Name: ?Top MOST Important Travel Phrases in English✈
Uploaded: 2025-03-25T13:38:06.000Z
Duration: 20 min 29 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

To-infinitive

Past simple

Back in January, my family went on a wonderful vacation for a few weeks to the country of Costa Rica.

The first time that I walked into a shop in Costa Rica, I was hit in the face with the realization that I did not practice enough Spanish for this trip.

Well, I want to help you not make the same mistake as me.

When you visit an English-speaking country, I want to help you remember and practice the most common travel phrases for common situations so that you don't get smacked in the face with English and realize, oh, I forgot to study.

So this lesson is for you if you are planning or you would like to visit an English-speaking country and you want to brush up your English-speaking skills before you go.

Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

Today, I'll help you with three common travel categories, eating out, shopping, and hotels, plus a bonus category that's especially for if you're traveling in the US, which is renting a car.

Let's talk about all of these four categories so that you don't feel embarrassed and smacked in the face with language like I was.

And of course, like always, I have created a free PDF worksheet to help you never forget what you are about to learn in this important lesson.

I've included all of the essential expressions, the meanings, some sample sentences.

You can print this out and you can study it on the airplane, on the train, while you're sleeping so that when you visit an English-speaking country, you're prepared.

You can click on the link in the description to download this travel essential phrases worksheet and you will use it when you travel.

All right, let's get started with our first category, which is eating out at a restaurant.

When you walk into a restaurant in the US, the server might ask you, how many?

Well, they're wanting to know how many people are with you.

Sometimes we say how many people are in your party, even if it's not a birthday party, it's just your group.

And you can answer with, well, I'd like a table for four.

When you sit down at your table, the server will ask you, what would you like to order?

And maybe you're not familiar with a lot of the food on that menu, or you want to make sure you get the best thing.

So you can ask this question, do you have any recommendations?

Of course, make sure that their recommendation is not the most expensive thing on the menu.

Most servers are pretty honest and will tell you something that they think is really good, but it's a good way to be able to get the specialty of the restaurant or just something that maybe you hadn't thought about before.

A lot of restaurants in the US are aware that people have different eating diets or restrictions.

So if this is you, you're welcome to say, are there any vegetarian options?

And sometimes even on the menu, you will see little symbols like a G with a line through it.

And that means this has no gluten and those will be special items that you would be able to order.

Something that's very American is ordering something and then customizing it to what you want.

So you could say, can I get the cheeseburger and hold the lettuce and tomato?

Or can I get the cheeseburger without the lettuce and tomato?

On the menu, it says cheeseburger, lettuce, and tomato.

But in the US, it's perfectly normal and really common to customize it to what you want.

So you could say, can I get the cheeseburger and hold, that means don't give it to me, hold the lettuce and tomato?

Something else that the US is known for is gigantic portion size.

So what happens if you don't finish all your food and don't feel like you need to finish all your food?

You can just ask the server, can I get a to-go box, please?

Sometimes they will take your plate away and they'll fill up the to-go box for you.

Or more likely, they'll just bring you the box and you can put what you would like in that box and take it home and you've got lunch the next day.

The next phrase is one that you need to be a little bit careful about because it's different in movies and real life.

When you're done eating, you don't really need to ask for the check.

The server will eventually bring you the check.

They'll probably bring you the check and say, take your time.

Of course, they don't want you to sit there for five hours.

So when you finish your food, you want to ask them to bring the check immediately.

This is really common in movies and TV shows where you'll see someone say, check, please.

This is pretty rude, actually, in real life.

And it's much better to can I get the check, please?

This is much more polite and it's really the phrase that everyone uses.

So I recommend not saying, check, please.

The next category of phrases are for when you're shopping.

This is where I really got stuck in Costa Rica because I felt like I understood the questions that the people working in the shop asked me, but I just didn't know how to formulate a response.

And I want you to be in that same situation.

So let's go over some common shopping situations and those easy expressions you can use.

Usually when you walk into a small-ish shop in the US, the person working there will just say, hi, welcome.

But they might also say, hi, are you looking for anything?

Hi, are you looking for anything special or anything in particular?

And with these questions, you need to know how to respond.

The easiest response is to just say, just looking, thanks, or I'm just looking, thanks.

If they ask you, are you looking for anything special?

You can take that same word and say, no, I'm not looking for anything special.

Or if they use the word particular, are you looking for anything in particular?

You can use that same word and say, no, I'm not looking for anything in particular.

And you can just browse around the shop however you want.

But what if you are looking for something in particular or something special and do you need a little help?

I'm looking for some special chocolate to buy as a gift.

That's what I was often doing in Costa Rica.

I wanted to buy some special chocolate to bring back home to my friends and family.