IELTS Speaking Part 2: IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card

Describe a place that you like to go

: You should say

where the place is
how you get there
what it looks like
and explain why you like this place

: Sample Answer

There are lots of places I like to go, depending on my mood. Today ‘though, I’m going to tell you about a special place near to where I live. I will explain where it is and how I get there. I will try and describe what it looks like and explain why I like the location so much

I am lucky, although I live in a city, from my house I can walk to the edges of the Peak District, which is a beautiful national park just a few miles from the city centre. To get to the national park I have to walk from my house down some local roads, and up a steep hill past some allotments. After about a mile or so striding out away from the urban areas, I get to a lovely bit of woodland which has a public footpath you can follow onwards and upwards. It can be a bit of a scramble towards the end of the path as it is very steep indeed, but eventually, you leave the woodland and are on the edge of open farmland. Another footpath crosses some sheep-filled fields, and finally, you are on the moors of the Peak District. It is really spectacular

The Peak District can be a really wild place, with its vast expanses of open moorland. You are high up, and it is quite exposed so it can be very windy and cold even in the summer. There are rocky outcrops and strange configurations of stones that have been weathered by centuries of wind and rain to create dramatic shapes. Some boulders are in piles, and there are steep vertical cliffs too. The area attracts lots of people who like walking, climbing and bouldering because of its unique and beautiful landscape. Everywhere is dark wet peat underfoot and lots of heathers. This is a low growing plant that flowers at the end of the summer turning the whole landscape purple. The park covers a huge area, I think around 555 square miles, so the terrain differs from area to area, of course, I am biased, but I believe I live near the most remarkably beautiful part

I love this place, because if ever I am feeling down, or a bit enclosed, in just an hours walk I can find myself in a deserted but picturesque place, where the elements are more extreme. In winter rain and wind can batter you, but in summer the sky seems to go on forever. Every day is different up there, and every hour of every day too. The area is so huge, that often you can have it all to yourself, of course, there are other walkers about, but you can quickly disappear in the vastness of the space. The people who live in Sheffield, like me, are very proud that we are so near to the Peak District National Park, and it is no surprise it became the United Kingdom’s first national park on 17 April 1951. A birthday that should be celebrated I think