Useful English Collocations for Talking About Travel [590]

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In this episode, you’ll learn useful collocations that help you talk about trips, holidays, transport, plans, delays, and travel experiences more clearly. These word combinations are important because they help your English sound more natural.

The focus is on practical examples you can use when you talk about where you went, how you travelled, what happened, and what the experience was like.

After listening, you’ll be able to:

• talk about travel more naturally
 • use common word combinations correctly
 • describe trips and travel problems more clearly
 • improve your spoken English for everyday conversations

If you want to sound more fluent when talking about travel in English, this episode will help.

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Transcript

Speaker: 0:09

Hi there. This is Harry. Welcome back to Advanced English to help you to get a better language, to help you with your business, English skills, goals are, we're here to help. And for those of you and your to one lessons, well, you know Just get in touch w www.englishlessonviaskype.com and you can apply for a free trial lesson. And we'll be very happy to hear from you and very happy to help you. So what are we going to look at Well, today we're going to look related to travel. I've got ten of them. Okay. I'll take you through them. Some of them are positive. Some of them are negative I'll tell you which is which, able to understand them and then Okay, so let's start. Number one. Desolate area. Desolate area. Number two. Tedious journey. Tedious journey three. Panoramic view. Panoramic view. Number four. Luxurious accommodation. Luxurious accommodation. Number five. Poor service. Poor service six. Far flung location. A far flung location seven. Quaint village eight. Raw deal a raw deal number nine service and finally ten unwary Okay, so let's go through them So the first is a desolate area. And there's the word desolate would suggest this has a negative connotation. A desolate area is an area that you really wouldn't like to go to. It's usually barren or empty of. No great interest could be part ghost town, or some place that and may not be the most to go to. Okay. So if you're traveling or you're going on a holiday, the last place you'd want to be is in a desolate area. You might find yourself there accidentally, of course, and often happens when we get lost when we're walking around the city. But just be very, very careful. So a desolate area is an area It could be empty, a wasteland, abandoned buildings, ghetto style approach. So be really, really careful. And as I said, a negative Number two, a tedious journey. Well, tedious Means something that wears you out. And again, this has a negative Okay, so a very tedious journey So you're trying to get from Perhaps it may be in London or And you want to go to Vietnam or cities, and it takes you three And when you get to one airport, you've got to wait for two hours, and then you get to the next airport. You've got another wait for a And then finally you get there non-stop travelling and waiting. So you could describe that type of journey or that type of traveling as tedious, tedious journeys, tedious traveling where plenty of stops, plenty of problems, not a lot of sleep still in the same clothes as you started off twenty four hours ago, and you're really, really waiting and looking forward to find that hotel or that beach or wherever it is you're you're heading to. And hopefully at the end of that your end of that particular bit more refreshed. Okay. A tedious journey. Next, a panoramic view. Well, we all love to have our holidays, and a panoramic stand on top of a hill or a look around you at this And panoramic means it spreads degrees left to right, and you So if you're standing on some little watch tower looking out over the Grand Canyon, or you're standing on top of some elevated site where you're looking over the mountains, the river, the valley that gives you a panoramic view of the city or a panoramic view of the countryside. So as it suggests, very beautiful and therefore very, very positive. My hotel was situated in a lonely spot with a panoramic view of the countryside surrounding it. Okay, so you can get up onto the Or you might even be at the the you've got a wonderful, your balcony a panoramic view. Next luxurious accommodation. Well, this is what you get in five star or even some four star hotels. Luxurious accommodation. It's not just an ordinary room. Perhaps it's a suite of rooms Or it could be family rooms. You have a mini bar, you have a beautiful bathroom larger than most. You've got a bath and a shower, You've got a beautiful long pool or looking out to the sea. So this is what you would call indeed not only in your throughout the hotel. The accommodation is something There might be a spa for the the indoor swimming pool, the verandas, the balconies, the This is what you would consider Now you usually have to pay for It usually costs a lot of money and you might say to your friends, well, look, it was worth it. It was the honeymoon. We paid top dollar for this. It's a really fine five star suggest and recommend it to any But yeah, it's luxurious, but Once in a lifetime possibility. Okay. Luxurious accommodation and be Luxurious to get that sound. Luxurious. Luxurious. Now at the opposite end of the And we've all been there. We've all been in the hotel not up to scratch. It wasn't what you were So this again has negative You ring for room service. You can't get through to You put your shoes back on, you drag yourself down to the reception area and you ask, is it possible to have room service? Of course sir. Yeah, we'll send it right up. Yeah. Twenty minutes later, no sign of Thirty minutes later, no sign of Eventually somebody comes with a at, and you don't see anything But you eventually order a bowl of soup and a coffee or a Coke or something. And yes, you have to wait another forty minutes for it to be delivered. Okay, so real poor service or as you would. Hope you're there for three or the city is really busy, you another hotel, so you're really But the service isn't really So yeah, you can complain, but Yeah, you have to put up with It makes you appreciate the good So poor service. Next far flung location. Sounds nice, doesn't it? A far flung location to fling F l I n g is to throw it as far Okay, so the the that third participle, far flung means some location really, really far away. Okay, so this could have both connotations if you really want else, when of course, this is these eco style holidays in a or some island of the the most Yeah, this could be a far flung destination, but you might not And when you get there and you airport on the bus to the hotel, going to take. You've been sitting on the bus now for over two hours, and when you eventually get to the hotel, there's absolutely nothing around it. It's surrounded by forest. Or perhaps, as we said in the some desolate areas. And what you was you were expecting to be a really good location. Turns out not to be something So this could be the negative side of a far flung destination or location. For me, a far flung location I really love it and to to the peace and tranquility that Locations, a quaint village. Well, we've all driven through or stopped off at a quaint village when we've been driving or on holidays from time to time. And a quaint village is that little old fashioned, that antiquated style. That doesn't seem to have you see of these little villages biscuits, for example. Yeah, old style Victorian for the the people of England And on the front you get this lovely painted view of a little village with little cottages with roses growing on the outside. So this would be regarded as a quaint village, so quite antiquated, a little bit old fashioned. Sometimes we say a little bit Yeah, but something nice. Everything is clean. The streets are clean, the the gardens are looked after. So everything is really, really So a quaint village, a quaint village in the Cotswolds of the UK. Something nice to visit for Next door a raw deal. Raw means like raw meat. It's uncooked. Or it's not what you had Okay, so when you get a raw deal, it's very definitely negative. Okay, so, you know, you might have booked the hotel a few months ago and didn't pay much attention. Then when you get onto the plane and you're talking to somebody sitting beside you and they're asking you where you're staying, and you tell them, they go, mm, I haven't heard of that hotel before. Are you sure it's in this, um, Yeah, yeah, I booked it a couple So you get off the plane, you get onto the bus, and you're the last stop when they take you from the the airport to the different hotels. And yeah, you've got a bit of a raw deal here because when you look at the hotel, it looks half finished. It is really the last stop distance away from the city. So if you're going to go down to where the nightlife is, you're probably going to have to get a taxi. It's certainly not certainly not in the middle of the night. So you're going to have to pay money to get there, and you're going to have to pay money to get back. So you've got a little bit of a Okay. So a raw deal means something as well as you thought. You're getting the worst part of Okay. So a raw deal in travel terms Okay, a raw deal, next. Impeccable service. So we had before poor service. So again, going to the other end impeccable is usually something cannot be bettered. You just get the best, you know? So it might not be a four star It doesn't have to be. But if the service is impeccable, then it's service that you could look at just as good as, or even better than you might get in a much more expensive hotel. So impeccable service. You arrive at the hotel, you're They know your name? Yes. We've been expecting you, sir. Leave your luggage there. We'll bring it up to your room. Good sign. So everything is working just So you put it to the test. You press the button. Room service? Yeah. This is room two for one. I'd like to order a gin and tonic and a toasted ham and cheese sandwich. Yes, sir. We'll have it there in ten Ten minutes later, knock on the Toasted ham and cheese sandwich. Gin and tonic. And a small bowl of fruit. Just for something you didn't But it's given to you there as So impeccable service room Breakfast ready when you want it fast checkout service if you want it. The guest connection to the back to the hotel, impeccable service. And then finally number ten, the Well, when when we talk about unwary travelers, we often talk about innocent travelers, people who haven't perhaps done a lot of traveling themselves in the past, and therefore, from time to time they can be taken advantage of. So, for example, the unwary market and he gets his pocket that he should be careful when markets or when he goes to buy original leather bag or leather more than useless rubber, and Okay, so, you know, you have to the unwary traveler needs to be happen and people can try to Okay, so the weary traveler Needs to make sure he's got flip some broken glass or something We might cut his foot. So if you're experienced and know the sort of pitfalls that And yet we've all been there for And you can be the unwary Not quite sure what you should I was an unwary traveler once. My first journey to Hong Kong. Many, many, many, many, many Yeah. I got a connection flight from Um, I was there in plenty of Unfortunately, my luggage didn't And when I arrived in Hong Kong, I was there for a week. My luggage arrived three days I spent a fortune getting clothes for my business meetings from the Sunday to the Wednesday. My luggage arrived. But yeah, in those days I was I had no coat with me. I forgot that when I arrived it So when I got to my first meeting, I looked like a wet dog. And it wasn't a pleasant Yeah, okay, so I can look back But that's a good example of an Okay, so let's go through those Ten Advanced collocations One desolate area, definitely negative two tedious journey again. Negative. Panoramic view. Positive. Luxurious accommodation. Definitely positive. Poor service of course. Negative. Far flung locations. Neutral can be negative. It could be positive. A quaint village, very Something you want to get a Negative. Impeccable service. Top of the list. Very positive. And finally the unwary traveler. Well, if you get caught out, But if you're a little bit under their wing and show you could be a positive. Okay. Hopefully you've enjoyed those. You understand what they mean. Try to put a few of them into And as always, if you want to suggestions or help or some more listen to them. And you can contact me on And of course, if you want lessons you want to prepare for is, then you can find me and all You can contact me for a free trial and I'll give you that particular trial. And we've got the teachers ready, willing and able to help you. Okay. Well, as always, thanks for Join me again soon.