Theme 2.4: Travel and Tourism - Listening Comprehension
Listening comprehension for Theme 2.4 (Travel and tourism) tests whether a student can follow spoken Spanish that recounts a past holiday or describes future travel plans, extracting destinations, dates, transport, accommodation, activities, weather and any problems encountered. The examiner is checking that a student can follow an extended preterite narrative (fuimos, alquilamos, perdimos el vuelo) describing what actually happened, distinguish it from future or conditional plans (iremos, me gustaría visitar), and catch specific numbers such as flight times, prices and dates, including cases where a speaker corrects one of these details.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- In the reading time, decide whether each question is about a past holiday, a future/planned trip, or an opinion/preference, since travel recordings often move through all three within one passage.
- Predict travel vocabulary before the recording starts: el vuelo (flight), el alojamiento (accommodation), hacer las maletas (to pack), perder el vuelo (to miss the flight), el billete de ida y vuelta (return ticket).
- Track the preterite endings that mark a completed holiday event: -amos/-imos (fuimos, alquilamos, visitamos) for 'we' actions, and -é/-í (perdí, llegué) for 'I' actions; these tell you the trip already happened, as opposed to 'vamos a ir' or 'iremos', which describe a future plan.
- Catch every number connected to travel: flight times, dates, prices in euros or a Latin American currency (pesos, soles), and the length of stay (nos quedamos diez días); write the figure down immediately, since a second number of the same type, such as two different prices, often follows shortly after.
- Listen for problems and their outcome: perdimos el vuelo (we missed the flight), se perdió el equipaje (the luggage got lost) and canceló el vuelo (the flight was cancelled) are common exam scenarios, usually followed by what the traveller did next (así que tuvimos que..., por eso...).
- Note weather and activity vocabulary together, since a speaker will often link the two: hacía mucho calor, así que fuimos a la playa (it was very hot, so we went to the beach).
- Expect Latin American destinations and currencies alongside Spanish ones (el peso mexicano, el sol peruano, el bolívar), seseo affecting words like 'excursión' or 'plaza' which sound identical to a version spelled with an s throughout, and 'ustedes' used for a group where Peninsular Spanish would use 'vosotros'.
- When a speaker self-corrects a date, price or length of stay (nos quedamos una semana... bueno, en realidad diez días), take the corrected, final figure as your answer.
Worked example
You hear Natalia describing her summer holiday. Transcript: 'El verano pasado fuimos a Perú con mi familia. Volamos a Lima y luego cogimos un autobús a Cuzco, un viaje de unas veinte... perdón, veintidós horas. Nos quedamos en un hostal barato, que costaba solo cuarenta soles la noche. Un día perdimos la excursión a Machu Picchu porque el autobús llegó tarde, así que tuvimos que reservar otra para el día siguiente. Hacía bastante frío por las noches, así que menos mal que llevé un abrigo.' Answer in English: (a) Which two places are mentioned in the journey? (b) How long was the bus journey? (c) What went wrong with the excursion, and what did they do about it? (d) What was the weather like at night, and how did Natalia cope?
- Reading time: underline 'which places', 'how long', 'what went wrong/what did they do' and 'weather/how did she cope' as the four targets.
- Catch the place names in order: flew to Lima, then bus to Cuzco - both needed for part (a).
- Catch the self-correction on the journey length: veinte... perdón, veintidós horas - the corrected answer is twenty-two hours, not twenty.
- Follow the cause-and-result pair perdimos la excursión...porque el autobús llegó tarde, así que tuvimos que reservar otra: they missed the Machu Picchu excursion because the bus was late, so they had to book another one for the next day.
- Identify hacía bastante frío por las noches (it was quite cold at night) and the result clause menos mal que llevé un abrigo (thankfully she brought a coat) as the answer to the weather/coping question.
Practice questions
Try each question, then tap to reveal the answer.
Q1Give the Spanish for 'to miss the flight' and 'the return ticket'.Show answer
Answer: Perder el vuelo; el billete de ida y vuelta.
Q2What is the difference between 'fuimos a España' and 'vamos a ir a España'?Show answer
Answer: 'Fuimos a España' (preterite) means 'we went to Spain', a completed past trip; 'vamos a ir a España' (near future) means 'we are going to go to Spain', a future plan.
Q3Translate: 'Se nos perdió el equipaje en el aeropuerto.'Show answer
Answer: Our luggage got lost at the airport.
Q4You hear 'Nos quedamos en un hotel de cuatro estrellas que costaba ochenta euros la noche.' What two pieces of information does this give?Show answer
Answer: It was a four-star hotel, and it cost eighty euros a night.
Q5A speaker mentions 'el sol' as a currency. Which country does this suggest, and what should 'el sol' not be confused with?Show answer
Answer: Peru, the sol is the Peruvian currency; it should not be confused with 'el sol' meaning 'the sun'.
Q6Translate the plan: 'El año que viene me gustaría visitar Argentina.'Show answer
Answer: Next year I would like to visit Argentina.
Q7You hear 'Perdimos el vuelo porque llegamos tarde al aeropuerto.' What caused what?Show answer
Answer: Arriving late at the airport caused them to miss the flight.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a GCSE Spanish exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Transcript of the recording: Escucha a Bruno hablar de sus vacaciones. 'El año pasado fui de vacaciones a México con mis padres. Volamos a Cancún y nos quedamos en un hotel todo incluido durante ocho... espera, nueve días. El vuelo costó unos setecientos euros por persona. Un día hubo una tormenta muy fuerte y cancelaron una excursión a las ruinas mayas, lo cual fue una pena, pero al día siguiente hizo sol y pudimos ir a la playa todo el día. Lo que más me gustó fue probar la comida local, sobre todo los tacos.' Answer the following in English: (a) Where did Bruno go on holiday, and with whom? (2 marks) (b) How many days did they stay, and how much did the flight cost per person? (2 marks) (c) What happened to the excursion, and why? (2 marks) (d) What did Bruno enjoy the most? (1 mark)
Show mark scheme
Tick each line you got. Your score builds from the marks on the scheme.
Nothing ticked yet - 7 available
Transcript of the recording: Escucha a Camila hablar de un problema de viaje. 'El verano pasado viajamos a Buenos Aires en avión. Al llegar, nos dimos cuenta de que se había perdido una maleta, la mía... no, en realidad la de mi hermano. Tuvimos que ir a la oficina de la aerolínea y esperar casi dos horas. Al final, nos devolvieron la maleta al día siguiente, y la aerolínea nos dio cien dólares como compensación. A pesar del problema, lo pasamos genial: visitamos varios museos y comimos un asado buenísimo.' Answer the following in English: (a) What happened when they arrived, and whose bag was it, after the correction? (2 marks) (b) How long did they have to wait at the airline office? (1 mark) (c) What did the airline do the next day, and what compensation did they receive? (2 marks) (d) Despite the problem, how does Camila describe the trip, and give one thing they did. (2 marks)
Show mark scheme
Tick each line you got. Your score builds from the marks on the scheme.
Nothing ticked yet - 7 available
See real GCSE Spanish past-paper questions, with official mark schemes →
Free printable worksheet
Want more practice on paper? Download the theme 2.4: travel and tourism - listening comprehension worksheet pack - 5 pages of exam-style questions with a full mark scheme. One email opens every download in this browser for 14 days - no account, no card. Print it for personal and classroom use.
Next topics
Not quite what you needed?
Tell us what is missing on theme 2.4: travel and tourism - listening comprehension, or which topic to write up next. Every request is read, and we reply to every one.
Build a full practice pack.
This topic is one of hundreds in the library - pick the ones a student needs and generate a printable PDF in minutes.