The Vocabulary Show: Travel ✈️✈️✈️ Learn 27 words and expressions about travel in 12 minutes!

Are you ready to learn the essential words, phrases, and idioms that you  

need for your next trip? Then buckle up, grab your passport and get ready for a 

trip around the globe as we take a deep dive into the world of travel vocabulary.

Our first phrase is 'itchy feet'. Now this does not mean that you need to scratch your feet; rather,

it's the feeling of being bored with your current life situation and wanting to travel, to explore,  

to try something new. It's that little voice in your head that says, "What if there's more to life  

than this? What if I'm missing out on something amazing?" Now, we often use 'itchy feet' with 'get' or  

'have'. After two years in the job Carly got itchy feet. So Kali has worked somewhere for two years  

and she's getting a little bored, and she starts feeling a strong desire to go somewhere new to  

try something different, to travel, to explore. Or we could say 'Muhammad has itchy feet again.'

So this sounds like Muhammad has travelled in the past, he's come back to a normal job,  

but he's starting to feel bored and he wants to explore somewhere new. So, if you've got itchy feet,

it might be time to grab your passport and get ready for a new adventure. Now, your passport is  

the identification document that you use to enter a new country. Once you have your passport, it's  

time to go to the airport and check in. 'Check-in' is when you arrive and register for a flight. 

This is also when you hand in your luggage, which is the suitcases and bags that you use to travel. 

Now remember, luggage is an uncountable noun. This means it doesn't matter how much luggage we have,

we do not add an 's'. We do not say 'luggages', we say 'three pieces of luggage'. Now that you have  

checked in your bags, let's head over to the departure lounge. The 'departure lounge' is the  

area where you go and sit and wait for your next flight. It often has food and drinks and  

maybe a place where you can buy magazines. When it's time for your flight, the flight attendant  

will tell you to go to your gate. The gate is the exit, the doorway, the passage from the airport  

to the plane, and often there will be a large number telling you what gate number it is.

Once you've gone to the gate, it is time to get on the flight and take off. Okay, so 'take off' can be a  

phrasal verb or a noun. Let's look at the phrasal verb first of all. 'Take off' as a phrasal verb means  

'to leave the ground', 'to depart', 'to get off the floor and move into the sky'. Quick example: 'Our  

flight is taking off in 30 minutes! We'd better run!' Quick tip: 'take off' is an inseparable phrasal  

verb. This means we always keep the words 'take' and 'off' together, and we never put an object in  

the middle. So we do not say 'the pilot took the plane off', for example. 'Takeoff' is also a noun, so  

you might hear the pilot say "Takeoff will begin in five minutes" or "Please prepare for takeoff."

Okay, you've arrived, you've shown your passport to border control, and you are in the new country.

Congratulations! What's the first thing we should do? Let's drop our bags off at the hotel and go  

exploring. 'To drop something or someone off' means 'to take it to a particular place before going  

somewhere else'. We use this a lot when travelling, because we often have to put important things like  

luggage or passport in the hotel or somewhere safe before we go travelling somewhere else. 'Drop off' is  

a separable phrasal verb, meaning we can put objects in the middle or at the end. So we can  

say either 'Let's drop off the bags at the hotel', or 'Let's drop the bags off at the hotel'. Now the  

type of hotel you are staying at will depend on whether you are travelling on a shoestring budget  

or whether you want to splurge out. If you are traveling 'on a shoestring', it means you are  

travelling with very little money. So, for example, 'After losing her wallet, Terry was travelling on  

a shoestring'. You can also add the word 'budget' to make it clearer. For example, 'We had to travel on a  

shoestring budget'. We commonly use this phrase to talk about travelling, but we can also use  

it in other contexts. For example, 'Mal started his business on a shoestring budget'. Or, 'Many  

students live on a shoestring budget'. If we have a little money but more than on a shoestring, we can  

say we are travelling 'on a budget'. Now remember, in British English we spell 'travelling' with two  

Ls and in American English this spell it with one L. But maybe you don't want to travel on the  

cheap. You have worked hard all year, and you would like to spend some of your money on a fancy hotel.

What do we say then? When we spend a lot of money on something we can say we 'splurge' on it.

'Splurge' is the verb, and 'splurge out'  is the phrasal verb, and both mean 'to  

spend an unusually large amount of money on something - to spend more on something than you  

usually would'. For example, 'It's Valentine's Day! Let's splurge out on an expensive meal!'

'Splurge' can also be a noun. 'I went  on a splurge and I spent a fortune.'  

Going on holiday can be expensive can't it? Let's go and get some cash. What do we call this machine  

by here? Well, it depends on where in the world you are. In American English, they call it an  

ATM; however, in British English we can call it a card machine, a bank machine or a cash machine,  

and all have the same meaning, and it's the place where you take out your money. All of these are  

fine and have the same basic meaning. So we've dropped off our bags, we have got our cash and  

we are ready to explore. Let's go sightseeing! 'Sightseeing' is a gerund and it means 'the act  

of visiting places of interest'. So if you went sightseeing in London, you might go and see Big Ben, 

Buckingham Palace, or the London Eye, for example. We often use 'sightseeing' with 'go' or 'do some'.

'Let's go sightseeing!'

Or, 'Su-min wants to do some sightseeing in Seoul'. So, you've taken a look around the city and you've  

done some good sightseeing, but now it's time to act and eat and travel like the local people do.

After all: 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do!' This is a proverb which means that you should follow  

the rules and traditions and customs and behaviour of the place that you are visiting. 

The full expression is 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do', but usually we just say 'When in Rome'.  

Now an important note: It doesn't matter where in the world we are. We always say 'When in Rome'. If  

we're in Amsterdam, we don't say 'When in Amsterdam'. If we're in Tokyo, we don't say 'When in Tokyo'. We  

always say 'When in Rome', to show that we should follow the local traditions and cultures. Wow, what  

a long day! All this sightseeing has made you tired, surprisingly so! You don't usually feel this tired 

at six o'clock. You left home in the evening 12 hours ago, and now it is still evening. Your  

body clock doesn't understand what's going on. So what do we call this feeling of tiredness when  

we travel across time zones? We call it 'jet lag' and this is that extreme tiredness or sometimes  

sickness that you feel when you travel a long distance by plane, and you go across time zones,

and your body clock doesn't quite understand where you are. We often use' jet lag' with 'get'  

or 'have'. 'I got bad jet lag after my flight to Australia' or 'I had jet lag for two days after  

my flight'. We can also use it with 'suffering from'. 'Jenna isn't coming to the party tonight.  

She's still suffering from jet lag'. You spend the next few days enjoying the rest of your holiday  

but then at some point it's time for the return leg. Booo! The 'return leg' is the flight home from  

your holiday. You might also hear this called the 'return journey', the 'flight home' or the 'flight back'.

Oh no! You're back home, you're back in work and you're wishing you were back on holiday again.  

You must be suffering from a case of the 'post-holiday blues'. This is when you feel sad  

after returning from a long holiday or trip. You miss the good times, you miss the freedom, you are  

lethargic, or bored, or not in a good mood, because you miss that holiday spirit. Of course, in  

America they call a trip away from home a 'vacation', so they call this feeling the 'post-vacation blues'.  

But, bad times don't last forever. Now that you've been bitten by the travel bug, you  

can start planning for your next trip. If you have the 'travel bug', you have a strong desire to travel  

again. We often say that people 'catch the travel bug', or that they have been 'bitten by the travel  

bug', or maybe you've had enough holidaying for one year and your next holiday is going to be  

a 'staycation'. This is a portmanteau of 'stay' and 'vacation' and it means for your days off  

you will stay in your home or in your local area, and maybe take small day trips around your local  

town or city. It is a holiday that does not need overnight accommodation, as you are staying in your  

own home. For example, 'Due to the cost of living crisis, this year we'll be having a staycation'.  

This is a relatively new and informal word. You might also hear it called a 'holistay'.

Okay, thanks for traveling with  BBC Learning English Airlines.  

We hope you had a wonderful flight and a wonderful journey, and that it was educational and fun. On the  

side here you can see all the words that we have learned today. Be sure to use and practice them  

so they are put into your long-term memory. If you enjoyed this language journey please  

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English practice to give your English that boost that you need. Bon voyage! See you next time!