Useful English Adjectives for Talking About Travel [511]

🚨Improve your English with structured online lessons. Book a free trial and get clear feedback on your level, pronunciation and speaking. Book here ➡️  https://www.englishlessonviaskype.com/trial

In this episode, you’ll learn descriptive adjectives that help you talk about travel experiences more clearly. Instead of using very general words, you’ll build more precise vocabulary to describe places, trips, and experiences. I explain how these adjectives are used in real situations so you can speak with more detail and confidence.

Whether you’re talking about travel, holidays, or life’s most unforgettable memories, these descriptive English words and collocations will add depth and accuracy to your speaking and writing. Improve your English fluency today with practical examples and real-life contexts!

If you often hesitate, make mistakes, or feel unsure when speaking English, book a trial lesson. We assess your level, correct you clearly, and give you a focused plan so you know exactly what to improve.

Book a free trial here: https://www.englishlessonviaskype.com/trial

If you prefer to study on your own, explore our online courses. They give you structured lessons to build stronger grammar, clearer pronunciation, and more confident speaking step by step

Discover all courses and guides: https://englishlessonviaskype.com/confidence

Transcript

0:09

Hi there, this is Harry. Welcome back to Advanced English Lessons with Harry, where I try to help you to get a better understanding of the English language, to help you with your conversational skills, your business English skills, interview skills, whatever your goals are, we're here to help. And for those of you and your friends or family who want one-to-one lessons, well, you know what to do. Just get in touch, 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 this lesson is about advanced English adjectives that we would use to describe travel. Okay, so I'll go through them one by one. I actually have 10 of them and I'll give you some examples as to how you can use them and co-locations as to how to use them with nouns. So we're talking about adjectives. Okay, so when can we use them? Well, when something is impressive, it really leaves an impression on your mind. You remember it for a long time. So the hotel you go to is a five-star hotel that you've booked. It's an impressive hotel or the reception area is an impressive room. Or the service you get in the restaurant was really impressive. You were really impressed by how quickly they served you and what they knew about the food and everything was really, really amazing. So we can talk about impressive service, an impressive room, or indeed an impressive hotel. Now, we mightn't refer to a person as impressive, but we could if we're doing or having an interview. He was a very impressive person at the interview. He impressed me a lot. Here we're talking about travel, so we'd be talking about the look of the hotel, the service in the hotel, or the look of the reception, the deco and how it looked being impressive. Remarkable. Yeah? Now, remarkable could be an experience when you went to visit some museum. What a remarkable museum it is. It's got full of interesting facts, things that I hadn't really known about. So you could describe that experience visiting the museum as remarkable or visiting the art gallery as really remarkable. Perhaps there's some particular painter attached historically to that particular area and when you go to visit the art gallery with his name, there's lots of information. So wow, it's quite remarkable about his style and the way he did things. I really didn't know anything about him before I visited that particular gallery. Or the museum is a remarkable exhibition of old coins or clothing or things, relics that have been found in this particular area. So the information I got was really remarkable. I can use it in my lessons for my students in the history classes. Okay, so something really, really remarkable. Superb. Well, we can often use this to describe food. So if you're going to a five-star hotel, you'd expect that the food and the menu would be very, very good. So when somebody asks you, well, what was the food like? Oh, it was superb, superb food every night. There was always the chef's choice on the menu. And yeah, that was particularly on the Tuesday, that was really superb. The meat was cooked to perfection. How they serve it, how they dress the tables, how they present it. Yeah, superb is the only word I could use to describe it. So if I wanted one word to describe the holiday, superb, super wonderful, amazing. Astonishing. Well, astonishing is something that shocks us or surprises us in a positive way. So the use of the word astonishing when we're traveling could be to do with experiences. It could be to do with something that we see. It could do with the amount of time that you have. For example, when you get up in the morning and you go down for breakfast, they have a really, as we said before, superb menu. They've got a beautiful buffet laid out and the food is excellent. And it's astonishing how much food you can eat when you're on holiday. So you were nice and relaxed. And when you came down, you sat there for almost an hour in the restaurant enjoying a beautiful coffee, freshly squeezed orange juice, a couple of little plates of croissants and other nice toasts, things you would never eat when you were at home. So it was astonishing how much food I actually ate, but I didn't put on any weight because I got plenty of exercise. That was also astonishing. I was astonished that I didn't put on any weight. So I was astonished or was astonishing that I didn't put on any weight. It was astonishing the amount of food that I actually ate. Really good quality, but you know, I really, really enjoyed it. Astonishing. Stunning. Now, we often use this word stunning to do with views, and particularly if you're on a holiday or if you're traveling, then you will be very interested and hopeful that a lot of the views that you will see, you could be able to describe them as stunning. So for example, if you were standing at the top of Niagara Falls, which I have done many times, the view is stunning. The extent to which the spray of the water travels up on the air and then blows across the street, that's quite stunning. The force of the water falling over the falls is also stunning. But there are lots and lots of other places around the world that people would equally describe as stunning. The first time, perhaps, that they go to Egypt and all the views that they have there, they would be certainly stunning. As soon as they see the pyramids, yeah, the size of them, the shape, yeah, stunning views. Or they're standing atop of Grand Canyon, looking down, that view would also be quite stunning. But it doesn't have to be something on such a grand scale as the Grand Canyon or the pyramids. You can be standing on top of a mountain and the skies are blue and you can look down over a valley. Nobody else might know much about it, but to you, that particular view could be stunning. So a stunning view. Okay. A stunning museum. We could also use it to that extent. The hotel was stunning, so we can use it to describe the hotel. So all of those co-locations. Now, we can also use stunning when we see somebody really, really beautiful, but here we're focusing just on travel. But you could say a stunning looking man or stunning looking woman. Okay, very, very beautiful. Dramatic. Well, dramatic means theatrical. Yeah, so dramatic, again, this could relate to views, that dramatic view. So if we go back to my point about Niagara Falls, looking at the depth when you look down, if you can stand on the edge and look down, it's quite dramatic because it goes straight down and the water falls down several hundred meters and then the spray comes back up again. Okay, so that's quite dramatic. Or if you get on the boat that goes underneath the waterfall, that is even more dramatic. So it could be a dramatic journey on the boat. It could be a dramatic view when you look down to see the force of the water and you hear that noise. It's quite deafening. You can't hear other people talking because of the force of the water. So that in itself would also be dramatic. Now, you could have a dramatic event. So something happened on your journey or your holiday. That could be quite dramatic. Perhaps if you're traveling by plane and the plane hits a bit of turbulence, as it can often happen, and the plane falls a bit of a distance and you get a bit of a shock, that could be quite dramatic. So the plane journey turned out to be dramatic. All's well and ends well and there were no problems, but yeah, a few people were really scared and they were shouting and screaming a little bit. So we could certainly describe the plane journey as dramatic. Exotic. Well, exotic could be a number of things. If you're going on a tropical island, then certainly the trees or the vegetation or the fruit could be described as exotic. Fruits that you wouldn't get when you're at home. A full list of exotic fruits, a list of exotic fruit drinks to enjoy. The whole experience walking on the golden white sands with palm trees hanging over the sands to provide you with some shelter and shade, that could also be described as exotic. So exotic trees, exotic plant and animal life, exotic fruits to enjoy in your evening while you're sitting by the pool. Exotic. An exotic location. So where did they go for the honeymoon? Or they picked some exotic location in the Caribbean. Unique. Unique means unusual or different or something special. Okay, so when you're on a journey or a holiday or traveling, then something unique is something perhaps that you haven't done before. Well going on a cruise ship for me would be a unique experience because I've never done it before. So a unique experience. So if you're traveling somewhere where you haven't been, well, it's going to be unique for me because I've never been to South America or I've never been to Asia. To enjoy some of the traditions, perhaps in Japan for when they have the tea ceremony, that could be unique. So a unique exhibition or a unique demonstration of the traditions, a unique tradition only known to the Japanese. So you could describe it in those ways and use unique connected or collocated with those particular nouns. Breathtaking. Again, this is usually about views, okay? So when you stand on that mountain, when you stand on that, at the top of that ridge, when you look down that waterfall, when you look across the expanse of the river, then all of those views would be breathtaking. Breathtaking view. Or if you've never been skiing before and then you get up to the top of this mountain at three or three and a half thousand meters and there's a vast expanse of white snow. Yeah, the sky is blue as it often is, the sun is shining. So you could say, wow, this is truly breathtaking. A breathtaking view, a breathtaking experience. Okay, so something that literally takes your breath away. You can't think of words to say. Everything is quite surprising, really, really, really good experience for you, something that you haven't experienced before. Breathtaking. And then finally, memorable. Well, memorable is all connected with the memory. What are you going to remember in the future? So we all go on holidays. Some of them could be forgettable because they weren't so interesting, or they were just average holidays, nice to get away, but nothing so memorable. So memorable means something that will last for a long time. It could be your honeymoon. Ah, yes, it was a memorable holiday. We spent a lot of money, but you know, it was wonderful, really memorable. Those memories will last for a long time. You went hiking, you climbed over a mountain, you visited places that you had never expected to see, and perhaps you'll never see them again. So these all add to the experience. All of them would be memorable, memorable experiences, memorable occasion, a dinner that was memorable because it was the first one of the holiday or the last one of the holiday, or perhaps it was one of these restaurants that are on these revolving restaurants at the top of towers. So you go up in a tower and an elevator, you go on this revolving tower. So as you're eating your meal, the tower revolves very slowly, but they can be memorable because if it's a clear night, you can see different places at different times and really, really enjoy it. And you can't wait until you get home to tell your friends about it. So memorable experiences. Okay, so these are all adjectives. They're advanced English adjectives, all connected to describing travel or travel experiences. So we can have impressive views, an impressive hotel. We can have a remarkable experience in a certain museum or gallery. Superb service, superb wine list. Astonishing views. Stunning views. Dramatic journey. A dramatic experience. A dramatic event. Exotic fruits, exotic animals, exotic trees, whatever. Unique experience. Unique show. A unique event. A unique country to visit. Something you had never experienced and probably never will experience again. Breathtaking, again, breathtaking views. Breathtaking scenery from the balcony of your hotel looking out on that sun-kissed beach with the water that's hardly rippling at all, a turquoise color. Really, really breathtaking. And then memorable. Overall, the whole holiday was memorable. Or that final dinner that you took me to at the top of that tower, really memorable. I will remember that for a long, long time. I'm glad we have all those photographs. Okay, so advanced English adjectives, all to do with travel and all to do with travel experiences. Okay, well, hopefully you can get to use some of those, try to practice them. If you need any more help, then you know where I am. And I really appreciate you watching and listening. As always, join me again soon. This is Harry signing off.