Travel Talk

Where have you traveled ? or travelled ??

Where have you been ? Where have you visited ? Countries, cities, regions – as tourism students most of you enjoy traveling, and love to discuss the places you’ve seen and the cultures you’ve experienced. This lesson is to help you become more acquainted with the correct grammar of discussing your travel history.

Travel, Trips, Cruises, Vacations
There are many ways to describe travel. In English, a journey is usually a long period of time. For example, a journey abroad would be more than one month somewhere, with more than one destination.

A vacation is normally a trip taken with the main concern being leisure. In British English, this is known as a ‘holiday’. For Americans, a holiday is: any day of exemption from work. In America, you normally have two weeks vacation time per year, so it's important to relax during this time. You want to relax and enjoy your time in a 'laid-back' fashion. You can have a vacation that takes you to more than one place, and takes over a month. It the purpose of the vacation that makes it a vacation or holiday, and not a journey.

“I was on vacation in Florida last week.”
“We took a vacation last month to Canada.”
“The French are always on holidays the month of August.”

A trip is usually to list one destination. For example,

"We took a trip to New York City for the weekend."
Road-trip is taken in a car, truck, van or camper/RV.
"We took a cross-country road-trip to California on Route 66, it was a real journey."

Cruises are pretty obvious, they are on a boat. They can be for a multitude of reasons. There is Cruises for Senior Citizens, focusing on an age-group with similar interests. Cruises for single people, looking to date while on the Cruise. Family Cruises, Adventure Cruises, Sight-Seeing Cruises (to Alaska for example.)

"Journeys & Voyages"

A journey is often seen as being a long trip with multiple stops.
I took a backpacking trip to Europe. It was a real journey.
Marco Polo journeyed to China and back again.

A voyage is similar to a journey, being very long, but on a boat.
Christopher Columbus took a voyage across the Atlantic to discover "the West Indies".