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• What is your favorite thing about traveling?
• What about your least favorite?

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• What is the text about? Read it and find out.

“The benefits of travelling are well-touted; you try new things, broaden your horizons, discover how to interact with different people and learn how to be alone. If you’re lucky maybe you’ll even fall in love or learn a new skill along the way. But what happens when disaster strikes? Because it will at some point, trust me on that one; some travel problems are pretty much de rigeur. Whether it’s getting sick, getting lost or just getting fed-up with foreign climes, when you find yourself facing a travel problem or three, while hundreds of miles from home, it can push you to your limit and maybe even cause you to cut your trip short.

So that doesn’t happen to you, I’ve broken down how to bounce back from 3 of the most common travel problems.

1. Gross Accommodation
Problem: So the hotel of your dreams doesn’t quite match the images online. You arrive and find; stain-covered carpets, a grime-covered bathroom and four cockroaches crawling way too close to your wobbly bed. Ew.

Solution: Travelling for hours only to find sub-par accommodation is one of the most fixable travel problems, but at the time it feels like your entire trip is completely ruined. However, simply knowing your rights as a consumer before you set off can facilitate the right outcome. If you booked through a tour operator, they’re liable to to fix your issue and you should contact them right away. Similarly, if it’s an Airbnb that’s let you down, they offer assistance in finding a new place and/or a refund. And if it’s an (unreasonable) hotel or hostel? Well you could always gently try asserting your power as a customer: if they try to swerve your complaint warn them that a bad social media review can go a long way in this day and age…

2. Language Barriers
Problem: Not being understood in foreign climes is proving to be more of a hassle than you’d anticipated. In fact, it’s making you feel more than a little alienated and frustrated.

Solution: It’s never too late to brush up on your language skills; making even a very basic effort will endear you to locals and make your trip far more enjoyable in the process. Download language app Duolingo to practice anywhere, enroll at a local language school for a few hours a day and take each opportunity to immerse yourself in your new culture, no matter how small. Failing that, investing in an old-school guide book or pocket dictionary to whip out in emergencies is always useful.

3. Delayed / Missed Flights
Problem: Nobody likes being stranded in an airport because of a delayed flight or missed connection and it can be one of the most expensive (not to mention soul-destroying) travel problems to put right.

Solution: Be sure to keep in contact with your airline both before, and on, the day of flying. Check the status of the flight online and also through the airline app (if available) so you’re always aware of any changes to your itinerary. It’s also possible to minimize the risk of cancellations by being savvy about what type of ticket you buy; non-stop flights won’t have you waiting around on connections and flights with earlier departures often avoid the effect of other delayed flights. And if you do find yourself stranded, this handy directory of all the free wi-fi spots in airports around the world will save you from boredom. Happy travels!

Modified from source

Bottom Up

• True or False

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• Which of the problems mentioned in the text is the worst one? Why?
• What other problems can you think of?

• Match each word with its meaning. There is one example.