40 Travel and Tourism Collocations with Meanings and Examples

Hello, English learners! Knowing words such as flight, hotel, journey and holiday is useful, but fluent speakers do not usually use these words on their own. They combine them with particular verbs and adjectives to form natural expressions such as catch a flight, confirm a booking, budget accommodation and breathtaking views. These natural combinations are called collocations. Learning travel and tourism collocations will help you speak more naturally when discussing holidays, journeys and tourism. They are also particularly useful in B2 First and C1 Advanced speaking and writing tasks, where accurate and varied vocabulary can help you achieve a higher mark.

In this lesson, you will learn 40 useful travel and tourism collocations, organised into five practical categories.

Table of Contents

Planning and Booking a Trip

Collocation	Meaning	Example sentence
Book a flight	reserve a place on a particular flight	We booked a flight to Lisbon as soon as the dates were confirmed.
Reserve accommodation	arrange somewhere to stay before travelling	It is advisable to reserve accommodation before visiting the city in August.
Make a reservation	arrange to have a room, table or ticket kept for you	I made a reservation at a small restaurant overlooking the harbour.
Confirm a booking	check that a reservation has been officially accepted	The hotel emailed us to confirm our booking.
Cancel a booking	arrange for a reservation to be withdrawn	We had to cancel our booking because one of the children became ill.
Draw up an itinerary	prepare a detailed plan for a journey	Before leaving, we drew up an itinerary covering five European cities.
Take out travel insurance	buy insurance that protects you during a trip	You should take out travel insurance before going skiing abroad.
Book well in advance	make a reservation a long time before travelling	During peak season, it is best to book well in advance.

Flights and Transport

Collocation	Meaning	Example sentence
Catch a flight	arrive in time to travel on a particular flight	We left home at five in the morning to catch our flight.
Miss a connection	fail to catch the next flight, train or bus in a journey	Our first flight was delayed, so we missed our connection in Frankfurt.
Board a plane	get onto a plane before it leaves	Passengers began boarding the plane shortly after nine o’clock.
Take a direct flight	travel to a destination without changing planes	We decided to take a direct flight rather than change planes in Paris.
Catch a connecting flight	take another flight to continue a journey	We had just forty minutes to catch our connecting flight.
Take a long-haul flight	travel a long distance by air	Remember to move around regularly when taking a long-haul flight.
Face delays	experience interruptions that make a journey late	Travellers faced delays because of thick fog at the airport.
Get stuck in heavy traffic	be unable to move quickly because there are too many vehicles	We got stuck in heavy traffic on the way to the airport.

Accommodation

Collocation	Meaning	Example sentence
Book a room	reserve a hotel room or other place to stay	We booked a room in a family-run hotel near the old town.
Stay in budget accommodation	stay somewhere inexpensive	Students often stay in budget accommodation when travelling around Europe.
Choose self-catering accommodation	stay somewhere where you prepare your own meals	We chose self-catering accommodation because we wanted more flexibility.
Stay at a luxury resort	spend a holiday at an expensive holiday complex	They stayed at a luxury resort with several pools and a private beach.
Request a sea view	ask for a room overlooking the sea	We requested a sea view, but none of the rooms was available.
Stay on a full-board basis	stay somewhere where breakfast, lunch and dinner are included	The family stayed on a full-board basis for seven nights.
Check hotel availability	find out whether a hotel has free rooms	Before booking the flights, we checked hotel availability online.

Accommodation vocabulary

Self-catering accommodation usually includes cooking facilities, allowing guests to prepare their own food.

Full board normally includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Half board normally includes breakfast and one other main meal, usually dinner.

travel and tourism collocations

Sightseeing and Local Culture

Collocation	Meaning	Example sentence
Go sightseeing	visit interesting or famous places	We spent our first afternoon sightseeing in the city centre.
Take a guided tour	visit a place with someone who explains its history or importance	We took a guided tour of the castle and its gardens.
Visit tourist attractions	go to places that are popular with visitors	Most visitors spend at least two days exploring the main tourist attractions.
Explore historic landmarks	visit important buildings or places from the past	The walking tour gave us an opportunity to explore several historic landmarks.
Admire breathtaking views	look at extremely beautiful scenery	From the top of the hill, we admired breathtaking views of the coastline.
Enjoy stunning scenery	appreciate beautiful natural surroundings	The train journey allowed us to enjoy the stunning mountain scenery.
Try the local cuisine	eat food traditionally prepared in a particular area	One of the pleasures of travelling is trying the local cuisine.
Soak up the atmosphere	enjoy and absorb the feeling of a place	We sat outside a small café and soaked up the atmosphere of the old town.

Holiday Experiences and Travel Problems

Collocation	Meaning	Example sentence
Take a day trip	make a short journey and return on the same day	We took a day trip to a fishing village outside the city.
Go on a package holiday	take a holiday sold for one price, usually including transport and accommodation	They went on a package holiday to Greece.
Go on a cruise	take a holiday on a large passenger ship	My grandparents are going on a Mediterranean cruise next spring.
Go backpacking	travel independently with few belongings, usually on a limited budget	After university, she went backpacking around South America.
Travel light	take very little luggage with you	I prefer to travel light and take only hand luggage.
Experience culture shock	feel confused or uncomfortable in a very unfamiliar culture	He experienced culture shock during his first few weeks abroad.
Suffer from jet lag	feel tired after travelling rapidly across several time zones	I usually suffer from jet lag when I fly back from the United States.
Get travel sickness	become ill while travelling in a vehicle	My daughter sometimes gets travel sickness on winding roads.
Report lost luggage	officially tell an airline or company that your bags are missing	We went to the airline desk to report our lost luggage.

Common Travel Collocation Mistakes

Here are some mistakes that English learners often make.

Incorrect	Correct
do a reservation	make a reservation
lose a flight	miss a flight
take a hotel room	book a hotel room
make sightseeing	go sightseeing
do an itinerary	draw up or plan an itinerary
take travel insurance	take out travel insurance
strong traffic	heavy traffic
beautiful scenery view	beautiful scenery or a beautiful view

Travel, Trip or Journey?

These three words are connected, but they are not used in exactly the same way.

Travel

Travel usually refers to the general activity of going from one place to another. It is normally uncountable.

Travel broadens the mind.
Air travel has become more expensive.

We do not normally say a travel.

Trip

A trip is a visit to a place and usually includes the return journey.

We took a trip to Oxford.
How was your business trip?

Journey

A journey refers mainly to the process of travelling from one place to another.

The train journey took four hours.
We had a long and tiring journey.

B2 First and C1 Advanced Speaking Practice

Use the collocations from the lesson to answer these questions.

Do you prefer to draw up a detailed itinerary or make decisions after arriving?
What are the advantages of choosing self-catering accommodation?
Have you ever missed a connection or faced a serious travel delay?
Do you enjoy visiting popular tourist attractions, or do you prefer less crowded places?
What is the best way to soak up the atmosphere of a new city?
Would you prefer to go backpacking, take a cruise or stay at a luxury resort?
How important is it to take out travel insurance?
What advice would you give someone taking their first long-haul flight?

Writing Challenge

Write a short description of a memorable holiday or journey. Try to use at least eight collocations from the lesson.

You could mention:

how you planned and booked the trip;
the type of transport and accommodation you used;
the places you visited;
the food you tried;
any travel problems you experienced;
what made the trip memorable.

Model paragraph

Last summer, my friends and I booked a flight to Portugal and reserved accommodation in a small coastal town. We had drawn up a simple itinerary, but we also left plenty of time to relax and explore. During the trip, we took a guided tour of the old town, tried the local cuisine and admired breathtaking views of the Atlantic Ocean. Although we faced delays on our return journey and almost missed our connection, the holiday was still an unforgettable experience.

Would you like some extra practice with travel and tourism collocations? Download this free B2–C1 worksheet featuring 40 useful expressions, clear examples, quick checks, exam-style exercises, speaking questions, a writing task and a complete answer key. It is ideal for independent study, classroom use and Cambridge exam preparation.

Download Travel and Tourism Collocations Worksheet in PDF here

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40 Travel and Tourism Collocations with Meanings and Examples

Published by My Lingua Academy on 26 Jul 202526 Jul 2025