Spanish for tourism: booking, arriving and staying

CEFR B1 Reviewed by Jhoslyn Updated 2026-09-12

Draft copy. Every claim needs a native-speaker check before publishing — the byline is what makes this citable, so it has to be earned.

Before you go

• el itinerario — the itinerary
• el presupuesto — the budget. Un presupuesto ajustado is a tight one
• el destino — the destination. The four types her deck names are el destino playero, el aventurero, el cultural and el religioso
• el boleto — the ticket. In Peru el boleto is the everyday word for a bus or entrance ticket, and el pasaje for the air or long-distance fare. El billete is Spain’s word and means a banknote here
• el vuelo — the flight · la reserva — the booking
• el alojamiento — the accommodation, as a category
• el seguro de viaje — travel insurance. La cobertura is the cover and la letra pequeña the small print
• las divisas — foreign currency · la casa de cambio — the exchange bureau. In Lima you will also meet el cambista, the licensed street money-changer in a numbered vest
• el visado, or more usually in Peru la visa
• el certificado de vacunación — vaccination certificate

The airport, in order

• el equipaje — luggage, a mass noun. Las maletas are the individual bags, la mochila the backpack, el equipaje de mano the hand luggage
• el mostrador de la aerolínea — the airline desk
• la tarjeta de embarque — the boarding pass
• la puerta de embarque — the gate
• el control migratorio — passport control. El oficial migratorio asks the questions
• el carrusel de maletas — the baggage carousel
• el área de reclamo — the claims desk
• el reporte de extravío de maleta — the lost-bag report. Extraviar is the formal verb for losing something; you will see it on the form

The sentence you hope not to need: Se extravió mi maleta y quiero reportar el extravío. And the one after it: ¿Me puede dar el contacto de la aerolínea?

At the hotel

• el hospedaje — lodging, a stay somewhere. El alojamiento is the same idea; hospedaje is slightly more Peruvian and often names a cheap place
• el hostal — a small guesthouse, not a youth hostel · la posada — an inn
• la recepción · el recepcionista / la recepcionista
• el botones — the bellhop · el portero — the doorman
• el registro de entrada / el registro de salida — check-in and check-out. You will also hear hacer el check-in in Lima hotels
• la habitación — the room. Individual, doble, matrimonial (one double bed)
• la llave — the key · la caja fuerte — the safe
• la hoja de reclamos — the complaints form. Worth knowing: in Peru every business must keep one by law, officially el libro de reclamaciones, and asking for it is a recognised escalation rather than a tantrum

The check-in script, compressed:

• Buenos días, ¿tienen habitaciones disponibles?
• Sí. ¿Cuántas noches va a hospedarse?
• Tres noches. ¿Está incluido el desayuno?
• Sí, de seis y media a diez y media. ¿Me permite su documento de identidad?

Note ¿Cuántas noches? — Spanish counts nights, not days, exactly as English does, but the verb is hospedarse or quedarse, never estar on its own.

Out and about

• los lugares de interés — the sights, the standard phrase
• el atractivo turístico — a tourist attraction. Divided in her deck into naturales (la playa, la isla, la montaña, la laguna, el volcán), culturales (las ruinas, el folklore, las fiestas tradicionales, los museos) and contemporáneos (los parques de diversiones, los casinos, los espectáculos culturales)
• la guía turística — the guidebook. El guía / la guía with a person is the guide themselves, so the article does real work here
• la excursión — the day trip · el recorrido — the route or circuit you walk
• el recuerdo — the souvenir. El souvenir is used too, but recuerdo is what a Peruvian market seller will say
• la temporada alta / la temporada baja — high and low season
• la propina — the tip

In Peru the two phrases that come up constantly and are not in any course book: el boleto turístico (the combined ticket covering several sites in Cusco) and la altura — altitude, and therefore el soroche, altitude sickness. Me dio soroche is how you say it happened to you.

The grammar: advice comes in the infinitive

Look at any Peruvian travel list, sign or leaflet and the headings are bare infinitives:

• Llevar equipaje liviano.
• Etiquetar las maletas.
• Ir al aeropuerto con tiempo.
• No dejar el equipaje sin vigilancia.

This is the impersonal instruction. It has no subject, no politeness level and no tense — which is exactly why it works on a sign, where the reader might be anyone. English uses the bare imperative for this (“Label your bags”); Spanish uses the infinitive, and using a real imperative on a list instead sounds like you are ordering one specific person about.

When you are talking to a person, you need one of these instead. They form a ladder from softest to firmest:

Hay que and tiene que are the pair worth separating. Hay que reservar con anticipación is a fact about how the world works. Tienes que reservar con anticipación is about you and your trip. Officials use the first to sound neutral; friends use the second.

→ The imperative covers the command forms, and survival phrases for asking for things the polite versions.

Peruvian words that will save you

• acá rather than aquí — acá está bien
• el carro for a car, la combi for the small local minibus, el colectivo for a shared taxi on a fixed route
• la chompa — a jumper, which you will want in Cusco
• jalar for to pull. Doors say jale, not tire
• ¿cuánto me cobra? rather than ¿cuánto cuesta? when you are asking a person for their price

→ More of this in Spanish for taking a taxi in Lima and how to bargain.

Try it

Pick the right form:

1. ___ mostrar el pasaporte en el control migratorio. (a general rule)
2. Le ___ llegar dos horas antes. (advice to a guest)
3. Sign on a wall: ___ (etiquetar) las maletas.
4. ¿Me ___ dar la hoja de reclamos? (asking a receptionist)

→ 1 Hay que · 2 recomiendo · 3 Etiquetar — an infinitive, because a sign addresses nobody in particular · 4 puede.

Topics Getting around