful white sandy beach while I was vacationing in Mexico or we also have rocky beaches lots of rocks big boulders all around you you might be more likely to see this at a lake a freshwater lake so you could tell your examiner I went on vacation to a rocky beach in a lake in Canada okay next we have touristy or having hordes of tourists that word might feel a little weird so you can practice having hordes of tourists hordes means so much so many tourists too many people too many people too many tourists in one spot an example of a place that you might describe as touristy is the Coliseum right people from all over the world are always going there to take a look you could say I went to Rome and really enjoyed my time there but the Colosseum was a little too touristy for me you could also say I went to the column see him but it had hordes of tourists so it was difficult to take a nice picture there and then lest we have not for the faint-hearted faint-hearted means you are timid shy you get scared easily you don't like to take big risks so this whole phrase not for the faint-hearted means you need to be brave to enjoy this site an example of a famous site that might not be for the faint-hearted is the catacombs you could say I went to the catacombs while I was visiting Paris but it is not for the faint-hearted because there are dead bodies everywhere okay last for today's lesson we are going to talk about places to stay on holiday your examiner will ask you where do you usually like to stay when you go on vacation so we will go over different places to stay and you can practice which response is best for you number one on our list we have holiday resorts these are the best places to eat drink sleep and play these are big places where you will not only go to bed at night but you also have restaurants to eat bars to drink and they usually will host activities where you can play with your friends and family so if your examiner asks you where do you usually like to stay on vacation you could say I always try to go to a holiday resort because everything I want is taken care of right there sound good okay let's move on to number two self catering apartments so catering is talking about getting food to you self is you therefore a self catering apartment is somewhere you can cook for yourself it doesn't have a restaurant like at a holiday resort so you could perhaps tell your examiner I prefer to stay at a self catering apartment when I go on vacation because I like cooking for myself and it is less expensive sound good okay let's move on to number three we have bed and breakfast as the name might suggest this is a place where you can sleep and in the morning when you wake up they will serve you breakfast as the name also suggests they don't give you lunch and dinner so you have the opportunity to go to sleep wake up eat breakfast and then go out for your day so maybe you'll tell your examiner I prefer to stay at bed-and-breakfast because then I don't have to worry what I will eat in the morning but I am free to go out on my own in the afternoon and evening and then last we have youth hostels you can also just say hostels if you prefer these places are cheap they don't cost a lot of money but they're not the nicest accommodations while you are on vacation they also usually have a shared space this means that you probably won't have a bed in your own room you probably won't have your own bathroom a youth hostel shares these spaces so you will sleep together you will have a shared bathroom together and they are usually used by young people because they are so cheap so perhaps you could tell your examiner when I was younger I usually enjoyed going to youth hostels went on but when I went on vacation because I didn't have a lot of money but now that I'm older I prefer to stay at bed-and-breakfast because they are much nicer hi I'm teacher Neil last week teacher Cara was teaching you about travel and travel destinations and this week we will continue on with what she has already taught and we will start with vocabulary to describe the places you want to travel to so if you get asked if you go on holiday or vacation what kind of places do you like to go to or what activities do you like to do or where do you like to go when you travel you can use these useful phrases to describe in detail what you really want to say so let's start number one somewhere off the beaten track or untouched pristine nature or pristine landscapes so what that means is you go to someplace that many people don't usually go to so these are uncommon places uncommon places or not the usual places so if someone asks you a question you can say you know when I travel I like to go somewhere off the beaten track I don't want to go to where everyone else goes to you can also use the word untouched untouched means that not a lot of cities you know it is very natural not a lot of human influence pristine also means it is very new it is unspoiled it is untouched by human hands it is still very natural so you can use these two words to describe things like nature or a landscape a landscape of course is the view of the nature so you can say when I like to travel I like to go to untouched places I like to see pristine nature and I like to see beautiful landscapes somewhere off the beaten track where I know there will not be a lot of tourists speaking of tourists let's look at these words to describe some tourist places tourist traps now of course if you don't know what a trap means a trap means it will catch you and you can't get out so what a tourist trap means is it is a place that always attracts and catches the tourists and maybe they won't want to leave for a little while so there will always be a lot of people because it is a big attraction so you can say when I travel I try to avoid the tourist traps because I don't like to be surrounded by too many people but that does not stop me from going to a tourist attraction an attraction of course the ward attract means it will bring you to it so you want to go and that includes words such as an iconic landmark iconic means very famous so iconic landmark is something that when you open a travel book it will say you have to go there it is a very famous place so that will usually be a tourist attraction holiday destination of course means destination means place so it just means a holiday place but usually when we use the word holiday destination it is also a famous or popular place so you can say when I go on vacation I like to go to famous holiday destinations I like to see the tourist attractions and I always make sure to visit the iconic landmarks because I like to take pictures of them and to my friends moving on local places of interest so you will probably see this word in a travel book or in a travel guide so when you want to go to a place let's say to Spain it will say local places of interests interest means interesting of course or places people would want to go to local places of interest include the beach the market or the very popular iconic landmark so you can say when I go on vacation I always make sure to look at the local places of interest like the iconic landmarks moving on Metro Politan Cities metropolitan cities metropolitan means very big or very crowded for example Tokyo Tokyo is a very famous metropolitan city so you can say either I love metropolitan cities I love the energy of big places and I like to meet people from all around the world or you can say I try to avoid metropolitan cities I prefer somewhere off the beaten track where I can see the untouched landscapes backpacking destinations of course means destinations we know means a place and backpacking is if you take all your things on a backpack and you go and move from place to place to place it's not like you will stay in one hotel all the time backpacking usually means there will be a lot of traveling so for example if you go to Europe or Spain you can say me and my wife we like to go to many backpacking the nation's and we will go from hostel to hostel and just backpack everywhere and stay with new people and experience new things moving on historic sites and heritage site so historic comes from the word history so that will mean it is famous because of the history of the site the site means the place or the area and heritage usually means that it is very important to the people's culture or their history so you can say when I go traveling I like to visit the historic sites and the Heritage sites because I like to learn more about the culture and learn more about the history of the people and that is the end of our lesson on vocabulary of places that you would want to travel to so if you're going to do an exam and you get asked these questions you can go through our video and check it again and again until you are comfortable using these phrases and you feel confident about using them so if you'd like to learn more or like to see more videos like these you can go to best my test comm to prepare yourself for your IELTS speaking exam one more time I'm teacher Neil thank you very much

Channel: BestMyTest

Views: 69,452

Keywords: IELTS, IELTS test, IELTS speaking, IELTS speaking vocabulary

Id: 4nywJPmE9T8

Length: 24min 9sec (1449 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 17 2019