How I Learned Spanish For Travel and What Actually Worked

Last updated on May 14, 2026

Knowing how to speak another language is an incredibly valuable tool, but as a traveler, it’s like a superpower. It can unlock more meaningful experiences while allowing you to travel with confidence and ease.

I often get asked how I learned Spanish after people watch our YouTube films in Mexico, Panama, and Spain. In the videos, you often see me talking with locals, from ordering food and arguing with a police officer, to chatting with friends or asking questions to our tour guide.

For someone who doesn’t speak Spanish, my level of Spanish may seem impressive, but I will be the first to admit I am not 100% fluent. However, I am conversational and know far more than the basic travel language for Spanish-speaking countries.

Learning conversational Spanish has been so incredibly helpful for me and has opened the door to amazing opportunities I wouldn’t have had otherwise. So, if you want to learn Spanish for travel or everyday use, here’s exactly how I learned Spanish. From my daily practice, the tools I love and use, and tips to speak more confidently.

How I learned Spanish for travel (and everyday life)

I spent nearly 12 years studying Spanish from Kindergarten to high school. You’d think I would have been fluent come gradutation, but sadly I “schooled” my way through it, learning paper smarts and not conversational Spanish.

I never spoke Spanish to native speakers outside Spanish class, and never got any chances to practice Spanish in real-world scenarios like travel.

My real journey to learning Spanish began after getting an opportunity to live with a Spanish family and teach English at a rural Spanish school. Although it was a rough start.

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The first week or two after I arrived, I was completely unable to communicate with the Spanish family I was placed with. I forgot how to say I was hungry (tengo hambre), that I was tired or overwhelmed (estoy abrumada), or that I needed to use the restroom (tengo que ir al baño), other than basic one-word “sentences”.

After adjusting to complete immersion, the foundations of Spanish from school came back to me, and I quickly began learning new vocabulary, grammar, and sayings. After 1 month, I was able to communicate like a toddler. After 3 months, I was having conversations with strangers at an intermediate level.

After my four months in Spain were up, I returned to the USA semi-fluent. I then spent the next 10 years of my life speaking virtually no Spanish. And once again, “use it or lose it” came true.

When I wanted to start speaking Spanish again in our RV travels to Mexico, I went through another learning curve. Thankfully, I held onto more of my Spanish knowledge than before but I decided I needed to take learning Spanish more seriously and commit myself consistently.

I am now at an A2/B1 (depending on topic) and am ultimately working toward a Spanish Level B2. Considering I’ve had to learn how to speak Spanish multiple times at this point, I’ve gotten pretty good at developing a system that helps you learn languages faster.

I’ve tried pretty much every language learning tool out there, and the method I share below is the best way (in my opinion) and exactly how I learned Spanish.

How I learned Spanish: My ideal method

My method for learning how to speak Spanish can be broken down into four steps.

👩🏽‍🏫 Structured learning: Some type of structured lessons that teach you different vocabulary, grammar, and verbs in a semi-sequential order. This can be a textbook, how-to course, school, or other learning setting. You 100% can learn Spanish without a “structured class,” but I do think it helps a lot in understanding why things are spoken the way they are and helps accelerate your learning.

👂🏼Listening: Reading isn’t enough. You also need to listen to native speakers having conversations fluidly. This can be via TV shows, movies, YouTube, podcasts, or audiobooks.

📖 Reviewing: A huge part of learning Spanish successfully is reviewing what you’ve learned. I use an app (more on that below) to help me review words, phrases, tenses, and verbs daily.

🗣️ Speaking: No matter how much you listen, learn, and review, you won’t learn how to speak Spanish unless you actively practice speaking it. This is the part I think most people are missing.

I promise that no matter where you start. If you do those four things together, you will learn Spanish.

My daily structure for learning Spanish

When I’m actively trying to improve and grow my Spanish from one level to the next, this is what my day looks like.

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• 🎧Wake up and listen to a Spanish podcast. This is at least 30 minutes as I go for my walk, make breakfast, or enjoy my coffee and I try to do this every day.
• 🤳🏽Take 30 minutes or more to review past vocabulary from prior study sessions.
• 👩🏽‍💻Take a 1-hour structured class or lesson. This can be reading and completing a chapter in my textbook or taking a group class online (like with Lingoda). I prefer the online lessons because I get to practice speaking that way.
• 📺 I’ll try to watch a TV show or movie in Spanish 3 times a week or more.
• 📖 Read a chapter from a Spanish book for 15 to 30 minutes at least 4x a week. This can be a helpful learning Spanish book (less of a good story, more of just language exposure) if you’re starting at a more basic level. But you can check out books in Spanish from the library. Reading is such a great way to see euphemisms, sayings, and colloquial Spanish words in action.

In total, I spend 2 to 4 hours each day reviewing, listening, or speaking Spanish and aim for at least 5 days a week, but ideally every day.

A lot of people are surprised because they have practiced Duolingo for 15 minutes every day for 6 months, only to realize they cannot speak or communicate with a native speaker at all.

15 minutes reviewing vocabulary and phrases (that isn’t how natives speak most of the time anyway) isn’t enough. You should be practicing for an hour or more every day, ideally spending at least half your day in an immersion setting.

If you’re in an English-speaking country, you can achieve this by listening to podcasts, TV shows or movies, or radio stations in Spanish. Being in a country with native speakers will help expedite your language journey, but you ultimately create the setting for how quickly or slowly you learn.

My favorite tools for learning Spanish

Now that you know how I learned Spanish, let’s talk about what I feel are the best tools for learning Spanish. I’ve tried a lot of different online programs, apps, audiobooks, and courses over the years.

I think almost all of them can work; it just comes down to how you use them. Remember, you create your “immersion experience”. However, my favorite tools for learning Spanish are below.

Notion

I use two online tools to keep track of my notes from lessons and keep/review my notes. Notion is what I use as my hub. It’s where I take notes during live classes or during my reading/listening sessions.

I can keep track of my progress, organize new vocabulary words (that I will add to AnkiDroid), and keep a record of any links, podcasts, episodes, or anything else I want to review in the future in a safe, organized place.

You can grab my free Spanish Notion hub by clicking the button below! The best part is it’s 100% free.

AnkiDroid

AnkiDroid is a free app that allows you to create flashcards with text, videos, or images. You create “decks,” which are overarching themes. Think verbs, travel vocabulary, emotions, etc., and within those decks, you create cards.

AnkiDroid uses a proven method of active recall testing and spaced repetition to improve information retention. This means it shows you cards based on how quickly you respond and how frequently you need to see them to truly learn the information.

I create cards on my laptop via its desktop interface called AnkiWeb. This syncs to my phone and then I can review those cards on the go. You can download this app for free (AnkiDroid) on iPhones or Android phones in the respective app store.

Practice Makes Perfect books

These are structured books like you would use in a formal school or college setting. I love that they explain different grammar, verb tenses, conjugations, and vocabulary with practice activities. It’s mostly written, but if you read the sentences aloud it can help with language practice too.

Podcasts

Podcasts are my favorite way to practice listening in Spanish. Radio stations can also be fun because they use a lot of slang. But the storytelling in Podcasts makes the language they are speaking so much more interesting.

A few of my favorites:

• Radio Ambulante is a PBR (Public Broadcast Radio) podcast that features stories from across Latin America. The podcast is led primarily by Peruvian writer Daniel Alarcón, who is an amazing storyteller. They speak at native speed using complex language and slang words which is great for becoming truly fluent.
  
• Duolingo Spanish Podcast is my favorite podcast for newer learners. The English-speaking host helps narrate parts of the story from a wide range of Spanish-speaking countries which can reduce confusion when new words or grammar is used. The native speaker uses intermediate Spanish and the stories are always super interesting.
  
• Españolistos: Run by a husband and wife duo from Colombia and the United States, they talk about various topics, giving feedback on his errors as a language student. It’s entertaining, helpful, and informative.

🗣️ Pro-tip: Try to avoid non-native speaker Podcasts. There’s a popular podcast called Simple Stories in Spanish, run by a fluent but non-native speaker. The podcast is great, but her accent is very “gringo” and she speaks extremely slowly.

This can be helpful as you’re learning but is creating less-than-ideal long-term habits. It won’t help you communicate as clearly or understand native speakers as easily.

TV Shows and movies

TV Shows and movies are a great way to be entertained and learn at the same time. I don’t like using dubs because, let’s face it, dubs are awful. Instead, I try to seek out native speaking shows and movies, watching them with Spanish subtitles (or English if you’re just starting). A few of my favorites are:

You can also watch YouTube channels. One I particularly enjoy is Spanish After Hours. It’s a young girl in Spain who shares her life through Spanish-speaking vlogs while also sharing helpful “learn Spanish videos” in the Castellano dialect.

Best online Spanish classes

There are many fantastic online tools today to help you have structured lessons and time to speak with native speakers. Below are my favorites:

Lingoda

Lingoda is my favorite structured tool for learning Spanish. The program offers 1-on-1 or group classes with well-designed lessons to accompany your journey, taught by native language speakers.

There are four lessons within each topic to help with vocabulary, grammar, and listening and speaking. The best part is that each lesson requires you to be in a class where you practice speaking and listening with a native speaker.

There is no option NOT to talk, which is a missing piece for most people learning Spanish for travel or everyday life.

Classes are offered daily with teachers from many different Spanish-speaking countries. Lingoda’s group classes give everyone enough time to speak and take the pressure off sounding perfect. I can get real-time feedback when I make errors, something people in the real world are often too kind to do.

Lingoda also offers a 60-day spring, where you can take 30 or 60 classes in a 2-month setting. This, without a doubt, accelerates your learning, pushing you through the course and practicing daily!

Plus, if you show up no more than 10 minutes late to every class, you get 100% of your tuition back in class credits, which you can roll into the next level of courses, OR 50% of your tuition back in cold hard cash. 🤑 Use Code “EATSEETV2025” to get 20€ off on your Lingoda sprint! 💸

italki and preply

italki and Preply are great resources for speaking and listening practice once you’re in the moderate to advanced stage. Essentially, they are a private tutor whom you can practice talking about various topics with

I love Lingoda for its structured lessons to help give you the foundations, rules, and vocabulary you need to learn. But then I like practicing specific scenarios and having everyday conversations with real speakers with instant feedback on iTalki or Preply.

In a perfect world, you would do a Lingoda Sprint, then once complete, take 1 – 2 classes on iTalki or Preply. I always do these face-to-face classes before a trip to practice certain topics I know I’ll need to discuss on the trip.

Jiveworld

JiveWorld is a great tool to help you go from intermediate to more advanced Spanish. It’s a spin-off from Radio Ambulante to help you practice and learn new vocabulary and phrases from Native Speakers.

They take sound bites from the show first at real-time speed, then slow down words, and explain colloquial sayings or the use of verbs that might not be clear to non-native speakers. It’s free to try, but if you want to sign up, you get access to a lot more stories!

Tips for learning Spanish (or any language, really)

Now that you have the structure and the tools to help you learn, here are a few tips for learning a new language. These tips go beyond Spanish alone, and I believe are a big part of why people study and practice but still never become fluent.

1. Focus on the most used verbs and master those first

In every language, there are 20 – 30 core verbs that are used more frequently than others. A good starting point for Spanish, particularly since there are so many different verb conjugations to learn for each tense, is to focus on the most commonly used verbs and study those tenses.

Some great ones to start with:

• ser, estar, haber, poder, tener, hacer, decir, deber, ir, ver, parecer and dar.

2. Talk as much as you can

You have to speak the language to become fluent. You’ll notice that as you start to learn a new language, you’ll understand a lot more than you can say. To surpass this hurdle, continue listening to others but give yourself time to speak.

If you don’t have a safe setting (like one-on-one or group classes) to practice, join a local group to practice speaking that language. You can also simply talk aloud in your home. Sometimes I’ll give myself a topic like “What was your favorite thing about this trip?” or “Tell me about one of your favorite childhood memories,” I have to respond out loud.

I’m not talking to anyone, but I’m speaking on the spot, which is a struggle for many.

3. Don’t be afraid to sound stupid

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you’re going to sound stupid a lot as you learn a new language. You will make mistakes, mispronounce things, or say things completely wrong. That’s normal. Keep going.

You have to get over sounding silly to learn a new language!

😳 Fun story: One time at the table with my Spanish and their entire extended family, I said, “My husband is eating me”. Everyone laughed, and I was told my error, but I was mortified. Everyone moved on from it quickly and knew it was because I was still learning.

4. Focus on real-world scenarios and vocabulary first

Another thing I noticed myself doing was trying to learn everything, no matter how useful it was to me or not. It’s easy to hear a new word or phrase and think, “I need to write that down.” But first, think about how often you will use it.

Think about the vocabulary words or real-world settings you’re finding yourself struggling with in talking with Spanish speakers, and focus on learning that content first. Then you can move on to more obscure topics or vocabulary words.

Hopefully, this blog post helped you understand how I learned Spanish for travel and life and gave you helpful tools and tips to learn Spanish, too. Remember, learning Spanish is a practice. You need to be dedicated and patient with yourself and put the time in to see the rewards.