The topics of Transport and Travel are familiar aspects of our lives, and they frequently appear in the IELTS Speaking test. So read the article below to discover the idioms related to this topic. By doing so, you can express your thoughts more smoothly, clearly, and confidently!
| IDIOMS | MEANING | EXAMPLE |
| Be plain sailing | to be smooth, uninterrupted, and/or easy, especially as of progress, travel, or development | The roads were busy as we drove out of town, but after that it was plain sailing. |
| Beat a retreat | to leave a place or situation quickly | When the rain started, everyone on the field beat a retreat indoors. |
| Get/have itchy feet | to start to want to travel or do something different | Every so often, Claire gets itchy feet and sets off for a foreign destination. |
| Go to ground | to hide at a location where one will not easily be found | I needed to go to ground at my vacation home after making that huge blunder at work. |
| Hit the road | to leave a place or begin a journey | We better hit the road before traffic gets even worse. |
| Get away from it all | to go somewhere, usually on holiday, where you can completely relax and forget your responsibilities or problems | Ugh, I just need to get away from it all – let’s go to the beach this weekend. |
| Hit the town | to spend time in the area of a city or town where there are a lot of restaurants, bars, etc. | It’s Saturday night! Let’s hit the town! |
| Live out of a suitcase | travel a lot, and therefore be limited to the contents of a suitcase | My job involves so much travelling that I practically live out of a suitcase. |
| Travel light | to bring very few things with you when you go somewhere | Please travel light in our vacation! |
| Have a whale of a time | to enjoy yourself very much | I always have a whale of a time with my family whenever we visit Da Lat. |
| Everything but the kitchen sink | a much larger number of things than is necessary | We’re only going on vacation for a week, but John will insist on taking everything but the kitchen sink. |
| Let one’s hair down | to allow yourself to behave much more freely than usual and enjoy yourself | Travelling really lets my hair down. |
| At the crack of dawn | very early in the morning, especially at the time when the sun first appears | We’ll have to leave at the crack of dawn. |
| Bright and early | in the early morning | I had to wake up bright and early to make sure I was at the airport in time for my 7 AM flight. |
| Red eye flight/ The red eye | a plane journey during the night, usually one that is over a long distance | She took the red eye from New York. |
| From pillar to post | if someone goes from pillar to post, they are forced to keep moving from one place to another | My parents were always on the move and so my childhood was spent being dragged from pillar to post. |
| Hitch a lift/ride | to get a free ride in someone else’s vehicle as a way of travelling | They hitched a lift to Edinburgh from a passing car. |
| The highways and byways | the roads and paths of a place | They travelled the highways and byways of Britain. |
| At the wheel | to drive a vehicle | Don’t worry, Katie’s at the wheel, and she is very good at driving in the snow. |
| Jump the lights | to drive on when the traffic lights are red | It’s dangerous to jump the lights. You may have a terrible accident. |
| Put the pedal to the metal | to accelerate to or travel at the maximum speed | It would normally take us three days to drive to New York from Colorado, but with my brother putting the pedal to the metal, we made it in two. |
| Break the journey | to stop and rest somewhere in the midst of one’s travels | We plan to break the journey in upstate New York for a night before continuing on to Toronto. |
| At a fast/good clip | fast | We set off at a good clip, but we gradually slowed down. |
These are some idiomatic expressions from azVocab in the TRANSPORT & TRAVEL topic for the IELTS Speaking test. They are designed to help you understand and better prepare for your actual IELTS test. Practice a lot and get ready for your upcoming IELTS exam!
