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Essential Spanish Phrases for Travel
You don't need fluency to travel confidently in a Spanish-speaking country — you need about 40 phrases you can pull out instantly. Here are the ones that cover the vast majority of situations you'll actually run into, grouped by what you'll use them for.
Greetings and politeness
These are the phrases you'll use dozens of times a day, and getting them right sets the tone for every interaction.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Hola / Buenos días | Hello / Good morning |
| Buenas tardes / Buenas noches | Good afternoon / Good evening |
| Por favor | Please |
| Gracias / Muchas gracias | Thank you / Thank you very much |
| De nada | You're welcome |
| Perdón / Disculpe | Excuse me / Sorry |
| ¿Habla inglés? | Do you speak English? |
| No entiendo | I don't understand |
Numbers and money
You'll need numbers constantly — prices, room numbers, times, quantities. Learn 1–20 solidly, then the tens (treinta, cuarenta, cincuenta...) — you can combine them for almost anything.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| ¿Cuánto cuesta? | How much does it cost? |
| ¿Aceptan tarjeta? | Do you accept card? |
| Solo efectivo | Cash only |
| La cuenta, por favor | The check, please |
Getting help and asking questions
The single most useful sentence structure in travel Spanish is "¿Dónde está...?" (Where is...?) — swap in whatever you're looking for.
- ¿Dónde está el baño? — Where is the bathroom?
- ¿Dónde está la estación? — Where is the station?
- Necesito ayuda — I need help
- ¿Puede ayudarme? — Can you help me?
- Estoy perdido/a — I'm lost
Emergencies
Hopefully you never need these, but knowing them removes a real source of travel anxiety.
- ¡Ayuda! — Help!
- Llame a la policía — Call the police
- Necesito un médico — I need a doctor
- Es una emergencia — It's an emergency
How to actually remember these on the day
Reading a list once won't make these phrases available to you under the mild stress of a real interaction — you need to have said them out loud, more than once, before you need them for real. This is exactly the gap Travel Spanish Buddy is built to close: its phrasebook groups every phrase above (and hundreds more) into categories you can browse offline, and its interactive quizzes reinforce them until they're automatic — not something you have to translate in your head at the counter.
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