Travel Ready
Check in, find your gate, book a room, and sort out a lost bag — politely, in Spanish, out loud.
With airport and hotel staff, use usted — it's the register they expect, and staying polite gets you further when something goes wrong. A handful of phrases carry most trips: ¿me puede ayudar?, tengo una reservación a nombre de…, and no encuentro mi maleta. Watch the regional word for your ticket — el boleto in Mexico, el billete in Spain — and use estar for locations: ¿dónde está el metro?, never ¿dónde es?.
Below: the phrases for each leg of the trip, what locals really say, the slips that trip travellers up — and a way to rehearse a hotel check-in out loud before you land.
Say this
Regional Spanish
Textbooks teach one word. Locals use several — pick your region's and stay consistent.
| English | Mexico | Argentina |
|---|---|---|
| window seat | la ventanilla | el asiento de ventana |
| room | el cuarto | la pieza |
| subway | el metro | el subte |
Watch out
The part no phrase list can do
Isabella
Your conversation teacher for this pack
In the Travel Ready pack, the last lesson drops you at a hotel reception desk late at night — and Isabella is the receptionist on the evening shift: calm, formal, strictly usted, and she writes your room number on a little card before she hands over the key. You're tired from the flight, you need to confirm your reservation and ask about breakfast — and your suitcase never came off the belt. You have to sort it all out. Out loud. And she talks back:
Blank mid-sentence and nothing bad happens — she waits. That's the practice, without unnecessary judgement.
Finish the 6 lessons and Travel Ready is yours — earned, not given.
First 10 lessons free · 10-minute spoken lessons · your AI coaching team remembers you
Quick answers
Usted. With airport, customs, and hotel staff the formal register is standard, and it keeps you calm and polite when something goes wrong. Soften requests with ¿me puede…? rather than a blunt quiero.
No encuentro mi maleta, creo que se perdió — I can't find my bag, I think it got lost. At the baggage desk, add your flight details and ask ¿cuándo me la pueden entregar? (when can you deliver it?).
Both mean ticket — it's regional. Mexico and most of Latin America say el boleto; Spain says el billete. Either is understood, so pick your destination's word and stay consistent.
Use estar for location: ¿dónde está la estación de metro más cercana? (where's the nearest subway station?). For a bus, ¿este autobús va al museo? — does this bus go to the museum? A common slip is ¿dónde es el metro?; location takes estar, not ser.
Keep it short: vengo de turista, por una semana (I'm here as a tourist, for a week) and no tengo nada que declarar (nothing to declare). And beware a classic trap — estoy embarazada means pregnant, not embarrassed; say qué pena instead.
