Essential Spanish phrases for travel

You don't need fluent Spanish to have a great trip — you need the right few dozen phrases and the confidence to say them. The phrases below are the ones travellers reach for most across Spain and Latin America, grouped by situation so you can find them fast. Many use words you already recognise, so they're quicker to learn than you'd think.

Greetings and being polite

At a café or restaurant

Directions and transport

Shopping and money

Help and emergencies

A quick word on pronunciation

Spanish is wonderfully phonetic: five clean vowels, and you say what you see. The main things to remember are the rolled r, the silent h, and that j sounds like a throaty "h". We go deeper on the Learn Spanish page.

From phrasebook to real conversation

Reading these is the easy part — saying them confidently when it counts is the goal. Navoq lets you practise exactly these kinds of phrases out loud, with instant feedback on your pronunciation, so they come out naturally when you're actually standing at the counter. Learn a handful before you fly and your whole trip changes.