Cue Card Sample

IELTS Cue Card Sample 431 - Describe a long journey that you enjoyed

IELTS Speaking Part 2: IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card.

Describe a long journey that you enjoyed.

You should say:

  • where and when you had it
  • how you got there and how long it took
  • who you went with

and explain why you enjoyed this journey so much.


 

Model Answer 1:
Not sure, how one would define “long journeys”, but, as far as I am concerned, a journey is considered to be a long journey to me if it lasts more than 10 hours. But, the journey, I want to talk about, lasted for 14 hours when I visited the capital city of my country about 14 years ago for the first time as a young boy.

However, when I, together with my uncle and cousin, started my journey, I wasn’t exactly told about the duration of our journey. All I was told that it was going to be a long but exciting journey since it did not only involve travelling by bus but also by a big ferry.

By the way, back in 14 years, the city, in which I used to live, didn’t have any direct communication facility, either by bus or train since, with the capital city since our region was separated by a very big river from the rest of the country. So, our only option was to first travel by bus almost half of the distance and then use the ferry to travel the rest of it.  

So, we started our journey in the early morning, and as our bus was cruising along nicely, my uncle and cousin (both were considerably older than me) were introducing me to the places and cities that we were passing through. After, finishing our bus journey after almost 6 hours, we finally began our journey on a huge ferry boat. We travelled almost 8 hours on that ferry but it felt like only a few hours since it was one of the most wonderful and comfortable journeys of my life till then.

Anyway, I enjoyed this long journey, mainly because it allowed me to see some new and cool places for the first time outside of my own city. I enjoyed it also because it is during this journey that I was treated like an adult for the first time by the people who were travelling with me and around me.


 

Sample Answer 2:
I love to travel and explore new places and that is why I would be very glad to talk about a long journey that I enjoyed. I also thank you for this great topic and time to let me talk about a journey that was long and I liked it.

Back in 2009, I had a really long tour in different European countries and this the journey I enjoyed thoroughly. It took us 28 days to finish this tour and I had three classmates and a cousin with me on this journey. We went to Berlin, Paris, Transylvania, London, Vienna, Lisbon and Munich. This was completely a road trip and we never once travelled on an aeroplane during this journey.

This was a fascinating expedition and the best one I ever had. As a fresh graduate, I had been struggling to find a decent job here in my country. After I had this journey, something changed inside me. I realised that having a job in a large company is not the only ambition in life. This journey revealed so much different cultural and traditional aspects in front of us. We explored many new cities where we have never been to. Many of these cities were historically significant and we enjoyed our time there a lot.  The journey also helped me have a better relationship with my friends. I discovered some of my interests that I never bothered about before. If I never had this journey, I would not take up keeping a journal or photography as my passions.

Every city we visited has historic significance and we  visited several museums  in these cities. We mostly travelled by trains and enjoyed the views of the roadsides. We met some of the foreigners and enjoyed our conversations. Visiting museums and several other historic places have enhanced my knowledge of history and broaden my thinking pattern. Being away from home for a long time also helped me realise for the first time in my life how much my family and home mean to me! I would say that I liked almost everything about this journey. The timing could not have been more perfect, my companions were great, I explored some of the most beautiful places in the world, I reinvented myself, learned history, traditions and came back revived from this journey. It would not have been any better than this!


 

Sample Answer 3:
Travelling is a hobby for me. I love to travel to different countries and have already travelled to some of the European countries. Recently I made a trip to Italy from France. I am happy to discuss the topic here and would like to thank you for the opportunity to describe it.
 
Being a French, I have already visited almost all the notable places in the country. So, it was my time to visit the other countries in my region, Europe. So, I made the plan to visit Italy and it was a random selection. Besides, the communication between France and Italy is also convenient and fast. The train is one of the fastest ways to reach Italy from France. Accordingly, I made the plan to visit Italy on the first day of November in yesteryear.  

I live in Paris with my family. In fact, I was born in Paris. So, this is the familiar city for me and I started my journey from this city. Actually, I started the trip from Paris station and it ended at Ventimiglia in Italy. It was interesting for me to travel in another country and alone. As it was a long-distance and took around night to reach Italy, I booked a sleeping car with attached bathroom facility. It took around over six hours to reach in Italy from France by train. The train ran at a great speed indeed. The speed was around 180 kilometres per hour. But it was really hard for me to manage the ticket. Usually, sleeper cars are a bit expensive and it is difficult to manage the ticket without any pre-booking. Fortunately, my uncle, working in the railway managed the ticket for me after enduring lots of troubles.  

I made the journey by myself. Though my younger brother wanted to accompany me, I did not allow him for some reasons. If he came with me, I had to look after him and this is really filled with difficulties to look at another individual on such trips. I had a plan to visit the notable parts of the country and accordingly made the arrangements. I made the hotel reservation and even reserved a car as well to take at the interesting places in Italy. But the most impressive part was the train journey. I never made such a long journey in train. I passed the night sleepless and watched a movie on my laptop. I think I took the right decision that I did not bring my sibling on this journey. If he was with me, I could not have enjoyed myself so much as I did it alone.

I liked the speed of the train most. It appears that this is a fast route between France and Italy. It takes about six and a half hours to reach in Ventimiglia from Paris station. Besides, the facilities on the train were excellent. I visited different parts of the country and stayed there for about a week. In this time, I have enjoyed the natural views, golden beaches, met with a large number of people and knew about their cultures, took part in different activities and more. The most important thing in Italy that attracted me was the traditional food items. I enjoyed them greatly. After passing the week, I returned by the same train in Paris. It was a great journey for me indeed.

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