This is good practice for IELTS or Cambridge First Certificate or even Advanced. The first thing I'd like to point out is what level achievement really means. Many students believe that the more complex the language the higher the level. That may be true but only up to a point. When talking in the oral exam (Cambridge or IELTS) it is important to use a spoken style of language. More complexity does not mean fitting in dozens of low-frequency Latin-based words. Consider that phrase:
We enormously appreciate promenading in the proximity of the beach as evening approaches.
This may be fine for a serious piece of formal writing or a literary work such as a novel but it's outside the spoken register we need for an oral exam, whether it's at B1 (IELTS 5) or C2 (IELTS 9). The spoken register alternative:
We really enjoy taking a stroll along the beach at the end of the day,
is suitable for higher levels of English - where the student has shown a higher level is not in the use of Latin-based words but in the correct use of idiom and collocation: taking a stroll along the beach, at the end of the day.
I'm going to talk about walking holidays and make a comparison with the popular beach holiday. Note especially the phrases in bold.
My family and I often have a walking holiday in the mountains. In our case, we go to the Sierra Nevada in the south of Spain – in particular, an area near Granada called La Alpujarra. This is a beautiful, picturesque area which offers the tourist spectacular mountainous scenery and stunning views.
Okay, so what are the advantages of a walking holiday? Well, first of all, I would say you can get fitter by walking. And that's obviously much better for you than lying on the beach all day trying to get a suntan. We found walking in the Sierra Nevada made us feel stronger and fitter every day. We had walking shoes or a sort of trainers for walking – depending on the terrain and the weather. Often I walked in shorts and a T-shirt because it was fairly warm last summer. And also, we used walking poles, which are two sticks that you hold in your hands and you use those to help yourself walk – it gives you extra purchase when walking in difficult terrain. And it gives you extra exercise - using your arms as well, when you walk. It's important to put on sun cream because we went in the summer and the sun is very strong, high up in the mountains, and you can burn easily. So it's important to have sunscreen protection, or sunblock even, and a good protective hat to keep the sun off your head. And we took a backpack as well, where we put our sandwiches and water. But there is an added bonus when walking in the Sierra Nevada - you come across all these natural springs, which have sparkling clear, clean water, which runs down from the mountain. It's the meltwater from the winter snows at the top of the mountain. You can drink this water - and these springs were everywhere. So you had this ice-cold water to quench your thirst as you were walking, it was often not necessary to take your own water along.
Compared to a beach holiday, I would say that a walking holiday is more interesting, culturally. Why? Well, because you see more, and you do more. When we go to the Sierra Nevada, we walk through a lot of quaint villages. You have time to stop and admire the local architecture, and you are surrounded by fascinating fauna and flora as well. In particular, I remember the myriads of butterflies everywhere we walked.
And we learned about the area, the history of the area, about the people. You can learn things apart from the tourist information in your guidebook. I can remember this last time, for example, when we went to the Sierra Nevada, we stopped and talked to people who we met along the way, or in the villages. And my wife especially, who is Spanish, would often stop people and ask them things about the local area, how people lived there, what sort of professions they had. It’s interesting in these remote areas - people seem to be more open and have time to stop and talk to you. I remember talking to an old lady, or my wife did, rather. It was by chance that we were stroking her dog, which was tied up outside her house, and she came out and starting chatting to us, and told us her life story, practically.
Now, I think if you go on a beach holiday, well, you can meet people too. But often in these large international hotel chains, we don't usually share a breakfast table, for example. That's something that I've come across in the UK in bed and breakfasts where perhaps, because it's a private home, and you have breakfast in a small dining room, and you may even share a table with others, or the tables are close together. And it's easy to get into conversation with other guests. But on a beach holiday where there're so many people, everybody just usually gets their breakfast, buffet style. You sit down at your own table with your own family or friends and you mind your own business really, you don't usually get into a conversation with other people.
And of course, you also have lunch or have a snack, and you try some of the local cuisine, and that's something which is perhaps different from a beach holiday. Often many beach holidays only offer a range of international food to suit all tastes because they have a mishmash of tourists from different countries. And perhaps you won't get the benefit of trying some of the local food and the local specialities, the local wine, local beers, for example. And when you are walking, as we usually walk in the countryside or in some remote area, well then when we come to a village and stop and have a break or a bite to eat, well then you're more likely to try some local food, some authentic cuisine, which is typical of the region you are visiting.
And it's also nice to take sandwiches, it saves money for one thing. When you go on a beach holiday, you always feel you need to go to a beach bar, or a restaurant and and eat there. But it’s much more economical if you take your own sandwiches, we could do that I suppose at the beach and have your sandwiches on the beach. You could do that I suppose.
In the mountains, we didn't stay in a hotel – there weren’t any hotels really - we stayed in a house, a rented country house, I suppose you'd call it. And it had two bedrooms and the living room and small kitchenette. And there was a nice patio to sit in as well. And so it was self-catering rather than full board where you get all your meals or half board where you get breakfast and lunch or breakfast and dinner. Now there weren't any hotels like that in the Sierra Nevada. We would go to the supermarket at some time during the day and buy a few things and prepare our own meals. We'd prepare a little meal in the evening when we came back from the walk and we'd sit out in the patio and enjoy our meal there and enjoy watching the setting sun and the stillness and the tranquillity of the countryside around us. There is not the hustle and bustle of the beach holiday - queuing up for your lunch in the hotel, or having to wait for a table in a restaurant. Because the restaurants are full. That doesn't happen much on a walking holiday.
So all in all, I think my preference is the walking holiday. You come back definitely feeling more relaxed and fitter because of the exercise that you've been taking. And also you return with more memories of your experiences - and I think memories are dear to us and we appreciate those memories afterwards. Memories can be treasured after a good holiday - in photos, perhaps, or just things that you recall about what you did. Every day, when you go on a walking holiday, you go to different places, you have different memories of places you visited, people you met, meals you had. Whereas beach holidays, well, they tend to be very repetitive - you're just doing the same thing more or less every day - that is that you go to the beach, lay out your towel, put up your sunshade, lie on the beach, go for a swim, come back, start feeling hot again, go back for another plunge in the sea… More or less, it's the same every day. Okay, you might play a bit of bat and ball perhaps on the beach - if they let you. You know, some of these beaches are so controlled that you can't even play ball games. So that's something else I think that I appreciate about these walking holidays - they're more memorable than beach holidays.
I understand, you know, a lot of people like to go to the beach because it's just relaxing. And if you have a strenuous or stressful job, well then I can understand that. It's a good way to unwind perhaps and do practically nothing and some people like to do that - nothing. However, I personally believe that as they say, in English - a change is as good as a rest. It's not about just lying around on the beach all day that will make us feel that we've recharged our batteries. Rather, it's a case of doing something different. Obviously enjoyable and relaxing at the same time - not connected to work. But just doing something different is the important thing. Therefore, a walking holiday will leave you with memories that you will enjoy looking back on for years to come.
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