A Special Day Out That Cost Little Money

IELTS Speaking – Part 2 Topic – May 2022

Part 2 Question:

Describe a special day out that cost you little money. You should say:

When the day was

Where you went

How much you spent

And explain how you feel about the day

Advice

• An important thing to note here is that the day didn’t have to be completely free. It can be a day when you spent little money, but not zero money. That makes the options much more flexible – for example, you might have spent some money on petrol driving to the location.
• This answer will likely include something about socializing with friends or something about spending time in nature, both of which are opportunities to bring in some high-level vocabulary. To improve your vocabulary with 500 high level words across more than 50 topics, you can check the Last Minute English course Advanced English Vocabulary.

Vocabulary & Sentences

• I’d like to talk about a time I had a special day out that cost very little money, which was when + details
• Our old familiar haunts
• Getting into shape
• A health scare
• Gentle exercise
• Just the ticket
• Botanical garden
• Drinking in the sights
• Stately home
• Primary residence
• Aristocracy
• Class division
• Manicured lawn
• Chomping down
• The main costs that we incurred were + cost details
• Negligible
• Raw materials
• A hipster coffee shop
• Fantastic value for money

Answer:

I’d like to talk about a time I had a special day out that cost very little money, which was when I visited a local country park with my friends.

It happened a few months ago. It was my friend Tom’s birthday, and instead of just going to our old familiar haunts, we decided to do something new. Tom has been getting into shape recently after a health scare, so some gentle exercise and fresh air seemed like just the ticket. I had heard about Lymm country park from a friend who had visited, so we decided to give it a try.

The park has a beautiful botanical garden with exotic plants from all over the world. We spent an hour or so wandering around that garden, just drinking in the sights. And another attraction there is the stately home, which for centuries was the primary residence of various members of the aristocracy. These days, it’s more of a museum that reflects on how life used to be when class division was more common and easily visible in society. We finished the afternoon by sitting on the manicured lawn and chomping down on a lovely picnic that we had prepared at home.

The main costs that we incurred were just the cost of petrol to drive there, which was negligible, and the raw materials we used to make the picnic – so all in all, we each paid about £3, or about $4. Considering I would usually pay that kind of price for just a simple cup of coffee in a hipster coffee shop, it was fantastic value for money for a full day out.