Onterra TutorDescribe a place you like to visit in your free time
An IELTS Speaking Part 2 cue card, with the structure examiners reward. You get 1 minute to prepare and up to 2 minutes to speak.
The cue card
Describe a place you like to visit in your free time.
You should say:
- where it is
- how often you go there
- what you do there
- and explain why you enjoy it.
Your 2-minute structure
- Open with a direct answer (10 seconds). Name your choice immediately: one sentence that answers "describe a place you like to visit in your free time". Do not waste your first 20 seconds on "that's an interesting question".
- Where it is (about 25 seconds). Give the fact, then add one detail and one feeling. A specific memory always beats a general statement.
- How often you go there (about 25 seconds). This is where a past-tense story earns grammar marks. Set the scene in one sentence, then say what happened.
- What you do there (about 25 seconds). Slow down and be concrete: a name, a place, a number. Details are what make an answer sound fluent rather than memorised.
- And explain why you enjoy it (about 25 seconds). Link back to your opening sentence with a connector like 'which is exactly why' so the whole answer feels planned.
- Close with why it matters (15 seconds). End on how it affected you or what it taught you. A natural closing line signals confidence to the examiner.
Sample band 8+ answer
About 90 seconds when spoken at a natural pace. Notice how specific the details are; that specificity is what you should copy, not the story itself.
The place I love visiting in my free time is a quiet stretch of beach on the edge of the city, the kind locals go to on weekday evenings rather than the crowded weekend spots. I try to go two or three times a month, usually late afternoon when the heat has softened. What do I do there? Surprisingly little, and that's the point. I walk along the waterline, buy grilled fish from a woman who now knows my order, and sit watching the fishermen drag in their nets while the sky changes colour. Sometimes I bring a notebook and plan my week, because my thinking is somehow clearer there than at any desk. I enjoy it because my normal life is noise, traffic, generators, phone notifications, and that beach is the one place where nobody needs anything from me for two hours. I always drive home calmer than I arrived, and I genuinely guard those evenings like appointments.
Why this answer works
- Sensory detail (grilled fish, nets, changing sky) does the fluency work naturally.
- The rhetorical question 'What do I do there?' is a native-like fluency device.
- The contrast between city noise and the beach answers 'why you enjoy it' with depth.
What the examiner listens for
Fluency (can you keep going for 2 minutes without long pauses), vocabulary range (topic words, not just "good" and "nice"), and grammar variety (past tenses and linking words like "which is why" and "even though"). Hesitation is normal; stopping is what costs bands. If you lose your thread, say "what I mean is..." and keep moving.