transport and travel lesson plan

Transportation Lesson Plan | An ESL Lesson Plan For Beginners

Transportation is a common subject in ESL classes. Textbooks and English language curricula often feature a lesson on transportation early on for beginner students to learn. 

Learning transportation vocabulary and expressions in English can be very useful and practical for ESL students. 

Upon learning about transportation and modes of transport, students can begin to talk about things such as how they traveled to school or work. It is also very practical for when English language learners visit an English speaking country and must navigate the transportation there. 

This page is a complete ESL lesson plan to teach transportation to beginner English language learners. This lesson plan will focus on asking and answering ‘ How do you go to school? ‘. 

The games and activities in this lesson plan are mostly geared towards kids and teenagers, but they can be easily adapted to use with older beginner students.

All the materials need for this lesson can be found below. 

For more ESL lesson materials to teach about transportation, that are not included in this lesson plan,  check out the section at the bottom of this page . 

Materials for this lesson:

• Flashcards – Transportation
• Board Game – Transportation
• Worksheet – Transportation
• Transportation Guessing Game (YouTube)

Transportation | An ESL Lesson Plan For Beginner English Language Learners

Introduction.

At the beginning of the class, before teaching the transportation vocabulary and expressions, it is important to put the lesson into context. 

A great way to do this is by asking students how they got to school that day. Elicit from students the different ways that they came to school and write them on the board. For example, ‘by bus’, ‘on foot’, etc. 

Then ask students to guess how you, the teacher, got to school that day. if teaching kids, you can make this more fun by pretending you came to school by helicopter or by jet or some other unusual mode of transport. 

Introduce Key Words And Expressions

Next, using  these transportation flashcards , practice the key transportation vocabulary and expressions for the lesson. For this lesson, we will use the expression ‘ How do you go to school? ‘ – ‘ I go to school by (bus) .’

Show students the flashcards and say each word aloud and ask students to repeat after you. Once students have practiced enough, practice asking and answering ‘How do you go to school?’

Activity 1: Transportation Guessing Game

This first activity is a fun guessing game about transportation and different modes of transport. This a fun and engaging way to practice asking and answering ‘How do you go to school?.

To play, simply show the video in class. There are 10 pictures of different modes of transport hidden behind colored shapes. As the shapes slowly disappear, the image is revealed. Students must try to guess what mode of transport it is as quickly as possible. When students are ready to guess, pause the video and ask them ‘How do you go to school?’. Students should answer ‘I go to school by (bus).’

This leads to some funny answers when pictures of unusual modes of transport are revealed. Kids love pretending that they came to school by helicopter or motorbike, etc.

Activity 2: Transportation Board Game

This next activity is a printable board game for students to play in pairs. While playing this game, students will make a dialogue with their partner while using different transportation vocabulary.

Print out this  transportation board game  and give one to each pair of students. To play, students will take turns in placing their eraser at the bottom of the page and then flicking it with their finger. 

When the eraser lands on a mode of transport picture, students must make a dialogue with their partner. For example, if it lands on the ‘train’ picture, the student can ask ‘ How do you go to school? ‘ and their partner can answer ‘ I go to school by train ‘.

After making a dialogue, the student who flicked the eraser then writes his / her name in that area. Then it’s the other student’s turn. After 5/10 minutes, stop the game and the student with the most areas is the winner. 

Board games can be a fantastic way to reduce teacher talking time and get your students talking using the target language. For many more FREE printable board games on many topics, check out our  board games page .

Activity 3: How Do You Go To School? – Class Survey

This final activity is a speaking activity to practice asking and answering ‘How do you go to school?’. Download and print  this transportation worksheet  and give one to each student. 

Students must walk around and ask their classmates ‘How do you go to school?’. Then students should write their classmates’ names and the mode of transport on the worksheet to complete the table. For more ESL worksheets on many other topics, check out our  ESL worksheets page .

Before finishing the class, review what students learned during the lesson. A great way to do this when teaching kids is with a fun flashcard game. Using the  transportation flashcards  from earlier, choose one and don’t show the students. Ask the kids to guess the mode of transport on the flashcard. The first student to guess correctly then gets to line up at the door. Then repeat with other flashcards until all the kids are lined up at the door and ready to go.

Related Resources

• Transportation Flashcards And Board Games
• Transportation Worksheets

Topic: Travelling

Hotel reviews

Engage students in conversations about different types of places to stay and their experiences! With this lesson, students practise vocabulary related to accommodation, watch videos and write hotel reviews.

My home is your home

Check out this lesson to have an engaging conversation about home exchange and house sitting and help your students learn useful vocabulary to describe experiences.

Please have your boarding pass ready

Students learn airport and plane phrases, listen to announcements and watch a video with a song. They also talk, role-play and exchange ideas.

Business trips: fun or boring?

This lesson allows students to talk about business trips, learn some useful vocabulary, and have a lot of discussion and role-play. 

Downsides of tourism

This speaking lesson focuses on talking about tourism and its problems. Students talk about travelling in general and tourism as an industry, watch a video and discuss solutions to the problems. 

The intangible benefits of travelling

In this lesson students talk about the article they read at home, learn some vocabulary and talk about different ways of travelling and their benefits. 

Food culture, coffee culture

In this ESL lesson about coffee and food culture students have a lot of discussion, watch a video, study nouns that can be both countable and uncountable, and have a lot of fun practice.

Living abroad

In this ESL lesson about living abroad, students watch a testimonial video about learning Portuguese in Brazil, learn some useful collocations and talk about living in different countries. 

Nation branding and St. Patrick’s Day

In this lesson about St. Patrick’s Day, students watch a video about the origins of the holiday. They also discuss nation branding and practise vocabulary for talking about abstract ideas. 

Are you into flying?

This worksheet focuses on speaking about air travel. Students answer different questions, watch and discuss a video. They also read and discuss short stories and create their own. 

Would you like a lava snack?

With this tourism lesson plan, students discuss gastro-tourism, watch a video and learn vocabulary related to food. 

Life is better outdoors!

In this lesson, students watch a video about Taiwan and practise vocabulary related to nature and free time activities.

You’re never too old for great things

In this lesson, students learn the differences between Present Perfect and Past Simple. They also practise using the two tenses, watch a video and talk about active lives of elderly people. 

Visiting the art capital

This lesson plan is all about New York. Students will discuss some quotes about New York, watch a video about art in this city and learn adjectives to describe art.

Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer

With this travel worksheet, pre-intermediate students can talk about how travelling changes them and learn some useful vocabulary. They also read a short text, watch a video about dream travel destinations and write an email.

Let’s go hiking!

In this lesson students learn hiking vocabulary, read some tips, watch a video about hiking and decide what they would and wouldn’t take on a hike. 

Flying business class (conjunctions and prepositions)

In this video-based lesson about flying economy, business and first class with Emirates, students will be practising conjunctions and prepositions. They will also discover some luxurious cabin features while discussing business trips.

What are your travelling tips? (modal verbs)

Thanks to this worksheet, students will discover and practise modal verbs (can, have to, should), watch a video and discuss different travelling tips and rules.

Subscribe to get premium content

Subscribe to get access to professional, ready-to-use lesson plans in both digital and printable formats . Discover a variety of lesson types: Standard Lessons, Speaking Classes, Critical Reading Club worksheets and Flipped Classroom lesson plans.

Username or Email Address

Remember Me

Transport Lesson Plan

free, downloadable lesson plan with Student Worksheet and Teacher's Notes

Lesson Plan at a Glance

• Lesson Function 1 : Introduce and practise topic-related vocabulary.
• Lesson Function 2 : Create opportunities for practising fluency.
• Level : Intermediate to Advanced
• Time : 60 – 90 minutes
• Preparation : Photocopy 1 worksheet per student

Description

An interesting Pre-Intermediate/Intermediate lesson in which students warm up by brainstorming types of transport before being introduced to some idiomatic expressions based on transport.

A logic puzzle tests students' lateral thinking skills and revises their grammar for comparatives. A fluency activity encourages conversation with questions like:

• What type of transport do you think will become more important in the future?

Transport - Student Worksheet

Transport - Teacher's Notes

This is a downloadable lesson plan that you can photocopy and distribute freely provided you do not modify its content.

ELL'S CLASS

Home » Lesson Plans » Lesson Plan – Transportation and Travel

Lesson Plan – Transportation and Travel

Level of student: 2nd Grade of Elementary School

Time Allocation: 2×45 minutes

Learning objective: Learners are able to identify and differentiate the three categories of transportation and say how did they get to school

Target vocabulary: Car, Bus, Train, Boat, Ship, Airplane, Land, water, air

LESSON OVERVIEW

Warm-Up Greetings

Pray Together

Check the students’ attendance

Main Activity

Introducing today’s topic

Play the Transportation Song

Do “Match the Transportation” into three categories

Do “Draw How did you get here today?” Wrap Up

Setting homework

Praying and goodbye song

Transportation song

Transportation Flashcard

Goodbye Song

LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS

Travel plans.

Level: Pre-intermediate (A2-B1)

Type of English: General English

Tags: transport travel and leisure going to + infinitive Vocabulary and grammar

Publication date: 16/06/2014

In this dialogue-based lesson plan, students review the structure 'going to' + infinitive for stating plans and making predictions.

Travel-plans-Ex3

• subtitles off
• captions off

I did love the worksheets, but I think the listening could be more natural and authentic.

I love all of your lessons - EXCEPT sometimes the pictures you choose cannot be clearly seen as to what they are.

I have to agree with Hassan. I understand that the 'actors' can't speak too quickly at this level, but it's all pretty stilted and lacks realistic feeling and tone. And by the way, when typing a comment the text is extremely small, smaller than when it's posted.

Love the worksheets but a number of students have queried the clarity of the pictures as well as the small font size. There was a way to improve this is would make the materials even better.

Thanks for the worksheet it was interesting.

Thank you so much for sharing it. It is useful

I agree about font size - much too small particularly when using smaller screens like a tablet or mobile phone. While I usually like Linguahouse lessons, I don't think the conversations in this one are very realistic. In many cultures, strangers wouldn't ask personal questions. They might ask for information like directions but that would be the end of the dialogue.

Leave a Comment

Student worksheet

Teacher lesson plan

Download audio

Download video

Save lesson to

TravelPlansDialogueAE.mp3

COURSE PLANS

This comprehensive course plan covers the full range of language needs – listening, role play, vocabulary development.

Worksheets in English for Work and Life course plan

Type of English: General English Level: Pre-intermediate (A2-B1)

Type of English: Business English Level: Pre-intermediate (A2-B1)

Make your lessons unforgettable

Did you know that your students can review the target language from our worksheets with our Expemo flashcard app? To let your student know, just enter their email address below (multiple emails can be separated with a comma).

ESL Lesson Plan: Travel Plans

Robert Deutschman / Getty Images

• Resources for Teachers
• Pronunciation & Conversation
• Writing Skills
• Reading Comprehension
• Business English
• TESOL Diploma, Trinity College London
• M.A., Music Performance, Cologne University of Music
• B.A., Vocal Performance, Eastman School of Music

This English lesson plan helps reinforce  vocabulary related to traveling  by asking students to plan trips and excursions based on the profile of different groups of travelers. It is helpful to use local newspapers, especially newspapers that provide local events, to give students ideas of real places to visit. Most large cities have specialty newspapers that focus on local events and attractions available for free throughout the city.

Instructions for Teachers

The lesson begins with students deciding which types of groups are going to take a trip. Based on which group of travelers are going, students then use resources to plan out a short stay in a specific city or area of the country. Of course, you can choose to have students focus on distant locations. If you are teaching English in another country, it's probably best to vary this and focus on traveling abroad to allow the use of English place names.

Lesson Aims: Completing a small group task using the internet and other resources available in English, describing a travel destination and itinerary in detail

Activity: Planning a short trip to a specific location based on different traveler types

Level: Intermediate  

Lesson Plan

As a class, discuss what types of locations, travel plans, etc. might be suitable for these different types of travelers:

• A married couple on a honeymoon
• Two friends who are attending college
• Two business people 

As a class, discuss which resources students can use to make travel plans. There are many travel websites online that offer all the necessary tools for scheduling a trip. If available, use a projector and walk through the process of finding round trip flight tickets and hotels on a travel site. 

Using the worksheet below, break students up into pairs or small groups (maximum of 4) assigning a pair of travelers to each group. Have students come up with detailed plans for each travel group. After each group has finished, have them present their travel plans to the entire class.

Variation: To extend this activity, ask students to create a presentation using PowerPoint or another similar software application. Students should find photos and write up bullet points for each of the activities to include in the presentation . 

Plan a Trip to ___________ for the Following Travel Groups:

Honeymooners

Mary and Tim have just married and are in the mood for a great honeymoon to celebrate their eternal love for each other. Make sure to include lots of romantic options and some excellent meals to mark this happy event.

College Friends

Alan and Jeff are attending college together and are looking to have a wild week of fun and adventure. They love going to clubs and partying hard, but they don't have a lot of money to eat at fine restaurants. 

Cultured Couples

The Andersons and the Smiths are married couples that have been friends for years. Their children are grown up and have their own families. Now, they enjoy traveling together and place a great deal of emphasis on visiting sights of cultural significance. They also love going to concerts and eating fine food. 

Business People

These business people are interested in opening up a new company at your chosen location. They need to find out about the area, meet local business people, and discuss their proposal with local government.

Family with Children

The McCarthur family has three children aged 2, 5, and 10. They love spending time outdoors and have a limited budget for eating out. They aren't interested in entertainment, but the parents like to take the children to important museums to help with their cultural education. 

Peter and Dan

Peter and Dan married a few years ago. They love to explore gay hot spots in cities they travel to, as well as do traditional sight-seeing tours. They are also gourmets who spend up to $500 on good meals, so they'd like to go to at least one top rated restaurant. 

Travel Planning Sheet

Fill in the information to complete the vacation plans.

Dates / Times: Cost:

How many nights?: Cost:

Rental car yes/no? If yes, cost:

Trips / Sightseeing for the day: Cost:

Restaurants / Eating: Where?: Cost:

Evening entertainment: What / Where? Cost:

Add as many days as necessary to your travel planning sheet.

• Short Field Trips for ESL Lessons
• Future Tenses "Going to" vs. "Will"
• Doing Chores: ESL Lesson Plan
• Food Lesson for an ESL Learner
• Using Reading Comprehension in Lessons
• ESL Lesson Plan for Paired Conjunctions
• Lesson Plan: Matching Opposites
• Lesson Plan on Switching Between Present Perfect and Past Simple
• ESL Lesson Plan: How to Use "Have"
• Teenage Problems
• Standard Lesson Plan Format for ESL Teachers
• What's Wrong With These Sentences?
• Asking Questions Lesson Plan for Lower Level Students
• Class Job Fair ESL Lesson Plain
• Suggestopedia Lesson Plan
• Lesson Plan - Differences Between Past and Present

• Share on Facebook
• Tweet This Resource
• Pin This Resource

Transport & Travel

This transport & travel lesson plan also includes:.

• Warm Up, Review & Maintenance
• Suggested Lesson Plan Order
• Join to access all included materials

Foot, bus, bicycle, boat. Transport and travel words are targeted in this plan designed for ESL/ELD classes. The packet is packed with practice exercises and performance prompts.

Additional Tags

Instructional ideas.

• Expand the activity to include a discussion of how class members came to be in this country at this time

Classroom Considerations

• The 15th in a series of 27 resources designed for ESL/ELD classes
• The vocabulary art gallery activity would work well with any class
• The six-page packet includes a detailed plan, activities, and links to templates for materials used in the lesson

Start Your Free Trial

Save time and discover engaging curriculum for your classroom. Reviewed and rated by trusted, credentialed teachers.

ESL Activities

ESL Games, Activities, Lesson Plans, Jobs & More

in Icebreakers + Warm-Ups · Listening · Reading · Speaking · Writing

Travel & Holidays ESL Games, Worksheets | ESL Travel Activities

If you need some fresh, new ideas for the ESL travel and holiday unit that you can find in most textbooks, then you’re in the right place. We’ll share our top ideas for games and activities, along with travel vocabulary, worksheets and lesson plans. Let’s get to the best ESL holiday activities.

ESL holiday and travel-themed activities

Let’s get into everything you need to know for an ESL holiday lesson. Keep on reading!

ESL Travel and Holiday Activities

Here are the top ESL travel activities that you may want to try out with your students.

#1: Plan a Trip

Have your students plan a dream vacation in English! Instead of researching in their first language, use Google in English. In order to practice writing, keep notes only in English. Here’s an example of how you might plan your trip using English. You can have your students add as little, or as much detail as you’d like. However, the point of the activity is to practice writing in point form which is useful when writing outlines for tests or essays.

Day 1: Monday, January 1

Fly Seoul (3pm) —-> Vancouver (7am) Check in Hotel ABC, 123 Avenue Rest, relax

Day 2: Tuesday, January 2

Stay Hotel ABC Tour Stanley Park Eat Pub XYZ dinner

Day 3: Wednesday, January 3

Check out Hotel ABC Rent car Budget 123 Drive Whistler Rent skis shop ABC Go Skiing Lunch ski lodge Check in Hotel ABC Whistler Bed early

Procedure for one of my favourite ESL travel activities:

• Give students time to do some Internet research about a place they want to go. It’s helpful to specify the number of days. I generally make a rule that they must do this research in English. Suggest some helpful websites where they might like to start (Trip Advisor, Air BnB, etc.).
• Students can make a day-by-day itinerary of what they’re trip is going to look like.
• They can share about their trip with the class or turn it in for a graded assignment.

• Amazon Kindle Edition
• Bolen, Jackie (Author)
• English (Publication Language)
• 78 Pages - 03/22/2021 (Publication Date)

#2: A-Z Alphabet Game

If you know that your students already know a fair bit about holiday and travel, you may want to try this quick warm-up game. Or, you could consider using it as a review game at the end of a class.

The way it works is that students, in pairs or small groups write down the alphabet on a piece of paper. Then, they have to think of one travel related word for each letter. It doesn’t have to be done in order. For example:

P: Passport

The winner is the team with the most completed letters at the end of the allotted time. Do you want to find out more? Check this out: A-Z Alphabet Game ESL .

#3: Travel Word Association

This is nice ESL activity to do if you know that your students have studied about travel and holidays before. They can shout out vocabulary words related to this and you can make a mind map or sorts on the board. Group similar things together. For example, articles of clothing.

Find out more about this quick ESL warmer right here: ESL Vocabulary Word Association.

• 146 Pages - 06/18/2020 (Publication Date)

#4: Postcards ESOL Travel Activity

If you can get your hands on some cheap postcards or have some laying around your house or teacher’s office, try out this fun writing activity. It may just be the novelty factor, but students seem to love it. This activity is ideal for working on common greetings, the past tense (more ideas here: ESL past tense games ), and using descriptive words, as well as using synonyms to avoid repetition.

Distribute the postcards to the students. You can do one per student, or put the students into pairs. They have to look at the picture on the front of the postcard and imagine that they went on this vacation. Then, they can write about their trip to a friend or family member.

Next, the students trade postcards with another student or group. After reading them, they can write a response back of at least a few sentences. Finally, you may want to display them around the class as they’re colourful and fun and other students may enjoy reading them! Have some fun with this ESOL travel activity.

• Give each student or pair a postcard. They look at the picture and imagine what they did on that vacation, and then pretend that they’re writing to a friend or family member.
•  Exchange postcards and another student or group have to write a response to what they read.
• Display the postcards around your classroom (optional).

#5: Travel or Holiday Videos

I’m ALL about using videos with my ESL/EFL students. They’re fun, engaging and a nice way to grab student’s attention and introduce a topic. Of course, you can base an entire class around one too if you design the activities well.

If you want to find out more about using them in your classes and some activities and games to do with them, you’ll want to check this out: Using Videos for Teaching English .

#6: Dictogloss ESOL Travel Activity

This is a challenging activity that works on listening and writing skills. Find a short story related to holiday or travel. It could even be a description of your own vacation that you took recently.

Then, you read out the story to your students in a way that is a bit challenging for them to catch every word. Students have to take notes and then try to reconstruct what they heard based on their notes in small groups. You can read it again so that students have a chance to make some additions or corrections. Finally, students compare their version with the original.

Do you want to try it out with your students? You can learn more about one of the best ESL travel activities here: ESL Dictogloss Activity .

#7: Holidays ESL Lesson Plan

It’s easy to plan an ESL lesson about any topic, including holidays. Check out this video for the steps to follow:

#8: Yes/No Questions and Answers

If you think about it, holidays and travel lend themselves to a ton of yes/no questions. For example:

• Did you fly or drive?
• Did you eat some delicious things?
• Was the food good?
• Did you have nice weather?

If you want to see some activities or games to work on these kinds of questions, you’ll want to check this out: Yes/No Activities and Games.

• 279 Pages - 07/12/2020 (Publication Date)

#9: ESL Food Activities and Games

I’m not sure if it’s the same for you, but when I travel, it’s ALL about the food. I want to try all the delicious things where I’m staying! The good news is that I have a ton of fun, interactive games and activities for food. You can easily adapt most of them to focus on holidays.

You can find out more details here: ESL Food Activities.

#10: ESL Surveys

I love to use surveys in my classes because they lend themselves to just about any topic. In the case of travel, they’re ideal for working on the present perfect and simple past together.

For example:

Have you ever travelled to another country?

Where did you go?

If you want to know more about how to design and use surveys in your classes for an ESL travel lesson, then you’ll want to check this out: Surveys for ESL Students.

ESL Travel Games and Activities

I also love to use ESL surveys to get students to express an opinion in English.

#11: Present Perfect Activities Related to Travel

The present perfect is often used to talk about vacations, travel and holidays. For example:

• Have you ever been to another country?
• Have you travelled to ______ before?

In order to incorporate this grammatical construction into some of your lesson, you’ll want to check this out: Present Perfect ESL Activities.

#12: Brochure Scanning

This is an excellent travel activity! You’ll have to get your hands on some travel brochures first. The way it works is that students get tons of practice with a reading sub-skill (scanning) because they have to look quickly through the brochures to find specific bits of information. For example, cost or number or days.

Do you want to try out this reading activity? You can find out all the details here: Brochure Scanning Reading Activity for ESL .

#13: Odd One Out ESL Warmer

This is a quick English warm-up activity that you can try out with your students. The way it works is that you write words, in groups of 4 on the board. 3 are similar and 1 is the odd one out. Students have to choose this one and say why it doesn’t fit. For example:

Bathing suit, sunglasses, boots, flip-flops

Answers: Boots because it’s not for a beach vacation. I accept many different answers as long as students support it well.

You can learn more about this ESL warm-up here: Odd One Out for ESL .

• 87 Pages - 10/24/2019 (Publication Date)

#14: Would you Rather? 

I’m sure you’ve done this before with friends. You have to choose between two negative things, or two positive things. For example, how you want to die, or what you want to eat. In this case, students could choose between two types of vacation. For example:

Would you rather have a beach or forest vacation?

Would you rather stay in a big hotel, or an AirBNB?

Learn more about this nice activity for an ESL travel lesson here: ESL Would You Rather?

• 81 Pages - 06/22/2021 (Publication Date)

#15: Task Based Activity: Dream Vacation

I love to incorporate this style of teaching into my holiday lessons. It allows students more freedom to choose what they want to learn about and also builds opportunities for some serious teamwork.

In this case, I’ll have students work in groups of 2-3 to plan a dream vacation. They can do some research to find out all the details including how to get there, food, budget, where to stay, etc. Then, they either have to write a report and hand it in to me and/or do a short presentation to the class.

Need some more ideas for this style of a lesson? Check this out: Task-Based Learning .

#16: Travel Themed Charades

I love to play charades with my students. The way it works is that you can think of some travel-related phrases. For example:

• Flying on a plane
• Sleeping on a bus
• Eating noodles
• Buying souvenirs

Then, students have to act this out and their teammates have to guess what the phrase is. More details here: ESL Charades.

#17: Travel Journal

Encourage students to keep a travel journal for a fictional trip. They can describe their experiences, sights, and sounds, using new vocabulary.

Travel and Holidays ESL

#18: Eliciting in an ESL Travel Lesson

Unless your students are absolute beginners, then it’s likely that they already know a good amount of travel and holiday vocabulary. That’s often why I like to start off my ESL traveling lesson by using some eliciting techniques. There are two main reasons for this.

The first reason is that it’s possible to find out what the students already know about this topic to avoid wasting class time covering these things. The second is that it helps students activate their prior knowledge about travel/holidays to make the new things they learn more memorable. Learn how to do this tactic for an ESL holiday lesson here:

ESL Eliciting Advice .

#19: Travel Listening Lesson

A nice way to talk about any topic is through a listening lesson. In this case, find a conversation between two people talking about an upcoming vacation plan. Or, someone talking about a favourite vacation from the past (it could even be you). Then, design an entire listening lesson around that. Find out how here:

#20: Idiom ESL Traveling Activity

There are lots of idioms related to holidays, travel and transportation. Here are just a few of them:

• All hands on deck
• To send flying
• Bump in the road
• Off the rails
• Train wreck
• Asleep at the wheel
• Fall off the wagon
• Hit the road

One of the best ways to make these idioms super memorable is to do this fun activity. Afterwards, your students will never forget! Learn more about this ESL activity:

Idiom Activity for Language Learners .

#21: Concentration ESL Traveling Vocabulary

One of the best ways to review new words during an ESL holiday or travel lesson is to play this memory game. Depending on the level of the students, make some matching pairs of cards with the following:

• Word/picture
• Word/definition
• Word/clue about the word

Then in small groups, students play the game to find the matches. Find out all the details about how to set it up and play:

ESL Concentration Game .

#22: Speaking Fluency Activity

To use this activity with a unit on holidays or travel, have students talk about a past, or upcoming vacation.

#23: Me Too!

Students have to make a true statement about themselves related to holidays and travelling. For example:

• I’ve been to Japan.
• I hate the beach.
• My family goes on a big vacation every summer.

If other students can agree, they stand up and say, “Me too!”

#24: Labour Day Guessing Game

#25: Holiday Interviews

Pair students and have them interview each other about their favorite holidays. They can then present their partner’s holiday to the class.

#26: Travel Bingo

Create bingo cards with images or words related to travel and holidays. Students mark off the squares as they learn new vocabulary.

#27: Travel-Themed Role-Plays

Set up role-plays where students act as travelers, airport staff, or hotel receptionists. This helps them practice common travel dialogues.

#28: Travel Vocabulary Pictionary

Play Pictionary using travel-related words. Students take turns drawing and guessing the vocabulary words.

#29: Travel Storytelling

Ask students to create and share short stories about a memorable travel experience they’ve had or wish to have in the future.

#30: Travel Debate

Have students debate the pros and cons of traveling. This encourages critical thinking and speaking skills.

Travel and Holiday Vocabulary

Here are some of the most common vocabulary words that you may want to teach your students related to traveling for an ESL holiday lesson.

• bathing suit
• boarding pass
• vaccination
• The months of the year in English

Do you have any ESL travelling vocabulary that you’d like us to add to the list? Leave a comment and let us know!

Travel Worksheets and Lesson Plans for ESL

If you’re looking for some worksheets or lesson plans related to holidays and travel, then you’ll want to check out some of our top resource recommendations:

ESOL Courses

ISL Collective

Lingua House

ESL Travel Vocabulary Worksheets

If you want students to get some practice with ESL travel vocab, here are a few recommendations:

English Club

Did you Like these Travel Games for ESL?

• 68 Pages - 11/12/2019 (Publication Date)

Yes? Thought so. Then you’re going to love this book: The Emergency English Teacher: No-Textbook, No-Prep, No-Materials ESL Activities.

If you’re always in need of last-minute activities and games for your classes, then this book is exactly what you might need. It’s English teaching made easy in a serious way.

You can get the book in digital or print formats. Take the e-version with you to your favourite coffee shop for lesson planning on the go. Or, keep a copy on the bookshelf in your office to use as a handy reference guide. But the best idea is to have it with you at all times for those English teaching emergencies.

Do you want to find out more? Head on over to Amazon to pick up your copy today:

FAQs about ESL Travel Lessons

There are a number of common questions that people have about teaching this unit. Here are the answers to some of the most popular ones.

What is the purpose of teaching the travel and holiday unit to English learners?

The purpose is to help English learners develop vocabulary, grammar, and conversational skills related to travel and holidays.

What topics can be covered within the travel and holiday unit?

Topics can include modes of transportation, booking accommodations, tourist attractions, holiday activities, travel phrases, and cultural aspects of different destinations.

How can I introduce vocabulary related to travel and holidays?

You can introduce vocabulary through visual aids, realia (actual objects), flashcards, and interactive activities such as matching games or vocabulary quizzes.

What grammar structures can be taught in the travel and holiday unit?

Grammar structures such as present simple for schedules and timetables, past simple for recounting travel experiences, future tenses for making travel plans, and modal verbs for expressing preferences or asking for permission can be taught.

What speaking activities can be used to practice travel and holiday-related topics?

Role-plays, group discussions about dream destinations, travel itineraries, or describing holiday experiences are effective speaking activities. Additionally, pair work activities like “Find Someone Who” or “Guess the Destination” can engage learners in conversation.

ESL Travel Activities and Games: Join the Conversation

What are your thoughts about these Holiday ESL activities? Do you have another one that you’d like to recommend to us? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think. We’d love to hear from you.

Also be sure to give this article a share on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. It’ll help other busy English teachers, like yourself find this useful resource for ESOL travel lessons.

ESL Travel Lesson

Last update on 2022-07-17 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

About Jackie

Jackie Bolen has been teaching English for more than 15 years to students in South Korea and Canada. She's taught all ages, levels and kinds of TEFL classes. She holds an MA degree, along with the Celta and Delta English teaching certifications.

Jackie is the author of more than 60 books for English teachers and English learners, including Business English Vocabulary Builder and 39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities for Teenagers and Adults . She loves to share her ESL games, activities, teaching tips, and more with other teachers throughout the world.

You can find her on social media at: YouTube Facebook Pinterest TikTok LinkedIn Instagram

Top Selling ESL Activity Book

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

More ESL Activities and Games

Second Conditional Activities, Games, Worksheets & Questions

ESL Weather Activities: Make your ESL Weather Lesson Fun!

Christmas Expressions & Idioms | Phrases for the Holidays

Thanksgiving Trivia for Kids (with Answers)

About, contact, privacy policy.

Best-selling author and English teacher Jackie Bolen has been talking ESL activities and games since 2015. The goal is to bring you the best ideas, lesson plans, and activity recommendations for your TEFL classes.

Get in touch: About + Contact

Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

Email: [email protected]

Address: 2436 Kelly Ave, Port Coquitlam, Canada

Travel ESL Lesson Plans

•   A2 Pre-Intermediate
•   B1 Intermediate
•   B2 Upper Intermediate
•   C1 Advanced
•   C2 Proficiency

Lesson times:

•   30 min
•   45 min
•   60 min
•   75 min
•   90 min

Lesson types:

•   Free
•   Premium

ESL Travel Lesson Plans

If you are looking for an ESL lesson plan on transportation and travel, look no more. You’re in the right place.  

Why we travel

This Upper Intermediate lesson plan focuses on expanding travel vocabulary and…

Check out Vienna!

This A2 ESL lesson plan aims to enhance students’ understanding of…

How safe is flying?

This C1 lesson plan focuses on expanding aviation vocabulary …

The geography of small talk

In this Intermediate lesson plan, students will engage in discussions about the nuances…

Chillin’ in Svalbard

In this Upper-Intermediate lesson plan, students will learn about must vs. have to.  They will…

If you’re going to San Francisco…

In this Advanced ESL lesson, the students will learn about the culture of…

Paragliding to work

In this Intermediate lesson plan, students will talk about the most popular ways…

Exactly where are we now?

In this C2 lesson plan, students will practice vocabulary about travel and international borders. They…

Doing Mardi Gras like a real New Orleanian

In this Advanced ESL lesson, students will talk about a parade and the…

Subscribe to premium content

Here you can find ESL lesson plans on transportation and travel for all difficulty levels, both free and premium.

Our offer – Travel English

We are offering ESL lesson plans for you to use during lessons with your students. Lessons are currently available at A2 and  B1 levels , B2, C1 and C2. The duration of each lesson is between 30 and 90 minutes, depending on the plan you choose . This means that you can choose a lesson that suits your students’ level as well as your desired lesson length. The plans are designed to make your job as easy as possible and your teaching as effective as possible. Tired of “forcing” your students to speak? Try our lessons, they guarantee all kinds of discussions between students on topics they actually enjoy, since everyone travels sometimes.

Learn travel vocabulary

Our lesson plans focus on travelling, which gives your students a chance to learn language skills that they will most likely use in their lives. This can also make the lessons interesting – the students can share their experiences with travelling, stories about their travels, share their views on different countries, different cultures and various tourist attractions that they have seen. Lessons include current events, such as traveling during the pandemic, all kinds of situations that may occur at the airport, types of luggage you may bring and much more.

Lessons consist of content that should provoke discussion and prevent students from answering with a simple “yes” or “no”. This will help increase student confidence and also make the teacher’s job easier.

What else to expect

All our ESL Travel lesson plans comprise reading comprehensions, entertaining and inspirational videos, grammar rules and exercises, as well as various forms of discussion related to the topic.

Each week you can expect a new lesson to become available.

Currently we have lessons on travel related topics, such as:

• travelling abroad,
• travelling by planes,
• types of luggage,
• different types of travels and vacations,
• tourist attraction and different tourist destinations,
• life-on-the-road experience.

Our lessons in a few words

You can browse through our lessons to find the ones that suit your needs best. There is an overview for each lesson, so you know exactly what kind of vocabulary you will be teaching and what methods you will use.

Lessons include warm up discussions, videos for your students to watch, reading sections and grammar exercises. All of these elements add up to a complete lesson plan that will ensure your students go home with valuable new skills.

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430), theologian and philosopher

• April 8, 2021
• General English

Home » Travel

Latest lesson plans

LESSON OVERVIEW

This free ESL lesson plan on travel has been designed for adults and young adults at an intermediate (B1/B2) to advanced (C1/C2) level and should last around 45 to 60 minutes for one student.

Whether it’s exploring new places, or relaxing in familiar ones, everyone loves travelling. In fact, many people learning English are doing so for that exact reason. In the past, travelling to exotic locations was only for the super-rich. Now, with the expansion of budget airlines and cheap packages, the world is a lot more accessible to a lot more people. In this ESL lesson plan on travel, students will have the opportunity to discuss and express their opinions on issues such as how much they like travelling, the best places they have visited and different forms of travel.

This lesson plan could also be used with your students to debate these issues for World Tourism Day , which takes place in September. For more lesson plans on international days and important holidays, see the  calendar of world days  to plan your classes for these special occasions.

For advice on how to use this English lesson plan and  other lesson plans  on this site, see the  guide for ESL teachers .

PRE-CLASS ACTIVITIES

Reading activity Before the English class, send the following article to the students and ask them to read it while making a list of any new vocabulary or phrases they find (explain any the students don’t understand in the class):

World of Wanderlust | The Top 25 Best Destinations in the World

The article provides descriptions of some of the most visited tourist destinations in the world. At the start of the class, hold a brief discussion about what the students thought about the article. Have the students visited any of these places? If so, what did they think about them? Which of the places on the list would they most like to visit and why? Can they think of any of the destinations that should not be on the list? Which other destinations should be on a list of the best destinations in the world?

Video activity To save time in class for the conversation activities, the English teacher can ask the students to watch the video below and answer the listening questions in Section 3 of the lesson plan at home. There are intermediate listening questions and advanced listening questions so teachers can decide which would be more appropriate for their students. Check the answers in the class.

The video for this class is called “The Point of Travel” by The School of Life which views travel as a kind of therapy that can help us with our emotional state of mind.

IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES

The focus in the class is on conversation in order to help improve students’ fluency and confidence when speaking in English as well as boosting their vocabulary.

This lesson opens with a short discussion about the article the students read before the class. Next, the students can give their opinion on the quote at the beginning of the lesson plan – what they think the quote means and if they agree with it. This is followed by an initial discussion on the topic including the benefits of travel, the student’s favourite holiday/vacation and the best places to spend a holiday/vacation in their country.

After this, students will learn some vocabulary connected with travel such as backpacking , off the beaten path/track and bucket list . This vocabulary has been chosen to boost the students’ knowledge of less common vocabulary that could be useful for preparing for English exams like IELTS or TOEFL. The vocabulary is accompanied by a cloze activity and a speaking activity to test the students’ comprehension of these words. This may also be a good time to explain the difference between travel, trip and journey , as these words are often confused by students

If the students didn’t watch the video before the class, they can watch it after the vocabulary section and answer the listening questions. Before checking the answers, ask the students to give a brief summary of the video and what they thought about the content.

Finally, there is a more in-depth conversation about travel. In this speaking activity, students will talk about issues such as the different types of holiday/vacation people like to go on, how much they like to plan for a trip and the attraction of solo travel.

After the class, students will write about their opinion of travel. This could be a short paragraph or a longer piece of writing depending on what level the student is at. The writing activity is designed to allow students to practise and improve their grammar with the feedback from their teacher. For students who intend to take an international English exam such as IELTS or TOEFL, there is an alternative essay question to practise their essay-writing skills.

DOWNLOAD LESSON PLANS

Did you find this lesson plan useful?

Your English Pal is a free resource to help fellow ESL teachers save time when preparing their classes. If these lesson plans have helped you, and you’d like to help keep the site free, please consider making a small contribution to help cover the site’s costs. Any help you can give is much appreciated!

2 thoughts on “Travel”

Hi I donante 5 dollars I can not download the lesson plan travel c1 c2

Hi Elsa. Thank you very much for your donation! You can download the lesson plan by clicking the PDF images at the bottom of the page (one for teachers and one for students). It should open in the new page and then you can click the download arrow at the top right to save them to your computer. Let me know if that works

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Copyright © 2023 Your English Pal

Privacy Overview

• General English
• Video series
• Word on the Street

WOTS: Transport and Travel

In this episode, Stephen and Ashlie have a friend called Jazz visiting from abroad. They take Jazz on a trip around London to see  the sights and famous places. 

Nick meets a man who lives on the River Thames and a photographer who creates digital visions of London in the future.

The City of London

Nick talks about the history of The Thames and then is shown around a houseboat on the river. Later, he meets some artists who create incredible images of London in the future.

• Read more about The City of London
• Log in or register to post comments

Transport and Travel Scene 1

Stephen's friend comes to London and Ashlie and Stephen show him around.

• Read more about Transport and Travel Scene 1

Transport and Travel Scene 1 - Language Focus

Rob the teacher talks about using the present perfect to describe events and experiences.

• Read more about Transport and Travel Scene 1 - Language Focus

Transport and Travel Scene 2

Ashlie, Stephen and Jazz take a trip on the London Eye to enjoy the views of London.

• Read more about Transport and Travel Scene 2

Transport and Travel Scene 2 - Language Focus

Rob the teacher talks about using the past simple and the present perfect.

• Read more about Transport and Travel Scene 2 - Language Focus

Online courses

Group and one-to-one classes with expert teachers.

Learn English in your own time, at your own pace.

One-to-one sessions focused on a personal plan.

Get the score you need with private and group classes.