languages & travel

Language travel

Going on a language trip is a great way to boost your language skills, get experience abroad and meet new friends. You can go anywhere, from England to Hawaii via China, South Africa and Costa Rica. Our language trips are personalized and with more than 50 years of experience in organizing language trips you can trust us for the adventure of a lifetime. Get in touch so we can discuss your options.

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The summer of your life

Surfing, beach volley, city tours – and much more. Our full packed activities and excursion program helps you learn a language abroad while having fun. On a language trip with EF there’s never a dull moment so get ready to soak up the sun and dive in!

International friends

From lively discussions in the classroom to organized social events – we are passionate about introducing our international students to each other. On your language trip you will make new friends from the whole world that will broaden your horizon.

Improve your language skills

On a language trip with EF you will learn from the best, most experienced teachers. You will also learn outside the classroom while having fun with your new friends, having dinner with your host family or interacting with the locals.

Why EF is the best choice for your language trip

• Experienced staff: We have more than 50 years’ experience of language travel organization. Our friendly EF-staff takes care of the practicalities so that you can enjoy your adventure abroad. We help you with all your questions and support you all the way from departure to when you return.
• Advance faster: We guarantee that you’ll advance one course level every six weeks when you attend all your classes and complete every assignment. Our innovative EF Method ensures that you make maximum progress in your language learning development – otherwise you’ll study for free until you do. EF can also help you prepare for and take official language proficiency exams like the TOEFL, IELTS, DALF and DELE.
• Globally accredited: Our language trips are accredited by some of the world’s leading organizations for higher education, including British council, NEA, ISA and ACCET. Our international summer schools are recognized by organizations like WYSET, CEN and Mentor Foundation.

Frequently asked questions

Where can i go on a language trip.

 Regardless of whether you want to learn English in the metropolis of London or brush up on your foreign language skills on the beach in San Diego - EF offers all participants a wide range of language travel destinations worldwide. EF now has 50 accredited language schools in 20 countries. However, the most popular course locations are by far:

• Language courses in England
• Language courses in the USA
• Language courses in Malta
• Language trip to Spain
• Language trip to France

How old do I have to be to go on a language trip?

EF offers language travel for all ages, from young children to teenagers, university students and adults. When you travel with us you will meet people your own age and enjoy an amazing experience both in and outside of the classroom together. Learn more about our different language trips here:

• Language trips for children
• Language trips for teenagers
• Language trips for university students
• Language trips for adults

Is it safe to go on a language trip?

When you travel with EF, it's "EF All the way".  Our staff is there for you from departure to return – our students’ comfort and safety is always our top priority. The EF office in your home country as well as the local staff at your EF destination supports you throughout your entire journey and will show you the best time at your destination. 

Where will I stay during my language trip?

• Host family: Anyone who not only wants to learn the language abroad but also want to live it should choose a host family. This gives you an insight into the local culture, learns colloquial expressions and returns with an authentic accent. All of our language trips include the cost of living with a local host family including half board.
• EF Campus: In various course locations we offer the option of living directly in the language school on our language trips. Course participants live there together with other students from over 100 countries in a dynamic everyday campus life.
• EF residence: Students who do not want to live directly in the school but still want to live close to the center can book the EF dormitory as an accommodation option on our language trips. Depending on the chosen course location, there is WiFi, communal kitchens, a lounge and much more in the dormitories.
• Apartments: Students and adults in particular prefer more independence when taking a language trip. For this reason we offer single or double rooms in our selected apartments.
• Hotels: Optionally, course participants who want to enjoy comfort, privacy and all-round service on a language trip can also book one of our partner hotels as an accommodation option. 

How much is a language trip?

At EF, we only offer you high-quality language courses that are tailored to your personal wishes and needs. The price therefore not only includes the EF language course, but also accommodation in a host family / residence, on-site catering (at least half-board) and all-round care before, during and after your language trip. Our supervised group language trips for children and schoolchildren also include the flight to the host country and the airport transfer.

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The 16 Most Helpful Languages for Travelers to Learn

Travel and language were made for each other.

If you need reasons to learn a foreign language , travel is definitely a good one.

In fact, travelers have more reason than just about anyone else to learn a new language!

If you dream of going to far-off lands and speaking with the locals like it’s nothing, then this post is for you.

Keep reading for the best languages to learn for travel, why you should learn one and how to do it.

3. Mandarin Chinese

8. portuguese, 9. cantonese, 11. indo-malay, 12. hindustani, 13. bengali, 15. swahili, other world languages to learn for travel, why travelers should study languages, how to learn a language for travel, and one more thing....

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Most useful in: Every continent, but North America and Europe in particular

As you’re probably well aware, English is the modern world’s lingua franca .

Throughout the last century, English has grown in international importance. Though it stemmed from Britain’s colonial conquests, it also owes much of its global prominence to American imperialism.

English is less varied throughout North America , and most speakers should understand just about everything they hear from the most remote parts of Canada to either coast of the U.S., though English could also be called “the European traveler’s best friend.”

Thanks to high levels of education and a decidedly global outlook, English is particularly handy in Europe. You shouldn’t expect to get into deep philosophical debates in Italian coffee shops or Russian bars, but you can count on finding enough English speakers to at least give you basic assistance and a little company in nearly every large city throughout the continent.

In fact, throughout most parts of the world frequented by tourists , people understand at least a few basic English travel phrases .

Most useful in: South and Central America, Europe

Spanish is another handy world language for travelers in Europe. Outside Spain, its commonalities with Portuguese and Italian will help you get through its southern European neighbors as well.

Where Spanish really shines, however, is in Latin America —it’s the unifying force from the Rio Grande to Patagonia and beyond. Additionally, most Spanish-speaking travelers will find Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, California and South Florida all relatively easy to navigate in Spanish; most large North American cities have sizable Hispanic populations, as well.

Don’t get discouraged if you learn the language and can’t understand it in some regions. Parts of the Caribbean and the Southern Cone of South America are notoriously difficult for non-natives and even some native Spanish speakers to understand.

One should also be forewarned that remote areas of the Americas, especially in southern Mexico and Andean countries, may lack Spanish speakers entirely and instead have large populations who speak an indigenous language as their first (and possibly only) language.

Some pre-trip classes or just a few important Spanish phrases will be majorly helpful in these parts of the world.

Most useful in: East Asia

As not only the language with the most speakers in the world but also the official state language of the largest country in Asia, Mandarin Chinese is an obvious big name on this list.

Many visitors to China arrange to take organized tours, often led by Mandarin-speaking officials. While English tours are certainly available, speaking a bit of Chinese will almost certainly ingratiate you to your guide and any locals you get a chance to meet.

For the even more adventurous, a sturdy level of Mandarin will help you navigate the enormous country of China more independently, although you’ll find there are a vast amount of dialects with varying degrees of mutual intelligibility.

Mandarin is also the official language of Taiwan , a radical travel alternative to Mainland China. Although the island nation doesn’t technically exist according to most of the world, knowing some Chinese will help you better enjoy its tropical weather, high level of development and relatively cheap cost of travel and living.

Most useful in: Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, North Africa

French isn’t only a good choice for France, but it’s also still popularly learned by educated people throughout Europe .

Further, large parts of North Africa and the Middle East were parts of the French Empire before World War II, and the French language remains prominent and even official in many of the former colonies . The vast majority of middle-class people in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Lebanon still speak fluent French.

French will also serve well in Quebec, French Guiana and the Caribbean Islands, and might open up some interesting chats in southern Louisiana, where Cajun French still runs strong. Throughout mainland Southeast Asia as well, older, educated citizens of the former French colonies of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos are likely to speak some of the colonial language.

There’s a high likelihood that many people you meet in cities will be fluent in French, and you may find that many are happy to chat with a curious traveler, if you have the must-know French travel phrases under your belt.

Most useful in: The Middle East, Northern Africa

Modern Standard Arabic is a good starting point for anyone interested in this multifaceted language, but you can choose a specific variety of Arabic if you have a certain destination in mind.

Egyptian Arabic is a common choice. This isn’t just because of its relative economic and political power, or the fact that Egypt is the most populous Arab country, but because the Hollywood of the Arab World is in Cairo, the heart of both Arab cinema and the place where most foreign films are dubbed.

Another option is  Gulf Arabic , one of the widest-reaching dialects. This version is used and understood throughout the Gulf States and in large swaths of Saudi Arabia.

In general, Arabic is an increasingly popular choice for language learners because of its up-and-coming economic potential .

Most useful in: Europe

German  is your all-access pass to central Europe and beyond.

Germany is close to the geographic, political and financial centers of Europe , so it makes sense that this powerful country’s equally powerful language penetrates far and wide. Native-speaking countries include Switzerland , parts of Belgium and Luxembourg, Austria and mother Germany herself.

The German language will come in handy far beyond these borders , however. Young people throughout the Netherlands, the UK and Central Europe are learning German more and more as its namesake country increasingly offers jobs and opportunities to young Europeans.

The youths aren’t the only ones who know a bit of Deutsch , though. Huge guest worker populations from Eastern Europe and the Balkans have now spent several decades working in Austria and Germany, leaving many members of the middle generation of these countries fairly proficient German speakers.

A few common phrases will be sure to make your Central European tour sehr gut  (very good).

Most useful in: Europe, Asia

The official language of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan will see you from the Baltic Sea all the way to the Bering Strait.

While the Soviet Union never existed in many young travelers’ lifetimes, one of its convenient legacies is the widespread use of the Russian language it left behind.

Aside from the countries in which it’s an official state language, there’s a long list of other Eastern European and West Asian countries that formally recognize Russian as a minority language, including Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Moldova, Georgia, Romania and Norway.

And, while not official, its important role as a significant minority language or inter-ethnic language will assure Russian-speaking travelers easy communication in part or most of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Mongolia and Uzbekistan, as well.

Most useful in: Africa, South America, Europe

Portuguese is of course the language of Portugal , though Brazilian Portuguese is just as (if not more) popular than its European counterpart .

It could be just the language you want to learn for travel through South America, in fact. While it’s limited to one country of the continent, Brazil happens to be the fifth-largest country in the world , full of some of the most appealing tourist destinations in the world.

But Portuguese, as a result of many years of colonialism, is also spoken in a geographically scattered collection of African countries : Mozambique, Angola, Guinea-Bissau and the island nation of São Tome and Principe.

Angola is notoriously stingy with its tourist visas, making it nearly impossible for Western travelers to get in, and thus making it something of an internationally undiscovered gem. Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau aren’t as difficult to travel to, but you’ll find their infrastructure reflects the fact that all three are among the least developed countries in the world.

Most useful in: Southern China

Sometimes forgotten in the shadow of big brother Mandarin, Cantonese is another enormous world language spoken both in China and beyond its borders.

As the most prestigious variety of the Yue language, Cantonese (along with other languages with which it’s mutually intelligible) is used by 60 million speakers spread across southern China, Hong Kong and Macau .

Cantonese has a bit more geographic reach than Mandarin, as the vast majority of Chinese expat communities in East and Southeast Asia—and in most of the world—are Cantonese speakers. From the Yokohama Chinatown on Tokyo’s south side to the capitals of Southeast Asia, in almost any big Asian city, you’ll find at least a small community of Cantonese speakers.

Most useful in: Southeast Asia

This is a language that’s practically begging travelers to become expats.

Thailand is currently one of the most popular destinations for “digital nomads,” people who work remotely from their laptops (particularly Westerners, it seems).

If you’re looking to go location independent or just want to spend a few months in one of the cheapest expat-friendly countries in the world, then some Thai lessons would help you get a deeper and more authentic experience of the country.

Beyond Thailand’s borders, some Thai speakers will also understand Laotian , spoken in its even cheaper but less developed neighboring country, making a Laotian vacation an excellent option for Thai-speaking expats based in popular cities like Chiang Mai or Bangkok.

Most useful in: Southeast Asia, Oceania

The fuzzy boundary between the Indonesian and Malaysian languages coincides with the fuzzy geographic boundary between what’s conventionally known as Southeast Asia and Oceania.

Largely because of those fuzzy boundaries, learning the language referred to in Malaysia as “Malay” and in Indonesia as “Indonesian” will put you in touch with about a quarter of a billion locals scattered across these thousands of islands.

Also helpful is the fact that it’s incredibly easy to learn : Indo-Malay’s lack of verb tenses and simple grammar means a couple weeks of intensive courses at the beginning of your trip should leave you reasonably prepared for everyday basic communication—and if you stick to it, your skills will only improve as you hop from island to island.

Most useful in: Asia

Hindustani is the super-language of India and Pakistan. India is already a hot backpacking and luxury travel destination, and Pakistan is steadily climbing its way up as it improves its security and infrastructure.

Between these two giant countries, four hundred million native and second language speakers use Hindi or Urdu, two standard dialects of the giant language linguists call Hindustani.

Throughout northern India and most of Pakistan, Hindi or Urdu will be spoken by nearly everyone you meet , and for many people this will be their native language (the English they learned in school takes a back seat as a third or fourth language for most).

A few well-placed phrases in Hindi or Urdu are your best shot at charming your way into the hospitality and natural beauty of India and Pakistan.

Sandwiched between giants like India and China, plus the tourist attractions of Southeast Asia, Bengali is still a great language for travelers, especially those looking to be on the cutting edge.

There are 200 million speakers in Bangladesh and India’s Bengal province . Bangladesh and the neighboring Indian province are densely populated parts of the Bay of Bengal, with some of the most beautiful and undiscovered wildlife in the world.

Bangladesh hasn’t really reached mainstream travel itineraries yet, but its tourism industry is growing . If you want to get there before it gets cool, brush up on your Bengali and book a flight!

Most useful in: The Middle East

This is the official language of Iran . Americans may still have more trouble getting visas than others, but this country is a rapidly up-and-coming travel destination.

Ask any backpacker who’s been there and they’ll rave about hospitality, openness and well-educated people. Imagine how much more of that you could soak up with some basic Farsi!

The same language, under various different national names, is spoken in Afghanistan and parts of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan . While that first name probably won’t be a popular vacation destination any time soon, the latter two are becoming more and more common legs of Central Asian tours.

Most useful in: East Africa

Swahili is East Africa’s own lingua franca. While native to only a small population of five million or so, it’s spoken and understood by 150 million people , stretching from eastern parts of the Congo to the Indian Ocean shores of Tanzania and Kenya.

The majority of the most spectacular safari countries are situated in the Swahili language area, so speaking the language might allow you to take a more authentic safari or another tour that’s more geared towards locals.

Most useful in: Southeast Africa

Though among the poorest regions on earth, Southeast Africa is also raved about by visitors as one of the friendliest and most welcoming .

From the hippo-filled Okavango Delta of Botswana, throughout Zimbabwe and to the remote northern beaches of Mozambique, Shona is the mother tongue of most locals you’ll meet.

Learn a few words of Shona and visit the nature of the Zimbabwean countryside, or enjoy the well-maintained roads and highly developed cities of Botswana. Even simple phrases like “thank you” or “your country is beautiful” are sure to endear you to everyone you meet.

Depending on where you plan on going, you may want to make your language learning even more niche than some of the options above.

Here are a few additional languages you might choose to learn to make your global travels a bit smoother, or at least a bit friendlier:

• Japanese is spoken by a large population, with 125 million speakers, but its limitation to travelers is that it doesn’t go very far outside Japan.
• Korean is spoken by about 75 million people, although a good number of them are in North Korea (still not very tourist friendly) and the rest are mostly in South Korea, so it’s also a relatively location-specific tongue as well.
• Dutch is the national language of Suriname and six Caribbean Islands, and it’s an official language in Belgium and the Netherlands in Europe, too.
• Quechua is one of the biggest indigenous languages of the Andes, and will get you far in more remote areas of South America.
• The Serbo-Croatian dialects of the Balkans are all mutually intelligible, and will give you a priceless opportunity to ditch the resorts and explore natural beauty that can’t be beat in the rest of Europe.
• Turkish will help you not only in Turkey but also in regions that speak similar Turkic languages in Central Asia.
• Hausa in West Africa is a large Bantu language with many millions of speakers and lots of mutually intelligible dialects.
• Amharic is spoken by nearly 22 million people in Ethiopia, which is arguably the African continent’s most culturally distinct country due to its unique history.
• Telugu can be handy in South Asia, specifically in India, as it’s spoken and understood throughout several of the southern states.
• Tibetan will give you priceless access to cultural opportunities if you want to trek into the remote regions of Tibet and northern China in Asia.
• Tagalog is the official language of the Philippines in Southeast Asia, and Spanish speakers will find it easy and even familiar.

Of course, there are plenty of factors to consider when deciding which language to learn . Perhaps the most important aspect, however, is your interest in said language.

If you’re planning to travel to a place that speaks a foreign tongue, that likely means you’re interested in the culture and the way of life in that place. This is great motivation for when language learning seems a bit more challenging than you expected.

So, if you really don’t know what language to learn for your travels, pick the one that captures your attention the most !

Language learning takes time and effort. If you’re on the fence about whether it’s really worth learning a language for your travels, let me argue in favor of it with these points:

• The local language can help you during your travels. You may be able to haggle and get discounts. You can ask for directions and assistance. It might even save your life (or at least some money) in case of emergencies.
• You’ll have a more authentic travel experience . Language is the key to a treasure chest full of history, authentic cultural experiences and new friends. You’ll be able to find out what a place is really like by chatting with locals, who can usually offer advice, tips and/or company on your excursions.
• The right language(s) can take you many places. You may have noticed that many languages on the list above are spoken in more than one country, and often (thanks to colonialism) on more than one continent, too. By knowing more than one or two languages, you greatly increase your ability to communicate anywhere in the world.

There are many resources and blogs out there for learning a language that will help you prepare for your journey.

To get ready for a trip abroad, you can start by reading travel guides and phrasebooks—you’ll arrive knowing about the destinations, local language, culture, etiquette and customs. Lonely Planet has travel guides and phrasebooks for virtually every region and language under the sun, so it’s a great place to start learning.

Apps are also an option if you prefer pocket-sized language guides. Dictionaries and flashcard apps are super handy for immediate translations and language practice, while programs like FluentU are helpful for authentic language immersion whenever you have time to spare.

FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.

You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.

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Anything you can do to prepare yourself before traveling makes a difference. But if you want to continue learning while you’re on the go, you have additional options:

• Teach English in your destination country. If you’re reading this, chances are you speak English. Use this skill by teaching as you travel. The best part is that you generally don’t need previous experience to start . Teaching English will also offer you a way to earn money as you travel.
• Live with a host family. This is a great way to learn a language. Living with people who speak your target language means you’ll hear and use it every day out of sheer necessity. In fact, immersion language learning  is one of the most effective and natural ways to learn a new language.
• Volunteer.  Volunteering with a local non-profit or humanitarian organization is also a great way to learn new languages while traveling—with the bonus that you’ll be helping people in need at the same time.
• Ask lots of questions. Actually using the language is perhaps the fastest way to learn it. Ask locals about their favorite restaurants or places to visit, or ask for directions (even if you already know where you’re going!). Remember: When it comes to learning a language, the focus isn’t the destination but the people you’ll learn from along the way!

We know there are a ton of benefits for learning a language, but no one benefits from it as much as a world traveler.

If you’re planning a big trip in the near future or dreaming of traveling the world one day, you can start brushing up on your language skills today!

If you dig the idea of learning on your own time from the comfort of your smart device with real-life authentic language content, you'll love using FluentU .

With FluentU, you'll learn real languages—as they're spoken by native speakers. FluentU has a wide variety of videos as you can see here:

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14 Best Languages for Traveling

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Traveling to a foreign country can be an exciting and enriching experience , but it can also be challenging if you can't speak the local language. Knowing even just a few basic phrases in the local language can go a long way toward connecting with locals and making your trip more enjoyable.

Ready to make your trips even more meaningful? The best languages to learn for travel will get you there.

We'll explore the best languages to learn for travel and provide language learning tips for travelers. So, get ready to find out about the best languages for traveling internationally and starting planning your next adventure.

How learning a language makes travel more meaningful

Learning a new language can make traveling a more meaningful and rewarding experience. Not only can it help break down communication barriers, but it can also provide insight into the local culture and way of life.

Firstly, speaking the local language can make travel easier and more enjoyable. Simple tasks like ordering food or asking for directions become much easier when you can communicate with locals in their own language. This can lead to a more authentic travel experience as you are able to connect with locals on a deeper level and gain a better understanding of the local customs and traditions.

Learning a new language also provides a window into another culture. Language and culture are closely intertwined, and by learning the language, you are also gaining insight into the way of life and values of the people who speak it. This can lead to a greater appreciation and understanding of the country you are visiting.

Finally, learning a new language is a valuable skill that can benefit you in many areas of life, not just when traveling. It can open up new job opportunities , help you make new friends , and even improve cognitive function.

[ Get a discount on language classes with Lingoda ]

14 best languages to learn for travel.

Here are the 14 best languages for traveling:

Spanish is an incredibly important language to learn for travel. It is the second-most spoken language in the world , making it a valuable language to know for travelers. With over 20 countries speaking Spanish as an official language , including Spain , Mexico , and much of Central and South America, knowing Spanish can be a huge asset while you’re off seeing the world.

Learning Spanish is relatively easy compared to other languages. Its grammar is straightforward and its vocabulary is largely derived from Latin, making it easy to recognize words and understand their meanings. In summary, Spanish is an important language to learn for travel due to its widespread use, its ability to help you connect with locals, and its relative ease of learning.

• Best place to learn: Mexico
• Recommended program: Learn Spanish and Surfing in Mexico

Put your French skills to good use by touring boulangeries while you’re traveling.

French is an important language to learn for travel for several reasons. Firstly, it is an official language in 29 countries , widely spoken in Western Europe, Africa, and Canada , so knowing French can be useful for those traveling to these regions. French is also considered one of the most romantic languages and is often associated with high culture. It is the language of literature, art, and cuisine, and knowing French can provide a deeper appreciation and understanding of these areas.

Finally, learning French is a valuable skill that can benefit you in many areas of life, not just when traveling. It is one of the official languages of the United Nations and is widely used in the fields of business, education, and diplomacy. Whether you're traveling to Paris, Montreal, or any of the other French-speaking regions, knowing French can greatly enhance your travel experience.

• Best place to learn: Morocco
• Recommended program: ISA Study Abroad in Meknes, Morocco

3. Mandarin

Mandarin is the most spoken language in the world , making it a valuable language to know for travelers. With over 1.3 billion speakers , Mandarin is the official language of China and Taiwan, making it a great choice for travelers to these regions. Knowing Mandarin can provide a deeper appreciation and understanding of Chinese culture.

China is a country with a rich history and unique traditions, and knowing Mandarin can help travelers gain a better understanding of these areas. Learning Mandarin can also benefit you in many areas of life beyond travel. China has become an economic powerhouse in recent years and knowing Mandarin can open up new job opportunities and business partnerships.

• Best place to learn: Singapore
• Recommended program: LTL Language School || Learn Chinese (8 Cities)

Arabic is the fifth most spoken language in the world and is the official language in over 20 countries , including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco. It is one of the best languages to learn for travel as popular tourist destinations in the Middle East and North Africa operate in Arabic.

Arabic is a language with a rich cultural history. Arabic literature, music, and art are revered around the world, and knowing Arabic can provide a deeper appreciation and understanding of these areas. Furthermore, the Middle East is an area of increasing global importance, and knowing Arabic can open up new job opportunities in the future.

• Best place to learn: Egypt
• Recommended program: Arabic Language Intensive Program (ALIN) at AUC

You can’t go wrong by learning Hindi if you’re planning a trip to India.

Hindi is a critical language to learn if you're planning on traveling to India . It's one of the more commonly spoken languages of India and is spoken by over 500 million people worldwide , so knowing Hindi can really come in handy when communicating with locals.

Another cool thing about learning Hindi is that it can give you a better appreciation and understanding of Indian culture. India is a really diverse country with a rich history, amazing food, and Bollywood films loved around the world.

Knowing Hindi can help you better understand and appreciate all of these things. It is also a stepping stone toward learning other Indian languages and even Sanskrit if you’re interested in pursuing a more spiritual path someday!

• Best place to learn: India
• Recommended program: Homestay Hindi Language Immersion Program in Jaipur, India

If you're planning a trip to East Africa, you might want to consider learning Swahili. Swahili is a really important language in East Africa and is spoken by over 140 million people . It’s the official language of Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda , making it one of the best languages for traveling—and it’s also a really beautiful language!

Swahili has a melodic quality to it that many people find really pleasing to the ear. Plus, it has lots of words and phrases that just roll off the tongue in a really satisfying way.

Another reason why people enjoy speaking Swahili is that it's a language with a lot of history and cultural significance. Swahili has been spoken for centuries, and it's a language that's deeply tied to the region's culture and traditions. So for many people, speaking Swahili is a way to connect with their heritage and identity.

• Best place to learn: Tanzania
• Recommended program: Swahili Language Course in Tanzania

Thailand is a popular tourist destination known for its beautiful beaches, vibrant cities, and rich cultural heritage. Knowing Thai can help travelers navigate the country more easily and communicate with locals, which can enhance their overall travel experience. In addition, Thai is the official language of Thailand and is spoken by about 60 million people worldwide .

Learning Thai can be a gateway to understanding the culture and traditions of the Thai people and can help travelers connect with locals on a deeper level. But why do people want to learn Thai? Well, for one thing, Thai is a tonal language, which means that the meaning of a word can change based on the tone used to say it. This makes it a fascinating and challenging language to learn, and many people enjoy the intellectual challenge of mastering Thai.

There are plenty of reasons why Thailand is a top tourist destination, and learning Thai will take your visit to another level.

Furthermore, Thai has a rich and diverse vocabulary, with many words that don’t have direct translations in English. This means that learning Thai can expand the ways in which you can express yourself. Thai people are known for their warmth and hospitality, and knowing Thai can help travelers form meaningful connections with locals and gain a deeper understanding of Thai culture.

• Best place to learn: Thailand
• Recommended program: Thai Language Course and Immersion in Chang Mai, Thailand

8. Portuguese

Portuguese is the official language of Portugal, Brazil, and several other countries in South America and Africa. This means that knowing Portuguese can be really helpful if you're traveling to any of these regions, as it can make it a lot easier to communicate with locals and really immerse yourself in the culture.

In addition, Portugal and Brazil are known for their amazing food, music, and art, and speaking Portuguese can help you better appreciate and understand these aspects of their cultures. From the samba rhythms of Brazil to the fado music of Portugal, the Portuguese language is deeply intertwined with the cultural fabric of these countries.

With its lilting rhythms and romantic intonations, Portuguese is a language that's often described as melodic and poetic. Portuguese also has a unique ability to convey a wide range of emotions and sentiments.

From expressing love and passion to conveying sorrow and longing, Portuguese is capable of evoking powerful emotions and feelings. Whether you're sharing stories over a glass of port wine in Porto or chatting with locals at a samba club in Rio, knowing Portuguese can help you forge meaningful connections with people from all walks of life.

• Best place to learn: Brazil
• Recommended program: Study Portuguese Language Online or in Salvador, Brazil

Italian is the official language of Italy, and it is also spoken in parts of Switzerland and Croatia. Italy is a popular tourist destination, known for its stunning architecture, rich history, and delicious food.

Italy is also known for having an aging population—many elderly people in Italy likely do not speak English. Italians are known for their friendliness, and knowing Italian can help travelers navigate the country more easily and communicate more efficiently, which can enhance the overall travel experience and help you tap into that Italian wisdom!

That could be you, enjoying the Italian sunshine, getting ready to make conversation with locals.

Italian is also a beautiful language with a rich cultural history. From the art and literature of the Renaissance to the operas and music of the modern era, Italian has played a significant role in shaping Western culture. As one of the Romance languages, it can be your gateway to other languages like Spanish, French, and Portuguese—or it will be a much easier endeavor picking up Italian if you already have a foundation in these other languages!

• Best place to learn: Italy
• Recommended program: Learn Italian in Tuscany at Il Sasso Language Institute

Korean is the official language of both North and South Korea and is spoken by about 75 million people worldwide , including in parts of China and Japan. Learning Korean is a great idea if you’re interested in that region. Firstly, South Korea is a very attractive place to visit , with their delicious food, rich history, and cutting-edge technology. Korean is also a unique language with its own distinct writing system and grammar rules.

Many people are drawn to the challenge of learning Korean and enjoy the intellectual stimulation that comes with mastering a new language like this. Furthermore, South Korea is a major player in industries like technology, entertainment, and automotive manufacturing. Knowing Korean can not only open up potential future opportunities but will also allow you to appreciate K-pop and K-dramas on a deeper level!

• Best place to learn: South Korea
• Recommended program: Summer Korean Immersion Program with Homestay in Seoul

German is a widely spoken language in Europe and has over 100 million speakers worldwide . Learning German can be a gateway to understanding the culture and traditions of German-speaking countries like Germany , Austria, and parts of Switzerland, Belgium, and Italy.

German is a language of innovation and industry, with a reputation for precision and efficiency. Many people are drawn to German because of its association with fields like engineering, science, and technology, and see it as a valuable skill to have in today's global marketplace. Furthermore, German is a language with a rich cultural heritage, with contributions to fields like philosophy, literature, and music.

From the works of Kant and Nietzsche to the operas of Wagner, German has played a significant role in shaping key European history. Finally, German people are known for their directness and honesty, and knowing German can help travelers form meaningful connections with locals with a better understanding of cultural barriers.

• Best place to learn: Austria
• Recommended program: Eurolingua Study Abroad Program - German in Vienna

12. Japanese

Japan’s iconic sights are calling. Start studying Japanese and get your answer ready!

People all over the world are interested in learning Japanese for a variety of reasons. Japanese is the official language of Japan and is spoken by over 130 million people worldwide . Apart from Japan, it is also widely spoken in Brazil due to the early immigration of Japanese people for many generations. Learning Japanese can be a gateway to understanding the culture and traditions of Japan, from historic art dating back centuries to contemporary manga and anime.

The language itself is immensely fascinating. Japanese has many honorifics and polite language expressions that are used to show respect and politeness in social interactions. These honorifics can be used to show respect to someone of higher social status or to express gratitude, and are an important part of Japanese culture and language .

Japanese vocabulary also includes onomatopoeic words. These are words that imitate sounds, like "pika-pika" for sparkling or "gacha-gacha" for clattering. Onomatopoeic words are used frequently in Japanese and add a fun and playful element to the language.

Japanese has a rich and diverse vocabulary, with many words and phrases that don't have direct translations in English. This means that learning Japanese can help you think in new and different ways. Japanese people are known for their politeness and hospitality, and knowing Japanese can help travelers form meaningful connections with locals and minimize language gaps.

• Best place to learn: Japan
• Recommended program: Meiji Academy - Study Japanese in Fukuoka

13. Russian

Russian is spoken by over 258 million people worldwide and is an official language of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan . It is also widely spoken in other former Soviet republics like Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, making it one of the best languages to learn for travel. Many people in these countries learned Russian as a second language during the Soviet era, and it remains an essential language for business and communication.

Knowing Russian as a traveler will allow you to appreciate the richness of such countries and the vast diversity it has to offer. Russian is known for its complex grammar rules and unique vocabulary. For example, Russian has a rich system of word endings that indicate grammatical cases, which can be challenging for English speakers to learn.

All that studying will pay off when you can handle grammatical cases with ease.

In addition, Russian has a lot of loanwords from other languages, particularly French and German, which add to the richness and diversity of the language. Russian is also spoken by diaspora communities all over the world, particularly in the United States, Israel, and Germany. These communities often maintain cultural and linguistic ties to Russia and use Russian as a means of communication and cultural expression.

• Best place to learn: Latvia
• Recommended program: Russian as a Foreign Language in Daugavpils, Latvia

14. Turkish

Turkish is the official language of Turkey and is spoken by over 80 million people worldwide , including in parts of Cyprus and Bulgaria . Turkish is a language that many people aiming to be polyglots want to master as the language is known for its agglutinative nature . This means that words are created by stringing together different morphemes which can result in long and complex words and can be challenging for English speakers to learn.

In addition, Turkish has many loanwords from other languages, particularly Arabic and Persian. These loanwords add to the richness and diversity of the Turkish vocabulary and can be interesting for language learners to explore.

Furthermore, Turkish is a vital language for trade and commerce, with Turkey being a major player in industries like textiles, agriculture, and tourism. Turkish media like drama series and music are also gaining popularity lately, so learning this beautiful language will allow you to appreciate and indulge in a wider variety of art forms.

• Best place to learn: Turkey
• Recommended program: Turkish Language Course and Immersion in Istanbul, Turkey

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Traveling is a great motivator for learning a new language.

Which of these languages will you choose to learn first?

Learning even a few basic phrases in any of these languages can greatly enhance your travel experience and help you connect with locals. Exploring the world is a never-ending journey, and enhancing your experience by learning various languages will be priceless.

Not only is learning a language a great way to improve your own capabilities, but it’s also a great way to connect with people around the world and appreciate other places! So why not give it a try and see where your language learning journey takes you?

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Education abroad: what in the world is language travel.

If you’ve ever spent time in another country, whether studying abroad, volunteering or just vacationing, you know how powerful the experience can be. There’s no better way to learn about other places and cultures than to see them firsthand — to taste the food, drink at the bars, take in the scenery, and form friendships with the locals. This kind of immersive experience is what makes culture come alive, and the same largely holds true for learning a new language. So why not combine the two? Introducing: language travel. Let’s embark on our own mini-voyage to see what the phenomenon is all about.

What Is Language Travel?

The concept of language travel is pretty simple: you travel to another country, where you split your time between attending language classes and experiencing the culture. Language travel companies act as an intermediary. They allow you to book the trip itself, classes at a local language school, transportation and even optional add-ons like a homestay with a local family.

Everything is customizable: you can go for as short as one week or as long as two years (and anywhere in between), you can sort by language or you can pick the destination first and let that dictate the language you learn, you can choose how intensive you want your classes to be, whether you want to stay in a family home or a student dorm, and even thrown in an internship if you’d like. The options are not quite endless, but pretty close.

The Power Of Immersion

While you can certainly learn a language with an app or in a U.S. classroom, immersion abroad can take your studies to the next level. When you participate in a language travel program, you’re physically surrounding yourself with the language and the culture. You’re living with other language students or with a host family that speaks the local language, you’re dining at restaurants and visiting museums where the language and culture are showcased and, of course, you’re taking classes at a local language school.

All of these elements combine to form a truly unique experience that will essentially force you to have the courage to speak the language, inevitably make mistakes and then learn from them and continue to improve.

• Work With Us

How to Learn Languages and Helpful Phrases for Traveling

Written by Becca

Updated on July 16th, 2023

Did you ever realize that traveling gets a little bit easier when you know a few words in the language of the country where you're going? We've created a list for a few surprise ways to learn languages based on what works best for us.

This article may contain affiliate links. We earn a small commissions when you purchase via those links — and it's free for you. It's only us (Becca & Dan) working on this website, so we value your support! Read our privacy policy and learn more about us .

Table of contents

• Why learning a language is important for travel
• Take a foreign language class in your home city.
• Download a language app for foreign language phrases and vocabulary words
• Find a language exchange or language meetup to brush up for your trip
• Watch TV with subtitles in a foreign language to prep for travel
• Read a magazine in another language to pick up new words with context
• Use the foreign language glossaries in your travel book during a trip
• Try to think in the foreign language you’re trying to learn
• Create post-it notes around your house with foreign language vocabulary
• Practice writing in a foreign language to prepare for taking a trip abroad
• Ask me this: How did you learn so many languages for traveling?
• Next: Ask me how I learned Chinese for working abroad in China

Oh, that’s Chinese for hello.

If you aren’t up to fluently reading Chinese yet, no problem. This article is about the best and most creative ways to learn a new language for your upcoming trip.

Why learning a language is important for travel

I’ll be the first to say it: we’ve gotten creative in learning languages.

We’ll listen to foreign language music (in Spanish). We’ll hold up Google Translate to learn new words on a food label. We’ll learn how to say “no sugar” in one of my favorite apps (it’s called Drops) for learning a new language.

There’s a lot you can do to learn languages for travel!

Traveling becomes a lot easier when you know a few phrases in the language of the country you’ll be traveling to.

People tend to joke that if you can say, “Yes,” “No,” “Where’s the restroom?” and “I’ll have another beer, please,” then you’re set.

It’s almost true, but there are a whole list of other useful phrases that can keep you safe, happy and a little less stressed when you’re on vacation, studying or working abroad.

What about when you need to haggle over prices in a market, so that you don’t get charged the ‘foreigner price?’

What about when you have to talk about some foods you’re allergic to?

What about when you want to read a bus schedule, and none of it’s in a language you can read?

I’m listing a few helpful tips and tricks that have helped me learn a new language when I travel to a new place.

Ready to learn Spanish, Chinese, German, Korean, Japanese, French or Russian (or any language under the sun) with some proven hacks Let’s get started.

Take a foreign language class in your home city.

Companies like Fluent City offer language classes for professionals at convenient hours like 7-9 pm on weekdays, once a week.

Check out local language schools in your area. There are also programs online that you can use to talk with a native speaker over Skype or Google Hangouts.

Both Dan and I completed 10-week courses with Fluent City: Arabic 1 for me and Spanish 2 for Dan.

The teachers are awesome and the settings are intimate, so you always get attention.

Their staff and customer support is also great when you have questions about rescheduling a class, textbooks or anything else.

A class is a good way to keep yourself accountable for having a dedicated time to learn.

But, classes might not be for everyone, so let’s see the next tip for learning a new language for traveling across the world.

Download a language app for foreign language phrases and vocabulary words

If you think about all the mindless and useless things you do on your phone during your commute or any time spent waiting (for someone to show up, for something to start, for something to end…), you could very well use this time to learn a new foreign language or its basics with a language app.

For my and Dan’s trip to Israel , I brushed up on some cool words like the Hebrew for ‘kilogram,’ ‘meter,’ and ‘black pepper’ with a language-learning app I found for free on the Apple app store.

If you search with keywords like, “Hebrew easy free,” or “Learn Hebrew easy,” you’ll get a choice of several apps that may not be available with all sets of vocabulary in the free version, but enough to start with.

I once started Level 1 German with Duolingo to see where it would get me (I remember how to say bread and water) and I also learned a bunch of Hindi numbers past 20, by the tens, for my eight days spent on an India trip a few years ago.

You will never know when learning the Hindi for ‘sixty’ can get you the local price when shopping for jewelry.

Guess what, it worked! (I think it was because everyone in the market was baffled that I could count by the tens to one hundred in Hindi)

Another favorite app that I used for learning Vietnamese is the app Drops , which has an impressively cute interface that’s friendly to the user and feels like playing a game.

I was able to retain some basic words that made reading menus much more fun! Words we retained from studying Vietnamese on Drops are now limited to ‘carrot,’ ‘noodles’ and ‘sugar,’ but you get the point. We wouldn’t have gotten there without Drops.

Find a language exchange or language meetup to brush up for your trip

Use your social network to determine if any friends know a native Spanish or Russian speaker, for example, or if anyone is in touch with an expat who is new to your city.

Sometimes these types of people may be looking for a native English (or other) speaker with whom to practice on the regular.

This is a free way to make a new friend and to also learn about the culture of another country from a person who is from that place.

These days, when we head to a new city, I immediately join Facebook groups for expats, travelers and language exchange meetups.

I first run a simple search for, “Taipei expats,” for example, and then I browse groups and see if there are any pertinent tangential groups available.

Watch TV with subtitles in a foreign language to prep for travel

While I do love music and would love to recommend music, it happens that TV (or YouTube) is more visual and can get you subtitles.

Go on YouTube for videos in another language in some basic topics.

You have no idea what’s out there until you try!

Did you know loads of people have made videos about the Arabic alphabet? And heaps of videos about Spanish slang, dedicated to every country in Latin America?

You can even learn accents and listen to native speakers give grammar tips about so many foreign languages, all for free on YouTube, where your language study can begin.

You can keep clicking and clicking until you’ve gotten through 10 different flavors and styles of learning the letters in Arabic.

You can also try watching versions of sitcoms (the show Friends is always a prime example) subtitled or dubbed in Spanish, French, Portuguese… the list never ends.

Sometimes, when I’m at the gym, I watch telenovelas, news stations in Spanish or Caso Cerrado, a form of Judge Judy for Spanish-speaking audiences. (Native Spanish speakers find this hilarious)

Read a magazine in another language to pick up new words with context

Using foreign language magazines can be useful and fun, as conversation-starters.

When I tutored English privately in Shanghai, I would often leaf through Time Out Shanghai magazine to talk about popular words and ideas, in English , with my student.

When I’m in the subway in New York, I like to look at all the foreign language publications that you’ll find neighborhood by neighborhood based on the populations who live there. I like to sound out words in Russian based on context, like names of places and celebrities, and sometimes I’ll try to read a whole article in Spanish about current events.

If you want to get better at a language for your next trip, start with some resources right at your fingertips like foreign language magazines and newspapers.

Use the foreign language glossaries in your travel book during a trip

If you like to travel with a good old-fashioned soft-cover guidebook like I do ( Lonely Planet pocket language guides are the best!), these types of books often will have a glossary in the back.

This can be helpful prep for reading menus and picking up some basic words like left and right, north and south, yes and no.

When we went to Ireland, we had a Lonely Planet Irish Language & Culture guide , and while we for sure couldn’t figure out how to say ANYTHING at all in Gaelic, it was fun.

Try to think in the foreign language you’re trying to learn

This is more of an advanced technique, for sure. Here it is.

If you try and switch your internal dialog to the language that you’re trying to learn, it will help you identify gaps in your vocabulary.

You can write down or look up those words to help familiarize yourself with those words.

For example, while you’re walking down the street, think of the things you’re doing, and if you realize you don’t know how to say ‘street corner’ or ‘taxi,’ write down these words in your Notes app in your phone, and look them up later.

Create post-it notes around your house with foreign language vocabulary

If you’re struggling to remember common things, like couch, kitchen, bedroom, mirror, knife, fork, etc… then label those things with post-it notes!

We often have post-it notes lying around (usually on the floor because they fall down) all over our house to try and learn unfamiliar languages.

Try this method for learning a language for travel before you go, and the next time you have friends over, you can practice all together (also because they’ll find that there’s a post-it note inside your bathroom medicine cabinet translating what it is into Spanish).

Practice writing in a foreign language to prepare for taking a trip abroad

Write down your thoughts in another language native to the destination to which you’ll travel, and them read what you wrote, if you are feeling advanced.

Why do this? Because writing and speaking are two different skills that can be practices separately.

If you’re learning English as a second language, you can check out tools like Grammarly to check your writing in real-time.

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Welcome to a little section about how I learned some languages and why they have been useful!

Ask me this: How did you learn so many languages for traveling?

First, I’ll start out with how I learned several languages.

In short, I studied Spanish since the age of 12, from the sixth grade all the way until my last year of college. I thought this might make me near-fluent, but the truth is that you can’t get fluent by sitting through classes and taking exams.

For ages, I couldn’t have regular conversations with friends I met while traveling in Asia who were from Spain, Chile and Uruguay, and it’s because my training was in writing composition, research, translation and business Spanish.

I could pull some words about banking and the art of Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi from memory, but I didn’t even know how to say “awesome” to my new backpacking buddies.

This changed when I spent a bunch of time walking around Shanghai with my friend John, who’s from Venezuela, and he started teaching me some slang (vale!).

In fact, my colloquialisms got sort of Venezuelan, and when I used them in Argentina, people thought it was funny. Latin America is huge, and the regionalisms are incredibly varied.

The takeaway here is that talking with friends and people that I am close to is a great way to get comfortable talking in a new language. But I know, not everyone was able to learn a new language in school. I give some beginner tips below.**

Next: Ask me how I learned Chinese for working abroad in China

Then there’s my Chinese.

I started studying Mandarin Chinese when I was 16, in high school, and continued through college.

By the end of classes, I could get an 80% on an exam, but my accent was not good… at all.

I had the tones down (Chinese is a tonal language, meaning each sound has both a way to say it, plus a tone of voice), but I hadn’t been drilled hard enough in making new sounds that are required for Chinese to sound like Chinese.

I sounded like a goofy American trying to speak Chinese, even though I could read and write.

I didn’t even know this until I got to Shanghai, where I lived for two years, and realized on day one that I couldn’t understand anyone, and they couldn’t understand me, either.

After the first year and trial-and-error vocabulary, studying flashcards in the metro and arguing with taxi drivers, I knew how to ask for office supplies, use trendy words, get my nails and toes done and text with colloquial phrases.

This is likely nothing I could have done if I had stayed in the US taking tests in classes!

Aside from these, I took Japanese for five months in Hong Kong , Russian for 20 weeks and Arabic for 10 weeks with Fluent City classes, Hebrew starting at age five with eventual practice by meeting Israeli backpackers in Southeast Asia… and there was this one time I taught myself the Korean alphabet from an app throughout several bus rides in New Jersey.

There are a few ways to get ready for a trip to another country where the language spoken is not your own.

It’s possible, and you can learn useful phrases that might make your travel experience more seamless.

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Helo ! We’re Becca & Dan.

We created this blog to share some of the knowledge and experience that we have around travel , remote work , photography and beyond!

We're currently dreaming of far away places.

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Language travel

Going on a language trip is a great way to boost your language skills, get experience abroad and meet new friends. You can go anywhere, from England to Hawaii via China, South Africa and Costa Rica. Our language trips are personalized and with more than 50 years of experience in organizing language trips you can trust us for the adventure of a lifetime. Get in touch so we can discuss your options.

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Surfing, beach volley, city tours – and much more. Our full packed activities and excursion program helps you learn a language abroad while having fun. On a language trip with EF there’s never a dull moment so get ready to soak up the sun and dive in!

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From lively discussions in the classroom to organized social events – we are passionate about introducing our international students to each other. On your language trip you will make new friends from the whole world that will broaden your horizon.

Improve your language skills

On a language trip with EF you will learn from the best, most experienced teachers. You will also learn outside the classroom while having fun with your new friends, having dinner with your host family or interacting with the locals.

Why EF is the best choice for your language trip

• Experienced staff: We have more than 50 years’ experience of language travel organization. Our friendly EF-staff takes care of the practicalities so that you can enjoy your adventure abroad. We help you with all your questions and support you all the way from departure to when you return.
• Advance faster: We guarantee that you’ll advance one course level every six weeks when you attend all your classes and complete every assignment. Our innovative EF Method ensures that you make maximum progress in your language learning development – otherwise you’ll study for free until you do. EF can also help you prepare for and take official language proficiency exams like the TOEFL, IELTS, DALF and DELE.
• Globally accredited: Our language trips are accredited by some of the world’s leading organizations for higher education, including British council, NEA, ISA and ACCET. Our international summer schools are recognized by organizations like WYSET, CEN and Mentor Foundation.

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Get the best language learning tips and insights into language learning for travel in my language blog. Get latest tips & tricks.

Learn a language for travel with the most effective language resources. They will motivate you and guide you on your learning journey.

Follow my language learning method with which I have already learned 4 foreign languages. Adopt languages in a fun and effective way.

“Learning a new language, just like opening a window, allows you to see the world with intimacy .” – Pearl Zhu

Yes, that’s the truth. With languages, you become more  open to the world . You’ll get the chance to  immerse more into a country’s culture  when traveling… with languages, you become more understanding and empathetic, and your  travel experience  gets much more exciting. So I invite you to learn a language for travel with me.

I have spent the past 10 years traveling , living abroad , and learning foreign languages . I lived in Spain, Switzerland, Austria, and the Czech Republic for over 2 years each. Thanks to all these experiences, failures, and successes, I’ve developed my language learning method .

It’s specifically  designed for travelers  wanting to learn languages to  enjoy their experience abroad and connect with locals . So, if you have been thinking of learning languages for travel, but it hasn’t worked for you, stay with me. You can finally do this!

I have spent the past 10 years traveling, studying and living abroad, and learning languages . So far, I have learned  English ,  German ,  Spanish , a little  French , and  Chinese  (my mother tongue is  Slovakian ).

Now I’m about to learn  Italian  to travel and stay in Italy for a while.

Learn more about my language learning journey and how languages help me navigate life and get exciting opportunities . You can do the same :).

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Most Useful Languages for World Travel

Languages and traveling the world go hand in hand with each other. One doesn’t necessarily require the other, however, speaking the local language can completely transform your travel experience. This article will explore the most useful languages for world travel because languages really are key to having an authentic cultural experience and making new friends all over the world.

Tandem is not only for those on a language learning journey but also for those brave nomads and travelers out there. Speak the language of the locals and meet new people in the country you are traveling to. Download the Tandem app now to connect with people all across the world!

If you are reading this article, you are either one of the 360 million native English speakers or one of the billion people who speak it as a second language. Since the vast majority of the world's population has at least a basic understanding of the English language, you are spoiled for choice for your next travel destination. It is an official language in the United Kingdom, the United States, Jamacia, Down Under (Australia), New Zealand, Barbados and many more.

However, as a native English speaker, relying exclusively on widely-understood English travel vocabulary can sometimes mean missing out on the deeper cultural layers of each country you visit.

Learning Spanish will open up whole continents to you. It is one of the most spread languages around the world, and it is the official language in 21 different countries. To this day, there are approximately 500 million Spanish speakers worldwide. Being a Romance language, Spanish shares the same origins with Portuguese and Italian, for example, which leaves you open to building further language skills. Spanish is a perfect language to learn for travelers on a budget since Spanish-speaking countries are generally very affordable.

There are almost 1.2 billion native Chinese speakers, making up 16% of the world’s population. Having a sturdy level of Mandarin and Cantonese will help you navigate the language’s vast geographic reach more independently. There are many places worth traveling to where speaking Chinese will be useful for you. Among these are Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore, however, you can find a Chinese community in almost every city in the world.

Spoken in India and parts of Pakistan, Hindi is a ‘big five’ world language. More than half a billion people speak it, of which half are native speakers. India is already a hot backpacking and luxury travel destination, and Pakistan is steadily climbing its way up as it improves its security and infrastructure. India exports fantastic cuisine and yoga, plus Hindi is the tongue of Bollywood so this should be an easy choice for your next travel destination!

When most people think of the Middle East and the Arab World, Arabic is naturally the first language that comes to mind. However, there isn’t really a language called “Arabic.” Arabic is so vastly different in its respective dialects that they are often considered separate languages, grouped as one for the sake of convenience.

There are about 313 million collective Arabic speakers in the world with 25 countries that claim an Arabic language as an official or co-official language. Egyptian Arabic is the closest thing to standard Arabic which holds the record for the largest Arabic-speaking population at around 65 million people.

Russian is the most spread Slavic language in the world with roughly 166 million native speakers in the world. Speaking Russian will see you from the Baltic Sea all the way to the Bering Strait and is THE traveler’s tool for traversing Eurasia. Russian is formally recognized as a minority language in Eastern Europe including Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Moldova, Georgia, and Romania. The only disadvantage for travelers is that Russia requires a visa for most Western foreign visitors.

7. Portuguese

Portuguese is the official language of Portugal and Brazil with over 200 million speakers. However, did you know that it’s also an official language in parts of Asia? Portuguese is actually widely spoken in Macau, where it’s an official language, and Japan as Brazilian immigrants brought the language with them.

Portuguese is also spoken in geographically scattered African countries. Angola, for example, has a notoriously troublesome visa policy, making it next to impossible for Western travelers to enter, thus leaving it an internationally undiscovered gem.

Sandwiched between India and Southeast Asia, Bangladesh is home to 200 million speakers of one of the widest-spoken languages in the world. As a travel destination, the Bay of Bengal is densely populated with some of the most beautiful and undiscovered wildlife in the world. Bangladesh hasn’t reached the mainstream travel itineraries as of yet, but its tourism industry is growing. If you want to get there before it gets swamped with tourists, brush up on your Bengali and book a flight!

Bon Voyage!

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The 6 Most Useful Languages for Travel (and How to Learn Them!)

• Post author By Damon Lane
• Post date April 18, 2024
• 8 Comments on The 6 Most Useful Languages for Travel (and How to Learn Them!)

Learning a new language for travel is a great way to feel a deeper connection to the places you visit and the people you meet. Many of us dream of being able to converse freely and fluently with people wherever we go. But with more than 6,500 languages spoken in the world today, it isn’t practical to learn them all. 

So which languages are most useful for travel, and how should you go about learning them? 

In this guide, we detail the top 6 languages to learn for travel and provide tips and resources to make language learning easier.

Our experience learning languages for travel

When we were first bitten by the international travel bug, we knew our travels would take us to many countries that were not natively English-speaking. So, our language-learning journey began!

We went to a bookstore and picked up a book about Switzerland, the first country we eventually visited in Europe. The cover of the book looked so cool. There were mountains… and skiers… and snow. All the things that we enjoy!

The book also mentioned all the languages that are spoken in Switzerland: German, English, Italian, Spanish, French… and then something called Swiss-German. Children in Switzerland, and in much of the world, are taught a second language beginning in grade school, if not younger.

Yet foreign language is still not something that is actively and earnestly taught in the US public school system until at least high school. That is when we decided to learn another language… maybe two… or three. And we made it our goal to ensure our daughter learns a second language, as well. 

Table of Contents

The 6 best languages for travel to learn

If you want to learn a second language for travel, you first need to determine which language would be most beneficial and useful during your travels.

Here are the top languages that have the most travel value and why.

The fact that you are reading this in English tells me you are likely already a native English speaker or at the very least fluent in the language. So, you probably don’t need to learn English. However, I included it on the list because in terms of the top languages for travel, English is undoubtedly number one. 

There are 67 different countries in the world where English is the official language, as well as numerous non-sovereign entities. Residents from countries like the United States , United Kingdom, and Canada speak English as their native language.

Surprisingly, English is even the official language of the Central American country of Belize and of many of the countries on the continent of Africa.

Additionally, many countries teach English as a second language beginning in kindergarten. So nearly 20 percent of the world’s population, or 1.35 billion people can speak some English.  

However, don’t think you can get by everywhere just by knowing English. Because that leaves more than 75 percent of the world who do not speak or understand English at all. 

Aside from English, Spanish is one of the most important languages to learn for travel.

It is the official language in at least 20 countries – and a large section of two continents.  If you want to travel to Spain , Mexico , or to most countries in Central America and South America , Spanish will be beneficial.

Spanish is also the second most-spoken language in the United States. An estimated 13% of US residents speak Spanish as a first language. 

As a romance language, learning Spanish also makes it easier to learn other romance languages like French, Italian and Portuguese. 

For English speakers, Arabic is a challenging language to learn, at least compared to Spanish. Arabic has its own alphabet, grammatical complexities, and pronunciation.

Additionally, there are a lot of different dialects of Arabic that can make learning it difficult. But, since Arabic is the official language of 26 countries, including areas where international tourism is growing rapidly, like Dubai, UAE and Morocco , it is one of the best languages to learn for travel.

If you have a desire to visit the Middle East or any of the countries in Northern Africa, you should at the very least learn some Arabic.

Mandarin Chinese

Mandarin Chinese makes our list of the best languages for travel, simply because it is the most spoken language in the world.

Although only 5 countries have Chinese and one of its dialects, like Mandarin, as the official language, many of those countries are extremely populated.

So, if you have a desire to see the Great Wall of China , any of the fascinating sites in Beijing or elsewhere in China, Mandarin Chinese is a useful language. And considering Beijing is one of the best places to visit for a family vacation in Asia , learning at least a few key phrases would be a good idea.

In fact, Mandarin is a good language for travel and for business and will always be as long as companies around the world continue to outsource production to China.

Like Spanish and Arabic, French is widely spoken around the world. There are 29 countries where French is the official language.

So, if you dream of Paris to see one of the most famous bridges in Europe or you want to wander around the Louvre and gaze at famous European statues and paintings, or explore beautiful gothic cathedrals , French is a great language to learn. 

French is also spoken in parts of Canada , like Quebec and even in some of the Caribbean islands, like St. Martin .

Portuguese is a romance language, like French and Spanish. While Portugal is the home country for the language, it is not the largest country that uses the language.

Portuguese is also the official language of Brazil, the largest country in South America. 

Portuguese is spoken in 10 countries around the world, and if you want to visit Lisbon or any of these other popular places in Portugal , learn a few words and phrases in Portuguese to make your trip easier.

Two bonus languages to learn for travel

Although the seven languages above are the most beneficial languages for travel, it may make sense for you to learn others that aren’t on this list.

The language you will use the most

A great language for you to learn would be the one that you would use the most, even if it is not one of the more widely spoken languages above. 

If you have grandparents from Japan , for example, it might make more sense for you to learn Japanese to communicate and connect with your relatives and your heritage.

In fact, in this example it would also be helpful to learn about the culture and the unique Japanese habits and customs so you can preserve and honor your heritage, as well.

The language that interests you

Another great language to learn would be the one that interests you the most. For instance, if you are of Polish descent and are interested in learning Polish, do it!

Even if no one in your family still speaks Polish and you have no plans to travel to Poland , if the language interests you, you will be more likely to stick with it. 

Why you should learn a language for travel

Travel is a great way to learn. In fact, many of our favorite family travel quotes revolve around the idea that travel is the best form of education.

Through travel, you can learn so much about the world and its history, and about other cultures and religions. But to truly connect with a place and its people, it is important to learn at least a little of the native language for travel.

Learning a language opens up new possibilities

If you live in the United States and never plan to travel outside its borders, then you may not need to learn a language other than English.

But the USA only accounts for 4.25% of the entire world population and only 6.1% of the land on this planet. That means that more than 95% of people in this world, and 94% of the beautiful lands to explore are in other countries.

While there are a lot of great places to visit in the United States , there is so much you will never discover if you don’t leave the country.

So, if you want to see more than just 6.1% of the world, then learning a language for travel would be beneficial. And the further you go off the tourist path in a city or country, the more likely it is you will have to interact with people who do not speak English.

Speaking a country’s native language earns respect from locals

Even if you only know a few key phrases in a language, it will ultimately earn you a lot of respect from the locals you interact with while you are traveling. 

A few years ago, when we took a family trip to Costa Rica , we tried to make a reservation at a restaurant at the resort where we were staying, RIU Guanacaste . Unfortunately, the restaurant was booked. However, when we started to speak to the manager in Spanish, the native language of Costa Rica, he made an exception and reserved a table for us.

Our Spanish was far from perfect. In fact, it was likely pretty terrible. But by simply attempting to speak it, we earned the managers respect or favor, and ultimately, we were able to secure a reservation.

Language helps you connect with locals in other countries

Interacting with locals takes on an entirely new dynamic when communication is more fluid because you took the time to learn a language for travel.

When we are even somewhat comfortable speaking the language in a new country, we are able to break off the tourist path, see more of the country, and interact more with the people that make that country unique. 

There is something about sitting down in a pub and having a beer in areas that only the locals go that will make you feel more connected to a city.

More importantly, you can establish cross-cultural friendships and do so while giving your brain a nice boost.

How to learn a new language for travel

Learning a language can admittedly be hard, especially for adults. But it can also be one of the coolest and most rewarding things you ever do. 

In our household, we personally spend at least 20 minutes each day practicing another language. It helps us feel more connected to other cultures even when you aren’t traveling , and ultimately helps us be more prepared for future trips.

Of course, immersion is always the best way to learn a new language. But most of us don’t have the opportunity to move abroad for months at a time. So, for those who are learning from home, here are some of the most popular resources to learn another language for travel.

Duolingo is a free app that you can install on your phone so you can take language learning with you wherever you go.

Did you miss the part where I mentioned it is FREE ?

In reality, you will not become fluent in a language using Duolingo alone. However, it is a convenient app that can help you learn 19 distinct languages. It has a fun, engaging gamification platform, and is easy to use, even on the go. We personally use Duolingo daily in our household.  

Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone is another great language-learning resource that we personally use.

Rosetta Stone teaches you language the way you learned your first one, beginning with easy nouns and phrases. However, like Duolingo, Rosetta Stone is great for building vocabulary but not as great for everyday, practical use and language comprehension. 

Still, at the current price for a lifetime subscription for all languages, Rosetta Stone is well worth the investment. In fact, it even makes a great gift for moms who love to travel .

Like Rosetta Stone, Babbel is a paid-app or language learning program. It was designed with real world use in mind.

Babble does a better job than Rosetta Stone at explaining translations but offers fewer languages. Rosetta Stone offers 25 languages, whereas Babble currently only offers 14.

For those wanting to dive deeper into language learning, Babbel Live is extremely beneficial as the courses are live online classes taught by speakers and teachers of the language. However, Babbel Live is only offered in Spanish, French, Italian, and German.

Language-learning Podcasts

Who doesn’t love a good podcast these days?

If you commute for work or are trying to pass the time on a road trip, a language learning podcast like Coffee Break Languages (currently offered in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Swedish, and English) are great!

These free podcasts teach the basics of a language for travel or practical purposes. For example, one podcast may be solely dedicated to ordering in a restaurant.

Children’s movies

“How did you learn English?” is one of my favorite questions to ask someone who learned English as a second language. Many times the answer is from watching movies!

So, as you become more studious in language learning, watch some of your favorite children’s movies in the language you are trying to learn and turn the closed captioning on. 

Disney movies are great for this. Not only are many Disney movies inspired by places you can actually visit , but children’s movies tend to use simple vocabulary which is easier to understand as you are trying to learn a new language.  

Tips for practicing a new language when traveling

Speaking a new language to those who speak it natively can be intimidating. But here are a few tips to help you practice your new skills with confidence.

Conquer your fear of mistakes

Don’t be afraid to say things incorrectly. Even if your grammar or pronunciation is off, chances are people will still understand the gist of what you are saying.

And the more you practice speaking a language to others the more comfortable you will get.

Learn the basics and know them well

You don’t need to learn the language from front to back. But learning some of the more popular phrases and sayings in multiple languages is beneficial. 

So what should you learn? Here are a few phrases that we try to learn in the native language of any country we visit: 

• Excuse Me/Pardon Me
• Please 
• How are you? 
• I am good/fine/great/wonderful
• How much does this cost?
• I would like to eat/drink
• Do you know
• Table for (2, 3, 4, or however many people are in your family)

In most cases, this will cover the bulk of necessary interaction you will have when traveling, if you’re trying to get by with the bare minimum. But learning these simple sayings can really make you stand out.

Have a question or comment about the best languages to learn for travel? We’d love to hear from you! Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Like it? Pin this list of languages for travel to save for later!

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8 comments on “The 6 Most Useful Languages for Travel (and How to Learn Them!)”

Well said. I stayed with a family in Austria for a few days when I was 14. The other same-aged kids already knew English on top of their German, and they were all deciding which language to learn next – French or otherwise. I was so jealous.

Isn’t that amazing?! It still baffles me that kids aren’t required to learn a foreign language in the states. It is much harder to learn one as an adult.

Germany is BEAUTIFUL! You will love it. I was an exchange student in the Allgäu region for a full year and it was the best experience of my life, bar none. There is so much to do and see, so hopefully you booked at least a week there, as you’ll need every second. I went there language blind…not a lick of Deutsch….but by the 6-month mark I was dreaming in German…that’s when you know you’ve got it down good. I know you have limited time there, but just know everyone loves tto be able to talk to Americans in English, but are super helpful in helping you to speak German when you try as well. I def recommend you try the Späetzle noodles–one of my favs! Also their cheeses and breads…and of course, their beer selections :). If you need any pointers, etc, definitely feel free to contact me. Happy travels!

Thanks for the tips Mandi! I’m excited to try all the foods and beers in Germany. We had a German exchange student live with us when I was growing up. I still consider him my brother. He now lives in Switzerland, and we actually went and visited him and his family a few years ago.

I will NEVER forget an American lady, probably in her late thirties, that instead of trying to understand the language being spoken simply started to shout in English at the young Guatemalan shop-keeper. Then had the audacity to yell at him, “why can’t you stupid people learn English?”. I didn’t know spanish but had my handy dandy guidebook with phrases and was treated like a friend wherever I went. The locals had a lot of laughs at my inability to roll an R or make that LL sound, but they really appreciated me at least trying. We seriously need to have our school focus on languages and make it a requirement for graduation..

I completely agree! In high school, we had exchange students from various European countries live with us for a year, and at the age of 16, they knew perfect English, as well as their native language, and usually a third language. I think American kids are really at a disadvantage because foreign languages aren’t taught beginning in grade school or Pre-K.

I have unfortunately run into these situations far too frequently as well. When people leave the borders of their own country (which I encourage everyone to do), they can’t expect the world to cater to them. Why would anyone want to go somewhere that’s exactly like home anyway? I was very fortunate that in Canada, we must learn French up to Grade 8 and then are highly encouraged to either continue with it or choose another language throughout high school. It is not even the language itself that matters, but rather the process of learning another language.

It’s been several years since I’ve used it, so my Spanish ability has regressed quite a bit, but I used to be very capable and confident in that language and traveled to several places in Central and South America. Knowing the language allowed me to experience so much more than I ever could have otherwise. I made some great friendships with locals who couldn’t speak English.

Years later (about ten years ago now) I got a job in Korea. It was my first experience traveling to a place where I could not speak the local language. I could get around, and I managed fine, but my experience traveling was so different. I couldn’t make friends with locals (unless they spoke English) and I getting off the beaten path was much more challenging. I only planned to stay there a few years so never made a concerted effort to learn Korean, but two years turned into ten before I finally decided to leave. It saddens me to think of how richer my experience could have been if I had started right away to learn the language and if I had been committed to trying harder.

Earlier this year, we moved to China and I decided I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. I’ve been trying to learn Mandarin. It’s so much more difficult than Spanish. I think I could study it for ten years and not have the same level I achieved after a year studying Spanish. My kids are picking it up so much faster than I am. It makes me happy for them, but frustrated with myself. But in the end, all we can do is try, right?

I applaud your efforts to get out there and not be intimidated with your lack of language. It shows your kids that you value other cultures and languages.

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Learn a language for your trip with these 5 study tips

You've bought the flight, booked the hotels, and even researched restaurants… now it's time to learn the language of your destination! Even if you've waited until the last minute, there's a lot you can do with your new language while among the locals. Here's how to learn a language for your next trip!

Be realistic about how much time you have

Even if you've been studying for years, there's bound to be words, local slang, and regional dialects you won't understand when you get to your destination. And that's ok! It won't prevent you from having a fantastic trip .

When you begin studying, decide on a few realistic language goals based on your travel needs, what you want to get out of your trip, and the time you have left to study. Remember that you don't have to be "fluent" to be conversational! Here are some possible goals for travelers:

• Learn to introduce yourself, say where you're from, and explain something about your trip (for example, "We're going to Rome and Florence").
• Get comfortable asking a few essential questions , maybe about where your hotel is, if a certain dish contains an allergen (or meat, or mushrooms, etc), and how to get to a bathroom.
• Work on understanding the main words you'll find on menus and signs. These will be more relevant to you than reading literature in the language!

Start speaking now

Speaking is often the hardest part for new learners. It can feel so uncomfortable trying new sounds and putting words together into sentences . But when you're at your destination, speaking will be your most important skill!

There are lots of general pronunciation tips to help you prepare, but the most important one is to practice speaking at home, now! Don't wait until you've boarded the plane or are in your hotel room to try out the language. Before your trip, talk to yourself, your friends, your cat—they don't even have to be listening to you! 😅 Remember that you just have to get your point across and be understood, and that no one expects learners to have "perfect" pronunciation ! It'll take practice to get comfortable speaking, so begin today.

Work on vocabulary

In most travel situations, knowing the right words will be more important than having appropriate grammar or knowing spelling rules. Of course, grammar and spelling are very helpful for conversations and understanding what you read and hear, but if you don't have much time to prepare, you'll get more bang for your buck by focusing on vocabulary.

During your regular lessons, take note of useful words and phrases. Write them down, make a flashcard, record them in voice notes to yourself, and post sticky notes around the house. Get creative about how you practice in preparation for your trip!

Think of all the times, even in your own town, you might be in a restaurant and just say "Bathroom?" to wait staff instead of "Excuse me, would you tell me if the bathrooms are in the back?" The same will be true while traveling!

Tailor your learning to your trip

Each travel group and itinerary will have their own priorities. Your Duolingo lessons will cover lots of skills, vocabulary, and grammar, so make your practice outside the app all about your personal needs. Here are some tips to guide you:

• Decide what words you will really need to recognize. Especially for menus, some words will be really important to recognize—even if you can just point to them on the menu to order! For example, vegetarians will want to recognize different words for meat, people with allergies will need to know words to stay away from, and picky eaters will want to quickly find their favorite dishes. Remember that you won't need to say or write everything in the new language—often recognizing words will be enough!
• Focus on what you'll need to do, instead of what you'd like to do. Assuming you only have a few months (or a few weeks!) to prepare, work smarter, not harder! There are likely many parts of language that won't be essential for your trip. For example, shops and restaurants will have prices written out in digits you understand, so no need to worry about learning large numbers! It may be more important to have a really good grasp on smaller numbers, like 1-10, especially for telling restaurant or museum staff how many people are in your group.
• Practice phrases that are good enough . Pay special attention to set phrases and questions that you can use to get your point across in lots of situations, even if there might be better, more advanced ways to express things. For my trip to Italy, some of my "good enough" Italian phrases were È possibile? (Is it possible?), Andiamo a ___ (We are going to ___), and senza ___ (without ___). I used them constantly!

Focus on what you do know

Instead of trying to speak in your new language exactly like you do in your own language, try to use only what you *do* know how to say. From a learning perspective, this helps you practice and build connections between the words and grammar you've already studied, but it's also really practical: There's only so much you can learn before your trip, so think of clever ways to describe things or rephrase what you want to say, to make use of what you already know.

For example, when I was in Italy after studying Italian for just a few months, I didn't really know how to say things in the past tense yet. I had seen a few past tense forms, but not many, and I knew there were a lot of exceptions. Instead, I used a different past tense form, the equivalent of "have seen" or "have eaten," because it was easier for me as a beginner. I didn't always use it correctly, but it always got my point across—in Italian!

Bon voyage !

Make language learning part of your trip preparations to add an incredible dimension to your next vacation. It's never too late to start!

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9 Best Language Apps for Travel to Download Before Your Next Trip 2024

• life at home / Packing / Travel Gear

Looking for the best language apps for travel? Download these apps before your next trip.

We sat in a small French-owned cafe in the Bay Area, and I watched in awe as my friend conversed casually in French with the owner. I quietly munched on my sandwich, thinking to myself how I would love to be able to do that.

Truth be told, as an introvert, the practice part is what kills me afterward. None of the languages I learned in high school, college, or through Rosetta Stone stuck because of it. This year, though, I’m more than determined to put it into practice.

I tested out all the most popular and best language apps for travel to see what worked best, and I’m currently learning Spanish, French, Japanese, and Korean. It’s been so easy to open up a language app whenever I have downtime to learn bite-sized lessons daily. These are the ones I enjoyed using the most.

This post may contain affiliate links, where we receive a small commission on sales of the products that are linked at no additional cost to you. All opinions are always our own. Read our full disclosure  for more info. Thank you for supporting the brands that make Local Adventurer possible.

Last Updated: March 17, 2024

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• What to Look for in a Language Learning App
• Best Language Apps for Travel
• Translator Tools
• Price Comparison

What to Look for in a Language App for Travel

The best language app for travel can depend on your learning style (audio, visual, etc.), goals, and the language you want to learn. Some are better if you’re already somewhat proficient, while others are better at teaching you the basics. Despite different learning styles or goals, here are some basic things to look for in a language app.

• Proven Language Learning Methods: Does the app use proven language learning methods, such as spaced repetition, immersive content, and gamification?
• Is it fun to use? At the end of the day, even if the app is proven to work, you have to find it enjoyable if you’re going to stick with it.
• Quality of Content: The app should offer a variety of content and cover all aspects of language learning, including grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, listening comprehension, and cultural context.
• Vocabulary: Does it have a wide range of vocabulary words and phrases, including colloquialisms and slang?
• Progress Tracking: Does it track your progress and offer feedback and suggestions to help you improve? 
• Personalization: The app should offer personalized learning paths based on your level and goals.
• User Interface: The app should be user-friendly, intuitive, and easy to navigate.
• Social Features: Does the app provide a community of other language learners or a way to connect with friends? Accountability can help you so much when trying to build a habit.
• Value to Cost: The app should be reasonably priced for what they offer.
• Do you need wifi or a cell signal to use the app? Can you learn offline (like on the plane or road trip without signal).

In a rush? Try These Translator Tools

• Pocketalk Plus Voice Translator – real-time translator for up to 82 languages and dialects with a text-to-translate camera. According to PCMag, the translation software is superior to Google Translate and Microsoft Bing. We can’t wait to take it on our next international trip.
• Google Translate – free, ios + android
• iTranslate – free with ads. Pro has over 100 language options. Their best features, like voice recognition, are blocked unless you pay a fee.

The Best Language Apps for Travel

1. duolingo – most fun to use.

Why get Duolingo? The Duolingo app is one of the best language apps for travel because it’s so addictive. Sure, it has flaws, and people love to hate on it, but the best language app is the one you will use. They have the gamification aspect down to a science, and once you add friends for accountability, you’ll keep coming back. I also love that they recently added music and math. Because the slow paced nature of the app, I prefer this for Category 5 languages ( jump to the different categories ).

Cost: Free or $7.99/mo for Super Duolingo ($47.99/yr), No Lifetime Subscription.

Super Duolingo – Unlimited hearts, Unlimited Skips, Progress Tracker, Streak Repair, Mistakes Review, Listening Practice, Speaking Practice, Unlimited Attempts for Legendary Levels.

• Good for beginners.
• 43 languages (39 for English speakers)
• Uses social to connect with friends for accountability to help you stick with it.
• Their gamified approach makes learning fun and has streaks you want to keep up with.
• Nice design and UI is easy to use and navigate compared to other apps
• Free and accessible – Easy to be a freemium player. You start with five hearts but lose one when you make a mistake. Each heart is restored every five hours or sometimes by watching a 30-sec ad.
• Uses AI to customize your learning path.
• They use different characters with different voices and cadences. Not surprised that I especially like Lily, the emo teen.
• Very slow-paced , which may be great for some learners, but compared to all the other language apps, it’s by far the slowest-paced.
• Not great for conversations. Unless you’re practicing speaking separately, the exercises in the app aren’t enough.
• Overemphasis on translation may not be the most effective way to develop speaking and listening skills.
• Can’t pick the type of content to learn. You’re stuck with the current lesson even if it doesn’t apply to you unless you test out of them.
• Their microphone isn’t accurate, and you can get away with saying things incorrectly.
• Limited grammar lessons – only teaches some basic grammer, so sometimes sentence structure is confusing. I look up online supplemental resources to explain what I don’t understand. Duolingo does a better job than drops at building sentences and giving feedback on grammar, though not much.
• Too easy to guess the correct answer , so you can cheat your way through without actually learning anything.
• Not good offline. If the app is open, you can access the current lesson, which is very short. Some audio was glitchy offline.

2. Drops – Best for Building Vocabulary →

Why get Drops? The Drops language app is like a gamified flashcard app. I like that they give you the option to use your native language for translation, or you can match words to illustrations, which is what I prefer. It’s best for intermediate learners who want to expand or brush up on their vocabulary not complete beginners.

Method: Drops teaches core vocabulary, new alphabets, and common phrases and combines visual mnemonics, spaced repetition algorithms, and game theory. They use various types of matching and fill-in-the-blank exercises and recently added a quiz feature.

Cost : $13/mo, $69.99/year ($5.83/mo), $159.99/lifetime for all languages. They sometimes have 40% or 50% off sales on the lifetime, which is when I bought. Check during Black Friday!

I first got Drops to brush up on my Korean vocabulary and bought the premium to learn multiple languages. I list the most cons for this app because I use it the most and notice all the glitches, but I find it fun to use.

• 45 languages
• The gamified app makes it fun and addictive.
• Free to use. You get 5 minutes a day.
• Beautiful design. The UI is nice and intuitive.
• Short, bite-sized lessons for busy learners.
• Tons of learning categories or sections (i.e., French has 232), and they keep adding more.
• You can pick the topics you want to learn. 
• You can use translation or immersion-based learning methods, where you match words to illustrations.
• Updated most frequently out of all the apps.
• Not good for beginners. It’s straight memorization for both words and sentences. Longer sentences are too complex to memorize as a beginner.
• No grammar lessons or ways to build sentences.
• No speaking or pronunciation practice with a voice detector, so it’s not great for conversations.
• There are lots of noticeable glitches. It lags, logs me off often, and sometimes the audio doesn’t work. When the phrases are too big, they are cut off. Some languages are worse than others. Learning Korean has been great, but Spanish has many mistakes where the audio does not match the visual.
• Punctuation is inconsistent on the exercises you have to spell out. Sometimes, there’s punctuation; sometimes, the app asks for a space between the word and punctuation.
• Some sound files did not load on airplane mode.

See More: 25 Greatest Useful Gifts for Travelers

3. Pimsleur – Best for Conversations →

Why get Pimsleur? So far Pimsleur is one of the best language apps for travel because it’s focused on listening comprehension and speaking. You may not get much reading and writing practice compared to other apps, but the other apps do not prepare you for real life conversation scenarios until you’re far into the program. With Pimsleur, you dive right in from the beginning.

Both Duolingo and Drops apps aren’t great for conversations. I was dumbfounded when my friend from Mexico asked me something, and all I could do was cycle through random, useless vocabulary. With Pimsleur, I felt confident enough to have basic conversations right away.

Method: Audio learning with spaced repetition.

Cost: $19.95/mo for one language, $20.95/mo for 51 languages. Purchase Cost: $150/level/language or $575 for levels 1-5 for one language.

I’m currently on Lesson 27 in Spanish Level 1.

• Good for auditory learners.
• Emphasis on speaking skills in practical situations, so I saw the most improvement in being able to speak than any other app.
• Teaches you some grammar (they do a better job than Drops but not as good as Busuu).
• Can download full lessons for offline mode.
• Feedback on your pronunciation through Voice Coach (in beta)
• No writing practice.
• Pricier than other apps.
• Limited free version. Only the first lesson is free for all languages to test out.
• Feels more like school instead of playing a game. Speed round is as gamified as it gets.
• Can’t control the speed of the audio exercise. You can skip ahead or back 10 seconds, but it’d be nice to slow it down or do 1.5x speed.
• Long format. The 30-minute audio portion could be broken into smaller sections with a voice detector. Once you get into a habit, it’s great, but it can feel daunting to start a 30-minute lesson compared to quicker-paced apps.

See More: What Type of Traveler Are You? | My Travel Personality

4. Babbel →

Why get Babbel? Babbel is more comprehensive than most language apps on this list. They incorporate grammar, cultural context, and slang throughout their lessons, giving you a better understanding of the language you’re learning. I was surprised they even have tips on using inclusive, gender-neutral language in Spanish. Other apps seem old-school in comparison.

Method: Babbel teaches common phrases and vocabulary with exercises (matching pair, listening, fill-in-the-blank, voice recognition, and mock conversation). There is a heavy focus on simulated conversations.

Cost: $14.95/month, $8.95/mo with an annual subscription, $349 for a lifetime subscription (you can often find deals for the Babbel lifetime. I get periodic emails).

So far, I’ve completed 41 lessons in the Newcomer/A1 category.

• A nice, clean aesthetic.
• You can skip ahead to topics you want to learn (vs. other apps where you need to complete a lesson before moving on to the next)
• More comprehensive with grammar or contextual tip pop-ups during lessons.
• Instead of just streaks, you set up your own language goals , and it gives you a progress tracker.
• Gamified. The games are on the explore tab instead of incorporated into lessons.
• Can download all the lessons for offline access.
• Speaking and pronunciation practice , although their voice detector sometimes allows you to get away with not saying certain words and phrases completely.
• Babbel Live offers certified teacher-led Zoom classes , which give you real-life opportunities to interact and practice conversations. (I still need to try these classes, but most of them are in the early AM and not great for our PST time zone).
• The review feature gives you spaced repetition.
• Only 14 languages – Spanish, French, English, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazilian), Polish, Russian, Dutch, Turkish, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Indonesian. I’m hoping they will offer Korean in the future.
• Wish there was a skip-ahead feature when they are reading out all the conjugation or a way to skip words you already know.

5. Memrise →

Why get Memrise? Memrise uses flashcards and games to help you learn new vocab and grammar. They use videos of native speakers, so you can hear and see how they speak. Compared to other apps, they speak more naturally and don’t enunciate everything in a robotic voice.

Method: Vocabulary focused using flashcards, games, and videos with spaced repetition.

Cost: $22.99/mo for all languages, $130.99/yr ($10.92/mo), $249.99/lifetime.

Premium membership features – Audio review, Difficult Words (anything you get wrong gets added to it for review), learning statistics, grammar bots, chatbots. (The free version has the Membot communicate chatbot feature where you can reply to 5 messages)

Currently, I’m learning Korean 2, Spanish (Mexico) 2, Japanese 0, and French 1.

• 23 languages
• Free version offers a lot compared to other apps.
• Gamified to make learning enjoyable.
• Videos of actual people are more engaging, where you can hear and see them speak with varying cadences. Some of them are like watching TikToks.
• Appealing interface though not as pretty as Drops and Duolingo. I do like seeing the sprouts turn into flowers, though, as you learn new words.
• Can download full courses for offline use.
• Limited grammar and context explanation.
• Not enough speaking and listening practice.
• Not as user-friendly. Had to poke around to figure out how it works.
• Video quality can depend on the person since it can be user-created.
• The Explore feature needs work. The camera feature recognizes basic things like cat or table but was confused with objects like cactus.
• Streaks. Can’t figure out what time zone the app is set on or if this part is just glitchy. I often lose my streak even if I’m using the app within 24 hours, but it gives you the option to update your streak.

Why Get Busuu? Busuu is one of the best language apps for travel, and their biggest strength is its community, where you get direct feedback from other Busuu users who are native speakers. You get a sense that the community is there to help each other learn. Of all the apps here, their grammar lessons and context insight are the best, making you more well-rounded.

Cost: Free with ads or 83.40/yr (6.95/mo), 50.70/6 months ($8.45/mo), $13.90/mo for one month. Premium Plus Cost – $13.90/mo for 12 languages.

I’m learning Korean and Spanish on this app, and I love the community aspect of Busuu. Let’s be friends!

• Social community is one of their biggest strengths.
• Bite-sized, interactive lessons with quizzes, games, and listening exercises.
• Grammar explanations are detailed and intertwined into lessons, so it’s not overwhelming. It helps you understand the language at a deeper level.
• Robust AI-based grammar review.  
• Free access to everything with ads.
• Streaks and leaderboards for accountability and to help build up a habit.
• Speaking and writing practice with native speakers helps you gain confidence in using the language in real-life situations.
• Personalized learning plans based on your goals and proficiency so you can learn at your own pace. You can test to level up too.
• Can get certifications via McGraw Hill Education. on the paid version. However, it’s not an accredited certification, so it works for resumes but not for schools.
• Only 13 languages – English, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, Japanese, Arabic, Turkish, and Polish.
• Less speaking practice compared to Pimsleur.
• They don’t use all native speakers (ie, Korean had some non-native speakers)

7. Lingopie →

Why Use Lingopie? It’s a fun way to learn a language while watching popular shows and movies. Read the subtitles and click on a word or phrase to learn the meaning. You can’t learn a language with this app only, but this is a great supplemental tool for those who want more listening and comprehension practice.

Languages: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, and English.

Cost: $199/lifetime subscription with nine languages, $71.88/yr ($5.99/mo), $36/3 months ($12/mo) with one language.

• Engaging content using shows and movies exposes you to real-life scenarios and cultural references. Help with memorization and familiarize yourself with phrases and conversations.
• They have thousands of hours of subtitled content in any genre.
• Lots of listening and comprehension practice.
• Adjust the Speed of the video to 0.5x at the slowest.
• Interactive exercises like quizzes, fill-in-the-blank,
• Nice design and UI.
• You can learn different dialects . For example, you can watch videos from various Spanish-speaking countries.
• Not many languages , but they are continuing to add them. Korean is one they added.
• Not a learning course , so you will not get exercises or lessons on grammar, speaking, or writing practice.
• Limited free content. They have a 7-day free trial.
• Cost is relatively expensive compared to other apps.
• They have a limited library. With their Netflix partnership, only the most popular shows are included for Lingopie.

8. Mosalingua →

Why get Mosalingua? Mosalingua is a flash-card app that is very robust. It has all the content you could possibly want to learn. My favorite feature is adding your own words and phrases I come across from shows, books, or other content I consume.

Method: Spaced repetition to help you remember new words and phrases at gradually increasing intervals to help you reinforce knowledge over time. They teach you to retain information in your long-term memory by spending the least time.

Cost: $9.49/mo, $59.90/yr ($4.99/mo)

• Very robust with a focus on practical language skills for real-life situations, conversational, vocabulary, and grammar. Everything can be added to flash cards.
• You can add your phrases and words to new flashcards.
• Active recall without hints helps you retain information better.
• Can be overwhelming with the sheer amount of information.
• UI is outdated. It’s not intuitive, and it’s hard to figure out how to navigate the app without any instructions.
• Not gamified , and you need to be self-motivated.
• Limited languages compared to other apps
• Limited access to free content ; only a free trial.

9. Mondly →

Why get Mondly? While Mondly isn’t at the top of our best language apps for travel, you get a free daily lesson. Other apps do a better job and offer similar features, but if you’re a freemium user, it find it beneficial to download multiple apps with free lessons. I also find it enjoyable to watch the brain graphic light up.

Cost: Free daily Lesson or 9.99/mo one language, 47.99/year ($3.99/mo), $1999.99 lifetime access (currently on sale for $89.99)

I’m on Level 9 for Spanish Beginner and Korean Advanced.

• Free daily lesson
• Teaches you practical phrases you will use in real-life scenarios.
• Like the way they present conjugation by clicking on the word for translation vs. having all separate slides. 
• Interactive exercises , including quizzes, games, and chatbots
• Speaking and writing practice with speech technology and native tutors.
• Gamified exercises with points for finishing classes.
• Not all speakers are native. For example, in Korean. It’s harder to tell for other languages when I’m not a native speaker.
• Sometimes glitchy. Found some errors in Korean language while typing.
• Limited grammar explanation and more focus on vocabulary.
• Does not teach languages well that follow different scripts like Japanese, Korean, etc.
• Limited content – not as in-depth as other apps.

10. Rosetta Stone →

Why Get Rosetta Stone? Rosetta Stone is OG and still makes our list of best language apps for travel because of its unique immersive approach, pairing words with images. It’s how kids first learn a language and can feel much more natural and intuitive than using translations. I end up speaking much slower when I’m translating into English first.

Cost: $47.97/three months (15.99/mo) or $127/year ($10.50/mo) for one language, $199 for a lifetime single language, $399.00 lifetime with 25 languages.

• 20 languages
• Immersive language instruction is effective. It feels more intuitive the way you learn sentence structure. I like skipping translation.
• Speaking practice with their Truaccent technology that first breaks down the pronunciation into syllables and gives immediate feedback on your pronunciation.
• Comprehensive courses covering grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and conversations.
• Interactive exercises like games, role-playing, and speech recognition make it more engaging.
• Outdated UI feels older and has not made any new updates to adapt like modern apps.
• Limited cultural context and insights.
• Repetitive exercises can be boring.
• Limited free access. Only the first lesson is free in each language.

Price Comparison for Best Language Apps for Travel

Language Categories and Difficulty Rankings

The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) put together a list to show English speakers approximate times to reach S3 (Speaking 3) and R3 (Reading 3) proficiency levels in other languages. They start with Category I languages, which are most similar to English and ends with Category V, where you see the most linguistic and cultural differences in languages.

• Category I (23-24 weeks/575-600 hrs) – Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, French, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish.
• Category II (30 weeks/750 hrs) – German
• Category III (36 weeks/900 hrs) – Indonesian, Malasian, Swahili
• Category IV (44 weeks/1100 hrs) – Albanian, Amharic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bengali, Bulgarian, Burmese, Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Finnish, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Khmer, Lao, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Mongolian, Nepali, Pashto, Persian, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Xhosa, Zulu
• Category V (88 weeks/2200 hours) – Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean

Free Language Resources

• Project Gutenberg – free classic ebooks and audiobooks. They are mostly English but have other languages.
• Earbrookers on Spotify – learn Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, or Spanish while sleeping.
• Japanese Everyday – Learn Japanese while you sleep.
• Nihongo Con Teppei Way – Another podcast where you learn Japanese while you sleep.
• Learn in Your Car – Has Spanish, Italian, German, French, and English
• JM Gardner – Has some albums with 1000 basic word translations between various languages (not just English to a different language). The most popular one is Korean to English.

What are the Best language apps for travel? Conclusion

No single app above can get you to complete fluency or will give you passing grades in language proficiency exams. However, you can use a combination of these apps to get by for travel.

We recommend starting with the free versions of Busuu, Drops, Duolingo, and Memrise. If you have used one of these apps consistently for over a month and enjoy it, it’s worth splurging on the premium version. For example, I used the free version of Drops for six months before paying for Drops Premium.

When you’re serious about speaking a language, Pimsleur had the most listening and speaking practice, giving me the most confidence during conversations. Lately, I’ve mainly been using Pimsleur to learn conversational skills, Duolingo and Drops to keep my streak going, and Busuu because the community is so supportive and active.

I’m also still testing out a few more apps, which I will add later!

Which of these are the best language apps for travel for you? Which language apps have you tried?

Did you enjoy this post? Pin it for later

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“Discovery consists not of seeking new lands but in seeing with new eyes ” – M. Proust

Esther + Jacob

Esther and Jacob are the founders of Local Adventurer, one of the top 5 travel blogs in the US. They believe that adventure can be found near and far and hope to inspire others to explore locally. They explore a new city in depth every year and currently base themselves in Las Vegas.

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UnifyCosmos

24 Fascinating Facts About Languages Around the World

Posted: April 20, 2024 | Last updated: April 20, 2024

Languages are windows into human diversity and cultural richness. In this article, we explore 24 intriguing facts about languages worldwide, from the clicking sounds of Xhosa in South Africa to the tonal complexities of Mandarin in China. Each language carries unique features and contributions that enrich our understanding of global linguistic heritage.

The Tower of Babel Myth

The story of the Tower of Babel, found in various mythologies including the Bible, highlights the origin of different languages as a divine intervention. This mythological tale serves as a cultural explanation for linguistic diversity and the complexities of communication.

The Most Spoken Languages

Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, and English are among the most widely spoken languages globally, reflecting the influence of China, Spain, and English-speaking countries on a global scale.

Click Languages

Languages like Xhosa and Zulu from Southern Africa feature click consonants, a unique linguistic feature that adds richness and complexity to these languages.

Tonal Languages

Mandarin Chinese and Thai are tonal languages, where the tone or pitch of a word can change its meaning entirely. This linguistic aspect adds layers of subtlety and nuance to communication.

Latin Influence

Many modern languages, including Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese, have been heavily influenced by Latin, contributing to similarities in vocabulary and grammar structures among these languages.

Polyglots and Multilingualism

Some individuals, known as polyglots, possess the ability to fluently speak multiple languages, showcasing the brain’s remarkable capacity for linguistic acquisition and processing.

Constructed Languages (Conlangs)

Languages like Esperanto and Klingon are constructed languages designed for specific purposes, such as international communication or fictional storytelling, demonstrating the creativity and flexibility of human language creation.

Sign Languages

Sign languages, such as American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL), are complete and complex languages with their own grammar, syntax, and vocabulary, used primarily by Deaf communities worldwide.

Endangered Languages

Many indigenous and minority languages face the threat of extinction due to cultural assimilation, globalization, and language policies, highlighting the importance of language preservation efforts.

Linguistic Relativity (Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis)

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests that language influences thought patterns and worldview, shaping how speakers perceive and interpret the world around them.

Pidgin and Creole Languages

Pidgin languages emerge as simplified forms of communication between speakers of different languages, while creole languages develop as fully functional languages with distinct grammar and vocabulary, often originating from pidgin languages.

Logographic Writing Systems

Writing systems like Chinese characters and Egyptian hieroglyphs use logograms, where each symbol represents a word or concept, offering a visual and symbolic representation of language.

Phonetic Alphabets

Phonetic alphabets, such as the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), provide a standardized way to transcribe the sounds of human speech across different languages, facilitating linguistic research and communication.

Language Families

Languages are often grouped into families based on shared linguistic features and historical relationships, such as the Indo-European language family encompassing languages like English, German, and Hindi.

Language Revitalization Efforts

Communities and organizations worldwide engage in language revitalization projects to preserve and revive endangered languages, recognizing the intrinsic value of linguistic diversity and cultural heritage.

Whistled Languages

Whistled languages, such as Silbo Gomero in the Canary Islands, use whistles to convey linguistic information, showcasing innovative adaptations for communication in challenging environments.

Dialects and Regional Variations

Languages exhibit dialectal variations and regional accents, reflecting the diverse cultural and geographical influences shaping linguistic diversity within a language community.

Language Acquisition in Children

The study of child language acquisition reveals the innate capacity of young learners to acquire complex linguistic structures and develop communicative competence from a young age.

Linguistic Borrowing

Languages often borrow words and phrases from other languages through processes like loanwords and calques, enriching vocabulary and reflecting cultural exchange and contact.

Onomatopoeia

Many languages use onomatopoeic words, where the sound of a word mimics the sound of the object or action it represents, showcasing the expressive and imitative nature of language.

Gendered Languages

Some languages, such as French and Spanish, feature grammatical gender, where nouns and pronouns are categorized as masculine or feminine, reflecting cultural and linguistic conventions.

Diglossia refers to the coexistence of two distinct varieties of a language, such as a formal literary version and a spoken vernacular version, often observed in multilingual societies.

Language Evolution

Languages evolve over time through processes like linguistic drift, phonological changes, and lexical innovations, illustrating the dynamic nature of language as a living system.

Machine Translation and Language Technology

Advancements in machine translation and language technologies, such as neural networks and natural language processing (NLP), are revolutionizing cross-linguistic communication and accessibility, bridging linguistic barriers in the digital age.

This article originally appeared on UnifyCosmos .

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Moscow Metro – Part 2

Have you been to Moscow ? In all seriousness, they have the prettiest metro stations I have ever seen and I still can’t believe how immaculate and lovely every station was. There are several different stations pictured below and this is the second of several posts where I will show you the beauty of the Moscow Metro. Did you see part 1 ?  There really isn’t much to say because I think the pictures speak for themselves. I have so many more pictures to share with you!

Have you ever been to Moscow? Is it someplace you have thought about visiting?

She speaks fluent English, French and Spanish, and works for a major airline. And guess what? She’s also a licensed elementary teacher and has an MBA.

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This is the train STATION?? Oh my god… So gorgeous. Moscow has never even crossed my mind as a possible travel destination but this is gorgeous…Hmmm… LOL

I know, right? We spent several hours in the metro, just marveling at the beauty of each one. Thanks for stopping by!

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The Moscow Metro Museum of Art: 10 Must-See Stations

There are few times one can claim having been on the subway all afternoon and loving it, but the Moscow Metro provides just that opportunity.  While many cities boast famous public transport systems—New York’s subway, London’s underground, San Salvador’s chicken buses—few warrant hours of exploration.  Moscow is different: Take one ride on the Metro, and you’ll find out that this network of railways can be so much more than point A to B drudgery.

The Metro began operating in 1935 with just thirteen stations, covering less than seven miles, but it has since grown into the world’s third busiest transit system ( Tokyo is first ), spanning about 200 miles and offering over 180 stops along the way.  The construction of the Metro began under Joseph Stalin’s command, and being one of the USSR’s most ambitious building projects, the iron-fisted leader instructed designers to create a place full of svet (radiance) and svetloe budushchee (a radiant future), a palace for the people and a tribute to the Mother nation.

Consequently, the Metro is among the most memorable attractions in Moscow.  The stations provide a unique collection of public art, comparable to anything the city’s galleries have to offer and providing a sense of the Soviet era, which is absent from the State National History Museum.  Even better, touring the Metro delivers palpable, experiential moments, which many of us don’t get standing in front of painting or a case of coins.

Though tours are available , discovering the Moscow Metro on your own provides a much more comprehensive, truer experience, something much less sterile than following a guide.  What better place is there to see the “real” Moscow than on mass transit: A few hours will expose you to characters and caricatures you’ll be hard-pressed to find dining near the Bolshoi Theater.  You become part of the attraction, hear it in the screech of the train, feel it as hurried commuters brush by: The Metro sucks you beneath the city and churns you into the mix.

With the recommendations of our born-and-bred Muscovite students, my wife Emma and I have just taken a self-guided tour of what some locals consider the top ten stations of the Moscow Metro. What most satisfied me about our Metro tour was the sense of adventure .  I loved following our route on the maps of the wagon walls as we circled the city, plotting out the course to the subsequent stops; having the weird sensation of being underground for nearly four hours; and discovering the next cavern of treasures, playing Indiana Jones for the afternoon, piecing together fragments of Russia’s mysterious history.  It’s the ultimate interactive museum.

Top Ten Stations (In order of appearance)

Kievskaya station.

Kievskaya Station went public in March of 1937, the rails between it and Park Kultury Station being the first to cross the Moscow River.  Kievskaya is full of mosaics depicting aristocratic scenes of Russian life, with great cameo appearances by Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin.  Each work has a Cyrillic title/explanation etched in the marble beneath it; however, if your Russian is rusty, you can just appreciate seeing familiar revolutionary dates like 1905 ( the Russian Revolution ) and 1917 ( the October Revolution ).

Mayakovskaya Station

Mayakovskaya Station ranks in my top three most notable Metro stations. Mayakovskaya just feels right, done Art Deco but no sense of gaudiness or pretention.  The arches are adorned with rounded chrome piping and create feeling of being in a jukebox, but the roof’s expansive mosaics of the sky are the real showstopper.  Subjects cleverly range from looking up at a high jumper, workers atop a building, spires of Orthodox cathedrals, to nimble aircraft humming by, a fleet of prop planes spelling out CCCP in the bluest of skies.

Novoslobodskaya Station

Novoslobodskaya is the Metro’s unique stained glass station.  Each column has its own distinctive panels of colorful glass, most of them with a floral theme, some of them capturing the odd sailor, musician, artist, gardener, or stenographer in action.  The glass is framed in Art Deco metalwork, and there is the lovely aspect of discovering panels in the less frequented haunches of the hall (on the trackside, between the incoming staircases).  Novosblod is, I’ve been told, the favorite amongst out-of-town visitors.

Komsomolskaya Station

Komsomolskaya Station is one of palatial grandeur.  It seems both magnificent and obligatory, like the presidential palace of a colonial city.  The yellow ceiling has leafy, white concrete garland and a series of golden military mosaics accenting the tile mosaics of glorified Russian life.  Switching lines here, the hallway has an Alice-in-Wonderland feel, impossibly long with decorative tile walls, culminating in a very old station left in a remarkable state of disrepair, offering a really tangible glimpse behind the palace walls.

Dostoevskaya Station

Dostoevskaya is a tribute to the late, great hero of Russian literature .  The station at first glance seems bare and unimpressive, a stark marble platform without a whiff of reassembled chips of tile.  However, two columns have eerie stone inlay collages of scenes from Dostoevsky’s work, including The Idiot , The Brothers Karamazov , and Crime and Punishment.   Then, standing at the center of the platform, the marble creates a kaleidoscope of reflections.  At the entrance, there is a large, inlay portrait of the author.

Chkalovskaya Station

Chkalovskaya does space Art Deco style (yet again).  Chrome borders all.  Passageways with curvy overhangs create the illusion of walking through the belly of a chic, new-age spacecraft.  There are two (kos)mosaics, one at each end, with planetary subjects.  Transferring here brings you above ground, where some rather elaborate metalwork is on display.  By name similarity only, I’d expected Komsolskaya Station to deliver some kosmonaut décor; instead, it was Chkalovskaya that took us up to the space station.

Elektrozavodskaya Station

Elektrozavodskaya is full of marble reliefs of workers, men and women, laboring through the different stages of industry.  The superhuman figures are round with muscles, Hollywood fit, and seemingly undeterred by each Herculean task they respectively perform.  The station is chocked with brass, from hammer and sickle light fixtures to beautiful, angular framework up the innards of the columns.  The station’s art pieces are less clever or extravagant than others, but identifying the different stages of industry is entertaining.

Baumanskaya Statio

Baumanskaya Station is the only stop that wasn’t suggested by the students.  Pulling in, the network of statues was just too enticing: Out of half-circle depressions in the platform’s columns, the USSR’s proud and powerful labor force again flaunts its success.  Pilots, blacksmiths, politicians, and artists have all congregated, posing amongst more Art Deco framing.  At the far end, a massive Soviet flag dons the face of Lenin and banners for ’05, ’17, and ‘45.  Standing in front of the flag, you can play with the echoing roof.

Ploshchad Revolutsii Station

Novokuznetskaya Station

Novokuznetskaya Station finishes off this tour, more or less, where it started: beautiful mosaics.  This station recalls the skyward-facing pieces from Mayakovskaya (Station #2), only with a little larger pictures in a more cramped, very trafficked area.  Due to a line of street lamps in the center of the platform, it has the atmosphere of a bustling market.  The more inventive sky scenes include a man on a ladder, women picking fruit, and a tank-dozer being craned in.  The station’s also has a handsome black-and-white stone mural.

Here is a map and a brief description of our route:

Start at (1)Kievskaya on the “ring line” (look for the squares at the bottom of the platform signs to help you navigate—the ring line is #5, brown line) and go north to Belorusskaya, make a quick switch to the Dark Green/#2 line, and go south one stop to (2)Mayakovskaya.  Backtrack to the ring line—Brown/#5—and continue north, getting off at (3)Novosblodskaya and (4)Komsolskaya.  At Komsolskaya Station, transfer to the Red/#1 line, go south for two stops to Chistye Prudy, and get on the Light Green/#10 line going north.  Take a look at (5)Dostoevskaya Station on the northern segment of Light Green/#10 line then change directions and head south to (6)Chkalovskaya, which offers a transfer to the Dark Blue/#3 line, going west, away from the city center.  Have a look (7)Elektroskaya Station before backtracking into the center of Moscow, stopping off at (8)Baumskaya, getting off the Dark Blue/#3 line at (9)Ploschad Revolyutsii.  Change to the Dark Green/#2 line and go south one stop to see (10)Novokuznetskaya Station.

Check out our new Moscow Indie Travel Guide , book a flight to Moscow and read 10 Bars with Views Worth Blowing the Budget For

Jonathon Engels, formerly a patron saint of misadventure, has been stumbling his way across cultural borders since 2005 and is currently volunteering in the mountains outside of Antigua, Guatemala.  For more of his work, visit his website and blog .

Photo credits:   SergeyRod , all others courtesy of the author and may not be used without permission

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The Most Beautiful Stations on the Moscow Metro

You might have heard that there are some beautiful metro stations in Moscow. Soviet decorations, chandeliers, mosaic painting and statues are common in many of the stations. The good news is that the Moscow Metro does not cost a lot of money and many of the most beautiful stations on the Moscow metro are on the same line, so you can almost get on and off at each station to visit these. Over the New Year holidays, I had a free afternoon and decided to visit some of these stations. Check out what I found below…..

The main stations that you will want to visit are on the Number 5 line, also known as the Circle Line. An advantage of this line is that you can get to it very easily and quickly no matter where you are in Moscow. The announcements on the metro are in Russian as well as English so you don’t need to worry if your Russian language skills are not good.

If, like me, you arrive in Moscow via train from Kyiv , then you will arrive at a metro station which many Muscovites believe to be the most beautiful of them all…..

Kievskaya metro station was opened in 1954 and features white marble walls which curve upwards and have with large mosaics surrounded by a gold trim in a very classical style. The mosaics depict life in Ukraine and was designed by a Ukrainian who wanted to display Ukraine’s influence and contribution to Soviet Russia.

Kievskaya, one of the most beautiful stations on the Moscow metro

Soviet era artwork between the arches

Mosaic with golden trim

People carrying flags is a common theme

Going into battle

Belorusskaya

If you look at a map of the metro , you will want to go in a clockwise direction on the circle line. So you will want to get on the train going in the Barrikadnaya direction and not Park Kultury. Stay on this line until you reach the 2nd station, Belorusskaya. This station was built in 1952 and like Kievskaya also features white marble pylons and a plaster ceiling.

The ceiling features 12 mosaics in an octagonal shape depicting Belarusian life, while the tiling on the floor is said to resemble a Belarusian quilt. One of the passageway exits of the station has a statue called ‘Belarusian Partisans’ of three men wearing long coats, holding guns and carrying a flag.”

Belorusskaya metro platform

Soviet artwork on the roof

The hammer and sickle features prominently in the metro artwork

Three men carrying guns, holding the flag…

Mayakovskaya

To get to the next station, we need to change onto the green line (line 2) and go just one stop to the station of Mayakovskaya. This station has an art deco theme and, for some, resembles an elaborate ballroom. The columns are faced with stainless steel and pink rhodonite while the marble walls and ceiling have 34 mosaics with the theme “24-hour Soviet Sky. Apparently, Stalin resided here during the 2nd World War as the station was used as a command post for Moscow’s anti-aircraft regiment.

Mayakovskaya metro

24-Hour Soviet Sky mosaic

Bomber planes

It looks like planes flying over Red Square

Novoslobodskaya

It’s time to get back on the metro and return to Belorusskaya. At Belorusskaya, change to the circle line again and continue clockwise to the next station, Novoslobodskaya. With its 32 stained glass panels, this station reminds me of a church. The panels were designed by Latvian artists and are surrounded by a brass border.

Novoslobodskaya metro

The platform of Novoslobodskaya metro

Stained glass artwork

The golden trim around artwork is also very common

Prospekt Mira

Back on the metro and again just one stop until our next station, Prospekt Mira. This station was originally called Botanichesky Sad after the nearby Botanical Gardens of the Moscow State University. The pylons are covered in white marble and decorated with floral bas-relief friezes. The ceiling is decorated with casts and several cylindrical chandeliers.

Prospekt Mira metro station

Notice the floral decoration

Komsomolskaya

On the metro once more and once more we are going just one stop to the next station – Komsomolskaya. This station is famous for its its yellow ceiling. The chandeliers in this station are huge. The photos below do not do this station justice.  For me, this station resembles a presidential palace.  You hace to see it for yourself to truly appreciate it.

Because of it’s location, this is one of the busiest stations in the Moscow metro as it serves three of the main train stations in the city – Leningradsky, Yaroslavsky, and Kazansky so be prepared for a lot of people.

Komsomolskaya metro

The yellow ceiling seems to go on forever

Yellow ceiling and artwork

One of the ceiling mosaics

Elektrozavodskaya

When you are ready to leave Komsomolskaya metro station behind, then get back on the circle line and go one stop to Kurskaya and change to the blue line (line 3) and go to two stops to the Elektrozavodskaya station. This station gets it’s name from a nearby electric light bulb factory and has a somewhat industrial but also futuristic style, with 6 rows of circular lamps (there are 318 lamps in total). I think this is one of the most beautiful stations on the Moscow metro for how unique it is. The station was opened in 1944 after a delay because of the 2nd World War and features 12 marble bas-reliefs of the struggle on the home front during the war.

The Komsomolskaya metro station

The struggles of war at home

Fixing machinery

Hard at work

Making weapons

Building a tank

Even the station sign is elaborate

Ploschad Revolyutsii

Back on the metro line 3 (but in the other direction), getting off at the 3rd stop – Ploschad Revolyutsii (Revolution Square). This is located underneath the square in Moscow of the same name and is a short walk from Red Square in the city centre. It is the perfect place to end a visit around Moscow’s metro. The station features red and yellow marble arches with a total of 76 sculptures in between each arch. The sculptures are supposed to represent the people of the Soviet Union and include soldiers, farmers, industrial workers, children etc… I noticed a lot of people touching the golden chicken in the photo below as well as the show of the woman. I am assuming that this is for good luck.

Industrial worker

Touch the chicken for good luck

Sculpture of the people of the Soviet Union

Woman reading a book – touch the shoe for good luck

In education

Parent and child

These are some of what I think are the most beautiful stations on the Moscow metro. Which ones are your favourite? Would you add any to this list?

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19 comments.

Kievskaya definitely caught me off guard. Didn’t know Moscow metro stations were THIS extravagant! Mayakovskaya is gorgeous too with the marble walls and mosaics. I might just need to book a flight over to admire all of these!

Do it! Kievskaya was my first introduction to the Moscow metro as I got an overnight train from Kyiv.

You know, in the States, all we ever hear is bad stuff about Russia. It’s nice to see other (and lovely!) dimensions of such a controversial place.

It’s the same in the UK which is why I prefer going to see somewhere and making up my own mind. It’s all ‘politics and bullshit’ as I say

I went to Moscow about 13years for Christmas and went to train stations, so I can see these amazing mosaics and chandeliers. I agree with you that are beautiful Stations for sure and I could of wandered around for days. I think Kievskaya is definitely my favourite out of them all and I even have some similar pictures as you.

I imagine Moscow would have been a little different 13 years ago but these stations have probably always looked beautiful

Food and Footprints

You chose some great stations for this write up! Beautiful details in these stations and would love to visit them sometime. Particularly like the Komsomolskaya station with that yellow ceiling!

Thank you very much. Komsomolskaya seems to be a lot of peoples favourite stations too

Sumit Surai

Wow! Without the text I would have thought them to be some museum or gallery.

I know exactly what you mean!

Rosie Fluskey

Wow, it is just stunning! How does anyone get to work with so much to look at. I’m surprised at the very bourgeois-looking Komsomolskaya station. I would have thought it was all too Tzarist looking, but then I haven’t been to Russia yet lol. This has just made me want to go more!

Wow, that’s a lot of artwork. I wonder how old some of these pieces are?

Generally most of the stations are from 1940-1960 approximately. The later stations are more functional than style.

My mother-in-law was in Moscow fifty years ago and still raves about the metro stations. So far, I could not imagine much. But now! The pictures are great and I think it’s almost a pity that this splendor is underground. But for every user of the Metro can enjoy a free trip to the world of art. Susanne

True. It is like having a free trip to an art museum/gallery. I hope that you can one day visit Moscow and see for yourself.

Oh wow, I would never have known that these were metro stations. The ceilings remind me of how you need to look up sometimes, even in the commuter rush!

It is true about life in general, we just go from A to B looking directly in front of us instead of around us

Wow, I would have never guessed that these were stations. The decor is so pretty and not one I’m used to seeing at metro stations. Love the ceiling at The Komsomolskaya metro station.

They certainly don’t look like metro stations. The ceiling there is one of my favourites too!

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Claudia Looi

Touring the Top 10 Moscow Metro Stations

By Claudia Looi 2 Comments

Komsomolskaya metro station looks like a museum. It has vaulted ceilings and baroque decor.

Hidden underground, in the heart of Moscow, are historical and architectural treasures of Russia. These are Soviet-era creations – the metro stations of Moscow.

Our guide Maria introduced these elaborate metro stations as “the palaces for the people.” Built between 1937 and 1955, each station holds its own history and stories. Stalin had the idea of building beautiful underground spaces that the masses could enjoy. They would look like museums, art centers, concert halls, palaces and churches. Each would have a different theme. None would be alike.

The two-hour private tour was with a former Intourist tour guide named Maria. Maria lived in Moscow all her life and through the communist era of 60s to 90s. She has been a tour guide for more than 30 years. Being in her 60s, she moved rather quickly for her age. We traveled and crammed with Maria and other Muscovites on the metro to visit 10 different metro stations.

Arrow showing the direction of metro line 1 and 2

Moscow subways are very clean

To Maria, every street, metro and building told a story. I couldn’t keep up with her stories. I don’t remember most of what she said because I was just thrilled being in Moscow.   Added to that, she spilled out so many Russian words and names, which to one who can’t read Cyrillic, sounded so foreign and could be easily forgotten.

The metro tour was the first part of our all day tour of Moscow with Maria. Here are the stations we visited:

1. Komsomolskaya Metro Station  is the most beautiful of them all. Painted yellow and decorated with chandeliers, gold leaves and semi precious stones, the station looks like a stately museum. And possibly decorated like a palace. I saw Komsomolskaya first, before the rest of the stations upon arrival in Moscow by train from St. Petersburg.

2. Revolution Square Metro Station (Ploshchad Revolyutsii) has marble arches and 72 bronze sculptures designed by Alexey Dushkin. The marble arches are flanked by the bronze sculptures. If you look closely you will see passersby touching the bronze dog's nose. Legend has it that good luck comes to those who touch the dog's nose.

Touch the dog's nose for good luck. At the Revolution Square station

Revolution Square Metro Station

3. Arbatskaya Metro Station served as a shelter during the Soviet-era. It is one of the largest and the deepest metro stations in Moscow.

Arbatskaya Metro Station

4. Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station was built in 1935 and named after the Russian State Library. It is located near the library and has a big mosaic portrait of Lenin and yellow ceramic tiles on the track walls.

Lenin's portrait at the Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station

5. Kievskaya Metro Station was one of the first to be completed in Moscow. Named after the capital city of Ukraine by Kiev-born, Nikita Khruschev, Stalin's successor.

Kievskaya Metro Station

6. Novoslobodskaya Metro Station  was built in 1952. It has 32 stained glass murals with brass borders.

Novoslobodskaya metro station

7. Kurskaya Metro Station was one of the first few to be built in Moscow in 1938. It has ceiling panels and artwork showing Soviet leadership, Soviet lifestyle and political power. It has a dome with patriotic slogans decorated with red stars representing the Soviet's World War II Hall of Fame. Kurskaya Metro Station is a must-visit station in Moscow.

Ceiling panel and artworks at Kurskaya Metro Station

8. Mayakovskaya Metro Station built in 1938. It was named after Russian poet Vladmir Mayakovsky. This is one of the most beautiful metro stations in the world with 34 mosaics painted by Alexander Deyneka.

Mayakovskaya station

One of the over 30 ceiling mosaics in Mayakovskaya metro station

9. Belorusskaya Metro Station is named after the people of Belarus. In the picture below, there are statues of 3 members of the Partisan Resistance in Belarus during World War II. The statues were sculpted by Sergei Orlov, S. Rabinovich and I. Slonim.

10. Teatralnaya Metro Station (Theatre Metro Station) is located near the Bolshoi Theatre.

Teatralnaya Metro Station decorated with porcelain figures .

Taking the metro's escalator at the end of the tour with Maria the tour guide.

Have you visited the Moscow Metro? Leave your comment below.

January 15, 2017 at 8:17 am

An excellent read! Thanks for much for sharing the Russian metro system with us. We're heading to Moscow in April and exploring the metro stations were on our list and after reading your post, I'm even more excited to go visit them. Thanks again 🙂

December 6, 2017 at 10:45 pm

Hi, do you remember which tour company you contacted for this tour?

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'I will forget you,' she told a man she met while travelling. She never did and they found unexpected love

He decided to spend Christmas somewhere that wouldn't involve snowstorm disasters. She was spending the holidays with family, travelling for the first time outside of her native country of Venezuela.

Both weren't expecting to meet someone special the night they crossed paths at a bar in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.

Describing himself as an independent person who had lived in and travelled to many places, Doug Schneider, then aged 36, decided to travel alone to the Caribbean country in 2000. He swore he wouldn't endure another nasty snowstorm, which he experienced during the previous Christmas with his family on Vancouver Island. Isabel Barroeta, a 26-year-old university student from Venezuela at the time, was on vacation at a resort for two weeks. She said her grandparents invited her to join them on the trip with her uncle and his family.

"I was telling my mom how I'm going to go away for Christmas without you," Barroeta said in a video interview with CTVNews.ca. "And she's like, just go, I will be here when you come back in January."

Schneider and Barroeta stayed at different hotels but ended up one night at Crazy Moon, a bar in a mall in the middle of a complex with nine resorts.

After some hesitation, Barroeta decided to join some Canadian girls who invited her there that night.

"I was like 'but I don't really know these people' and my family is like, 'Just go ahead. We are on vacation. We are so close. If something goes wrong or you see something funny, just come back.'"

At first, the women – including Barroeta – were attracted to Schneider's companion, another Canadian solo traveller whom he was hanging out with at the bar.

"The interesting thing is he was a really good looking guy. All the women kind of swoon over him and everybody was very interested to talk to him before me," Schneider said in a video interview with CTVNews.ca. "I don't know, whatever he would say, within 30 seconds, any woman who was talking to him would just leave and then they would talk to me."

First time they met

Barroeta admitted blonde men weren't exactly her type, but Schneider's blue eyes stood out.

"Actually, the blue in his eyes is very beautiful, but the blonde I was like, I don't like, but he was attractive," she said.

Barroeta recalled the moment she first met Schneider. He offered her a chair to sit on and she eventually admitted that she didn't speak much English. He also didn't understand any Spanish.

The Canadian girls soon introduced him to her. That's when the "magic" started, Barroeta said.

"Canadian girls on vacation aren't really interested in meeting a Canadian guy so they were pretty quick to brush me off," Schneider said.

Schneider and Barroeta recalled the Latin dance music was loud and the place was crowded, so they ended up going outside the bar.

"The cultural barriers weren't as big as the communication barriers at the beginning," he said.

It was difficult to understand what they were trying to say, Schneider and Barroeta admitted, but they soon hit it off, talking for hours until three in the morning.

They arranged to meet again at the beach the next day.

Barroeta was more than an hour late. "But let's face it. I just met this guy in a bar. I don't know who he is. What if I go to the beach and he wasn't there?" she said. "At least I wouldn't look that foolish."

She found him waiting for her.

They said they spent the next three days hanging out, taking long tranquil walks on the beach, eating dinner with her family and celebrating Christmas.

"When I saw how she interacted with her family ... I said, 'Oh, this is a very nice girl,'" Schneider said.

Since language was a barrier, they communicated at times by drawing pictures on the sand as they walked along the beach.

"When I couldn't express myself properly, then I will draw pictures on the sand and then he will," she said.

It was more of a communication challenge than love at first sight, the couple said.

"It was a little confusing to be perfectly honest because … she couldn't clearly articulate herself in terms of if she was interested in talking to me or not," Schneider said.

When they first exchanged emails and phone numbers before he left, Barroeta said she wrote in a note to him, "I will forget you," mistakenly forgetting a crucial word.

He thought what she wrote might literally be true and asked if that was what she meant. Luckily, she caught the mistake on time and they both laughed about it.

Keeping in touch

Barroeta returned to her hometown of Barquisimeto, 400 kilometres west of Caracas, on Jan. 3, 2001. That night, she said the phone rang. "It was him," she said. "He was just checking to see if I arrived safely."

As soon as she was back home, she grabbed her books and dictionary to improve her English. "And every time we talk on the phone, I had little notes and my dictionary with me."

Schneider said he travelled to Venezuela four times that year, staying about a week each time. He even got stranded there for four extra days because of the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S.

The following year, she visited Canada for six weeks. They both celebrated their birthdays, which are only two days apart. Just before she left, about a year and a half after they met, he proposed and she said yes.

"It was a long distance relationship but it worked and then we got married in Venezuela," Schneider said, noting they regularly kept in touch through email, phone, text messages and video calls.

When they got married in a Catholic church on Dec. 6, 2002, the country was living through a tumultuous political time. In a bid to oust the Hugo Chávez government, the opposition began a national strike that disrupted commercial activity in the country. Many middle-class residents opposed Chávez's leftist style of governing while he had strong support among the poor, CNN reported on Dec. 24, 2002.

The ceremony didn't go smoothly either. Barroeta said the Catholic priest who knew English didn't show up so they had to scramble to find another one in a few hours. The replacement priest, however, didn't speak English so she had her cousin translate what he said during the ceremony.

For the honeymoon, they went to Margarita Island, a popular resort destination off Venezuela, with her Canadian in-laws.

New life in Canada

As Schneider and his family flew back to Canada, she said she waited eight months for her permanent residency application to be approved. She moved to Canada in August 2003.

Knowing how rough Canadian winters can be, Schneider said he made sure she had winter boots and a jacket suitable for -35 C weather. "If you don't dress appropriately for Canada, you're going to hate it," he said. "So I bought her the best winter gear to go into winter because that's a big deal."

Barroeta soon attended a free English school for newcomers, learning the language every day.

Since moving to Ottawa, they have had two sons, aged 18 and 13. They've also travelled together to more than a dozen countries, including returning to the Dominican Republic virtually every year since they first met.

"It perhaps is even destiny, you know. We were at the right place at the right time. It was just meant to be," Barroeta said.

"Twenty-three years later here we are, we were able to establish a beautiful marriage and we have a beautiful family with two fantastic kids and we are happy," she said. "So it is possible ... to meet the right person for you."

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The United States will begin plans to withdraw troops from Niger, U.S. officials said Saturday, in what experts say is a blow to Washington and its allies in the region in terms of staging security operations in the Sahel.

A Nigerian chess champion plays the royal game for 60 hours - a new global chess record

A Nigerian chess champion and child education advocate played chess nonstop for 60 hours in New York City's Times Square to break the Guinness World Record for the longest chess marathon.

12 students and teacher killed in Columbine school shooting remembered at 25th anniversary vigil

Thirteen victims of the Columbine High School shooting were remembered during a vigil Friday on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the shooting that was the worst the nation had seen at the time.

Iraq investigates a blast at a base of Iran-allied militias that killed 1. U.S. denies involvement

Iraqi authorities said Saturday that they were investigating an explosion that struck a base belonging to the Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of Iran-allied militias, killing one person and injuring eight.

On federal budget, Macklem says 'fiscal track has not changed significantly'

Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem says Canada's fiscal position has 'not changed significantly' following the release of the federal government's budget.

Premiers want return to co-operation with federal government with new budget

Canada's premiers are warning the federal government not to overreach into their jurisdictions when it comes to delivering the programs laid out in Ottawa's latest budget.

Canada, G7 urge 'all parties' to de-escalate in growing Mideast conflict

Canada called for 'all parties' to de-escalate rising tensions in the Mideast following an apparent Israeli drone attack against Iran overnight.

Shivering for health: The myths and truths of ice baths explained

In a climate of social media-endorsed wellness rituals, plunging into cold water has promised to aid muscle recovery, enhance mental health and support immune system function. But the evidence of such benefits sits on thin ice, according to researchers.

Dengue cases top 5.2 million in the Americas as outbreak passes yearly record, PAHO says

Dengue cases are surging in the Americas, with cases reported topping 5.2 million as of this week, surpassing a yearly record set in 2023, according to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

WHO likely to issue wider alert on contaminated cough syrup

The World Health Organization is likely to issue a wider warning about contaminated Johnson and Johnson-made children's cough syrup found in Nigeria last week, it said in an email.

Olympic organizers unveil strategy for using artificial intelligence in sports

Olympic organizers unveiled their strategy Friday to use artificial intelligence in sports, joining the global rush to capitalize on the rapidly advancing technology.

This ancient snake in India might have been longer than a school bus and weighed a tonne

An ancient giant snake in India might have been longer than a school bus and weighed a tonne, researchers reported Thursday.

When new leaders took over in ancient Maya, they didn't just bury the former royals. They burned their bodies in public

New archeological investigations in Guatemala reveal that the ancient Maya people had a ritual of burning royal human remains as a public display of political regime change.

Entertainment

Not a toddler, not a parent, but still love 'bluey' you're not alone.

She's the title character of 'Bluey,' a kids' program consisting of seven-minute episodes that have enraptured children and adults alike. This week's release of its longest episode yet — at a whopping 28 minutes — prompted an outpouring of appreciation for the show, even from those who are neither toddler nor parent.

Nick Offerman once spent a night high in jail after being mistaken for a robber

During a guest appearance on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live,' Nick Offerman told a story from years ago he said his parents didn't know: he once spent a night in jail.

Lululemon to shutter Washington distribution centre, lay off 128 employees

Lululemon Athletica will close its distribution centre in the state of Washington at the end of the year and lay off more than 100 employees, the apparel retailer told Reuters on Friday.

Netflix slides as move to end sharing user count sparks growth worries

Netflix shares fell on Friday, as its surprise move to stop sharing subscriber additions and average revenue per member from 2025 sowed doubts in investor minds about growth peaking in some markets for the streaming pioneer.

The Body Shop Canada explores sale as demand outpaces inventory: court filing

The Body Shop Canada is exploring a sale as it struggles to get its hands on enough inventory to keep up with "robust" sales after announcing it would file for creditor protection and close 33 stores.

'Jonny is special': Moncton music community rallies around drummer

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After hearing thousands of last words, this hospital chaplain has advice for the living

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How 4/20 grew from humble roots to marijuana's high holiday

Saturday marks marijuana culture’s high holiday, 4/20, when college students gather — at 4:20 p.m. — in clouds of smoke on campus quads and pot shops in legal-weed states thank their customers with discounts.

U.S. FAA launches investigation into unauthorized personnel in cockpit of Colorado Rockies flight to Toronto

The U.S.’s Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a video that appears to show unauthorized personnel in the cockpit of a charted Colorado Rockies flight to Toronto.

Streaking Jets prepare for playoff clash with star-studded Avalanche

The Winnipeg Jets will face the Colorado Avalanche for the first time ever in the Stanley Cup Playoffs

Legendary Formula 1 driver Michael Schumacher's watch collection is going on sale

Eight of Formula One legend Michael Schumacher's luxury and personalized watches are going up for auction – and they could sell for more than US$4.8 million in total.

Tesla recalling nearly 4,000 Cybertrucks because accelerator pedal can get stuck

Tesla is recalling 3,878 of its 2024 Cybertrucks after it discovered that the accelerator pedal can become stuck, potentially causing the vehicle to accelerate unintentionally and increase the risk of a crash.

Local Spotlight

UBC football star turning heads in lead up to NFL draft

At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.

Cat found at Pearson airport 3 days after going missing

Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.

Molly on a mission: N.S. student collecting books about women in sport for school library

Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.

Where did the gold go? Crime expert weighs in on unfolding Pearson airport heist investigation

Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.

Marmot in the city: New resident of North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale a 'rock star rodent'

When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.

Relocated seal returns to Greater Victoria after 'astonishing' 204-kilometre trek

A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.

Ottawa barber shop steps away from Parliament Hill marks 100 years in business

Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.

'It was a special game': Edmonton pinball player celebrates high score and shout out from game designer

A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.

'How much time do we have?': 'Contamination' in Prairie groundwater identified

A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.

Man found dead at Prince George rest stop last weekend was victim of homicide: RCMP

Mounties in Prince George say the discovery of human remains at the Bowron River rest stop east of the city last weekend is being investigated as a homicide.

First Nation solar farm in B.C. expected to save 1.1 million litres of diesel a year

A First Nation in central British Columbia will build what the federal government says will likely be the largest off-grid solar project in Canada.

What to expect for Toronto Maple Leafs playoffs against Boston Bruins

The next chapter of the Toronto Maple Leafs rivalry with the Boston Bruins is set to unfold on Saturday night.

How to revive your lawn after winter and avoid long-lasting damage: experts

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Parts of Deerfoot Trail to close for spring cleanup Monday, Tuesday evening

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Lethbridge man charged over six incidents where women were approached and solicited

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AHS issues boil water advisory for Rocky View County

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Manor Park shooting leaves man dead, Ottawa police investigating

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Child not secured, mother holding baby on Highway 401 in eastern Ontario, driver facing charges

The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says a car that was initially stopped for stunt driving on Highway 401 in eastern Ontario had a child and a baby not safely seated Friday evening.

Hundreds line up for return of Golden Palace half-price egg roll event

Ottawa's oldest Chinese restaurant is serving up its famous egg rolls for half-price again.

Montreal woman loses close to $25,000 in crypto platform scam

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Iconic ninth floor Eaton Centre restaurant set to reopen in May

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Spit, punches and bites: School support staff detail rising violence from students

A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.

New report suggests Alberta's emissions reduction plan made little progress in first year

Alberta has done little to advance its plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions a year after introducing it, an analysis suggests.

The House is on the brink of approving aid for Ukraine and Israel after months of struggle

The House is preparing in a rare Saturday session to approve US$95 billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies.

Nova Scotia justice minister resigns following domestic violence comments

Nova Scotia Justice Minister Brad Johns has resigned, according to a short statement from Premier Tim Houston on Friday evening.

RCMP seek help identifying person of interest after arson in Back Bay, N.B.

The St. George RCMP is asking for help from the public in identifying a person of interest after an alleged arson at a wharf in Back Bay, N.B., on Thursday.

Winnipeg police searching for suspects in two-year homicide investigation

Winnipeg police are asking for the public’s help as they continue to investigate a two-year-old homicide.

Brandon man facing charges after attempting to stab officer

A 34-year-old man from Brandon, Man. is facing a number of charges after police said he attempted to stab an officer Friday evening.

Man arrested after February arson-theft incident at Red River College

Winnipeg police have charged a 23-year-old man in connection to an arson-theft incident at Red River College earlier this year.

Regina fire crews battle early morning blaze, 22 suites displaced

Fire crews battled an early morning blaze that displaced occupants from 22 suites.

Sask. father found guilty of withholding daughter to prevent her from getting COVID-19 vaccine

Michael Gordon Jackson, a Saskatchewan man accused of abducting his daughter to prevent her from getting a COVID-19 vaccine, has been found guilty for contravention of a custody order.

Sask. Teachers' Federation sending offer to a vote 'tactical move': labour scholar

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Suspect wanted on 25 charges as part of stolen vehicle investigation in southwestern Ontario

Waterloo regional police are looking for a woman after they recovered nine stolen vehicles and laid more than 50 charges in connection to a fraud investigation.

NDP leader likens Wilmot farmland grab to Greenbelt scandal

A controversial land acquisition proposed in Wilmot Township is once again in the spotlight, as Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles hosts a town hall in the community, calling the deal “eerily similar” to the Greenbelt scandal.

'I'm still shaking': Emotional victim impact statements shared after impaired double-fatal crash in Cambridge

It was an emotional day in court as close to a dozen people read victim impact statements to the man charged with impaired driving in a double-fatal Cambridge crash.

Saskatoon man facing multiple charges after break-in, stolen vehicle

A 34-year-old Saskatoon man is facing multiple charges after a break-and-enter escalated into an armed robbery.

‘My family are all broken-hearted’: Grandfather of homicide victim speaks out

Saskatoon is grappling with the tragic death of 24-year-old Melissa Duquette, whose body was discovered on April 15. A day later, authorities confirmed her death as a homicide, sparking deep sorrow and calls for action within the community.

Saskatoon judge to make ruling on evidence in fatal THC-impaired driving case

A Saskatoon Provincial Court judge will determine whether testimony from a woman, charged with impaired driving causing the death of a child, will be used as evidence in her trial.

Northern Ontario

Flood warnings issued for Lake Nipissing shoreline

The North Bay-Mattawa Conservation Authority and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry have issued Flood warnings for the Lake Nipissing shoreline.

Vicious attack on a dog ends with charges for northern Ont. suspect

Police in Sault Ste. Marie charged a 22-year-old man with animal cruelty following an attack on a dog Thursday morning.

Early morning shooting under investigation by London police

Police say a man was found with a gunshot wound just before 5 a.m. Saturday in a northwest London neighbourhood.

Earth Fest brings climate activists and nature lovers together

Ahead of Earth Day, various community groups banded together to clean up garbage in parks and along the banks of the Thames River.

ICYMI | CTV News London's top stories from this week

In case you missed it, CTV News London has compiled all the top local stories from this week into one video for your convenience.

Simcoe County LifeLabs employees protest over wage disparity

LifeLabs workers in Barrie joined others from across the region on Saturday in protesting ahead of a looming strike deadline.

Charges laid in early morning crash on Highway 400

A man from Barrie is facing a slew of charges after an early morning crash on Highway 400 near Innisfil.

Driver charged after Highway 400 crash sends woman and child to hospital

One person has been charged following a collision on Highway 400 in Barrie Friday morning that sent a vehicle rolling into a ditch.

More than $400K raised at annual Play For A Cure in LaSalle

The final total is expected to be higher once merchandise, silent auction and raffle sales are also included.

ICYMI | CTV News Windsor's top stories from this week

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$5K in tools stolen after garage break-in, Chatham-Kent police say

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Vancouver Island

Stolen snake named Milkshake returned to Kelowna pet store

A banana ball python that was stolen from a Kelowna pet store on Saturday has been returned unharmed, Mounties said.

Nurses rally at B.C. Interior hospital over security, staffing concerns

Nurses held a rally Wednesday at a hospital in the B.C. Interior that closed its emergency department more than a dozen times last year due to insufficient staff.

B.C. to add 240 complex-care housing units throughout province

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Lethbridge cutting back on water use as part of provincial water sharing agreement

The province has announced the largest water sharing agreement in Alberta’s history, which will see Lethbridge and Medicine Hat, among other municipalities, cut water use.

Medicine Hat woman charged after $60K stolen from Redcliff Legion

Mounties say a 32-year-old Medicine Hat woman has been charged in connection with the theft of $60,000 from the Redcliff Legion.

Sault Ste. Marie

Phoenix Rising looking for community partners

A Sault Ste. Marie-based support group for women is hoping to work with other groups to provide more inclusive services.

Sault College president sues Conestoga counterpart, seeks formal apology for vulgar attack

The war of words between the presidents of Sault College and Conestoga College has escalated into a legal battle.

Sault police ticket driver travelling nearly double the speed limit

A 43-year-old has been charged in Sault Ste. Marie after police recorded a vehicle being driven at 113 km/h, nearly double the posted speed limit.

N.L. gardening store revives 19th century seed-packing machine

Technology from the 19th century has been brought out of retirement at a Newfoundland gardening store, as staff look for all the help they can get to fill orders during a busy season.

500 Newfoundlanders wound up on the same cruise and it turned into a rocking kitchen party

A Celebrity Apex cruise to the Caribbean this month turned into a rocking Newfoundland kitchen party when hundreds of people from Canada's easternmost province happened to be booked on the same ship.

Protest averted as Newfoundland and Labrador premier helps reach pricing deal on crab

A pricing agreement has been reached between crab fishers and seafood processors that will allow for Newfoundland and Labrador's annual crab fishery to get started.

Shopping Trends

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Editor's Picks

17 practical things for your backyard that you'll want to order immediately, 19 of the best mother's day gifts under $50, here are the best deals you'll find on amazon canada right now, our guide to the best inflatable hot tubs in canada in 2024 (and where to get them), 21 of the best dog products you can get on amazon canada right now, our guide to the best coolers in canada in 2024 (and where to get them), 17 unique mother's day gifts your mom definitely wants, but probably won’t buy herself, if your mom needs a bit of rest and relaxation, here are 20 of the best self-care gifts for mother's day, 20 gifts that are so great, you'll want to keep them for yourself, 12 travel-sized skincare products that'll fit in your toiletry bag, 15 wrinkle-smoothing serums that’ll help reduce the appearance of fine lines, this canadian red light therapy brand is here to give you your best skin ever, stay connected.

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These CES-honored language translating earbuds are $60 off now

If you’re planning on traveling abroad this summer, it’s a good idea to learn some of the language of your destination. Unfortunately, you’re probably not going to become fluent anytime soon. That’s why the Mymanu CLIK S: Award-Winning Translation Earbuds are a great backup to learning the language. These CES-honored earbuds can instantly translate 37 languages, allowing you to converse with more than one billion people around the world.

The CLIK S are comfortable, stylish earbuds designed for all-day wear. You can enjoy your music or take calls on the go with a 10-hour battery life (plus another 30 with the included charging case) and seamlessly switch between music and conversation mode with just a click. They’re the perfect companion for world travelers this summer and, for a limited time, they’re on sale.

Travel smarter this summer. Now through 11:59 pm PT on 4/21, you can get the Mymanu CLIK S: Award-Winning Translation Earbuds for more than $60 off at just $89.97.

Mymanu CLIK S: Award-Winning Translation Earbuds – $89.97

StackSocial prices subject to change.

WATCH: Conan O’Brien takes on the Irish language in “Ros na Rún”

Conan o'brien flexes his trademark humor as he joins the "cultural effort to bring irish back" on "ros na rún.".

Conan O'Brien tried his hand at the Irish language while filming a small role on the long-running Irish language soap opera "Ros na Rún" in Co Galway .

O'Brien was in Ireland earlier this year to film for his new travel show "Conan O'Brien Must Go," which debuted on Max yesterday, April 18.

The Irish American funnyman was offered a cameo on TG4's "Ros na Rún" during his visit.

In the new behind-the-scenes clip shared by "Ros na Rún" on April 19, O'Brien meets with the show's ever-so-patient production manager Mairead Campbell, who explained that the title of the Irish series translates to 'Valley of the Secrets.'

“So everyone speaks Irish on this show and really, this is a cultural effort to bring Irish back,” O’Brien said to Campbell before trying out his Irish language lines.

“I’ve noticed that in Ireland, they’ll have the sign in English and also in Irish, which is beautiful," O'Brien remarked.

He added: “It is not an easy language this Irish language .”

Campbell said: “It’s not, but we’ll see how you do today. Get a little bit of help, you’ll do fine.”

Sign up to IrishCentral's newsletter to stay up-to-date with everything Irish!

Shifting into his trademark humor , O’Brien questioned why he was cast as a delivery man instead of as “a sexy man who’s come to town and has maybe an affair.”

Campbell said: “No harm, Conan, but we have to be true to life as well. You know, it is a soap. Delivery man, we thought, was a great fit.”

Taken aback, O'Brien replied: “So you thought it was impossible for me to play a sexy man? Is that what you’re saying?”

Campbell said: “Look it, you make it as sexy as you want, but also, it is soap portraying real life, so, delivery man, I think, is a great fit.”

O’Brien then asked what role Colin Farrell would have been cast in.

“Sexy delivery man,” Campbell quickly replied with a laugh.

Campbell continued to match O'Brien's humor with ease as the two went back and forth. Finally, O'Brien relented with a big smile and laugh and said: “Oh, I’m back home where I belong.”

• Conan O'Brien apologizes in advance of Irish language television debut

Getting down to business, linguistics coach Kevin Hussey brought out cue cards with the phonetic spelling of O'Brien's Irish language lines.

“So what this is, you made this for an idiot,” O’Brien said looking at the cue cards.

“For beginners,” Campbell and Hussey offered after a pause.

“That’s very nice,” an unconvinced O’Brien said, “thank you both.”

O'Brien then tried the phonetic pronunciations of his Irish lines, which he managed fairly well, impressing Campbell and Hussey.

However, in a statement ahead of his Irish language debut, O'Brien did say: "I apologize in advance for inadvertently butchering my Mother Tongue."

Check out the behind-the-scenes clip of Conan O'Brien on "Ros na Rún" here:

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Four Points by Sheraton Sonmarg Resort

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Welcome to Four Points by Sheraton Sonmarg Resort

Travel reinvented in kashmir, india.

Designed to reinvent the travel experience, Four Points by Sheraton Sonmarg Resort welcomes you to settle in for a relaxing stay. Enjoy our ideal location at the gateway to Ladakh’s lush valleys and snow-capped peaks. Embark on an array of Himalayan adventures, including thrilling drives at Zoji La, sledding at Zero Point and trekking at the nearby Thajiwas Glacier. At our hotel, we’ve mastered the art of simple pleasures with 47 stylish guest rooms with Four Comfort Beds®, free Wi-Fi and modern décor. Savor delicious cuisine and breathtaking Thajiwas Glacier views at Skyview Restaurant or grab a quick drink at the inviting Kahwa Lounge. After a day of travel or exploring Sonmarg, relax with a room service meal, available 24 hours, or get in a workout in the fitness center with men’s and women’s saunas, steam rooms and Jacuzzis. Whether business or pleasure brings to you this scenic region of Kashmir, India, you’ll find all the keys to kicking back at Four Points by Sheraton Sonmarg Resort.

Rooms & Suites

Rates vary by date & room type

FEATURED AMENITIES ON-SITE

Hotel information.

Check-in: 3:00 pm

Check-out: 12:00 pm

Smoke Free Property

Pets Not Allowed

Complimentary On-Site Parking

Complimentary Valet Parking

Kahwa is a tea lounge at the lobby level with a scenic view of Sonmargs natural beauty.

More Ways to Enjoy Your Stay

The ski resort Sonamarg

Getting here.

Mouza, Sonamarg, Kangan, Ganderbal, Jammu and Kashmir, India, 191203

Life long Memories Tour and travels; fee: 5000.00 INR (one way) ;reservation required

Bus Station

Bus Station,Sonamarg

Property Details

Concierge desk service

Currency Exchange

Property has elevators

Languages spoken by staff: English, Hindi, Kashmiri, Arabic, Panjabi

For more information about the physical features of our accessible rooms, common areas or special services relating to a specific disability please call +91 1912-031943528800

Main Entrance is Accessible

On-Site Restaurants are Accessible

Room and Suites Access through the Interior Corridor

Deadbolts on Guest Room and Suites Doors

Electronic Room Key

Guest Room and Suites Doors Self-Closing

Lever Handles on Guest Room Doors

Lowered Night Guards on Guest Room Doors

Mobility accessible rooms

Roll-in Shower

Safety Chains and/or Latches on Guest Doors

Frequently Asked Questions

The check-in time at Four Points by Sheraton Sonmarg Resort is 3:00 pm and the check-out time is 12:00 pm.

The pet policy at Four Points by Sheraton Sonmarg Resort is:

The parking options at Four Points by Sheraton Sonmarg Resort are:

The property amenities at Four Points by Sheraton Sonmarg Resort are:

Yes, Four Points by Sheraton Sonmarg Resort has free Wi-Fi available to hotel guests.

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FOUR POINTS® BY SHERATON SONMARG RESORT

Mouza, Sonamarg, Kangan,

Ganderbal, Jammu and Kashmir, India, 191203

Fax: +91 0194-3528800

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